The scene opens with Rat-Bird telling jiu-tao that he wants to be his dance partner at the upcoming ball. Unsure of what to do, he asks if he can stop him from doing so. Worried that his heart is beating too fast, he tells him that he is dying from a broken heart and that he has been acting strangely lately. He then asks if the night before, he had thumped his heart so fast that it was still beating, and if he had done so at all. Confused, he says that he wanted to be the dance partner, but that tao had turned him down. He tells him to make a promise to him of his highness that he will not walk back on his words, and then slap him in the face.