Chapter 10: A Producer's Smile

The waitress at the ferry-terminal café had stopped carrying trays and started carrying chairs.

A man in a charcoal coat had sat down at the window table in the late afternoon.

Within the hour, the room had rearranged itself around him.

Two girls from the next table had pushed their chairs closer without being asked.

A boy at the counter held his phone at chest height and pretended to read it.

The queue for coffee had grown to six, though only two of them were buying coffee.

She hung a RESERVED card on the table beside him, though nobody had reserved it.

The man did not seem to notice any of it.

He sat with a wrapped lamp on the seat next to him, looking at the gray water.

When the waitress came near, the air on her arm went cold.

The empty chair opposite him was cold too.

She decided not to ask why, and went to find another chair.

Ye Ming did notice.

He had noticed all of it, and found it easier to give no sign.

The television producer arrived at dusk, in a camel coat, ordering two coffees and smiling warmly.

He was thirty-five and easy to look at, with a producer's habit of watching faces.

"You're Teacher Ye," he said. "I've watched the Shao villa clip six times. Somebody filmed it from the stairs."

"That wasn't allowed," said Ye Ming.

"It was lovely," said the producer. "You never blink."

Ye Ming did not look away. "I blink."

"I've been looking for you for a month," said the producer. "I produce Hear Them Again."

"Master Lu has given me the third Saturday of November, live, ninety minutes."

"I don't do cameras," said Ye Ming.

"Everyone says that. Then the cameras do them."

The producer leaned in, and his knee touched the table leg.

"I'd make sure you had the best lighting in the province."

"I don't need lighting."

"No," said the producer, looking at his jaw. "I can see that."

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