Chapter 08
The supermarket was crowded. Wu Xing pushed a small cart and started by buying some clothes, socks, and underwear for A-Jiu.
The Alpha followed behind Wu Xing, watching as the Omega placed items from the shelves into the cart.
“Xing-ge, that’s enough. I don’t need that many pairs of underwear.”
Wu Xing held a pair of pure cotton men’s boxer briefs and replied, “It’s cheaper if you buy a few more, and the plum rain season is comingâyou won’t have enough to change into.”
“As for those old clothes I gave you, if you don’t wear them anymore, you can cut them into rags back at the shop. Use them twice before throwing them away.”
The Alpha recalled that those clothes all carried faint traces of the Omega’s pheromones, along with a light, soapy scent. He felt a bit reluctant to discard them, so he answered, “I can still wear them.”
Wu Xing simply assumed A-Jiu had learned his lesson in frugality, revealing an expression that said, “a pupil worth teaching.”
“Special sale! Special sale! High-quality fleece blankets!”
The voice from the large loudspeaker repeated incessantly, almost hypnotically.
The Omega reached out to touch a fleece blanket; the fabric was soft and the texture delicate, so he took a second look at the yellow-on-red sale tag.
Forget it, it doesn’t seem to be that much cheaper after all.
“Xing-ge, aren’t you buying anything for yourself?”
“No, I don’t need anything.”
At checkout, a light beige fleece blanket appeared in the cart. Wu Xing remembered clearly that he hadn’t put it there.
“Xing-ge, this is for you. Deduct it from my wages.”
Wu Xing very much wanted to tell him that if he did that, there wouldn’t be much left of his wages this month. But looking into those sincere eyes, the Omega couldn’t bear to ruin the warm and harmonious atmosphere, so he kept it to himself.
“Thank you, A-Jiu.”
Wu Xing washed the little blanket, dried it, and tucked it away in his bedroom wardrobe. As the days grew hotter, he wondered when he would actually get to use it.
In the wonton shop, the large fan rotated with a “creak,” circulating the cool air from the air conditioner. The dessert shop on the street corner had long since started selling various types of shaved ice.
After a week of sustained high temperatures, it began to rain, yet the weather didn’t cool down at all.
Apprentice A-Jiu, who was serving wontons to a customer, looked out at the damp world beyond the door and realized belatedly that the plum rain season Xing-ge had mentioned had finally arrived.
Dampness, humidity, and continuous rain soaked the slum area, stripping away its foundation and leaving it teetering on the edge. In such rainy weather, business in any shop wouldn’t be great, and Wuâs Wonton Shop was no exception.
Wu Xing sat in the open kitchen area, using a large stainless steel spoon to scoop up cooked small wontons, then packed them and handed them to the delivery rider waiting for the order. The speeding e-bike splashed dirty water from the roadside, wetting the shoes of passersby.
“Xing-ge, why is it still so hot?” Hearing the curses of the pedestrians, A-Jiu couldn’t help but complain as well.
Wu Xing looked at the bubbling broth and answered, “It’ll be even hotter once it stops raining.”
The Omega was covered in sweatâeven his eyes were stinging with it. His whole body felt piping hot, like a steamed wonton giving off heat.
A-Jiu picked up a fan and walked over to Wu Xing, fanning him incessantly so that they could both catch the breeze.
“It’s already very hot now.”
“Our business hasn’t been great these past few days,” Wu Xing said while wrapping large wontons.
“I’m sure everyone else is the same,” A-Jiu said, alternating between fanning Wu Xing and dabbing his sweat with a tissue.
Wu Xing shook his head slowly. He had gone to Old Liuâs Dumpling House a couple of days ago, and their business was doing just fine. Every day, more delivery riders went in and out of their shop than theirs.
He had pretended to be a patron and entered the other shop. Despite the rain, quite a few people were there eating dumplings, and they also served casserole dishes and stews in the evening. Their profits were surely higher.
Wu Xing pushed down the brim of his black baseball cap, ordered a portion of dry-tossed dumplings, mixed them with vinegar and chili oil himself, and finished eight of them in one breath.
They were indeed quite tasty, though the quality of the ingredients wasn’t that high; the shop won out on flavor and price.
As it approached their break time, Wu Xing ate his dumplings while keeping his head down. Five or six delivery riders walked in to pick up the last batch.
“Old Liu, have you checked out that Wuâs Wonton Shop? They took quite a few of our customers when they first opened.”
Boss Liu reached out and pulled his sleeves higher, revealing a large blue tattoo on his arm, and muttered vaguely, “That new shop?”
Wu Xing didn’t look up; he poured a bit more vinegar into his dumplings, wondering how the man would evaluate his shop.
“Took a peek. Doesn’t seem to have any specialties.”
“The weather is so hot now, nobody likes eating wontons in soup.”
That was the truth.
Old Liu took off his white apron and rubbed the fabric with his hands, effectively “washing” them, before saying, “Itâs not that Iâm old-fashioned, but that spot used to be a noodle shop, and before that, it sold roasted nuts. None of those businesses lasted as long as we have.”
“That wonton shop? Itâs just three months of novelty.”
“Like a rabbit’s tailâit won’t last long.”
A man with a limp, who had been wiping the table in front of Wu Xing, chimed in, “Liu-ge is right.”
The middle-aged woman who washed the dishes came out of the kitchen and said, “But lots of schoolgirls go to Wuâs Wonton Shop. I heard itâs because the apprentice there is a handsome little guy.”
“I haven’t seen him yet. Don’t know how handsome he is.”
Old Liu snorted, exhaling through his nostrils. He slammed the table twice and said with disdain, “Dirty tricks.”
“Stealing my business. Iâll just wait for them to close down.”
Wu Xing stood up abruptly, lowered his cap, paid, and left the dumpling shop to return to his own.
“Xing-ge? What are you thinking about? You just wrapped small wonton filling inside a large wonton wrapper.”
A-Jiuâs voice interrupted Wu Xing’s memories.
Wu Xing came back to himself, looked at the wrongly wrapped wonton in his hand, and silently placed it to the side.
They had only been open for a short while; it was normal not to have as much business as others, and hearing a few mocking words wasn’t a big deal.
The little boss started his self-brainwashing routine again when the landline phone suddenly rang. He took off one glove and answered it.
“Hello, Wuâs Wonton Shop. How can I help you?”
Wu Xing tucked the receiver between his ear and shoulder and responded, “You can place an order on the ‘Baoleme’ app.”
“I understand. Iâll arrange for it to be delivered to you. Please tell me the addressâis the phone number you’re calling from the correct one?”
“Okay.”
“Mm.”
“Goodbye.”
After hanging up, Wu Xing boiled a portion of large wontons, packed them, and handed them to A-Jiu.
“The customer is an elderly man, advanced in age, with poor mobility. He lives in a walk-up building and doesn’t know how to use the app. Go deliver this for him; Iâll watch the shop.”
Apprentice A-Jiu nodded, stuffed Wu Xing’s phone into his pocket, grabbed the packed wontons, and left the shop.
By the time the Alpha arrived at the man’s location and saw that giant camphor tree, he realized this was the very place he had rescued the cat that night.
The old man lived on the sixth floor. A-Jiu held the steaming wontons, made the call first, and then knocked on the door.
Knock, knockâ
It took a while before the door opened.
“Hello, your wontons are here.”
The room seemed like it hadn’t been ventilated in a long time; it had a musty smell. A-Jiu handed the wontons to the man and added, “Careful, it’s hot.”
“Meowâ”
A completely snow-white cat squeezed out, sniffed the Alpha, and wrapped its tail around A-Jiuâs ankle.
“Xiao Bai, come back.”
The old man leaned on his cane and tapped it against the wooden floor.
A-Jiu half-squatted down, picked up the man’s cat, and asked, “Is this your cat? Did it get lost a couple of days ago?”
The constant rainy weather made the old man’s knees ache. He rubbed them, looked up at the handsome young man in front of him, and asked in surprise, “How did you know?”
A-Jiu reached up to wipe the sweat from his cheek and said, “I found it trapped in a tree and helped it down.”
The old man gripped his cane, exclaiming repeatedly, “What a coincidence.”
“Young man, here is your money.”
After taking it, A-Jiu realized there were six extra yuan and said immediately, “You gave me too much.”
“For the trouble of running this errand in this hot weather.”
At the same time, the little cat was placed into the old man’s arms, but it mischievously jumped down again, chasing after a ball of yarn rolling on the floor.
After A-Jiu returned, he told Wu Xing about the incident, and both of them marveled at how small the world really was.
It wasn’t raining today, but the sun was scorching. No one came in all afternoonânot even a delivery rider.
Wu Xing wanted something frozen, so he prepared to head to the shop across the street to pick out two popsicles.
“Hey, you’re the little boss of the wonton shop, right?”
The landladyâs soap opera hadn’t stopped; it was like background music for the shop, and Wu Xing almost didn’t hear what she was saying.
“Yes, just call me Little Wu.”
Wu Xing smiled slightly, thinking that since business at the shop was slow, a little idle chat wouldn’t hurt.
“Little Wu, how’s business?”
The landlady spoke while opening her order of dry-tossed Malatang, which was covered in a thick layer of sesame paste mixed with chili oil, looking thick and sticky.
“Not too bad,” Wu Xing replied with some effort.
The Omega spotted the milk popsicles A-Jiu had bought last time in the freezer; they were the cheapest ones. He thought mung bean would be good for cooling off, so he planned to buy twoâone for himself and one for A-Jiu, who kept complaining about the heat.
“I have no appetite in this heat, but this dry-tossed Malatang is super popular. Pair it with a bottle of ice-cold colaâitâs pure happiness.”
As she spoke, the landlady opened a can of iced cola from her shop, and a long hissâ sound rang out.
Wu Xing looked at that bowl of thick, sticky Malatang, lost in thought. He asked, “Is this very popular?”
The landlady smiled and said, “Yeah, I don’t know why, but it suddenly got popular. It really is quite delicious, though.”
