The story opens with a description of the passengers on a bus in Hong Kong. The first passenger introduced is Nie Chuanqing, a young man sleeping against the bus window with his bus ticket in his mouth. The bus stops and his professor's daughter, Yan Danzhu, gets on board. Many people at school avoid Chuanqing, but Danzhu, despite being popular, goes out of her way to befriend him. He is worried about talking to her on the bus because he is slightly deaf from his father hitting him in the ear. She sits next to him, and the two discuss how they will both be taking Danzhu’s father’s course on the history of Chinese literature this semester. Chuanqing says that Professor Yan is nice but doesn't like him very much, as shown by his poor grades in the course. Danzhu replies that her father is just harder on Chuanqing because he is from Shanghai, so his Chinese is better than the students from Hong Kong. (In mainland China, many people speak Mandarin, whereas in Hong Kong, people speak Cantonese.) She complains to Chuanqing about how people often try to pursue romantic relationships with her when she just wants friendship; she tells him that she feels she can talk to him about such things because he is “like a girl” (82).