The garden looked a wild land that spring. There were a hundred kinds of weeds growing everywhere.
In the previous winter the lawn was turned over every inch by a group of policemen and red guards. Nobody dared to ask them what they were looking for. They did not find anything except a metal cover for the sewage line.
While Didi and Dudu were digging dirt to trace ants, Popo was inspecting weeds. She had a little wood stool, a pair of small scissors and a bamboo basket with her. she cut a small green from the bottom of the stem and smelled its tiny triangle white flowers. She showed the little weed to Didi. This is called Ji-cai, a wild herb we used to look for when living in countryside. Didi liked the smell of this little weed. The shape of its tiny flowers made her think of the fragrance purse Popo made for Duan-wu festival.
By the time to make dinner Popo's basket was full. Didi and Dudu were helping her to spot Ji-cai among a hundred kinds of weeds and they became experts of that.
Popo washed the green leaves and chopped them into a small green mound. She made a dough and turned it into a pile of wonton wraps. She folded the wrap three times to enclose the green fillings and several dozens of wontons quickly lined up in a big bamboo tray. She put wontons into boiling soup, and told Didi when wonton is done it floats up to the the surface. Didi watched wonton dancing and rotating in the soup, and floating up with the fresh green color of the fillings showing through the translucent wrap. The perfume of the wildness of spring filled the kitchen.
