On the twenty-first day, Shuo stood outside the Confectionery Shop again, staring at the "Closed" sign-the edges of the paper had curled even more, fluttering in the wind, irritating just to look at.
But he did not reach out to flatten it. He merely eyed it sideways for three seconds, clicked his tongue, then took out his key.
Tiny particles of light gathered at his fingertips, brushing the dust off the keyhole. With a gentle turn, the door creaked open. Sai followed quietly behind him as always and, without being told, picked up a rag and headed for the tables.
Going in, opening the windows, sweeping, wiping the tables and chairs-the routine was no different from the previous twenty days, tedious enough to make anyone drowsy.
Shuo swept as sluggishly as ever, dragging the broom back and forth across the floor. The light particles at his fingertips occasionally brushed through the corners, gathering the fine dust into a little pile to save him bending down to collect it. Such a pain.
Sai wiped the tables and chairs just as carefully as ever, even cleaning out the grooves in the wood grain at the corners.
But today was different. After sweeping, Shuo did not head straight for the display window as usual. Instead, he stood in the middle of the shop, tilting his head at the six plates.
Sunlight streamed through the window and fell on the orange-red candy wrappers, giving them a warm glow dazzling enough to blur his vision.
The six plates were piled high, a festive sight.
He glanced over them, and Lightspeed Thinking immediately calculated the count-twenty on each of the three plates on the left, every candy neatly stacked; the first two on the right also held twenty. Only the last was one short, leaving a