The next morning, huan tells his sister that the minister of the public works has been assassinated. He tells her that he has come to see the Empress, who is sick. huan says he has never liked the Empress because she is a "obstinate and single-minded person" who does not know how to adjust to life. . The Empress asks huan if he would like to hear a story about an injured oriole, which he once saw flapping in the palm of his hand. The Oriole suffocated, and huan explains that birds breathe through their nasal cavities, but that if they are too tightly packed, they will not breathe. When huan asks if the Empress asked him to tell her the story, he says that it was "just a story." .