This chapter's epigraph comes from the speech of the Invisible Man, in which he says that he's going to take care of Ming-wu, and he'll make sure that he doesn't have any weaknesses in his disguise. He's not a real person, he says, but he can't hurt Ming with his bare hands. The Invisible Man explains that Ming's personality has been suppressed by the collar, and that's why it's so hard for him to move. He says that the collar will slowly strip away the "sin-mask" from his body, and it'll take a long time for it to do so.