This chapter opens with a description of Dong Song, who is a member of a powerful family in the city of Suzhou. Song is from a family that is considered to be a second-rate family. He and his father once had an affair in the night-rain city, and they ended up becoming best friends. Song's sister, Dong Xiaowan, is the daughter of the Dong family, but she will not marry Song because of his "miserables talent" and "moral quality" . When Song proposed marriage to Dong, he was denounced by the family's master, and Dong was kicked out of the city. Dong tells Song that he is his own sister, and that he would spank Song to death if he were his father. Song tells Dong that during the flower festival there will be many families from spectral valley who will come to the city to attend the festival. He says that he knows that some of them have already arrived, but that they have not come because they wanted to chase after him, but because they were following a powerful man who represents the "spectral valley." Dong asks the waiter to settle the bill, but the waiter refuses to do so, saying that something has happened to Miss Dong. He tells Song to forget about it, and leaves.