Wishes Amid the Bustle of Jinzhong
The Old Taste Restaurant on Shunchengguan Street in Jiexiu always smells of noodles with gravy, and it holds Xu Jiangzhi's secrets, too. When clearing tables, he brushes against an old scar on the table's edge, from when he was locked in a middle-school bathroom and hit it. The pale brown mark on his wrist was left when he was shoved into a chopping board. He's like a blade of grass wrapped in morning dew, sensitive and fragile. Even a stranger's gaze can make his back tense.
Then, one early-autumn evening, Jiang Yan, wearing a dark gray coat, pushes open the glass door and says gently, “A bowl of Hanshi noodles, with a braised egg.”
He becomes a regular at the restaurant. On rainy days, he comes to help patch the leaking roof. When Xu Jiangzhi's wrist scar shows, he only asks softly, “Is that an old injury?” He remembers that Xu Jiangzhi likes rabbit-shaped sugar paintings with stars, and he even knows better than Xu Jiangzhi which cabbage at the Shunchengguan morning market is the freshest.
Xu Jiangzhi's shadows slowly begin to fade. When his high-school classmates mock him for “working in a restaurant,” Jiang Yan stands in front of him. When the neighbors gossip that he's “not normal,” Jiang Yan holds his hand tightly. Even when Xu Jiangzhi thinks he's “useless,” Jiang Yan tells him, “Your noodles with gravy smell better than anyone else's.”
But when the restaurant is vandalized, his parents lock him in his room, and the whole world says, “How can a man be with another man?” the sunset atop Mianshan Mountain is as red as melting sugar. Jiang Yan wipes away Xu Jiangzhi's tears with his thumb, his gaze more resolute than the rosy clouds.
“Jiangzhi, let's leave together, for somewhere no one can find us.”
There is no grand, passionate confession, just a quiet, steady love in the everyday bustle: a bowl of Hanshi noodles saved for him, a little glass gourd hidden in a pocket, a man who turns all his hurt into tenderness.
Theme: A journey of mutual healing from trauma: Against the backdrop of Xu Jiangzhi's long-term bullying trauma, from Jiexiu No. 7 Middle School to No. 10 Middle School, Jiang Yan's arrival is not a one-sided “rescue.” Through patience, respect, and companionship, he helps Xu Jiangzhi break free from the shackles of self-doubt. Xu goes from shrinking away to daring to face his feelings and confront gossip. In the end, the label of “bullying victim” no longer defines him, showing the healing power of love in the face of psychological trauma.
