The scene opens with a knock at the door. It's a young man named Yaan, who's just arrived in Shanghai. He's in a bad mood. He feels like he's about to die. He begs his friend to stop rubbing against him. He doesn't want to be a burden to his friend. He wants to be his own person, not his friend's. He tells his friend that he feels terrible and that he should stop treating his friend like a "gentleman" . Yaan says that's not how he treats his friend, but that he'll try to treat his friend as a human being should treat a friend. The young man says that he can't do that anymore, because he feels like a hypocrite for helping his friend when he shouldn't be doing it. He also says that the price of the flower pill is way too high, and he should have flushed it down the toilet instead of using the needle. He admits that he didn't mean to do that. He says that now that he knows how to treat a woman properly, he can cure his friend of her ailment. He then tells Yaan that he wants to ask him to become his "sister of the soul