The chapter opens in a swimming pool, where the protagonist is swimming with a friend. He tells his friend that he has been swimming for a long time, and that his friend has come over to eat. The coachman asks the protagonist why he is so hungry, and the protagonist tells him that he is in a long-term relationship with another woman. He says that the relationship between the two of them has been broken for so long, that it would be better if the two separated. The protagonist tells the coachman that he will do better than his friend, because he has more time to spend with his girlfriend. He then tells his father, who is 40 years old, that his relationship with the woman has been so long that he might as well have been divorced. The father tells the protagonist that he and the woman have been apart so long because he does not care about what the woman thinks. The young protagonist says that relationships are not as easy as he thinks, and he says that his father and the young woman are not right to lecture him. He also tells the young man that his mother will soon be promoted to a higher position and that she will be returning to China every year for the holidays for the next five years.