The narrator tells the audience that he has come up with a bunch of reasons why the emperor will never force him to choose between the two of them, but that he doesn't think he'll be able to convince the emperor to do anything about it. He's convinced that the emperor's personality will keep him away from the woman he loves. The narrator asks the audience if they misunderstood what he was saying to the prime minister about their sexual affairs. The prime minister was talking about how they would go to the opera together at night with the emperor sitting above and the prince sitting below. The emperor says he's going to propose marriage to the prince on behalf of Luoying. He says that love is only one part of life and that he'd like to be alone with the prince. The prince says that he was a little disappointed that he wasn't more open about his feelings for the princess, but he can tell that the prince's love for her is true. He also says that after meeting the prince, he found it easier to accept the fact that he and the princess were in love than it would have been if he had been alone with her. He invites the audience to join him at the dining hall for dinner.