When Wang moves his family into the Great House, Old Father denounces his son's lack of values. He also criticizes O-Lan, who has become old and worn through years of drudgery and pain, and demands that she return the two pearls she kept from the treasure so that he can present them to Lotus when he makes her his second wife. Under Lotus' spell, Wang dons silken robes and foresakes the earth. One day, Uncle takes Wang to a tea house, where he becomes entranced by Lotus, an exquisite young dancer. Wang continues to prosper and Elder Son makes plans to go to the University. The proceeds from the jewels allow the family to return to their land and buy more fields.

As they prepare to search O-Lan, orders come for them to march, and she is spared.

Immediately after, she is arrested by soldiers who are shooting looters. Upon regaining consciousness, she finds a discarded bag of jewels beside her and conceals it in her bosom. In the ensuing chaos, O-Lan is knocked down and trampled in the street. Word comes of rain in the north and revolution in the south, and soon the soldiers attack the Great House. The family travels to the Great City in the south where O-Lan and the children beg and steal in the streets for food. Denouncing the earth for betraying them, Wang decides to sell his land, but O-Lan, even though enfeebled by hunger, forbids the sale and insists that they go south to await better times. Instead of the anticipated bounty, however, they find O-Lan preparing a soup made of the earth to nourish her starving family. Wang's greedy and indolent uncle urges him to sell his land for food and when Wang refuses, Uncle incites the villagers to plunder Wang's home for food and silver. As drought and its resulting famine spread throughout the countryside, their crops shrivel and die and O-Lan recalls the time when her parents sold her into slavery for food. With the passage of time, Wang amasses five fields and his family has grown to include three children: two sons and a daughter. Wang's prowess as a farmer soon helps him to prosper and he uses his accumulated silver to buy another field from the Great House, whose fortunes have begun to dwindle. When she collapses, Wang carries her to the house, but she sends him back into the field and gives birth alone. Then, despite her pain, she joins her husband in the field to harvest the wheat. On the day that she gives birth, O-Lan stays at home until a thunderstorm threatens the crops. As time passes, O-Lan toils in the house and alongside her husband in the fields, even though she is now pregnant. That night, the stolid O-Lan cooks and serves a wedding feast to Wang, Old Father, Uncle and friends. Wang Lung, a Chinese farmer, awakens full of anticipation on his wedding day and proceeds to the Great House to fetch his bride, the kitchen slave O-Lan, who was sold into slavery by her parents during a time of famine.

The good earth book