The captain of the vice minister's department arrives to investigate the disappearance of the young master. The mother of the missing young master is furious that the captain is there to interrogate her son's servants. The vice minister tells her that the missing master is still missing and that the murderer is still at large. He says that before the investigation is complete, the suspect has confessed her guilt and committed suicide. She says that she wants to whip her dead body until it "dashes into pieces" . She tells the captain to resign so that he won't cause harm to the people. The captain says that the royal court can't appoint officials who engage in "lynching," "preventing investigations," or "cannot distinguish between public affairs and private affairs" , so he should resign. He also says that feng'er isn't dead yet, but that she's still missing. His wife must have found out that she was an accomplice to the murder, but she was "just a bit hasty." The captain tells the men to stop chitchatting and to examine the body first.