The narrator enters the bridal chamber and tells us that the wedding night was a "tragic first time" , and that he was "born too fast" . He tells the audience that his parents read a book, and then he was conceived. The narrator then tells us about the minister's orders. The minister is getting older, and his ears are getting old. The empress tells the narrator that she has been bewitched with jiuniang and that the minister has allowed him to dress in "true red" on her wedding day. She asks the narrator if the minister wants to depose her, and the narrator says that he does not want to do so. He knows that the siblings are not loyal, and he wonders if the younger brother would marry the younger sister after the older one. He says that now that the "fake emperor" is married, the situ siblings no longer have the right to marry the empress. He thinks that the military commander, dan situ, is impulsive and has troops under his command, so he will have to rally the troops to rebel against the usurper.