This chapter opens with a soliloquy by a young man named Man Qian. He explains that he has been left out of the preparations for a performance and feels bored. He decides to study hard in order to participate in the performance. However, the history of the books is long and ancient and the guides for the xiang hen arts are all of the profound grandpas. He identifies the reason why he is not able to learn by theory and decides to do his part by learning by doing. Soon, he will help man Qian memorize the lines and ask him to perform with him. Although he does not understand how this can help him with his relationship, he can understand how difficult it is to memorize some lines. He can think of a number of examples of how she is looking forward to the performance and how nervous she is about it. He says that he looks forward to performing with her because she is so polished in her martial arts. He also says that since she needs help, he has to support her without hesitation.