There is this small, if not tiny Cantonese restaurant called 灣仔 on 常熟路. I have lots of stories in this tiny little place but here is a true story...
My dad was having a surgery in 五官科医院 two years ago. To him, cash is the king and he is such a man that believes you need to bring a stack pile of caches to the hospital. In his word - "you never know", "just in case".
Anyway after he went into the surgery room I was left in charge of his non-descriptive plain ol' duffel bag. Inside there was all his medical records, hospital prepaid receipts, stuff, and about 20,000 RMB. So, with the duffel bag in my hand, I went to 灣仔 for lunch, because it was very close distance and I always liked the place.
Fast forward a few hours, I was in a very good mood and why not? I had a good meal and left the restaurant around one in the afternoon and called a cab to my favorite foot massage place near 中山公园. Frankly, after three hour-long massage session I felt great, the streets were wonderful, the girls on the streets were lovely and my feet felt way lighter:-)
Then suddenly, I felt something not right, it wasn't suppose to be this light with my hand. By then I realized that I had lost the dufflel bag!
Now I am not the kind person who easily gets panic, okay okay it's easy for me to say that now but whatever. I calmed my nerve and gathered my wits. I jumped in a cab and told the driver to go as fast as he could to the restaurant, for that was the only place I felt I might left my bag.
I thought about to call the place ahead to ask if they'd placed my bag in their lost-and-found but you know the deal with Shanghai. 10+ million souls and 99.9% of them were money hunger, it was wise not to alert anything, so I thought.
Long story short, the second I walked into 灣仔 I immediately looked at the seat where I sat earlier. And, my poor little blue duffel bag, sat there lonely looking at me.
That was a lucky day in anywhere, let alone in a hustling and bustling town like Shanghai. It was almost unheard of rare.
Oh did I tell you that old duffel bag belong to my mom and she used it all the time in her late years, before she passed away to cancer?
Say whatever you like, it's my belief that mom was looking after me from the above in that shining summer day...