Northwards Episode 4 Recap
> Northwards Recap
Meanwhile, Xie Wanghe and his friends arrived at the riverside under the cover of darkness, intending to steal oil from a boat. Before they could act, police sirens blared. Everyone fled, but Xie Wanghe stayed behind to protect his friends and was apprehended by the police. As Wanghe was being led into the police car, Xia Fenghua cried desperately, and Shao Xingchi suggested they call Chen Rui to ask his mother, Gu Alian, for help.
Ma Siyi, having no other options for money, approached Zhou Yanlin at his restaurant. She offered to work part-time, handling tasks such as washing dishes, serving, and sweeping, and even agreed to accept half the standard wage. In return, she requested an immediate advance payment of 4,700 yuan. Zhou Yanlin, perceiving her desperation, offered to lend her the money directly, arguing that her final year of high school should be solely dedicated to her studies.
However, Ma Siyi’s determined insistence on working, coupled with her plea not to inform her grandmother, led Zhou Yanlin to understand the sensitive nature of her request, which she admitted was to help her mother. He reluctantly conceded, allowing her to work only on weekends, provided she used any spare time to focus on her homework. Ma Siyi gratefully accepted the advance and swiftly departed.
Unknown to Wanghe's friends, Chen Rui was at dinner, enduring a stern lecture from his mother, Gu Alian. She had learned from his teacher that Chen Rui had been using Morse code, a hobby taught to him by his father Chen Bo, to send secret messages to his classmate Ma Siyi during class.
Already critical of Chen Rui’s choice of friends (except Ma Siyi, whom she considered decent), whom she felt were a bad influence on his academics, Gu Alian’s frustration intensified. When Chen Rui received a phone call from his friends seeking help for Xie Wanghe’s arrest, his mother intercepted the conversation. Upon hearing that Wanghe was caught stealing oil, Gu Alian firmly refused to intervene, stating she would not use her position to bail him out.
Despite her refusal, Chen Rui felt compelled to be there for his best friend. As he attempted to sneak out, Gu Alian forcibly stopped him, leading to a struggle that resulted in him tumbling down the stairs and sustaining an injury. Meanwhile, Xie Wanghe, now in Officer Shen Yong’s police car, desperately pleaded that it was his first offense.
The officer, however, remained stern, reminding him that he was old enough to face consequences for his actions and even threatening to personally send him to prison, implying his father’s reaction would be "amusing." Wanghe then realized Shen Yong knew his father, and the officer confirmed a long-standing "past" where Xie Tiancheng had often bullied him as a child. Despite the initial harshness, Shen Yong surprised Wanghe by taking him to a late-night food stall.
From a discreet distance, Xia Fenghua, Shao Xingchi, and Zhou Haikuo watched in bewilderment, unable to fathom why Wanghe was sharing a meal with the arresting officer. At the food stall, Xie Wanghe candidly discussed his low academic standing, ranking third from the bottom of his class, explaining that his focus was on "making money." He vented his frustration about his father, Xie Tiancheng, who he felt had squandered opportunities.
Once a respected "ship boss" during the thriving era of river transport before the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway, his father now had to "grovel" to contractors, losing his masculine dignity. Shen Yong, enraged by Wanghe's disparaging remarks, slammed the table and rebuked him for his disrespect. After calming down, Shen Yong revealed his own history with Xie Tiancheng.
He recounted that when his mother fell gravely ill during his high school years, Xie Tiancheng, despite their adversarial childhood where Wanghe’s father had frequently bullied him, unexpectedly appeared at his house. Xie Tiancheng gave him 600 yuan in small bills—an immense sum in 1987—insisting that Shen Yong use it to hire a caregiver and not drop out of school.
He urged Shen Yong to pursue a good education and a stable job, emphasizing that street vending was not his destiny. Shen Yong further explained that throughout his mother's illness, Xie Tiancheng and his brothers took turns caring for her, often bringing fish that his mother eventually grew tired of. While acknowledging Xie Tiancheng’s sometimes "jerky" personality, Shen Yong affirmed that his father was a man who "never owed anyone favors; it's always others who owe him."
He stressed to Wanghe that despite any current rebellious feelings, his father was "a man of great integrity" and cautioned him not to bring shame upon his family, even threatening physical punishment if he continued his foolish ways. After Shen Yong paid the bill and departed, Xia Fenghua and the others escorted Xie Wanghe home. Their initial plan to steal oil having failed, they brainstormed new ways to help Ma Siyi.
Shao Xingchi argued against simply giving her money, recalling how Ma Siyi, even as a child, repaid Wanghe’s gift of a schoolbag with a Casio watch she bought from selling soda cans for a year. He emphasized her excellent academic record—top three in her key class—and urged them not to distract her with money, but rather to help her find a sustainable way to earn.
While Zhou Haikuo and Wanghe offered to sell their valuables, such as gaming equipment or Wanghe’s father’s motorcycle, Xia Fenghua announced she had a plan and insisted on absolute secrecy, especially from Ma Siyi. Just then, Ma Siyi appeared, having overheard their entire conversation. The boys attempted to cover up, claiming they were "just passing by," that the oil was "picked up," and that it was a "false alarm," even suggesting Wanghe was worried Ma Siyi might "sell blood."
Furious at Wanghe’s meddling and reckless actions, Ma Siyi struck him, told him to "watch himself," and retreated to her room in tears. Shao Xingchi and Zhou Haikuo fretted over her anger. Ma Siyi’s Granny Ma found her crying and, having overheard their earlier exchange, consoled her. She acknowledged Wanghe's impulsive and "idiotic" nature but assured Siyi that he had a kind heart and became "a scatterbrain" whenever he saw her.
Granny Ma reminisced about a childhood incident where Wanghe, attempting to cheer Siyi up, claimed he could fly like Sun Wukong with a tablecloth, jumping from a table and breaking his leg. Even while hospitalized with his injury, in an ill-conceived attempt to demonstrate the scientific principles of a "lightning conductor" using a wire and an electrical socket, he electrocuted himself. Granny Ma characterized Wanghe as reckless yet profoundly loyal.
Later that night, Xie Wanghe, kept awake by his father’s snoring, discovered his mother, Liang Haihong, still awake in the living room, deep in financial calculations. Liang Haihong offered to rent him a separate room, but Wanghe countered that his father should sleep on the boat. His mother confirmed their river transport business had barely broken even due to rising oil and labor costs.
She revealed her plan to sell the boat, withdraw their shares, and invest in a heavy truck for land transport, asking Wanghe to research options online. Wanghe expressed apprehension about his father's reaction, observing that his father, usually "listless" at home, became a "different person," "full of energy," when on the boat. Liang Haihong then shared that Xie Tiancheng once likened himself to a "loach" that would "suffocate" if kept too far from water.
Feeling "useless" compared to past generations who achieved success at his age, Wanghe apologized for being unable to alleviate their financial burdens while still pursuing his studies. His mother comforted him, valuing his intentions above all else. Wanghe then promised to achieve success and make his parents proud, enabling them to "have their nose in the air." Separately, Li Yan, Xia Fenghua's mother, toiled late into the night making handbags for extra income.
She confided in Xia Fenghua about her problematic mother-in-law, who frequently visited with relatives to consume their food and take items, always complaining of poverty and inventing stories, like her pigsty being inappropriately located and causing a stench throughout the village.
Li Yan recalled a wedding gift from her mother-in-law: a meticulously wrapped "family heirloom" jade bracelet, falsely claimed to be Han Dynasty mutton-fat jade, which was later identified as inexpensive majestic white jade, cheaper even than the bags they were sewing. Xia Fenghua asked about her earnings and how much she could get for new jeans, finding her current pair "unfashionable." Her mother teased her, then praised Xia Fenghua’s beauty over Ma Siyi’s.
Xia Fenghua, in turn, boasted about her figure being better than Siyi’s. Her mother challenged her to improve her grades, promising a new phone alongside the jeans if she did. Xia Fenghua dismissed the value of good grades, instead praising Xie Wanghe, who, despite his poor academic performance, she believed possessed "brilliant ideas" and would become the "most, most promising" among his peers, even having left their teacher Mr. Xu speechless that day.
Li Yan, however, then painted a vivid and somewhat cruel picture for her daughter: a future where a successful Xie Wanghe, driving a Mercedes, would arrive with a university-educated Ma Siyi at Xia Fenghua’s humble fried radish cake stall, expecting a discount. The image left Xia Fenghua visibly disheartened, and she returned to her room.
The next morning, Xia Fenghua and her friends, after waiting in vain for Ma Siyi, who had already left for school on her own, wondered if she was still angry before heading to school. In another part of town, Xia Maotian, Shao Bingyi, Chen Bo, and Xie Tiancheng were sharing a meal.
Shao Bingyi sported a bite mark from his wife, Liu Yuling, humorously explaining her biting habits as responses to both joy and frustration, describing this instance as "a mix of both." Xie Tiancheng advised Xia Maotian to establish "rules" at home to ensure wives understood their husbands were "heaven."
Meanwhile, in a separate conversation, Liang Haihong, speaking to Liu Yuling (who was not present at the meal), strongly asserted that "women are the boss" at home and that physical violence was utterly unacceptable, offering her home as refuge if Shao Bingyi ever resorted to hitting her again. Liu Yuling, through Liang Haihong, rationalized her husband's actions as unintentional, attributing them to alcohol and work-related stress.
Chen Bo, expressing envy for Shao Bingyi's wife’s cooking prowess, contrasted it with his own wife, Gu Alian, who could barely fry an egg without mishap. He advised Shao Bingyi to show affection and a "sense of ritual" to his feverish wife to prevent their feelings from fading. Meanwhile, Granny Ma visited Zhou Yanlin at his stall, chiding him for not seeing off his wife, Luo Zhimei, who had gone to Hengdian.
She informed him that Luo Zhimei had arranged for a liver-protective herbal medicine from a traditional Chinese medicine doctor, entrusting Granny Ma to brew it and ensure Zhou Yanlin drank it, knowing he would heed her advice over his father’s. Granny Ma stressed the importance of mutual support and frequent communication in a marriage, cautioning that distance could erode affection. Zhou Yanlin promised to call his wife soon.
