His face turned red, and he really did not see it. With so many people coming and going here, someone must have taken it away casually. Tears of disappointment welled up in my eyes, but I was still unwilling to give up. "Brother, I can give up the money and mobile phone, but please give me the key to the house, let me have a place to stay tonight," I pleaded with him in a pitiful tone.
I was too hungry, and I ate like a wolf devouring its prey, finishing everything in one breath, including the soup. Then, I rushed home. That place called home was a rented shelter, remote, dim, and damp. When I wanted to open the door, I realized that I had left my handbag at the snack stall. I broke out in a cold sweat. In the bag were 500 yuan of advance wages from the factory and an article I spent several nights writing.
In response to my inquiry, the man at the snack shop said, "What? A handbag? No, I didn't see it." How could this be? I became anxious, "It was clearly left here, Brother, please return it to me."
I never expected that there would be such an elegant and clean man in a snack shop, friendly enough to make me feel like I had returned home to see my kind elder brother. "Just give me a random bowl," I said. He shouted into the inner room, "Mom, bring a bowl of leek-filled dumplings."
Suddenly, the rain stopped. I looked up and saw him standing in front of me with an umbrella. "If you don't mind, spend the night with my mother tonight. Tomorrow, I'll find someone to help you open the door. Also, I can lend you some money."
The rain had already started outside. I sprinted toward the small stall as if running a hundred-meter dash. From afar, I saw the light still on inside the little house, and I sighed in relief.
After two months of being submerged in Qingdao, this coastal city, when my wallet was as flat as a dehydrated radish, I finally realized what it meant to be desperate and ravenous. I could no longer take care of myself as carefully as pondering over a word in a poem, so I had to settle for a job as a warehouse keeper in an inconspicuous position at a hardware accessories factory. The so-called custodian sometimes also served as a loader, and overtime was a common occurrence. After exhausting all the money from home and spending four years to obtain the red diploma, just because it was registered in a private university, I wasn't able to achieve the status of a white-collar beauty in my dream. But I knew I was just temporarily staying here.
I cried and rushed into the rain, not knowing where to go. Loneliness, helplessness, and panic enveloped me like raindrops. Thinking of my parents far away who worried about me and considering my bleak future, I couldn't help but burst into tears while leaning against a big tree.
When dawn came, I had another 500 yuan, which Shen Shaoyang lent me. He said half-jokingly, "Borrowing money comes with interest, which means eating 200 yuan worth of dumplings at our place." As I was about to leave the house, I suddenly asked him, "Are you not afraid that I will take the money and evaporate like water?" "Afraid, but I still have to lend it. Otherwise, my conscience won't allow it. Others might lend less, but for you, I trust you; you're not that kind of person." Shen Shaoyang smiled faintly. His words moved me deeply, and I recognized him as a rare good person in this world.
As I ate, the taste of the dumplings changed. It was like being addicted; if I didn't eat them one evening, I felt restless all over. I thought I was poisoned, and Shen Shaoyang was the harmful opium. My eyes began to linger on Shen Shaoyang: his voice, his smile, his figure, all became seasonings in my bowl. His kindness, calmness, and goodness were the warm and delicious dumpling fillings, making me eat as if enchanted, savoring every bite from my mouth to my heart. I knew I had fallen for this man who sold dumplings.
His mother also came out, saying that they would never do anything against their conscience and urging me to believe in their innocence.
Out of gratitude and reciprocity, I often brought coworkers from my unit to visit Shen Shaoyang's stall at night. Every time I ate a bowl, he solemnly marked a tally on the whiteboard. Goodness gracious, he was so serious! Even after eating a hundred large bowls, I hadn’t grown tired of it. I said, "When I have money, I’ll pay you back more than what I owe, let’s call it even and forget about it. Why make things so complicated?" "How can we?" He shook his head like a tambourine, "Eating a hundred bowls of dumplings is something that cannot be compromised." I stomped my foot, "Shen Shaoyang, you are ruthless."
My cold heart was warmed by his words. Gentle waves rippled through my heart. He told me his name was Shen Shaoyang, and I silently repeated it twice, remembering it.
Finally, I sat down at a stall marked with "two-yuan dumplings," attracted by its cheap and practical convenience. The man who greeted me was elegant: "Just got off work, right? You must be exhausted. What kind of filling do you like?"
On the streets of the city where the lanterns had just lit up, I was tormented by hunger, dragging my weary steps, looking around hesitantly.
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