When the princess asks why the emperor didn't tell her about her arrival, she learns that the dog smelled the poison. The dog has undergone three years of training to sniff out signs of danger. The princess says that although she accepted the emperor's plan as a "stopgap measure," she hasn't had enough time to kill a thousand innocents. She tells the princess that she'll never be able to "wash the blood" of the innocents if she bathes in the Yellow River.