The chapter opens with a description of the mission of the escorts. They are escorting goods from one part of town to another. The escorts are accompanied by a "spy master" , named "hong san," who is a "renowned saber master," or master of the sword. He is employed to guard the goods. He tells the narrator that he is sorry if the company has caused any trouble, but that the escorts were not robbers but "very righteous men" . He says that the beggar, Laojiu, was not a bad beggar, but he was confused by the beggar's "frivolous tone." The narrator says that Laojiu's tone confused him, and he hopes that the narrator will like it. He adds that he has had his alcohol after all, and that something is "ahead of us !" . Suddenly, three shadows appear in the darkness, slowly approaching the horses. There is something wrong with the horses, says the narrator, and the escorts go to confront them, but the three "big sabers" do not strike down. Laojiu is surprised by this, and pushes them back, and spits out the booze. The narrator is waiting impatiently for the howling of zombies to stop, and when he finally does, he says that he had been waiting for a while. Three yellow paper men show up, and Laojiu leads them into the woods, where they find Zhao ba, who is on another mission