The chapter opens with a description of the bamboo-eating beast, which is able to track down relatives and destroy them. The bamboo of the beast can also track down a pregnant woman. The pregnant woman, however, has a special inhibition seal, which prevents the beast from attacking her. She is safe, the narrator tells us, because the beast has succeeded in breaking the seal. The narrator asks the beast where he is, and the beast tells him to be careful, because once he is awake, there will be no more shanhais.