This chapter's epigraph is from a famous poem by the famous poet and playwright, Voltaire. Voltaire's poem is about a vulture, a winged bird that eats itself to death. It's also about a red phoenix hairpin, a symbol of friendship and love. Voltaire says that the hairpin is a gift from the sky palace to him, and that he will try his best to help him whenever he needs it. The hairpin was left in the cangman mountain by the assassins who killed the man who carried it. Voltaire thinks that the assassins wanted to kill the woman who carried the hairpin, because she's a friend of his, and she'll think that he's her friend when she sees it.