During the turbulent times of Jian'an, Qinghe Village in the mountains was originally a refuge from the world. Ten-year-old Wen Suining was looking forward to eating dumplings with her family on New Year's Eve. Unexpectedly, bandits massacred her village and her parents died tragically. She wandered alone in the cold winter mountains. When she was dying, she was taken in by the Shen family, a simple farmer.
Shen Zhi'an, the only son of the Shen family, is gentle and considerate, and has been with her day and night for six years: they picked fresh fruits from the mountains together in spring, fanned fans under the trees to enjoy the coolness on summer nights, shared farm work during the autumn harvest, and made dumplings around the stove every winter solstice. The delicate family love healed the bloody scars in her heart.
The peace was shattered in an instant, the recruitment documents were sent to the Shen family, and Shen Zhian had to rush to the border. The farewell coincided with the winter solstice, and the courtyard was covered with snow. A table of dumplings was still hot, so he ate a few dumplings in a hurry, promising to "eat the remaining dumplings together when we return home", and walked away in the snow wearing armor.
At first there were frequent letters from home, but later there was no news. When the world was calmed down and the flames of war were extinguished, what was waiting for him was a death certificate.
Since then, when the heavy snow fell every winter solstice, Wen Suining accompanied the two elders of the Shen family to fill a table with hot dumplings on time, and there was always an empty place at the table with bowls and chopsticks. The three of them guarded the half-bowl of dumplings that they had not finished that year, waiting year after year for a promise that could never be fulfilled. The mountains and rivers are finally at peace, but the young man who made dumplings together will sleep in the wasteland at the border and will never come back from walking in the snow again.
Purpose: Using a bowl of winter solstice dumplings as a clue, it describes the joys and sorrows of ordinary people in the war, portrays ordinary family affection and longing, reflects the preciousness of peaceful reunion, and accuses the ruthless destruction of ordinary people's stable lives by war.
