Book excerpt: Bao Qing was a classic example of what people in Maqiao meant when they spat out the word 'intellectual'. Coming home to his old town for the holidays was just as much trouble as not coming home, for this was a town where his old schoolmate Fatcat had every local business in his pocket. And Fatcat considered the returning 'professor' a celebrity. Bao Qing was about to get an invitation he could not refuse. Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously published in the collection Madwoman on the Bridge.