Walter Tom spent two hours going through a deck of cards that didn't belong to him, searching for proof that his family's restaurant had existed at all.
The cards were carbon copies, the kind businesses used before computers so every invoice left a faint imprint on thin paper. These particular cards listed every Chinese restaurant that had ever bought products from Wing Noodles in Quebec.
Tom's family had owned a restaurant in Quebec City decades ago, back when that city still had a Chinatown. In 2016, the last business closed, and with it any trace of a Chinese business ever existing there. But Tom knew there had to be evidence somewhere in this archive: His father's restaurant, an address, anything.
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