A good healthy slave girl, twenty years old, volunteers, and, for the moon and a half before the uncle's son and the horde of soldiers are called away, he "had the wench" at his will and left after she had conceived by him. Wang Lung was thankful it was only a girl because if it had been a male, then, according to Chinese custom, it would have had a permanent place in the House of Wang.
Wang Lung and his sons agree that every trace of the destruction caused by the soldiers must be removed. Also, being kind-hearted, he tells the slave girl that she can have the room of the uncle's wife who is about to die. Instead, she asks to be wed to a farmer since she has grown accustomed to having a man in her bed. Thus, as soon as the uncle's wife is dead, the slave asks Wang Lung to find her a farmer. Now the story has come full circle because Wang Lung calls the stout fellow who helped Ching and offers him the girl whom he is glad to have because she is stout and can help in the fields. Now Wang Lung sits on his dias and gives instructions — whereas once he stood before this very dias receiving instructions. And whereas he received a stout woman from this house, he is now giving a poor farmer, as he was once a poor farmer, a stout young girl. Whether or not this young couple will flourish as well as did Wang Lung and O-lan is outside the speculations of Pearl Buck's story. Instead, she is emphasizing how Wang Lung himself has completed a cycle in life.
Wang Lung, however, has one last problem before he finds peace in his life. Lotus Flower, who has grown fat and unattractive, accuses Wang Lung of having an affair with little Pear Blossom since he protected her from the uncle's son. Actually, the idea has never occurred to Wang Lung until Lotus Flower mentions it. Then, as he noticed the pretty little slave, something stirs within his loins.
At this time, too, Wang Lung is troubled by another son. The youngest son wants to go away and be a soldier. He has apparently talked with all the soldiers quartered in the house and has heard how they are fighting to free the land. Even though Pearl Buck never says it, all the implications are that these soldiers are part of the Communist forces. Wang Lung has been horrified to hear his youngest son talk in such a way about the land which has always been so sacred to him. But now that he is rich, he offers his son the choice of schools in the South or even the choice of one of the slaves as his mistress. This second offer shows how far Wang Lung has departed from his old ways as a farmer, when he condemned young lords for taking any slave at their whim. Now Wang Lung is doing the same thing until the youngest son maintains that none of the slaves are even worth looking at — unless it is Pear Blossom. A sudden jealousy is aroused in Wang Lung and he is left confused.
