“Alright, I guess we can say we became friends after a little conflict.” The middle-aged shop owner gritted his teeth. “...This Jade Rabbit orchid here is the real deal, a genuine treasure. Hmm, take it for fifteen hundred!”

Emily Walker looked at me for confirmation. Seeing me nod slightly, she paid without another word.

This small detail warmed my heart. I have to say, being trusted by someone really feels great.

We went down the pedestrian overpass.

Because the weather was so stuffy and hot, I went to the McDonald’s at the corner and got two soft serve cones.

The McDonald’s at Fuchengmen is one of the busier spots in the area, and since it’s summer, there were a lot of people. I waited in line for quite a while.

When I came out, I handed the crispy cone to Aunt Walker under the shade of a tree.

She took a couple of bites, then smiled and tapped my leg with the back of her hand. “You really are something, making that flower seller speechless. Didn’t you see people nearby giving you a thumbs up? Haha, good thing I brought you along today, or else my job as a sales manager might have been in jeopardy.”

“You flatter me. I just read about some orchid counterfeiting tricks in a news report.”

But there’s something I didn’t say: the report I read is something Emily Walker couldn’t possibly have seen, because it was an issue of the Beijing Evening News that wouldn’t be published for another two months. The paper clearly described the rampant orchid counterfeiting in the Beijing market—not just at street stalls, but even at the Guanyuan Bird Market and Yuquanying Flower Market, there were plenty of problematic orchids. At the time, the authorities cracked down hard for quite a while.

“Xiao Jing, all he had were fakes. Are you sure this pot is really a Jade Rabbit orchid?”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure.” I knew she was still a bit uneasy. “Although I tend to lump flowers, birds, fish, and insects into the collectibles category, they’re not antiques. They’re not as hard to tell real from fake as antiques, with endless imitations. As long as you put some effort into it, most people can become quite knowledgeable, and it’s not that hard to tell the real from the fake.”

“Oh, come on.” Emily Walker shot me a sideways glance. “I don’t think I’ll ever figure it out in my lifetime.”

“Actually, this Jade Rabbit is definitely top quality. You could say we really scored a bargain.”

“I don’t know much, but I do know orchids used to be really expensive.”

“‘Really’ doesn’t even begin to cover it.” I finished the last bite of my ice cream with one hand and carefully tossed the paper ring into the trash can. “They were so expensive it was ridiculous. The pot you’re holding now, back before prices dropped a few years ago, could have been traded for a villa.”

“Wow, that’s just outrageous.”

It was my first time coming to the Guanyuan Bird Market since it moved from Xizhimen to Fuchengmen Bridge.

Compared to the dirty, chaotic environment before, the market was much cleaner after the move. Following the steps down to the underground market, I didn’t rush to sell. Instead, I carried my cricket jar around for a quick look, checking out the overall prices for crickets this year. Generally, six-li crickets go for a few to a few dozen yuan each. The better ones can fetch over a hundred, but they’re not worth much. Seven-li crickets are a bit pricier, usually between two hundred and six hundred. Eight-li crickets are rare. I saw a white-toothed, yellow-headed cricket just a bit smaller than my black-headed one, and the owner was asking five thousand yuan.

Of course, these prices all have some padding.

I had a good sense of things now and figured the cricket I had—the best in the Guanyuan market—should fetch a good price, right?

Chapter 10: [Selling the Cricket]

Emily Walker and I strolled into a shop that looked fairly legitimate.

A couple of young guys were squatting in the corner, picking through a pile of six-li crickets in small porcelain bottles. Emily Walker set the rather heavy orchid pot down in the corner, then looked up and started playing with a talking parrot in a cage. I walked up to the counter and placed the cricket jar on the glass. “Boss, do you buy crickets here?”

The middle-aged boss was taken aback. “...Let me take a look first.” He pushed aside a few second-hand real estate flyers on the counter, steadily took the jar, lifted the lid, and his eyes lit up. “Hey, it’s been years since I’ve seen one this black. Pretty nice.”

“Don’t worry, it’s definitely a good cricket.” A few students nearby also gathered around.

The boss poked at it with a cricket probe, looking quite satisfied. “Want to weigh it?”

I thought for a moment, then nodded. “Sure.”

Letting the black-headed cricket take a turn on the scale, the boss and the students all looked surprised. “Eight point four li? That’s big!”

The boss composed himself and examined the cricket closely again, asking, “With a cricket this size, you got it from Shandong, right?”

“No, caught it in Beijing.” I’m a pretty honest person, so I told the truth. “Right by the moat.”

The boss let out an “oh.” “Beijing crickets are a few grades below Shandong’s. Don’t be fooled by the size—their fighting spirit isn’t as good. Kid, how about this: I’ll take this one off your hands for a thousand yuan.”

You know, back in the day, you could still find some decent crickets in Beijing—like at Badachu in the Western Hills, Yungang west of the Yongding River, or the Ming Tombs in Changping. But in recent years, the overall quality of Beijing crickets has declined. There are still a few scattered around, but you rarely see any with good form. Most of the crickets sold in the market are from Shandong, with Sidian Town in Ningyang County, Tai’an City being the most famous. So, when he says Beijing crickets aren’t as good at fighting, he’s not wrong.