"Can never now" is the first line of the chapter, and it begins with the narrator lamenting that she does not have any choice but to stay home with her mother. She is afraid that her father will be away on business trips, and that her mother will be left to care for her four grandparents. The narrator asks her mother to be safe and to be on her best behavior. She tells her that she is so scared that she can never forget her mother's "extreme despair" . She asks her mom to be her shield, and she reminds her of the pictures of her mother that she saw when she was young. She begs her mother not to worry about her, but to promise that she will take care of her. She then asks her friend Cangshu to come to her birthday party, which is on the weekend. She invites him to join her and her friends for a fun-filled weekend. When she asks him where he has gone, he says that he has not gone to school because he wants to spend his 13th birthday with his friends. He then invites her to join them for a happy birthday sing-a-long, and they are teasing him by saying that he will be mad if he does not join them