at he goes by Yao Wang, which means “medicine king” to honor a legendary doctor who lived 600 years ago. His dog is named Sheng, which means “leftover,” because he rescued him from a restaurant. Xing Xing writes Sheng’s name in the dirt. The doctor compliments her calligraphy and invites her to join him for a meal.

Xing Xing tries to tell the doctor about Wei Ping, but he says that she needs to wait because she’s not ready to tell him the “whole truth” yet. Yao Wang, Xing Xing, and Sheng dine on roast duck and glutinous rice cakes. Xing Xing hasn’t had this much to eat “since the funeral feast after Father’s death” (89). She doesn’t feel safe sharing an inn room with any man, so the three of them sleep outside near the cart where Yao Wang stores his medicines. During the day, while the doctor treats his patients, Xing Xing secretly replaces the untidy lettering on his bottles of medicine with her finest calligraphy.

On the morning of their fifth day together, Yao Wang invites Xing Xing to share her story. She tells him all about her stepmother’s plan about the dates, and even discloses things her stepmother said never to tell anyone, including what happened to Wei Ping’s toes. Yao Wang explains that he can’t return to Xing Xing’s village so soon because he has patients who need him elsewhere, but he promises to experiment with the dates and tell his patients their origins if he’s able to find a medicinal use for them. He gives her a sack of medicine and explains how to apply it to Wei Ping’s feet. Although Xing Xing is sad that they must part ways, she tries to conceal it.

Xing Xing goes into a temple to pray for guidance. She fears that her stepmother will beat her for being gone for so long if she doesn’t return with the doctor, and she dreads the possibility that she will worsen Wei Ping’s condition by not administering the medicine correctly. A tussle in the market square draws her attention. A pharmacist and two government officials confront Yao Wang. The pharmacist accuses the itinerant doctor of stealing away his customers and calls him a charlatan. He claims that the drugs Yao Wang is selling aren’t state regulated, a crime punishable with a severe beating. As evidence, he points out that some of the jars on Yao Wang’s cart don’t bear the state seal.

Xing Xing intervenes, explaining that she rewrote some of the labels but didn’t know about the state seal. Yao Wang realizes that the jars that Xing Xing wrote on are the only ones that have the seal, which she copied from the bottles she saw in Master Tang’s house without realizing its significance. The itinerant doctor shows the officials two jars, one with a label written by Xing Xing and one that was prepared by a man, and asks, “Which is that of a state representative and which is that of a mere girl?” (101). Because few women in this society receive an education, the officials conclude that some bottles are missing the state seal because Xing Xing ignorantly miscopied it. They also assume that Xing Xing is the doctor’s daughter. The officials assure Yao Wang that he hasn’t committed any crime, but they advise him to move on since he’s garnered the pharmacist’s wrath. While a crowd watches in admiration, Yao Wang diagnoses a toothache in one of the officials and extracts the rotten tooth for free.

Because the townspeople and the officials believe that Xing Xing is his daughter, Yao Wang needs to keep up appearances by traveling with her. They find passage on a cargo boat heading upriver in exchange for the use of their skills. Yao Wang treats the sailors’ medical complaints, and Xing Xing writes a poem composed by the captain on a spare sail. At times during the voyage, Xing Xing sees “a shadow of translucent silvery white” following the boat (109).

Xing Xing’s arrives back home alone because Yao Wang and Sheng had slipped off the boat in the night. After the doctor departed, the girl stayed close to the captain because the way the crew looked at her made her feel afraid. When Xing Xing reaches the cave, she sees it’s a mess, and her relatives are filthy and mentally vacant. The girl cleans the cave and bathes and feeds her stepmother and half-sister. She applies the medicine from Yao Wang to Wei Ping’s feet.

After she re-ties her sister’s bandages, Xing Xing’s exhaustion catches up to her. She goes out to the pool, and the carp comforts her. Although Xing Xing used to fear drowning, she feels safe with the fish and discovers the “wonderful, effortless joy” of swimming (117). Suddenly, Xing Xing decides that the carp must be the reincarnation of her mother. She falls asleep beside the pool, trailing one hand in the water so that her “fish mother” can touch her.