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anything. Then he turned to look at the three camels out beyond the gate. Apparently, he liked what he saw, though he knew no good could come of buying them. But a book lover can be counted on to buy a book, and a horse fancier cannot pass up a stud for sale. A trader who’s owned three camel trains is no different. Besides, Xiangzi had said he’d sell them cheaply, and whenever a connoisseur sees a bargain, he tends to forget whether or not he should be buying the thing in the first place.
    “If I were a rich man, young fellow, I’d be happy to take them off your hands.” It was an honest statement.
    “You can have them for whatever you think is fair,” Xiangzi said with such sincerity the old man seemed slightly embarrassed.
    “I mean it, young fellow, if this were thirty years ago, they’d be worth three dabao. But times have changed, there’s fighting everywhere, and I…maybe you’d better try your luck somewhere else.”
    “Just give me what you can!” Xiangzi did not know what else to say. He knew the old man was telling the truth, and he had no interest in running around the country trying to sell his camels. What if no one wanted them? That would mean even more trouble.
    “Look, I’m embarrassed to say it, but I could manage twenty or thirty yuan, and even that’s not easy for me. I tell you, these times, I’ve got no choice.”
    Xiangzi’s heart fell. Twenty or thirty yuan? That wasn’t nearly enough to buy a rickshaw. But he couldn’t let this business slow him down, and what were the chances he’d meet up with another trader like this? “Just give me what you can, sir.”
    “What do you do for a living, young fellow? Obviously, you’re not in the camel business.”
    Xiangzi told him. “So, you risked your life to save these animals!” The old man’s sympathy was conspicuous. He was also relieved, assured that the animals were not stolen. Actually, they probably had been at some point, but the soldiers presented a second layer of ownership. During wartime, normal practices fly out the window.
    “How about this, young man—I’ll give you thirty-five yuan. I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t getting them cheap, but I’d also be a liar if I said I could give you even one yuan more. I’m over sixty. I don’t know what else I can say.”
    Xiangzi, who had always been tightfisted, did not know what to do. But after his days with those soldiers, to suddenly hear the old man speak to him with obvious sincerity and sympathy, he knew he mustn’t haggle. Not to mention the fact that thirty-five yuan in his hand meant more than ten thousand in his dreams, even though it wasn’t much to risk your life for. Three living, breathing camels could not possibly be worth only thirty-five yuan! But what choice did he have?
    “They’re yours, old-timer. Just one request. Give me a jacket and something to eat.”
    “Deal!”
    Xiangzi drank his fill of cold water, accepted the thirty-five bright one-yuan coins and two big cornmeal cakes, and headed off to the city in a tattered white jacket that barely covered his chest.

CHAPTER FOUR
     
    X iangzi was laid up for three days in a little inn in Haidian, chilled one minute and feverish the next. He was in a fog, his mind a blank; purple blisters had erupted on his gums. All he wanted was water; he had no appetite. Three days without food had dissipated the heat in his body, leaving him as weak as a piece of soft candy. Sometime during those three days he must have dreamed about his three camels and muttered aloud, for when he was conscious again he had gained a nickname: Camel Xiangzi.
    Xiangzi had been his name, his only name, the day he entered the city. Now that Camel had been tacked onto it, no one cared what his family name might have been. He himself didn’t care whether he had a family name or not. But he was bothered by the fact that not only had he traded three living animals for that little bit of money, but he now had a not altogether