Solomon, here pretending to be frightening and unreasonable, threatens to cut the contested baby in half. In the moment before it becomes clear that his awful suggestion is a tactic, the first prostitute averts her eyes and disguises her pleased expression behind her sleeve. The other one, whose hair was done in a hurry, holds her writhing baby. Her eyes look in two different directions, one in despair at the baby, and the other outward, toward the viewer, in grief.
He Qi says his characters' eyes are inspired by traditional Chinese papercuts, where the pupils must be joined to the outline.