Zhang Xiaotian, nicknamed Gou Dan meaning Dog Egg, is a bespectacled young man who works in a remote mountain area with terrible transportation. On the train, he asks to trade ration tickets for braised pork from Su Yuan's lunchbox, revealing that he hasn't had meat in over three months. He appears again in Beijing when Fu Mobai's group arrives, which Fu Mobai finds suspicious since meeting someone twice in one day is unusual. Zhang Xiaotian's father is known as Big Ladle Zhang and lives in a courtyard in the area.
