Snapped two days after an earthquake hit Sichuan province last year on May 12 and carried in newspapers around the world, it shows Mr Wu Jiafang astride his motorcycle, looking stoically back over his shoulder at his dead wife, whose body he had just recovered from under debris.

He had dressed her in her favourite pink coat and fastened her arms around his waist. Together, they rode home for the last time.

The weeks that followed were the 'darkest' of his life, Mr Wu told The Sunday Times in a recent interview at his home in the Mianzhu countryside.

But as the Chinese New Year approaches, he feels that he has finally 'walked out of the shadows' - thanks to a new wife who has given him a reason to rebuild his life.

Next week, Mr Wu and Madam Liu Rurong, both 46, will reunite for their first Chinese New Year together and spend the holiday without fanfare. They married last November but live apart.

Mr Wu said he has three New Year 'wishes' - construct a bigger and better grave for his late spouse, build a new house for himself and his new partner, and find his 21-year-old son a wife.

Madam Liu, he revealed, is now working 'very hard' in Shenzhen so that she can save up for the house. It would cost 110,000 yuan (S$24,000) to build. Even with a loan from Madam Liu's boss, money from a quake relief fund and savings, they are still short of the total sum.

That is why he decided to forgo the traditional decorations, as well as cured meats the Sichuanese usually feast on during the festival. 'I have to be thrifty if I want my three wishes to come true. My wife understands. She said she doesn't mind if we eat simply,' Mr Wu said.

Speaking on the phone from Shenzhen where she earns 2,000 yuan a month working in a company making car Global Positioning Systems, Madam Liu said her desire for this year is to 'work hard for my family'.

'She and my late wife are alike. They are both caring, responsible and capable,' Mr Wu said.

These traits were what set Madam Liu apart from the dozens of enamoured women who wrote to and called him after the quake.

Depressed over losing his wife of 23 years, Madam Shi Huaqiong, 44, Mr Wu ignored them all.

But on Oct 16, a call from Liu, a divorcee and Chengdu native, changed his mind.'She was different. The first thing she did was to express concern for the quake victims. Then she asked about me, and my family,' he said.

They spoke almost every day for the next few weeks. Madam Liu told him that she saw the photograph on television and that she had sobbed through the programme. She had turned to a friend living in Mianzhu who helped tracked him down.

Many calls later, she asked if they could meet. He agreed.

On Nov 9 last year, Mr Wu rode over 100km on his bike to Chengdu, Sichuan's capital, to greet her at the airport.

Their 'courtship' - although Mr Wu did not know it then - was brief. They spent the next few days talking and meeting each other's relatives. 'We treated each other like old friends,' he said.

But six days after meeting Mr Wu for the first time, Madam Liu shyly asked whether he wanted to 'get the paperwork done'. Three days later on Nov 18, they registered their marriage in Mianzhu.

The newly-weds spent their nuptial night in a tent which Mr Wu had pitched outside his quake-damaged house surrounded by farmland. Big enough only for a double bed and a television, it is less than 30m from the simple grave where Mr Wu had buried his late wife.

A few days later, his new bride headed back to Shenzhen.

Mr Wu admitted that he was not won over immediately when Madam Liu 'proposed': 'I was taken aback and said it was too quick.'

But Madam Liu, who has a 21-year-old son from her first marriage which ended 10 years ago, nudged aside his fears.

'She said if I didn't move on, I will never recover,' said Mr Wu who mulled things over for three days before giving his answer.

'I told him that we are stronger being together than being alone,' said Madam Liu.

Ironically, it was while thinking about whether his late partner would approve that Mr Wu became convinced that he should remarry.

'We were very close. My late wife was happy when I was happy, sad when I was sad. If I continued to be depressed, it would mean that she would also be depressed.'

Remarrying, however, has not erased his love for his late wife: 'To be honest, I still love her as if she was still alive. But my love for my new wife is also true and sincere.'

Madam Liu says she has no issue with his feelings. 'It is natural for him to love her still. In fact, if he didn't, I wouldn't want to marry him, because it would mean he was putting on a show.'

While his story has become well-known in China, Mr Wu said he is not without his detractors who have questioned the speed with which he moved on. But to critics, Mr Wu had only this to say: 'Only those who have known true love, would know my heart.'

tracyq@sph.com.sg

Reply to critics

'Only those who have known true love would know my heart.'
Mr Wu