Wu Dalang brings Wu Song home and introduces him to his wife Pan Jinlian (). Wu Song learns that they had moved to Yanggu to avoid harassments by neighbours in Qinghe. Wu Dalang, who is a dwarf selling flatbread for a living, is widely taunted in Qinghe as "Three-Inch Nail Tree Bark" () for his short stature. The harassment got worse after he married Pan, as he looks starkly incompatible with his young and attractive wife, who was originally a maid of a rich man and had been forced to marry Wu Dalang as punishment for resisting her boss' advances. Meeting Wu Song, Pan is immediately attracted to her handsome and well-built brother-in-law, but he sternly spurns her attempt to seduce him.