Wei Ying borrows two ladders and gets Lan Zhan to supervise while he and Wen Ning lift the banner up and attach it to the shop front, just under the name. Now it reads, "Blue's Fabrics" and underneath, "Open Now For A Limited Time".

Lan Zhan swallows heavily hoping the feeling goes away soon. To think Wei Ying went the extra mile to make this banner out of nothing, putting in time, effort and obviously a whole lot of caring, and it's doing funny things to his insides.

A small crowd has gathered, waiting to enter behind them, and Uncle Four has fastened a red ribbon across the door. Wen Ning brings a red cushion over and Wei Ying takes it from him to present it to Lan Zhan, because a gold and silver pair of scissors is resting upon it.

Lan Zhan smiles because this group of strangers have truly taken him under their wings and have come together to make a ceremony out of opening the shop. It's auspicious and he sincerely hopes his mother is watching this today, no matter where she is.

He takes the scissors and cuts the red ribbon, carefully putting the two pieces into his pocket for safe keeping. A cheer goes up from the people standing around and watching him, and then Lan Zhan unlocks the front door and they all enter.

It doesn't take long for people to select what they want and stand quietly in line, waiting for their turn.

But there's this one lady that keeps shouting out, asking the prices of everything she touches.

The first few times it happens, Lan Zhan and Wei Ying take turns to tell her the prices, but they're both busy cutting fabric and calculating how much to charge each customer, so the woman's voice begins to grate on Lan Zhan's nerves, especially because it's an unnecessary distraction, especially because she gets louder and louder.

They haven't managed to correctly price everything yet because Wei Ying had come up with a fantastic idea. They had found another online shop and conducted a price comparison between what they were going to sell and how much that online shop was already selling their similar fabric for, just to get an idea of how much they should be charging their customers. But while it was a genius idea, it took time to research, and so only one wall of shelving was correctly labelled up until today.

Lan Zhan planned on finishing it in between customers, or if they had a quiet spell. But in the meantime, they have to deal with her.

Again, the woman shouts out, "How much is this?"

Lan Zhan can see a few of the people standing in line throwing her irritated looks, but she's oblivious to them and how much of a disturbance she's creating.

"Madam, if you could please wait until one of us is free?" Lan Zhan tells her, framing it like a question so it doesn't sound rude. "We will help you as soon as we can."

She scowls at him, but waits quietly.

Lan Zhan attends to another three customers, and this time, when the woman interrupts again after running out of what little patience she already had, he's in the middle of trying to cut a piece of satin, and it's the worst possible timing. The scissors go awry, and the fabric is horribly cut at an angle.

Completely wonky.

Lan Zhan stares at it, feeling frustrated and embarrassed. Just a momentary loss of concentration, and now he's ruined someone's order.

His ears are flaming red and he can't speak. It's a horrible feeling. Even worse than that, he's mortified because he can feel the weight of at least twelve pairs of eyes watching him do that, and he can sense a storm of panic rising up his throat.

"That there is an artistic cut," Wei Ying comes to his side immediately and winks at Lan Zhan's customer. He quickly folds the material up and packs it away. "And because today is our first day, we're giving those out for free. But next time you want one of those, we're definitely charging extra!" He beams at the lady who blushes and takes the bag he's offering her with a little giggle as she leaves.

He's come over from his counter, ditching his customers to help Lan Zhan out.

Lan Zhan looks at him helplessly, momentarily paralysed by the mortification he's suddenly swamped with.

"Oh, look! We're out of sweets, why don't you do a refill, Lan Zhan? While I cut this material for this sweet granny." Wei Ying winks at him too, and it's the jump-start Lan Zhan needs.

He takes the empty bowl and goes out of the shop through the hidden door behind the sewing machine, closing it behind him.

The sudden silence is like a warm, comforting blanket, giving him a much needed respite from the clamour of outside and the busy shop. He didn't know how much he needed this, a momentary break from the noise of the shop and the constant motion of unrolling fabric, cutting it and packing it away, calculating the cost and putting the money away, rinse and repeat.

But he's left Wei Ying over there, all alone against a wave of customers, so Lan Zhan quickly upends a bag of wrapped hard candy into the bowl and goes back outside, into the fray.

However, he need not have worried; Wei Ying has charmed the ladies, starting a conversation between all of them, with others chiming in from the back.

"My first ever ragdoll was for my grand niece, and she literally loved it to bits. Now I'm making one for my own granddaughter," one lady says, sniffing out of happiness.

"Oh, I've just discovered knitting and I'm making little hats for the premature babies in hospital," another lady tells the crowd.

"I've joined a sewing group," a young man says, with an armload of fabric.

Lan Zhan swings back into motion and carries on. He finds it so much easier when the attention isn't on himself, and together with Wei Ying, they work their way through the customers.

They get a break around midday, when Uncle Four comes down from the flat and takes them out to eat.

"Put a sign on the door," he suggests, cracking a smile. "Write, 'Back in Ten minutes' and lock it."

"What if we take longer than that?" Lan Zhan asks as he writes it on a blank piece of paper.

"They don't know that, do they?" Uncle Four grabs them both under his arms as he leads them away. "The ten minutes could even be from when they get here," he guffaws.

True, Lan Zhan thinks, letting himself be led away.

**************

"Alright, explain to me what happened?" Wei Ying says when they come back after lunch. He's asking about Lan Zhan's mini breakdown.

Uncle Four has gone straight upstairs to resume working on the flat with his team, and at the moment, it's just Wei Ying and Lan Zhan in the shop.

"You know that lady, the one that kept shouting at us about the prices? She distracted me." Lan Zhan tells him. He's still embarrassed.

"Yeah, the Timewaster. She didn't even buy anything. I get the feeling we're gonna see a lot more of them," Wei Ying sympathises. "But it doesn't matter, you know. Our real customers were quite understanding about it."

"Only because you charmed them into thinking it was okay. Otherwise they might have turned on me." Lan Zhan admits wryly.

"You're making them sound like a bunch of rabid dogs!" Wei Ying shoots back with a shudder.

Lan Zhan throws him a look of agreement and Wei Ying cackles.

"Listen, Lan Zhan, no one expects you to be perfect at this. It's a temporary skill and it's not like you're going to need it long term. I made loads of mistakes too, when I got confused between yards and metres. It's fine. Don't take it too seriously, that's all." Wei Ying waves a hand dismissively, and then more customers enter, putting an end to their conversation for now.

Is it as simple as that, Lan Zhan wonders, while he continues helping more customers out. Wei Ying's policy is simple: if you make a mistake, acknowledge it and do better, but don't hold onto it.

Maybe he ought to implement that into his own philosophy, he thinks as the next wave of customers enter the shop.

****************

By the end of the day, after they lock up, Lan Zhan takes the contents of the till into the kitchen and counts it.

It's a lot of money.

Wei Ying lets out a low whistle of approval when he joins him, leaning his hip into the counter.

"I guess we did well," he says, adding, "most of them paid by card, so that's separate."

"Mn." Lan Zhan counts out part of it and hands it over to him.

Wei Ying refuses it, stepping back with a betrayed look on his face.

"Wei Ying. I am simply paying you your wages. Do you not want cash? Would you prefer I transfer it into a bank account?" That's too close to the truth and Lan Zhan hopes he says no.

"You can pay me at the end of the week," Wei Ying says with a stubborn crease between his brows.

"But it is auspicious to keep the workers happy on the first day, you know that." Lan Zhan says, pressing the wad into his palms.

"Fine, but then I'm taking you out for dinner," Wei Ying fires back.

"Mn." That is more than alright, Lan Zhan thinks. "But where do I keep all this?" He gestures at the pile of money on the counter.

"Oh my God?!!" Wei Ying slaps his forehead. "I can't believe I forgot to tell you. Come with me," and in his excitement, he grabs Lan Zhan's hand and drags him into the shop again, where the sewing machine is. "Your Mama was a clever lady," he murmurs. "Look what I found."

Lan Zhan can barely listen to him. Wei Ying is holding his hand and acting as if that's normal, but it's making Lan Zhan's breath come faster, not to mention whatever acrobatics his heart is doing.

Wei Ying opens the cover of the Singer machine and lovingly strokes its back before twisting one of the metal thread holders for the spools of threads. There's a click and then a catch opens on the floor. Wei Ying swings the machine to one side and pulls on the catch to release a hidden door.

"Um, that's as far as I got because people kept interrupting me, and I figured, if it was kept that secret, then your Mama probably didn't want everyone to know about it. But I wanted to show you before and then I forgot." Wei Ying blushes, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Wei Ying, you are the cleverest person I know," Lan Zhan tells him honestly, ignoring his whines of protest. But it takes more than a little willpower to stop himself from showing Wei Ying exactly how grateful he is.

The hidden door in the ground is a puzzle indeed, and Lan Zhan opens it to reveal a numerical keypad.

"That looks like a safe," Wei Ying murmurs.

Lan Zhan agrees.

"I do not know the combination to open it."

"This might sound corny, but would she have used her birthday as the passkey?" Wei Ying offers uncertainly.

Lan Zhan types it in because it's worth a try. It beeps with a red light.

"Alright, what about your brother's birth date?"

Lan Zhan knows it's incorrect but he types it anyway. As predicted, there's another beep and the red light of failure.

"These things normally lock you out after three attempts," Wei Ying warns him, as Lan Zhan types in his own birthday numbers.

But why wouldn't these work when his mother has left this shop to him?

This time, they get the gratifying sound of a chime instead of a beep, and the green light of success. There's a whirring noise and then they have to move back quickly because the whole safe rises up from the floor until it locks in place, and then the door swings open.

Wei Ying gives another low whistle. "That's...uh, a lot of cash."

He's not wrong. Lan Zhan doesn't think he's seen that much paper money in his life. There are three separate shelves with neat piles of purple twenties, red fifties, and brown tenners, all the old style paper money instead of the crisp plastic mixed notes now in circulation.

"You know, you're probably going to have to have to change the old notes."

"Mn." But Lan Zhan isn't really listening because he sees something else under the wads of notes, and it looks like a computer. A laptop. His long fingers pull it out and he lifts the lid - the battery has probably died after all this time.

"Lan Zhan, you can try charging it up and see if that works," Wei Ying says gently, "but the chances are, it might be beyond saving."

"We can try," Lan Zhan replies.

He stands up and goes to retrieve the cash that remains from the day's takings and puts it inside. There will be another chance to see what else might be in the safe later, when he's alone. It's not that he wants to hide his exploration from Wei Ying, but more that his sixth sense for locating rare and unusual antiques has been triggered, and he wants to see what else there might be inside.

Having Wei Ying stand so close to him is its own distraction; Lan Zhan is far too aware of his body heat and that faint, clean floral scent that he's discovered belongs only to this person. It is more than a little addictive.

Lan Zhan has discovered that he looks forward to seeing Wei Ying every day now. There's a quiet joy that lights up in his chest like a spark to tinder, and it burns brightly, constantly from nine o'clock in the morning until eight o'clock at night.

It is happiness, he discovers with surprise.

How strange it feels to recognise something he was so well acquainted with as a child, but somehow through the years in between, it became a stranger to him. It's not a romantic kind of happiness, or perhaps it could be if he let it, but there's a deep foundation of contentment here, as if something has finally settled into place within him. The sensation is very much like the feeling of putting the last jigsaw puzzle piece into its place, the satisfaction of seeing the final picture come to life and also appreciating the certainty that it could not be possible without that last piece. The fact that it slips into its place so firmly, and the knowledge that this shape was waiting to be filled by this piece alone makes it even more special.

The completion of the picture is its own separate joy, but it's a byproduct of the greater delight of putting together the puzzle itself.

So whether or not he does anything about the attraction he feels towards Wei Ying, it feels like it's a byproduct of the rightness he is experiencing just now, as if he has finally found a place that fits around him, in fact, it fits so well that Lan Zhan wonders if this place has been waiting for him to arrive for all this time.

A Lan Zhan shaped space waiting for him to slip into it.

"Lan Zhan...are you alright?" Wei Ying smiles at him cautiously, shaking his shoulder gently. Perhaps he might have been calling him more than a few times.

"Wei Ying, may I hug you?" he asks, surprising himself.

"Um, sure." Wei Ying does one better and throws his arms around Lan Zhan, squeezing him tight. "You know, you don't have to ask. I'm a tactile person, and er, I was kind of holding back because I didn't know how you felt about it."

Lan Zhan commits this feeling to memory and smiles back, just a twitch of his lips. "Only okay for Wei Ying," he clarifies, before letting him go.

It's nice to see Wei Ying blush so sweetly.

And then both of their stomachs rumble in unison, making Wei Ying laugh.

"Let's grab something to eat. My treat."

Lan Zhan nods, but he knows he can be fast if he wants to be, and when it matters. Let's see if Wei Ying can keep up, he thinks, smiling even more on the inside.

*******************