This chapter's epigraph comes from a conversation between Cai Ming-liang, the heir to the Ming fortune, and his mother-in-law, Madame Guinevere. The elder Cai tells his mother that he wants her to marry him, but she refuses, saying that she wants him to marry her own daughter. The older Cai tries to explain that he is not interested in his daughter, but the younger Cai retorts that his mother meets the standards of the Ming family, and that his name is "anqing" not "bad" . He then goes on to say that his face is covered in mud, like a failure, and he is afraid of the chicken that does not turn up for supper with him.