Act One opens with the narrator lamenting her highness, which she feels is dangerous because it allows her to fight for the Emperor's favor with the concubines of the harem. She cannot understand how a demon like her could be worth risking her life for. She blames herself for her own highness and says that she received what she deserved. She tells the story of how jieyu-tao was disfigured and banished to cold palace for life. The narrator tells us that the women in harem are very pitiful because of this. She says that both her and the second prince serve the prince and that he lacks the warmth of a human being. He also hates humans, he says. He says that evil comes from the heart and that it is mankind