Chapter 1

My mother opened a small noodle store opposite an acting academy in Hong Kong. Our stall opened at 3'o clock in the afternoon until midnight. I would go over to help my mother after school every day. The stall would get very busy around 9'o clock every night. All the acting classes finished at that time. Most of the students and teachers would come over the stall for super before going home.

As for my father, he worked as a shipyard worker in Shenzhen, China. I barely sees him. Only on certain occasions when he needed money from my mother would he travelled to Hong Kong. My father was addicted to gambling. Most of the money my mother earned from selling noodles were gambled away by my father. It was heart wrenching to see my mother crying her heart out each time my father came.

We could only afford to rent a room in an over-crowded apartment in the older part of Hong Kong. There was a table, a double decker bed and a small fridge as well as a portable gas cooker in the room. We basically cooked, ate and slept at the same place. There were around ten rooms in the small apartment and we had to share two bathrooms with ten other occupants.

The room would get very hot and stuffy during the summer and very cold during the winter time. We couldn't afford a heater or an air-conditioner. Below our apartment was a wet market. The stench from the market could be over-whelming sometimes.

I did not like to spend much time in the room. When I am not in school, I would spend my time in the nearby public library reading and studying until it was time to open the stall. The library and noodle stall was my refuge.

I promised myself that one day I would buy a big apartment for my mother to live in.