Woman marries soldier who rescued her from 2008 earthquake

A woman who was rescued from the rubble of the 8.0-magnitude Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan province 17 years ago recently married the soldier who saved her life, according to a report by Rednet.cn, a news outlet based in Changsha, Hunan province.

In May 2008, Liang Zhibin, who was 22 at the time, pulled 10-year-old Liu Ximei from the debris of a collapsed two-story residential building in Qingchuan county, Sichuan, after hours of digging alongside his comrades.

The two lost contact for years until an evening in 2020. While having dinner with her parents at a restaurant in Changsha, Liu recognized Liang at a nearby table after her mother pointed out his resemblance to her rescuer, the report said.

As they reconnected, they discovered that they shared deeply aligned values, and their relationship gradually evolved into romance.

On Saturday, the couple, who both share a love for traditional Chinese culture, held a wedding ceremony in Changsha themed around the traditional Chinese attire hanfu.

"I didn't fall for him out of gratitude," Liu said. "It was during our time together that I gradually realized that he was someone I could trust with my life."

"It's amazing how fate works," Liang said. "I saved her life 17 years ago, and now she has become the light of my life."