Outside the room, baiyan tells his servant that they've been unable to find Cai, but that he's found a hairpin that belongs to her. He asks the servant to show it to him, but the servant says that he hasn't seen Cai for the entire day, so he doesn't know what Cai's secret is. The servant asks if there's any way Cai could be hiding in the river, and baiyan points out that the blood on the hairpin is from Cai, not Cai herself. He's worried that Cai might be on a boat, but baiyan says that's not the case, and he'll let Cai off the boat.