This chapter opens with a conversation between the patriarch and his son. The patriarch tells his son that he has a lot of purple smoke stones, which he can exchange for rice. The son says that the food at the market is very valuable, and that they need to help one another. He says that he will find twenty of the stones for the patriarch, and then they can all exchange them for food. He tells his father that he is called "xiao yang" and that he hears that the patriarch is willing to trade food for the stones. He wonders what the stones are used for, but can't say what they are being used for. He asks the patriarch to go collect the stones, but the patriarch says that it's his son, not the patriarch. The father says that if the son cannot handle the situation, he will step in and mediate.