To Live
Once a spoiled, wealthy heir who blew his family’s fortune on gambling and debauchery, Fugui’s life takes a brutal, unrelenting turn. He loses his land to a scheming rival, his father dies from shame, and he’s drafted into the army amid war, clinging to the hope of seeing his family again. When he returns home years later, heartbreak piles on: his mother is gone, his daughter Fengxia is mute after a fever went untreated, and his wife Jiazhen is ailing. As decades pass, Fugui outlives every member of his tight-knit family—his son, daughter, son-in-law, and grandson—each loss carving deeper into his soul. Left with only an old ox he names after himself, he finds quiet, unshakable purpose in simply living, turning his agony into a testament to resilience and the raw, unvarnished meaning of staying alive, no matter how hard the world hits.