The little girl who came out from the back room of the paper offering shop was blowing on a pinwheel when she happened to see the proprietress’s flustered expression. She froze and called out, “Mother.” The tall, lean man in the back room trimming bamboo strips with a blade also heard the scream.
In a flash, he appeared behind the little girl. His eyes swept the shop and saw no one else, leaving him wondering why his wife was so alarmed. He stepped past the little girl and hurried behind the counter, asking, “What happened?”
The proprietress couldn’t answer from sheer terror and was even trembling slightly. The tall, lean man followed his wife’s gaze down to the floor and spotted the packet of pastries. The packaging looked vaguely familiar to him too.
It had fallen and tipped over, so he couldn’t see the printed label—until he nudged it with the toe of his shoe. The characters “Ou’s Pastries” immediately met his eye. Those characters stabbed at him, making his pupils shrink sharply.
He instantly understood why the packaging seemed familiar and why his wife was so panicked. This package shouldn’t be here. His breath quickened.
He looked around wildly, never imagining that after all their precautions, they’d still been found. But his overreaction subsided fast. In a flash, he regained his composure.