The pain only subsides slightly after ten days, following which he begins to see a sprawling residential estate every time he closes his eyes.

Gu notices a room filled with crying babies and is invited by a young prince—who had recently recovered from malaria—to watch an opera titled The Blessings of the Borderguard of Hua (華封祝).

[4] The protagonist of the story, Gu, experiences "two phenomena associated with parapsychological research", namely "remote viewing" (or "clairvoyantly visualising a distant site") and "astral projection of his body".

The supposed sound of clanging gongs at the end of the second opera, for instance, turns out to be that of dogs licking a container at the inn.

[6] Contrasting the story to earlier "Chinese dream parables of enlightenment", such as the Tang dynasty Zhenzhong ji or Tale of the Pillow, Zeitlin likens Pu's protagonist to "a spectator at a play ... (witnessing) an allegorized version of Life passing, without really participating in it.