Chapter 10: Behind the Dumpling Cart

"Run," said Lanzhou, and they ran.

They tore down the lane with the goldfish bag swinging, past the sugar dragon and the lamb skewers and a man with a tray of tea eggs.

Behind them the shouting began.

"It's Boat! Boat is HERE!"

"Where's the assistant?"

"Grab the assistant!"

Lanzhou swerved left into a gap between two stalls.

A dumpling cart sat there with its canvas cover pulled down for the night, and he lifted the edge and pulled Yao in after him.

The canvas fell shut.

They crouched together in the dark between a sack of flour and a steamer as big as a washtub.

It smelled of pork, ginger and warm dough.

Footsteps pounded past, and a flashlight beam swept across the canvas.

A big hand closed over Yao's mouth.

"Shh," Lanzhou breathed against his ear.

The palm was warm and smelled of plum syrup.

It covered Yao's lips completely, and it was the strangest place to be touched, and his whole body listened to it.

The beam passed, and the voices moved on.

Lanzhou did not take his hand away.

He stayed there, half-turned, one shoulder pressed to Yao's, breathing through his mask.

In the dark, his chest rose and fell against Yao's arm.

Yao could feel his heartbeat through two jackets.

It was going very fast.

"They're gone," Yao said, against the palm, so it came out as a mumble.

Lanzhou jerked the hand away.

"Sorry. Sorry. I wasn't, that was not in my..."

"It's fine."

"It's not in the script."

"Teacher Xie, you're allowed to touch a person without a script."

The word hung in the dark for a second.

Lanzhou pulled the mask under his chin.

In the stripes of yellow light that fell through the gaps in the canvas, he looked more tired and more real than Yao had ever seen him.

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