A new private kitchen had opened up on the corner of the street. It was called Changsheng Zhai. It was very small, just four tables inside. It opened for business at six every evening and served four tables, no turnover. Those who came seemed to be mostly regulars, new faces had to make reservations. Word had it that both the boss and his wife had other jobs and the restaurant was just their hobby.

"I'm sure this is just something they're doing just because they're bored. Those people who have a bit of money now all like to become hipsters. They have nothing better to do." After saying that, Wang Xueyue added another acerbic comment. "And they're also definitely not truly rich people. Those truly rich ones won't even let you see that they're rich."

While speaking, from far she saw the proprietress pushed the door open and came out to hang the day's menu on a little wooden board. Wang Xueyue sniffed and squinted at the wooden board, reading it out loud. The wooden board was written with: Piping Hot for Winter: Sanxian Tofu Pot.

What the three fresh ingredients in the sanxian tofu pot were, Wang Xueyue had never eaten and didn't know. But there was something subtle about the word "pot" here, especially during the season when the northwest wind was howling. When the shivering passerbys saw it, before they had completely made out the word, their imaginations were already running wild. They could practically feel the steam on their faces and their tongues submerged in the gravy up to the root, warming them up from their noses and mouths all the way down to their bellies, and wetting their teeth and lips with saliva.

Wang Xueyue was sticking to her guns but she couldn't help swallowing her saliva. It was only when the freezing wind blew on her that she came back to her senses and she said sourly, "They just throw together a common everyday dish that other shops sell for ten yuan, serve it on a fancy plate and dare to sell it for a hundred yuan. Only fools fall for it."

Her voice was almost a whisper but from over twenty meters away, the proprietress suddenly turned to glance at her as though she had heard those mutterings. Wang Xueyue instinctively shut her mouth. She tugged on her long hair at the side of her temples, hiding the bruise mark above her right eye, and stared back in challenge.

The proprietress smiled at her, then turned to go back in. The wooden wind chime at the door let out a delicate sound. On the sparkling clean full-length windows of the shop, a thin layer of white condensation rose.

The interior looked very obviously warm, Wang Xueyue thought. She was only wearing a thin wool sweater.

"Don't say that about others." Next to her, Old Madam Sun straightened up. "That couple are good people."

Old Madam Sun held an old and worn woven nylon bag in her hands and was rummaging through the trash cans along the street, mainly looking for cardboard and beverage cans.

Sometimes she would hit the lottery and find food that had just been thrown away. But the cold currents were passing through recently, and the number of people idling outside and drinking canned beverages were growing fewer and fewer. Even the trash cans were becoming more lonely. Old Madam Sun had walked half the length of the street and only collected four or five empty cans.

"They didn't throw away their used beverage cans. The last time, they collected a whole box and purposely kept it for me." Old Madam Sun said. "They were all washed clean. I took the box home and looked at it, and only then saw that there was also a box of steamed buns at the bottom, still piping hot."

Wang Xueyue snorted. "They're just giving you the leftovers they can't sell, aren't they? These hipsters are all like that, feeding leftovers to stray cats and dogs, climbing mountains and praying to gods—and just like that, they feel so damned touched by their own actions. Who knows how many Hope Primary Schools they've donated to."

"You shouldn't say that." The old lady initially wanted to teach the young woman not to be so angry at the world but when she straightened up and turned to see the girl's face that was half swollen, she swallowed her words back down.

Wang Xueyue was an abandoned child. After she was born, those hateful parents of hers had taken one look and saw that the baby was a girl, so they left her at the entrance of a hospital and ran away. A gang of hoodlums that was up to no good took her away. Their boss had the surname Wang, so she followed suit and took the same surname. She was picked up on a full moon night where the skies were clear after a heavy snow, and so she was named after the snow and the moon. Her name was the most proper thing she had on her. Ever since she was four years old, Wang Xueyue had wandered to many places as an aimless drifter. Getting beaten was an everyday matter—if she tried to steal and failed, she was beaten by the victim; if she failed to steal, she would also be beaten by Boss Wang. There were bruises on her body all year round.

Meanwhile, Old Madam Sun was an "abandoned elderly." Her home was originally in a farming village on the outskirts and she had been a farmer. She gave birth to three sons. Her husband had passed away and her sons had grown up, gotten married and started their own families. Her house and land had been divided among them. According to tradition, her children should take care of her but they pushed the responsibility to each other while her daughter-in-laws made her angry. Old Madam Sun had a stubborn temperament and couldn't take it, so she came to the city to work. She worked for fifteen years. Later on, she was really too old and no one dared to hire her for physical labour. She also couldn't rent a suitable place—the landlords were all afraid of her dying in their property—and she also didn't have that much in savings. Old Madam Sun didn't want to be sent back to where she came from, so she became homeless. Using discarded bricks and plastic tarps, she built herself a den in an alley, curling herself up inside and picking trash to make a living.

There was once when Wang Xueyue stole something and was chased through a few streets. Panicked and directionless, she dived into the old lady's den. The old lady was at the side, picking through vegetable scraps, and locked eyes with the terrified girl. For some unknown reason, the old lady didn't raise a hue and cry, and just like that, they got to know each other. There was a natural affinity between the elderly woman and the helpless young woman. In any case, they were both people that no one wanted. From then on, Wang Xueyue would come over to the old lady's place when she had nothing to do and as time went by, they had a sort of mutually-dependent-for-survival kind of bond.

Old Madam Sun knew the reason behind the bruise on Wang Xueyue's face. A few days ago, there were strong winds and the temperature plummeted. The brick she was using to hold down the roof of her little shed was stolen by some naughty kids to play with and the few layers of plastic were blown away by the wind. When she went back in the evening, her little "home" was gone with the wind. When Wang Xueyue found out, she used the money she had saved up secretly to buy a cotton quilt for her to keep the cold away. Someone saw it and reported the matter to Boss Wang.

Old Madam Sun sighed. Gentleness and rationality came from being loved. What did homeless mad dogs have? She lifted her head, heavy with the weight of age and years, and glanced at the faint faraway light in the sky. In her heart, she suddenly had a feeling that she would not be able to survive this winter.

And so, in the dusky glow of the street lights, the old lady turned around to look at Wang Xueyue and thought, When I'm gone, what will happen to this girl?

A sixteen-year-old girl was like a flower growing in the silt. Was the rest of her life to be shrouded in darkness and gloom, a barren wasteland?

"When I was young, I worked as a nanny in a household. I made jiaozi with sanxian filling for them. The three ingredients I used were chives, pork and prawns. Chives had high water content, pork held everything together and prawns gave it a fresh seafood taste. I did everything from kneading the dough to rolling out the wrappers. The little jiaozi were about the size of my thumb, you can eat an entire one in one mouthful… Your grandma here has pretty good skills."

Wang Xueyue wrinkled her nose. "Grandma, I've only drank half a bowl of northwest wind and two gulps of saliva the whole day today. Are you trying to kill me with all that talk of food?"

"When it's Lunar New Year Eve, come over to Grandma's place. I've saved up quite a bit in the past half a year. I'll make them for you." As the old lady spoke, she expelled white puffs of breath. "I wonder what the sanxian tofu pot tastes like. It sounds so warm and cozy."

However, Wang Xueyue didn't get to try that jiaozi with the sanxian filling that could be eaten in one mouthful. That night, when Grandma Sun got up to use the toilet, she slipped and fell. She didn't get up again.

Heavy snow fell swirling from the sky, filling everyone's sight. The girl running madly felt as though even her breaths were completely chilled. She hated snowy days because it had been snowing on the night she was abandoned, and she was going to be abandoned again on another snowy night.

When she reached the entrance of Changsheng Zhai, her entire body was soaked. Her long hair fell forward, tangled, and there was a metallic taste in her throat. Before she could open the door, the door creaked and opened on its own from inside. The proprietress who had come out to hang the menu during the day leaned against the door frame with her hair loose, looking at her. She yawned lazily. "Is something the matter?"

"Can you…" Before Wang Xueyue could finish speaking, her voice broke. She asked tearfully, "Can you let me buy a bowl of the sanxian tofu pot?"

The proprietress seemed briefly stunned.

Wang Xueyue also came back to senses. All of a sudden, she realised that the way she was doing this was very puzzling, like a mad person at the end of her rope.

Under the other person's astonished gaze, she felt unable to show her face. She turned to leave.

"Hey." Unexpectedly, the proprietress called out to her. "Why don't you come in first?"

Inside Changsheng Zhai, the lights were soft and gentle. The four small tables each occupied a corner, surrounding the open concept kitchen and bar counter in the middle. The diners could see what the chef was doing. The proprietress was the main chef. She gave Wang Xueyue a space heater to warm up, then put a small carton in the steamer to heat it up. In just a short while, there was the smell of milk in the air. The proprietress was tall and slender, a left-hander, and her eyes seemed half-closed. Under the lamp light, her side profile exuded a unique kind of severity. She didn't ask Wang Xueyue for her story, nor did she chat with her. She only deftly washed the ingredients and prepared them—deveining the prawns, slicing the ham—her movements like the drifting clouds and flowing water, completing the tasks fluidly. She stacked a layer of the ham slices that were as thin as cicada wings, then separately blanched the prawn and the tofu to remove the raw odour.

Right then, a tall man came in through the back door of the shop, wiping his glasses—it was the boss who seldom showed his face. When he came in, he didn't greet the customer, his manner cold and uncaring. His face full of grouchiness from having just woken up, he threw a fluffy outer garment over the proprietress's shoulders and grumbled, "So noisy."

"You can just continue sleeping, why did you get up?" the proprietress asked softly.

The man didn't say anything. He tailed after her, the expression on his face like that of an upset cat. The proprietress bustled around in the kitchen and accidentally stepped on his foot when she turned. At first, the man didn't react, his expression remaining as stern and aloof as ever. After two seconds, he finally frowned and hissed in pain and grumbled, "You stepped on me."

The proprietress smiled from amusement—when she smiled, the coldness on her all melted away. She swiftly caressed the man's face, then instructed him, "Blanch the prawns and mushrooms in oil."

"You must have put on weight." The man rolled up his sleeves and lit the stove, commenting seriously at the same time. He took the spatula from her and skimmed off the floating scum. He drained the reddish prawns, then scooped a ladle of oil and stir-fried them together with the mushrooms. "My foot says so."

The proprietress raised her foot above his Y-shaped weighing scale and stomped down.

With a sizzling sound, the tiny water droplets were sent hopping on the spot by the warming oil. A unique savoury smell rose from the mix of prawns and mushrooms, craftily evading the suction of the exhaust hood and permeating the entire place. When the stiff mushrooms were stir-fried until they were limp, the proprietress said, "That's enough," and slipped her hand around his waist from behind him to turn off the stove. She dropped the eighty-percent cooked prawns and mushrooms together with the drained soft tofu into the rich broth bubbling in a small claypot.

An intense savoury smell rose, and then was stuffed back in by the claypot lid. Wang Xueyue accidentally breathed in a bit of the smell and her stomach rumbled out loud. She felt as though her entire body had been steamed by the warmth and the aroma until it was emptied out. Right then, a plate made of bone china was placed in front of her. A few snow-white steamed rice flour dumplings laid on it, steam rising from them. The proprietress took out a pocket-sized sieve about as wide as a person's palm and sieved a layer of icing sugar on them. "You'll warm up with your stomach full. If it's not enough, there are more in the steamer."

Wang Xueyue was just reaching out when she thought of something. She sat straight upright. "No need, I don't eat sweets."

The proprietress looked up at her. "My treat, no need to pay."

Wang Xueyue asked with suspicion, "How much… how much is one bowl of that pot?"

"I don't know, we charge a fixed price by table. I can't handle calculating the bills," the proprietress said casually. She turned around to say to the boss who was watching the claypot. "Shopkeeper, what price would be appropriate here?"

Who knew if the "shopkeeper" had fallen asleep on his feet; he raised his head like a sloth, his face stern yet confused.

The proprietress looked at him and let out a snort of laughter. She waved at Wang Xueyue. "Just pay any amount you want."

Wang Xueyue's chuuni tendency flared up. She said in challenge, "How much is 'any amount'? What if I pay one cent?"

The proprietress was unperturbed. "If you think it's fine, then it's fine. Your kind thoughts would have been conveyed, one cent is not too little."

In the end, Wang Xueyue still dug out all the money she had on her. Putting together all her notes and coins, she had 16.50 yuan on her. The proprietress didn't even look at it and just had her put the money on the counter.

When the dish was ready to come off the stove, the taciturn boss took out a clay bowl, ladled out the soup into it and pushed it over to Wang Xueyue, cautioning her, "Old people have insensitive taste buds. The flavour is on the heavy side."

Wang Xueyue stared blankly, "How do you know it's for someone old?"

"In a hurry to eat a certain thing, unable to even wait for the sun to rise. It must be someone who can't bear to leave the mortal world." The proprietress buttoned up her coat. "Wait a bit, I'll drive you over so that it won't get cold. Have a taste. It's not only our bowls that look good."

Wang Xueyue put a spoonful into her mouth. Thick steam rose from the soup. The soft and tender tofu cut through the sharp, searing freshness, the flavours melding together inseparably and scalding her from her tongue all the way down to her belly. It was just like she had imagined it. Wang Xueyue didn't know why but when she blinked, her tears began to fall.

Even though she lived such a life, could she still not bear to leave the mortal world?

Why? All because of the little joys in life?

T/N:

The final line uses the phrase 人间有味 which is likely from the poem "浣溪沙·细雨斜风作晓寒" by Su Shi. The full phrase is 人间有味是清欢, meaning what's truly pleasurable about the mortal world are the little quiet joys.