In late autumn, 16-year-old Linjing and her family gather at the Temple of Eternal Tranquility to pray for Second Aa Noeng’s child to be a son. They kneel before a traveling white jade statue of Sung Zi Gun Jam, a deity believed to grant wishes for male children. Maa Maa has ordered the abbess to confiscate everyone’s fur outerwear and forbids hand warmers or lighting the central brazier, insisting that suffering proves devotion—while herself wrapped in extra fur.

The pregnant Second Aa Noeng sits in a chair near Maa Maa. Lady Fong kneels in the front row, with Third and Fourth Aa Noeng behind her. Linjing kneels beside her 13-year-old half-sister, Meilian, while their maids, including Little Flower, line the sides of the frigid chamber. When Maa Maa orders Lady Fong to remove her jacket, Linjing intervenes and offers to take her mother’s place. Maa Maa strikes her with a cane.

Little Flower rushes forward and kowtows three times, bruising her forehead, warning that Lady Fong falling ill would be a bad omen for the grandson’s birth. Linjing adds that the goddess might be angered if a life is harmed in her name. Both kneel and each grasp one of Dowager Lady Fong’s bound feet.