Always on the Move Episode 8 Recap
> Always on the Move Recap
After hearing a baby crying inconsolably, Ma Kui quickly picked the child up. Ma Yan arrived in a rush and took the baby home without a word. Once home, Wang Sufang’s tears turned to smiles as she hugged the baby, unable to get enough of looking at him. And so, Ma Kui took in the abandoned infant. Time passed quickly, and it was now 1979.
Yao Yuling noticed a ripped button on a pair of pants hanging on the clothesline at Wang Xin’s house, so she took them to sew it back on. When she returned the pants to Wang Xin, she discovered they weren’t his. Niu Dali then admitted they were his pants, which he had deliberately hung on Wang Xin’s line after seeing Yao Yuling sew a button for Wang Xin.
Yao Yuling was annoyed, complaining he shouldn't hang his clothes there, but Niu Dali just grinned foolishly, unfazed. Wang Xin was popular among passengers for helping them resolve difficulties, which pleased Ma Kui greatly. There was a blind man whose eyes had been affected by crying, but his sense of smell was exceptionally sharp.
He claimed he could distinguish people by their unique scents – the old, the young, men, women, the handsome, the ugly, the good, and the bad, and even animals. He described old men smelling like old men, old women like old boxes, little boys like milk, little girls smelling tender, pretty women cool, and ugly women like old corn. Good people, he said, had a "correct" scent, while bad people had an "evil" one.
He told Ma Kui he smelled of alcohol, at least 50%. Ma Kui was impressed and asked to become his apprentice, offering him pig bones, but the blind man insisted on bath chap. Ma Kui readily agreed and took him to the dining car immediately. Niu Dali noticed Wang Xin spending a lot of time with Ma Yan, and Yao Yuling also frequently showing interest in Wang Xin.
Suspecting Wang Xin might be involved with both, Niu Dali confronted him, issuing threats. Wang Xin stood his ground, and they started to fight. Yao Yuling happened to pass by and quickly intervened, separating them. Mistakenly thinking Niu Dali was interested in Ma Yan, Wang Xin suggested Yao Yuling help them get together, much to Niu Dali's visible frustration. Niu Dali, agitated, tried to clarify that he was not interested in Ma Yan.
As soon as Ma Kui finished work, he helped Wang Sufang look after the baby and offered to cook. Wang Sufang worried that Ma Yan wouldn't be used to his cooking. She also observed that Ma Yan had been acting differently lately – her face lit up when Wang Xin visited, but she became listless when he didn't come for a few days. Ma Kui also began to sense that something was amiss with Ma Yan.
Wang Sufang suggested it was Wang Xin's fault and perhaps Ma Kui shouldn't spend so much time with him. On the train, a young man known as Little Wenzhou was selling sunglasses with a lively sales pitch, attracting many passengers who eagerly tried them on. Ma Kui ordered the passengers back to their seats and apprehended Little Wenzhou for speculation.
Wang Xin immediately challenged Ma Kui’s action, arguing it wasn't speculation and citing the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee which emphasized that practice is the sole criterion for testing truth. He also suggested some people had conservative and backward ideas needing improvement. Lu Hongxing also felt it didn't constitute speculation. Later, Wang Xin complained to his father, Wang Yongge, at home.
Wang Yongge advised him to listen to Ma Kui, but Wang Xin remained defiant. Wang Xin's mother tried to calm the argument, but Wang Yongge called Wang Xin a "traitor" for his views, warning him against provoking Ma Kui. One morning, Niu Dali found a slip of paper with two lines of romantic poetry under his door: "No water's wide enough when you have crossed the sea. No cloud is beautiful but that which crowns the peak."
He immediately went to Wang Xin for help understanding it. Wang Xin couldn't offer much insight. Cai Xiaonian came along, recognized the paper as from the railway bureau, and concluded it was a love letter for Niu Dali, likely written by Yao Yuling. He advised Niu Dali to wait and observe her next move, suggesting she was playing hard to get. Niu Dali was thrilled, believing Yao Yuling was interested in him.
Shortly after, Niu Dali received another slip with two lines: "On high, we'd be two love birds flying wing to wing. On earth, two trees with branches twined from spring to spring." Around the same time, Yao Yuling showed these same lines, plus another: "O poor, my love soul grieves on the lilac branches, on the. . . cardamom leaves," to Wang Xin, asking him the meaning of "cardamom leaves."
She seemed to be hinting at her feelings to Wang Xin, while Niu Dali continued to believe the poems were meant for him. Wang Sufang suddenly started coughing uncontrollably and eventually coughed up blood. She went to the hospital for a check-up with Shen Xiuping. Director Liu examined her and ordered tests despite her request for just medicine. The results revealed advanced lung cancer.
Feeling her world crumble, Wang Sufang pleaded with Director Liu to keep the diagnosis a secret from Ma Kui. Shen Xiuping urged her to seek treatment, but Wang Sufang knew her time was short. She desperately begged Shen Xiuping not to tell Ma Kui, explaining that he had suffered for ten years and she wanted him to finally live a good life, without spending all their money on futile treatment only to lose both her and the family's hard-won warmth.
Moved, Shen Xiuping reluctantly agreed. Wang Sufang's health worsened day by day. Ma Kui asked about the check-up results. Wang Sufang lied, saying it was just her old pulmonary emphysema acting up. When Ma Kui asked to see the lab report, she lied again, claiming she had left it with Shen Xiuping to look over. Despite her insistence that it was nothing serious and just her old problem, Ma Kui looked at her with suspicion, urging her not to lie. She maintained her composure, reassuring him she was fine, and insisted on doing the cooking while he rested or looked after the baby.
