Ten years have passed. Little que'er is still living with the old man. He's back from delivering his brother's dinner, and Little Que'er wants to know where she is. The old man tells her that she disappeared five months ago, and that the officials ignored her report. Little Qu'er explains that she was kidnapped by human traffickers, but that the current King of Western xia admires the customs of the Central Plains, and she disappeared from her house inexplicably back in the old days. The two of them decide to investigate this, and they're all excited to do so