◎ Safe Distance ◎

Luo Peiyin could see perfectly well that Gu Qiao was giving up her seat on purpose. Just as she was about to rise, he pressed both hands down on her shoulders and kept her in the seat. “Stay seated.”

Gu Qiao was puzzled — how had he seen through her so easily? The aisle was crowded with passengers squeezing past, pushing Luo Peiyin closer to Gu Qiao. Their legs touched briefly before the distance returned. Gu Qiao glanced down at the space around Luo Peiyin’s feet. She wanted to say there was no need to keep such a careful distance — he could take up a little more room and be more comfortable. She had trousers under her skirt, and a thick padded jacket over the skirt. Even if his trousers brushed her clothing, she wouldn’t feel a thing. But the way he would touch her clothes and then immediately spring back to a deliberate distance was doing something to her heart, sending it into a flurry. She said nothing to acknowledge the care he was taking.

Gu Qiao noticed the woman beside her kept glancing over, so she shared her orange with her and with the person across.

The woman and the man across from her were a married couple. They had come to buy leather hides, planning to make leather trousers and turn a good profit this winter. Unlike Gu Qiao, they didn’t roam with a stall — they had their own counter and workshop. Whatever style of clothing was fashionable, they bought a sample, took it apart, and made a pattern. None of it was complicated; after doing it a few times, they had it right, and then the goods went up on the counter under a label. Their customers included both locals and a good number of Eastern Europeans. The locals bought by the piece; the foreigners bought by the boxful.

The orange broke the ice, and conversation flowed naturally. The woman mentioned they had come to buy leather hides but didn’t go into specifics.

Gu Qiao could see they were being discreet and didn’t press. The couple were older than her and appeared more experienced, so Gu Qiao asked them a few questions about leather.

The middle-aged woman was happy enough to talk — general talk about leather didn’t touch on her business.

Seeing that Gu Qiao knew quite a bit about leather, the woman exclaimed, “You’re here to buy stock as well?” She looked so young, and not at all like a trader — and the cousin beside her looked even less the part. The couple had experience with clothing from constantly buying samples to copy. The middle-aged woman sized up Luo Peiyin with one look and concluded he was the type who spent generously on himself — everything he wore was expensive, including those earphones and that CD player. They did all right in business, but they would never spend that freely. She heard the girl call him Cousin, but she didn’t quite believe they were actually relatives. In their part of the country, people away from home called each other by family terms — cousin, uncle — when they had no blood relation at all.

“I’ve just come to take a look. And learn a few things.”

Just looking, on a dark, overcast day like this — she had to be buying stock. And yet the cousin didn’t look the part at all. The middle-aged woman hadn’t told Gu Qiao everything, and she knew Gu Qiao had her own reservations. Still, the young man standing with her really didn’t fit.

“Going out on your own so young — are your parents not worried?”

“I’m not that young. And I came with my cousin.”

“You two seem very close.”

Gu Qiao said nothing, just smiled.

“Your cousin dresses so fashionably — where did he get that down jacket? I want to buy one for my son.”

“I’m not too sure about that one.”

The woman and her husband exchanged a glance, then both looked at Luo Peiyin at the same time. The husband, though he was in the clothing business, dressed himself very plainly. He believed a good husband should heap nice things on his wife, not preen himself like a peacock. And yet ordinary young women couldn’t see past that. Being strangers, he could only hint at it obliquely. The woman agreed entirely.

The couple were of one mind, so naturally Gu Qiao wasn’t going to object to how they got along.

“You two really are well-matched,” Gu Qiao said, and then complimented the middle-aged woman on her beauty.

The woman modestly demurred. “We can’t compare to you young girls.”

Gu Qiao laughed. “Don’t be modest.”

The husband chimed in agreement with Gu Qiao, registering his protest as well.

With nothing to do on a long journey, given an audience, the middle-aged man began sharing his love story and tale of hard work — how difficult things had been back then, how his wife had seen something in him and chosen him, how they had built things up over time and gotten their own workshop, how they had gone from supplying other people’s counters to having their own, and how they’d helped his wife’s younger brother and sister get into business too, both with workshops of their own now.

In the course of it, Gu Qiao learned the rental rates at various department store counters and how those counters sourced their goods.

The man said with feeling, “My only thought back then was — since she’d chosen me, I had to make sure she never suffered another hard day.”

The middle-aged woman smiled. “He’s not much to look at, honestly. But back then I could see right away that he was a steady, reliable person.” She glanced over at the young man beside Gu Qiao, saw that he had his earphones in, guessed he couldn’t hear, and lowered her voice. “When it comes to men, you have to look at what’s inside. No matter how handsome a man is, you’ll be tired of looking at him after a month. I’ve seen plenty of that silver-spear-with-a-pewter-tip type — what use are they? There were handsome men chasing me back then — I didn’t give them the time of day. A man who spends all his energy on his appearance — how much heart can he have left for the home?”

Gu Qiao expressed her agreement.

Not being close enough to speak too openly, the woman said to Gu Qiao: “In this kind of weather, it’s best to go and come back the same day. Don’t linger — getting stuck outside is nothing but trouble.”

Gu Qiao nodded. Every time someone squeezed through the aisle, Luo Peiyin would step aside, and their legs would bump together. Through the padded jacket, the skirt, and the trousers, Gu Qiao felt only the slight jolt to the money in her trouser pocket, her heart giving a small leap.

Luo Peiyin suddenly placed his earphones over Gu Qiao’s ears. She hadn’t heard this music before, but somehow it suited her mood perfectly. Her ears still held the warmth of where his had been. She looked at Luo Peiyin; his eyes were turned toward the window.

When they were near the stop, Gu Qiao took off the earphones and returned them to Luo Peiyin, then said goodbye to the couple.

The couple looked the two of them over with meaningful expressions and told Gu Qiao, “In this weather, it’s best to go and come back the same day.”

The small station had a short stop, but the crowd trying to board was large. The passengers still hadn’t gotten off before those getting on were already pushing their way in. The two of them had been waiting near the doors, lined up to exit, but the crowd kept pressing them back. Gu Qiao’s heart was racing — she was afraid they’d be separated in the crush, afraid they wouldn’t make it off in time. She reached out for Luo Peiyin. “Cousin, let’s push our way out quickly.” Her hand grazed his fingers — as warm as her own.

But her hand was not taken. Luo Peiyin wrapped an arm around her shoulders and steered her through the crowd and off the train.

The moment they were off, the arm around her shoulders retreated into his own pocket. Dark clouds had gathered in the sky, as though holding in some enormous snowfall.

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