This chapter opens with Tong-xie asking why he doesn't try to get a contract signed with a spirit. He's grown up, he says, and he's happy to be alone. He explains that when he was a little kid, he didn't care about a contract, so he signed one with a fox spirit. Now, when he becomes an adult, he'll sign one with the spirit, but he regrets it too much. He asks if she's hungry, and she says she'll have some pastries. He tells her to eat more, and then he asks if her mother ever did anything like this to her. She says she must have, and it's really tasty. She's not used to it, he tells her. He says his head hurts, and that he caught a cold. He wants to take medicine for the cold, but she won't let him ask for it, so she asks him to come closer and look at him.