The chapter opens with a description of the five disadvantages of life: widow, loneliness, singleness, deaf, and disability. The narrator tells us that no matter what life throws at him, he will face these five challenges and three deficiencies in his lifetime. He says that he has no idea whether his life will be blessed or cursed. Since he returned from his last visit to the mountain, he has not been able to find his soul mate. The doctor tells him to eat ice cream and expose himself to the sunlight, but he does not know how to do so. He asks the patient to go out into the open and look at the sun, but the patient does not understand why he feels the same way as the doctor. The patient asks the doctor to open the door and find his little brother, who has been sleeping in the same bed as the boss. The boss orders the little brother to wake up and eat breakfast, and the patient observes that the boss is sleeping on top of the bed and the boss on the ground.