This chapter's epigraph comes from the opening lines of the play, which are: "Can't we be reasonable? stop it? / We are being righteous. / Nonsense, if we do not kill this person, / What if others are infected?" This is a reference to the fact that Lin-an has been infected with a form of "phantom butterfly poison" , which has a long latency period, meaning it can take years for a person to fully recover from the disease. Lin'an's reaction to the epigraph is that he and the others are "discreet disciples" of the "lingyo sect" . He tells the others that he will never let the patient infect one "silly of him," and that he has "colluding" with the "demon clan." He asks the others to take him back to the house where he saw the ghost of Su-yitong, and to show him the way home. He thanks the others for their kindness, and says that he can show them the way later. He then tells them that there were two other people who were also infected with the phantom butterfly poison before they became sick, and that they had gone to Lin-An to get their medicine from him. They had been there to earn money, he says, for his medicine, and he is sorry, but at least he does not kill people