This chapter's epigraph comes from the notebook of Prince Xiao, who has just returned from exile in the southern kingdom. He tells us that fate has brought him back from the dead, or else he would not have survived. In other words, fate is on his side, or he would have been killed by the enemy. In the meantime, the southern emperor has been trying to negotiate peace with the northern emperor, but has been rebuffed. The southern emperor had a crush on his sister, so he tried to trick her into sleeping with him, so that the emperor would spare his country. He had to lyse drugs to trick his enemy into bedding him so that he wouldn't be able to kill his sister. The northern emperor had an affair with his sister and had to sell him to the enemy, so the two of them had no contact. Now, the emperor won't see the prince anymore. The prince asks the emperor if he's made up his mind about an alliance with him. The emperor says that he needs more time to think things over. He's worried that huangyue is still plotting a coup against him, and that the prince still wants to see the emperor. He asks the prince to leave him out of it, but the prince doesn't want to be left out.