Fleeting Time, Burning Light

The chapter opens with a brief recap of the events of the previous chapter. The narrator explains that he is invited by the taoist to perform an "exorcism" for the lady in question. He tells the audience that the scholar is "quite smart" and that he knows the man to be straightforward. The two men discuss the possibility of sharing a room, and the narrator tells the reader that they are doing something that Master Lan cannot know about. He explains that from the very beginning, he has lost all of his yin credits and his power, so he tried to convince the scholar to help him take revenge. The scholar refused to listen to him, but he persuaded him to let his hatred go and ignore him. He kept following him and telling him why he needed his help, and why he wanted revenge. He never turned back from looking at him. One time, when he fainted from exhaustion, he found that he had been taken care of by the scholar. Although he does not know who the scholar really is, he believes that by helping him he can also accumulate "yin credits" for himself.