In this chapter, the narrator tells us a story about an incense trader who is always rejected by a beautiful young woman who visits his shop. One day, he decides to follow the girl out of curiosity, but she refuses to marry him. The incense trader puts her in a bamboo vessel, and they go back to his village. On the way back, they pass a bureaucrat on a hunt, and the bureaucrat spots the girl in the bamboo vessel. She agrees to marry the incense trader. The general catches a tiger, puts it in a basket, and returns to the palace. After the general leaves, the incense-trader goes straight to his treasure, and finds the vessel still there. He excitedly opens it and discovers that the girl has disappeared. The narrator says that human society has "left you behind" because you are "nothing to them" . He goes on to say that he is a human too, and he wants to feel love.