In this chapter, the Governess explains that she and her family return to her hometown every year to celebrate the Lunar New Year. The Governess laments that her family does not enjoy playing mahjong with her because she is too dumb to do so. She tells her son that his mother is very funny and that he should stop talking nonsense. She also tells him that he is not doing the right thing by falling in love so early. When she was pregnant with him, she wished for his son to be handsome. When he was a boy, he told her, his greatest wish was to be free from his mother. She would intervene in everything he did as a child from what school he went to, and what socks he wore the next day.