The plan—Tang Fan got distracted, typical—the breakdown of the plan is this: he and Sui Zhou will invite Wang Zhi for a final dinner at the brothel. Then they will ask him if he might wish to join them thereafter. They will make it clear that Wang Zhi is very welcome to share their bed for the night.

He will never forgive Wang Zhi for being careless enough to get himself killed like this: by a band of common thugs, barefoot and with his hair undone, in Sui Zhou's house, in front of Sui Zhou. But then the thug manhandling Wang Zhi laughs, pulling him up short in the middle of the courtyard. He even shakes him a little. "Look what I found in Baihu Sui's bedroom. It's a boy!" Sui Zhou acquires dangerous knowledge involving the Commander of the Western Depot, Tang Fan breaks new ground for romance novelists, and Wang Zhi is full of surprises.

Wang Zhi looked back -- more men. It was blocked. He lectured himself. He truly did deserve death for his carelessness. Incognito, Tang Fan had said. Clearly not enough if they were being targeted like this. The men at the ends of the alley advanced in. “Alright Huang Zhifeng,” Wang Zhi muttered, voice dripping irony over Tang Fan's pseudonym, “how are you going to write your way out of this one?”

Wang Zhi decides to try something. Tang Fan assists.