The story opens with a conversation between the boyang and his mother. The boyang explains that he brought a rat home to give to his daughter, yezi, as a gift. He tells his mother to get rid of the rat because it's going to smell and shed its hair. He also tells her that she should keep spoiling her daughter by bathing the rat every day, so that she'll eventually become spoiled. Three weeks later, however, the neighborhood maid comes to bathe the rat and cleans it every day. This time, the girl's grandmother comes home alone, and she doesn't seem to understand why anyone would want to keep such a thing as a pet. She's not happy about it. The next morning, the rat runs away, and the girl is furious. She tells her father to get the rat out of the house and to go for a walk if he's feeling any better.