In the spring of 1995, a vat of soy sauce was set up at the entrance to Springlook Alley. The craft of Wangchun's mother could make a single vat of sauce feed half the alley.
Shen Du was a young driver from out of town. His truck carried soy sauce, and all the human connections of people traveling north and south. Zhou Ye was a small-time businessman who'd gone into business for himself, struggling against the waves with his capital in hand. Three sets of footprints wound through one alley, from the spring of 1995 to the winter of 2001.
This is the story of how a vat of soy sauce came to be, and how a group of ordinary people made their way through life. There was the panic of being stranded on a snowy night, the pain of going their separate ways in the financial crisis, and the sweetness of sharing a slice of watermelon on the night Hong Kong returned to China in 1997. No one had a life full of cheats, just days slowly simmered together, one spoonful at a time.
The sauce may spoil, people may grow old, and the alley may be torn down, but the flavor of life in that vat will always remain.
