Warm Light at the Alley Corner: The Story of a Bowl of Wontons

The first time Lin Zhan met Shen Zhao, the streetlamp at the alley entrance was casting a dim yellow glow. He was crouched by the back door of Zhan's Wonton Shop, pinching half a piece of cold meat filling between his fingers. Three scrawny strays were crouched in front of him.

“You can't feed them that. It has salt.” She walked over with freshly cooked chicken breast. The porcelain bowl made a soft clink as she set it on the flagstones. Shen Zhao looked up, his eyelashes still dusted with soot drifting in from the alley, but his eyes shone as if full of stars. “Boss lady, could you add another spoonful of dried shrimp to the broth in your wontons?”

It was an autumn evening, and Lin Zhan's wonton shop had been open for only three months. Few customers came by. Shen Zhao became a regular, arriving promptly at seven thirty every day. He ordered a bowl of pork wontons with two spoonfuls of chili oil, sat by the window, and watched the leaves fall from the plane trees as he ate. Sometimes, when Lin Zhan closed late, she would see him tinkering away at the bike-repair shop at the end of the alley. His hands were smeared with grease as he wielded a wrench, yet he could take a bicycle chain apart with more precision than a clockmaker.

The snow came down hard on the winter solstice. Lin Zhan had made dumplings ahead of time, and had just carried them out of the kitchen when she saw Shen Zhao standing in the doorway, snow piled on his shoulders and an old tin box in his arms. “My mother used to say you should eat dumplings with coins in them on the winter solstice.” He opened the box. Inside lay three shiny one-jiao coins, worn smooth. “Put them in your dumplings. Whoever finds one will have good luck all next year.”

Lin Zhan's eyes suddenly grew hot. She thought of why she had opened the wonton shop: to fulfill her grandmother's wish. When her grandmother was alive, she always said that if you could warm someone else's stomach with a bowl of hot soup, then your life had not been wasted. That day, Shen Zhao found two