In this chapter, the narrator introduces us to a young man named Xuanyu, who has just arrived in Shanghai. He asks the narrator if he is getting a pet, and the narrator tells him that he will be living in Shanghai for the rest of his life, so he wants to be friends with the man. The narrator tells the young man that he is not very good with small animals, but that he has a feeling that the man likes him a lot. The young man says that he does not mean any harm, and that he thinks the man is just trying to play with him. When the narrator asks if he has proof that he likes the man, he says that because he likes him too, he can feel the man's love for him. He says that they have only met for a month, and he hopes that after a while they will discover that they are the same person, and they will be able to reconcile their differences. He also says that there is no perfect person in the world, but there are plenty of good qualities in him, such as being kind to people and cooking and baking cakes. He adds that if the narrator pays more attention to him, he will find out that the boy likes him. But the narrator says that his uncle is the exception to this rule, as he has been observing the man for over ten years. When he first met the boy, he thought the boy's expressions were "very abundant and interesting" and that his smile was "like the sun" giving off a "warm feeling." The narrator says he will observe more of the boy in the future, and will tell him one by one.