The chapter opens with a flashback to the time when the group was searching for the missing students. The flashback shows that the group had searched through the school's records, but none of the students had any information that would allow them to trace the students' whereabouts. The only one that did have information was the one belonging to the missing student, Cai Ling. Cai Ling asks the group to help him find out more about this student. The group explains that the student belongs to an organization that deals with plant transformation disease, which is a type of disease that is caused by the same strain of the human immunodeficiency virus that causes syphilis. Because Cai Ling is a patient of this organization, he is likely to have some information about this disease. The two men decide to ask Cai Ling to reveal this information to them.