Episode Summary
In this episode, the Fei family is shattered by the news of Fei Wendian's death, causing Fei Zuoshi to send a grief-stricken Ning Susu back to her parents. While Chang Chun plots revenge with the villagers, two figures from the past return: Niwei, with a suspicious story about his time away and a grudge concerning his mother's death, and a severely wounded Ning Kejin, bringing more shock and sorrow to the Ning family.
Spoiler Alert
Episode 32 of This Thriving Land begins with life getting tough at the Fei family home. After Bearded Liu and Xiao Qing are taken away as conscripts, all the other workers leave too. It's just Ning Susu and her mother-in-law, Fei Zuoshi, left to manage everything. Susu, who has never done hard labor in her life, is now chopping firewood, cooking, and doing laundry. Her hands are covered in painful blisters, but she pushes through. The two of them eat the coarse grain flour given out by the Japanese soldiers, saving all the good food for Fei Wendian.
Seeing Susu's hands, Guo Guiyao feels for her. He brings her two big bundles of firewood and a bottle of ointment, and Susu is incredibly grateful. In return, Fei Zuoshi gives him some dried sweet potatoes. Meanwhile, Chang Chun, who has joined the Eighth Route Army's armed work team, shows up in the village with Xiao Jia to find Big Foot Feng and Ning Xiuxiu. He tells them his old pharmacy is now a secret contact point for the army. But their visit comes with devastating news. Xiao Jia has to tell Fei Zuoshi that her son, Fei Wendian, has been killed. He gives her the few belongings he had left.
Fei Zuoshi is completely shattered. She reads a final letter from Wendian, where he thanked her for raising him and dreamed of showing her the world after the war. The grief is too much to bear. Around the same time, Guo Guiyao's donkey gets sick and dies. People tell him to butcher it for meat, but he can't bring himself to do it and buries his old friend instead.
With both Fei Zuoshi and Ning Susu lost in their sorrow, Guo Guiyao finds Susu crying by the river and takes her home in his cart. In a moment of despair, Fei Zuoshi sends Susu back to her parents, the Ning family. Back in the village, Chang Chun gives Big Foot Feng and Tie Tou a mission: to rally the men to fight the Japanese and get rid of collaborators, all to avenge Fei Wendian.
Once she's back at her parents' house, the grief makes Ning Susu fall seriously ill. Her father, Ning Xuexiang, is heartbroken to see her like this, and her sister-in-law, Yinzi, takes good care of her. Fei Zuoshi, still reeling, starts to see visions of Wendian, regretting she ever pushed him to study and bring honor to the family, believing it's what led to his death. As Susu slowly recovers, she finds a new purpose when she visits her sister, Ning Xiuxiu, who is now teaching the village children how to read.
Just then, a man named Niwei returns to the village. His younger brother, Meiwei, is overjoyed to see him alive. Niwei, seeing everyone eating coarse porridge, shares roast chicken and pastries. When Susu mentions how Xiuxiu helped their family and took in Meiwei, Niwei dismisses her kindness, stubbornly insisting that his mother was murdered. Feng's mother tries to explain that during the famine, his mother ate all their grain at once and simply lay down to die, but Niwei refuses to believe it. He gets into a heated argument with Susu before angrily leaving with his brother.
Later, while renovating his old house with help from the villagers, Niwei tells a dramatic story of fighting the Japanese with the North China National Salvation Army and barely escaping an explosion. However, Ning Xiuxiu and Feng's mother both feel something is off about his story; the details just don't add up.
The episode ends with another shocking return. A badly injured Ning Kejin stumbles into the village looking for Ning Xiuxiu. He asks to see his father, and when Ning Xuexiang arrives with Susu and Ning Keyu, he is devastated to see the terrible state his son is in.
