Two years pass. Xingyin settles into her life at the Jade Palace and strengthens her friendship with Liwei. She is happy, apart from her longing for her mother, and remains determined to return home. Although Liwei asks about her past, she doesn’t confide in him; she feels guilty about it, but remains reticent.

The day before his birthday, Xingyin prepares her gift for him: a song she had composed herself, which she records into the seashell she bought at the market. When she arrives at Liwei’s room, she sees that the Celestial Empress is already there. The empress discusses Liwei’s birthday banquet, including the arrival of the Phoenix Kingdom’s Princess Fengmei. Liwei is not thrilled.

Xingyin goes to the kitchen and seeks Minyi for breakfast. As Minyi prepares it, she reveals that the empress is from the Phoenix Kingdom, and that her bad temper resulted from the death of the sunbirds, her kin. From the immortals’ perspective, the sunbirds were honored. When the sun goddess, injured, could not act as the mortals’ sun, her children—the sunbirds—misbehaved and “[soared] through the skies night and day” (119). Seeing the mortals suffering from 10 suns, the Celestial Emperor reprimanded the sunbirds, but was ignored.