A woman who returned to live with her abusive ex-husband after a divorce ended up beating her partner frequently.
The woman, surnamed Zhao, and her partner, surnamed Sun, from Shandong province in eastern China, had initially split after being married for over 20 years, and Sun had abused Zhao for many of those years, according to Procuratorate Daily.
In May, after less than a year of divorce, the couple decided to live together again but did not remarry. The couple have a son together.
According to reports, Sun felt guilty for abusing Zhao after the first marriage collapsed.
Sun took pains to change his behaviour and promised Zhao that he would not beat or verbally abuse her ever again. Even when Zhao attacked or scolded Sun, he would never fight back.
However, this time, the problem came from Zhao, who had been traumatised from their past, leading to extreme outbursts. Zhao wanted Sun to follow her like a submissive child, so she constantly tested him.
Whenever Sun disagreed with Zhao, she would beat him with a rolling pin she had placed in the living room. After a quarrel in May, Zhao decided to kill Sun and beat him badly with the rolling pin, and threw many bowls and plates at him.
Sun did not fight back beyond wrestling the rolling pin away from her. The local police eventually arrived on the scene, and Sun was sent to the hospital to treat his wounds.
Sun said he forgave Zhao and still wanted to live with her, but a local court decided to move forward with prosecuting Zhao because she had expressed an intention to murder her partner.
The story shocked many people on Chinese social media.
One online observer asked: “Did their souls reverse?”
Another person commented: “They love and torture each other.”
Stories about domestic violence regularly spark heated discussion in China.
At the beginning of November, a six-year-old boy in eastern China suffered horrific injuries during 12 months of physical and mental abuse from his mother.
In October, a woman in central China who returned to her abusive husband but continued to endure domestic attacks successfully asked for a restraining order.