This chapter opens with a flashback to the time when Zillah was a young girl. Zillah's father, who she calls "one of taozi's demons," is coming to visit her. She tells him not to worry, because she's not going to hurt him. She also tells him that she doesn't have the best feeling when she has to erase the wrong answers from her homework because she feels guilty for getting the wrong answer. The flashback continues as Zillah asks what's wrong. He tells her that she keeps erasing the answers, and that her father and her angrier are getting angry at her. He also tells her to imagine that if she had done what he's done, she would have been thrown into the canto by now. She asks why he hasn't stopped gambling, and he says that he has to deal with lecherous men who gambled with him. He asks her why she hit her again, and she says that she knows that he promised her that he'd stop gambling if he could pay off his gambling debts. She then asks why they don't just sell the house and leave it to her, since it's been left to her by her mother. She goes on to say that she wants her mother to die with her, and if she can't do that, then she wants a divorce.