Free Chenxi and the Foreigner by Sally Rippin Page B

the spirits her grandmother was blind and wouldn’t notice its absence.
    Her neighbour, who had been to Shanghai before, told the girl the snuffbox was worth a lot of money. She should ask for two hundred yuan and accept nothing less than a hundred. One hundred yuan! That was more money than she earned in two months!
    Crowds shuffled past. Occasionally they turned the peasant girl’s items over and one of them even picked up the snuffbox and asked its price. When she told the man he snorted and walked off.
    As the morning slipped by, the girl began to worry. What if she didn’t make enough to cover her train fare? Could she dare return home without a coin? She crouched on her haunches, squinting up at the bustling people.
    Eventually, a young foreign woman, wearing shorts and a T-shirt, paused at the girl’s mat. She glanced over the objects while the peasant girl gazed up at her, dazzled by the foreigner’s white skin and blue eyes. Before Anna had the chance to slide back into the crowd, the young girl snatched up the bejewelled snuffbox and thrust it into her hand.
    Anna smiled and placed the tiny box back on the mat. ‘No thanks,’ she said.
    Her eyes wild, the peasant girl shook her head and pushed the box back into Anna’s hand and held two fingers up at her face.
    â€˜Two yuan?’ Anna guessed without a clue. ‘ Liang kuai ?’
    The girl shook her hands frantically and scribbled two, zero, zero on a scrap of paper. She held it up for Anna to see. Anna was examining the pretty box.
    â€˜Oh, two hundred,’ Anna said. ‘ Liang bai?’
    The peasant girl nodded.
    â€˜No thanks,’ Anna said and made to walk off.
    It was nearly the end of the day and the peasant girl hadn’t sold a thing. At home her grandmother lay waiting in the darkness of their hut. The girl stepped forward in a panic and grabbed at the foreign girl’s sleeve before she disappeared into the crowd. This was her last chance.
    Anna spun around.
    â€˜ Yi bai wu shi kuai! Yi bai wu shi! ’ the peasant girl cried.
    â€˜No, really,’ Anna said. ‘Even for a hundred and fifty, I don’t want it.’
    Anna’s father pushed through the small crowd that had gathered. ‘What’s going on?’ he said.
    â€˜She wants me to buy her box.’ Anna was agitated now. The peasant girl thrust the box at Mr White. He inspected it, frowning.
    â€˜Hmm…’ he said. ‘It looks quite valuable.’
    â€˜Ching Dynasty,’ a spectator confirmed.
    â€˜But I don’t want it!’ Anna insisted.
    â€˜ Yi bai! Yi bai kuai! ’ the peasant girl cried.
    â€˜Mmm. One hundred yuan she’s asking for it,’ said Mr White. ‘But you should always bargain them down to half price. As you know they think we are full of money and they’ll always try to cheat us.
    â€˜Fifty!’ he said loudly to the peasant girl. ‘ Wu shi yuan!’
    The peasant girl was horrified. She shook her head savagely and grabbed the box. Mr White shrugged and turned his back to her. The crowd chuckled.
    â€˜She’ll come after us,’ he whispered.
    Sure enough, just as they began to walk away, the peasant girl took hold of Anna’s arm again, and stared at her with pleading eyes. ‘ Ba shi ,’ she said. ‘ Ba shi! Ba shi! ’ She took both of Anna’s hands in her own, the precious box sealed between them.
    â€˜No!’ Mr White looked fierce and shook his head. ‘Not eighty! Fifty!’
    â€˜Dad! I don’t want it!’
    Mr White tried to pull his daughter from the peasant girl’s grasp. The crowd pressed in around the spectacle.
    â€˜ Wu shi! ’ the peasant girl wailed, holding tight. ‘ Wu shi! Wu shi! Wu shi! ’
    â€˜Dad!’
    Mr White peeled off crisp notes from the stack in his wallet. Two twenties and a ten. He thrust the bright money into the dark hand and snatched the silver box.
    The