Chapter 1: Xiangzi grew up in the countryside and lost his parents and several acres of wasteland. At the age of eighteen, he came to the city to pull rickshaws. After unremitting efforts, he bought a new car of his own and became a first-class foreign coachman in Beiping.
Chapter 2: Only half a year after Xiangzi bought a new car, news of war broke out in the streets of Beiping. One day, Xiangzi was lucky enough to attract guests to Tsinghua at a high price, but he was arrested by warlords and his car was taken away.
Chapter 3: Xiangzi fled for his life with three camels left by deserters overnight. At dawn, he came to a village. He sold three camels to an old camel farmer and 35 yuan.
Chapter four: Xiangzi fell ill in a small shop in Haidian and was in a coma for three days. During these three days, his relationship with three camels was heard in his sleep or nonsense, and he was nicknamed "Xiangzi Camel" from then on. He braced himself and went back to Renhe garage. Mann and Liu Si, the owner of the automobile factory, have a daughter named Tigress.
Xiangzi saved the remaining 30 yuan from selling camels to Si Liu, hoping to continue saving money and buy another car of his own.
Chapter five: Xiangzi is still frugal, but his thoughts and behaviors have changed obviously. He stayed in Yangjiala for only four days and was tortured to leave.
Chapter 6: After Tigress left Yang's home and returned to Renhe Car Factory, she invited Xiangzi to drink. After drinking, Xiangzi was tricked into bed by Tigress in a daze. Afterwards, Xiangzi was extremely ambivalent about Tigress, resentful and yearning, and at the same time mixed with fear.
Chapter 7: Xiangzi went to Cao's house for a monthly subscription. Mr. Cao's house treated him well and respected him very much. One night, Xiangzi dragged Mr. Cao home and accidentally bumped into a stone. Both he and Mr. Cao were injured. Xiangzi was sad, but Mr. Cao didn't blame him at all.
Chapter eight: Gao Ma, who is also a servant of Cao family, advised Xiangzi to take the money to usury or deposit it in the bank to earn interest, but Xiangzi dared not; Gao Ma advised Xiangzi to get up, but Xiangzi dared not. The New Year's Eve is coming. Xiangzi is going to buy some presents, visit Grandpa Si Liu and get his lucky money back, but Tigress is here.
Chapter 9: Tigress returns the money saved by Xiangzi to Si Liu, tells him that she is pregnant, and proposes to him. She also figured out a way to get Xiangzi to please Si Liu and get Si Liu to agree to their marriage. Xiangzi was upset and drank wine to drown his sorrows.
Chapter 10: Xiangzi is waiting for Mr. Cao in a small teahouse. An old driver in his fifties fainted in front of the teahouse because of hunger and cold. Xiangzi bought ten steamed buns for the old coachman and his grandson pony. What happened to the old coachman gave Xiangzi a heavy blow. He found it terrible to get old even if he had a car.
Chapter 11: Xiangzi took Mr. Cao home and found him being followed. Mr. Cao asked him to transfer to Mr. Zuo's home, and then asked him to report to Cao's home. No sooner had he returned to Cao's home than Detective Sun caught him, threatening and seducing him. Finally, Xiangzi gave all the savings in the gourd jar to Detective Sun for "saving his life".
Chapter 12: Xiangzi fled from the Cao family and was desperate. Back to Cao Jia, I met Gao Ma. Gao Ma asked Xiangzi to stay and look after the house, and went to Zuo Jia to join Mr. Cao. Xiangzi was worried that it was not safe in Cao's house, so he climbed over the wall and went to the Wang's house next door to find the driver Lao Cheng. Tossing and turning at Lao Cheng's house all night. Mr. Cao is a progressive and upright intellectual.
His student, Minh Nguyen, was busy with social activities all day, and failed in his lessons, but he asked Mr. Cao to let him pass. Mr. Cao disagreed, so Minh Nguyen went to the party department and falsely accused Mr. Cao of being a "disorderly party."
Chapter 13: At dawn, Xiangzi had nowhere to go, so he had to go back to the crowd and the garage. Tigress is glad to see him back. Liu Si was preparing to celebrate his birthday, so he asked Xiangzi for help. Tigress secretly bought Xiangzi a birthday peach for two dollars, asking him to be diligent and impress Grandpa Four.
Chapter 14: On Si Liu's birthday, at breakfast, the drivers vented their dissatisfaction with Si Liu on Xiangzi, and Xiangzi was so angry that he almost fought with them. Seeing his wife and belt attending the birthday party, Si Liu felt lonely and became very depressed.
He was angry when he saw the intimacy between Tigress and Xiangzi. In front of everyone, the father and the daughter quarreled as a bee, and Tigress simply made public her relationship with Xiangzi. Si Liu gave Xiangzi a scolding.
Chapter 15: Tigress asked Mr. Feng to take Xiangzi to Tianshun Coal Plant. She rented two small north rooms in a big yard in Maojiawan, got everything ready for her wedding, fixed a wedding date and gave money to buy new clothes for Xiangzi. So they got married.
On their wedding night, Xiangzi realized that Tigress's pregnancy was fake, just to cheat him. Xiangzi was so angry that he wanted to leave the next day, but where to go? Finally, he returned to Tigress. He wanted Tigress to give him money to buy a car, but Tigress didn't want him to continue pulling carts. She asked him to accompany him, hoping to return to Liu's house.
Chapter 16: Tigress and Xiangzi rented a big yard, where all the poor people lived. Tigress likes to show off her wealth before them. After the Lantern Festival, Xiangzi couldn't stand such idle days any longer. He pulled up the car quietly, determined to pull it no matter how Tigress objected. Tigress wants to go back to Renhe Automobile Factory, but she is worried that Si Liu will not accept it. Xiangzi sneaked near Renhe garage to observe and found that the signboard of the garage had changed.
Chapter 17: Xiangzi found out that Si Liu had sold his people and garage, and went out to see the world with the money. Tigress's hope of relying on her father failed, so she had to take money to buy Xiangzi a car. Er Qiangzi of the same general hospital sold his daughter Joey and bought a car. Soon he killed his wife, sold her car to Tigress and buried it.
Joy was bought by an officer as a little wife for less than a year, and the officer quietly left, leaving her. She is going home again, and she and Tigress have become good friends. Joy's father forced her to engage in prostitution, and Tigress took the initiative to lend her the house to profit from it.
Chapter 18: Er, Hadron felt contradictory and painful when he watched his daughter engage in prostitution. Tigress is really pregnant. June 15, the sun is like fire, making people breathless. In the afternoon, it was windy and raining cats and dogs. On this hot and cold day, Xiangzi pulled the cart and finally fell ill.
Chapter 19: Xiangzi was ill for a month and got on the bus before he was fully recovered. A few days later, he became ill again and for another month. While Xiangzi was ill, Joy came to talk to him. Tigress was jealous and deliberately ruined Joy's "business". Joy endured humiliation and dragged her brother to make amends. They made up again. In order to make a living, Xiangzi desperately pulled carts to earn money; After Tigress became pregnant, she did not exercise and was greedy. Finally died in childbirth.
Chapter 20: Xiangzi sold the car and buried Tigress. Just when Xi 'er offered to marry him, Er Qiangzi suddenly appeared and shamelessly scolded his daughter, and Xiangzi fought with him. Xiangzi found that if he was with Joy, he had to support her, her two younger brothers and her alcoholic father.
Xiangzi sold some sundries, packed his things, left the yard and entered the garage. Xiangzi not only smokes, but sometimes gambles and drinks. "Everything he used to despise is interesting to him now." He doesn't want to buy another car. He is no longer as unsociable as before, but tries to show everyone that he is gregarious. Later he took Mr. Xia's monthly subscription.
Chapter 21: In autumn, Xiangzi couldn't resist the temptation, but he had sex with Mrs. Xia and became ill. He left his summer house and went back to the garage. Although he sometimes wants to be strong, buy a car and miss the fun, such thoughts are only fleeting. He became lazy and learned to fight. One night, he accidentally involved Si Liu, and Si Liu asked about Tigress's whereabouts. He answered "dead" and left.
Chapter 22: Since talking back to Si Liu in the alley, Xiangzi has been extremely happy. He was determined to bid farewell to the past, and he regained his vitality. He found Mr. Cao's home and asked him to show him the way. Mr. Cao asked him to come to his house for another month and promised to let Joy eat and live in his house.
Xiangzi immediately rushed to the yard to look for Joy, but Joy disappeared. Xiangzi searched the street all day, but there was no news. In the evening, he returned to the garage, and alcohol and tobacco became his friends again.
Chapter 23: Xiangzi is walking in the street. He met the pony's grandfather. The old man told him that the pony died of illness and his car was sold. Now he lives by selling tea and so on.
He also suggested Xiangzi go to the "White House" to find joy. Xiangzi found the "White House" and learned that Joy had hanged herself because she couldn't stand the humiliation. He had a complete mental breakdown. He started eating, drinking, whoring, gambling and extortion, taking pleasure in doing bad things.
Chapter 24: Minh Nguyen tried to use Xiangzi, but Xiangzi sold him 60 yuan and lost his life. Xiangzi can't pull the motor car. He spent the rest of his life sending people to funerals. "Decent, strong, dreamy, self-interested, personal, strong and great Xiangzi" degenerated into "selfish, unfortunate, born in the womb of social illness and the last ghost of individualism".