- The flood is still here, and Wang Lung is still idle, so we guess bad stuff is going to happen now. Wang Lung goes back to the great teahouse and asks Cuckoo to see one of the girls, Lotus.
- When Wang Lung finally meets Lotus, he can't even say anything; he just stares. She's tiny and delicate, everything O-lan is not.
- After just one night, he's hooked. He goes to see Lotus every day, but that only makes him more and more unsatisfied. He's so troubled by his lust for her that he's even ignoring the land.
- This is the same guy who was going to sell his daughter so he could get back to the land. This is not good.
- Wang Lung cuts his hair, starts taking baths, and even buys new clothes. O-lan seems to notice that something is up, but she doesn't know what yet. She'll know soon enough.
- One day Wang Lung comes up to her and asks her for the pearls. She tells him that she wants to keep them, but Wang Lung wants them for you know who. This is when we know that things have gotten seriously bad, because O-lan cries.