"It would.." Liuxian said, pocketing his phone and standing.

Guiying was already moving toward the escalator.

The ground floor was a different experience at walking pace than it had been from above.

The storefronts were larger than they’d appeared, the displays more detailed, and Guiying moved through it the way he moved through museums, unhurried, without a fixed path, stopping at what drew him and walking past what didn’t.

Liuxian stayed at his shoulder.

Steady, unhurried, entirely unbothered by the fact that Guiying’s browsing style had no logical geography whatsoever.

A leather goods shop first, Guiying tried on a pair of gloves in dark cognac leather that fit well and looked at the price tag and put them back.

Liuxian picked them up without a word and carried them.

"I put them back.." Guiying said.

"I noticed.." Liuxian said.

Guiying looked at him. "I put them back because I was deciding."

"And I picked them up while you decide.." Liuxian said pleasantly.

Guiying decided he wanted the gloves.

A accessories shop next, where Guiying spent a considerable amount of time examining a set of silver rings laid out on a velvet tray before selecting one, a wide flat band with a small engraved geometric pattern running along the outer edge and sliding it onto his right hand.

He turned his hand over and looked at it.

Liuxian watched him.

"Yes..." Liuxian said.

Guiying bought the ring.

They moved through two more shops at the same easy pace, Guiying picking things up and putting them down and occasionally keeping them, Liuxian carrying whatever accumulated without comment or calculation, and Guiying was moving through the steady pleasant rhythm of it when his eye caught the window display he had spotted from upstairs.

That same charcoal jacket.

He stopped in front of the window and looked at it properly. Up close the fabric was even better, a heavy wool blend, the kind that held its structure without being stiff.

The collar was exactly what he’d thought.

The cut through the shoulder was clean and deliberate.

He thought about Liuxian.

The way he stood in a room. The width of his shoulders, the way he wore structured pieces like he had simply always owned them.

"I’ll be right back.." he said.

Thinking Liuxian was behind him.

The inside of the shop was quiet and well lit, the kind of retail space that understood restraint.

A sales assistant materialized at his elbow almost immediately, helpful without being hovering, and Guiying pointed at the jacket in the window display and communicated his request through the universal language of pointing and the approximate dimensions of a man considerably taller than himself.

The assistant brought it out in what he estimated was Liuxian’s size.

Guiying held it up.

Looked at it.

Turned it over and checked the lining, the stitching at the seams, the way the collar sat when he folded it back. Everything was exactly right. The kind of piece that would last, that would look better worn in than worn new.

He paid for it at the counter, watched the assistant fold it with tissue and place it into a matte black shopping bag with the store’s name printed in clean serif lettering along the side, and took the bag and his receipt and turned back toward the door with the particular satisfaction of someone who had done something well.

He stepped outside.

And stopped.

He looked left.

Then right.

The space where Liuxian had been standing was empty.

Guiying stood on the mall concourse with the shopping bag in his hand and looked at the stretch of storefronts in both directions and felt a very specific, dawning realization move through him slowly...

He had no idea when they had gotten separated.

He brought his phone out of his pocket.

The screen lit up.

Seven missed calls.

All from Liuxian.

The most recent one four minutes ago.

Guiying stared at the screen for a moment.

Then he called back.

It connected on the first ring.

"Xue Guiying." Liuxian’s voice was even. Carefully even, the kind of even that meant something underneath it was considerably less so. "Where the hell are you."

"I..." Guiying turned in a slow circle, looking at the storefronts around him. "I’m outside a shop. I went in to buy something and I thought you were...." He stopped. "I don’t know when we got separated."

A pause.

"Where are you?" Liuxian said again. "Which store."

Guiying looked at the storefront behind him.

The signage above the door was in English, clean serif lettering, and he looked at it for a long moment and shook his head.

He couldn’t make out the words.

"I can’t.." He looked at the sign again. "I can’t read it properly. Hold on."

He took a picture of the storefront of the sign, the window display, enough of the surrounding context to be locatable and sent it across. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

"Got it.." Liuxian said, after a moment. "Don’t move. Stay exactly where you are."

"I’ll find a bench.."

"Stay where you are.." Liuxian said, and the evenness in his voice had shifted into something that left very little room for negotiation.

"Okay.." Guiying said. "I’m staying.

Geezz

He lowered his phone and stood in front of the shop with the matte black bag in his hand and thought that he probably should have mentioned where he was going before he went.

He was composing the version of this conversation he intended to have with Liuxian when a voice cut across the concourse behind him—loud, sharp, carrying the particular quality of someone who was not trying to resolve a situation but to perform one.

Guiying turned.

The woman was in her late forties, heavyset, wearing the lanyard and blazer of mall management.

She was looking directly at him.

Her expression was not one Guiying needed to speak English fluently to read.

She was angry.

Specifically at him.

Specifically about the bag in his hand for some reason.

Did something fall out?

Didn’t look like it.

Guiying’s eyes moved to the bag.

Then back to her.

"Hey!" she said, her voice pitched to carry, one finger pointed directly at him.

"You! Don’t move. Don’t you dare move."