This chapter opens with a conversation between a pharmaceutical merchant named Wujie and a man named Yangling. Wujie tells Yangling that his wife is sick with typhoid fever and that he has a prescription for the disease. Yangling has disobeyed the emperor, and Wujie thinks that he should be executed for his disloyalty. He thinks that if his wife were very sick, he would have come straight to the palace immediately, and if her parents were also sick, then filial piety would not be violated. He also thinks that the emperor should have ordered the execution of Yangling because he is a virtuous man. He says that if Yangling had deserted his wife and gone to the emperor's court, then he would become a bad magistrate, a greedy man, and a sexual predator. He believes that Yangling is not greedy for power or money, but for love and righteousness, which reminds him of the ancient sages