The publishing arm of Alibaba Group fired an editor and a writer Thursday for insulting the deceased wife of online fantasy novelist Zhang Wei in a private messaging group.

In a Weibo post, Zhang, one of China’s most prolific writers, condemned the pair from Alibaba Literature for their boorish behavior. Screenshots of the chat logs show the pair saying that the death of Zhang's wife, Li Mo, “isn’t a big deal” and that he could “easily get another wife.” Li died on Sept. 11 after battling breast cancer for three years. Alibaba apologized to Zhang on Saturday for the duo's behavior.

Zhang is China's wealthiest writer — he earned 130 million yuan ($19 million) last year — and has more than 150 titles to his name. The 37-year-old publishes his works under the pen name Tang Jia San Shao. (Image: IC)