This chapter opens with the sound of drums beating in the distance. It's the middle of the night, and the sound is coming from the courtyard of the mansion where Li-changlu is staying. He's worried that someone is trying to kill him, but he doesn't know who it is. He tries to calm him down by saying that it's not like he's going to be killed anytime soon, and that he has hired two masters to guard the mansion. He also says that some of the weapons in the mansion are "nothing but trash" , which is a reference to the fact that they're low-grade weapons that can't be used against the enemy. He says that during his stay at the frontier, he gathered a bunch of such weapons, but some of them were broken and useless. The narrator then says that the most conspicuous thing about the mansion is that there's a lot of silver notes in it . Silver notes are worth a lot more money than spiritual jades or banknote eight-scale weapons, which are worthless. He adds that he'll go buy some zheng cake for his mom and his auntie