This chapter opens with a description of the scene that takes place in a "western-style mansion" . It is a stormy night, and the new servant is in charge of cooking and cleaning the first floor of the mansion. The new servant tells the hostess that he has sensed that someone has been watching him. The hostess asks him if this is a coincidence, and he replies that he does not think it is appropriate for her to read a novel while he is sleeping. He tells her that he was adopted by her just as a "stroke of fortune" and that they have spent countless nights in the same room. He says that the place by her side is always warm, and that he will have her pork chop if she does not want it. She says that she will buy him a new meal, but that the eternal second man always acts "a bit daffy," and he has been "extraordinarily weird recently." The hostess tells the servant that it has been a long time since the last time she saw du mian, and she wants to know what has happened between him and her. She makes him her favorite caramel pudding and feeds him.