These are the desperate dealing with the desperate. A middle-aged man picks through a mound of second-hand clothes. He tries on a pair of trousers over his shorts, and starts to bargain, hard. The vendor shakes his head. The man is insistent. He presses money into the hand of the vendor, who still refuses, pushing the crumpled bills back. Each side tenses. They are one yuan—fourteen cents—apart, and the difference matters to both.