S.I.D. Dumplings ~ filled with love

Dumpling Day!

Shen Wei opened his eyes as the sunlight hit his face. He turned to look at his phone and smiled when he saw the date. It was a very special day in his heart.

He turned towards the person next to him and lovingly stroked his sleeping beloved's face. Zhao Yunlan. After all the darkness earlier in life, these past few years by Zhao Yunlan's side had been absolute heaven, and no matter how bad his day may have been, just seeing his face, hearing his laugh, breathing in his smell...any of these would make everything alright. One would think that after all this time, the relationship would have lost most of the magic. But Shen Wei took nothing for granted, and he treasured each smile, each whisper, each touch.

Every year, something would come up and the day just came and went. He was sure Zhao Yunlan had already forgotten its meaning by now. But today, the day was open, and he was determined to remind Zhao Yunlan how special it was.

As though he could hear Shen Wei's thoughts, Zhao Yunlan stretched and opened his eyes. Shen Wei never tired of seeing Zhao Yunlan wake from a restful sleep. Zhao Yunlan, on the other hand, felt at peace with Shen Wei next to him, and he loved how his smile crinkled the corners of his eyes as he gave him a quick peck on the lips.

"So," Shen Wei began, "today we both have the day off. Want to do something special?"

"Yeah! I called the gang over. We're going to make a mountain of dumplings!" Zhao Yunlan bounced out of bed with excitement.

"Oh, I was thinking of - " Shen Wei began, then stopped. Zhao Yunlan looked so happy that everyone was coming over. It must get boring living with a quiet intellect.

"Did you want to make something else?" Zhao Yunlan's voice was muffled as he pulled his nightshirt over his head.

"Well, I was thinking we could - " Shen Wei started again, then sighed. " - fry and steam some, and maybe make some for soup." Yes, let Zhao Yunlan have fun today. Seeing his lover happy always made Shen Wei happy as well. He could always try again next year.

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The apartment was full of people; all the S.I.D. members and Zhao Yunlan's father always looked forward to Dumpling Day. It gave them a chance to bond with each other while folding them into different shapes.

Zhu Hong and Wang Zheng were busy chopping the cabbage and lightly salting them to get some of the liquid out. Sang Zan chopped green onions on another board. Little Guo was good at measuring the ingredients to the last drop of soy sauce, and Old Chu had the muscles to vigorously mix everything together by hand, picking up large handfuls of it and slapping it down back into the bowl. That was how his grandmother used to make it, he explained. It had to do with texture or something or other, but no one dared to question him.

They all sat around bowls of filling with stacks of dumpling wrappers, some covered to keep them from drying out. They had "dumpling days" like this whenever they could, and they had all gotten rather adept at folding. It also gave them a chance to catch up on things. Although they still all worked or gathered at the S.I.D. office, they had different hours and never had time to sit as a group and just chat. Plus, everyone went home with lots of dumplings to fill their freezers with.

Shen Wei looked across the table at Zhao Yunlan, who was cheerfully chatting with his father about his golf game, jokingly complaining about how expensive it was to keep him supplied with golf balls. It never failed to warm Shen Wei's heart to see Father and Son interacting; this is how it should have been all their lives, and fortunately they had been able to reconnect through the S.I.D.

Lin Jing and Da Qing were apparently in charge of Little Fa, son of Wang Zheng and Sang Zan. As a toddler, Little Fa had a lot of energy and was able to run quite fast. They had kept him out of the kitchen as much as possible during the filling preparation when knives were being used; now they took him outside to "get some fresh air," they explained. Each time one of them returned, Zhao Yunlan scolded them, saying they were slacking and would not get their share of the dumplings.