Timefall: A Thousand Years to Find You

The Shoot

Mei had not been exaggerating.

Two days after she sent that photo, a man named Ren showed up at the apartment door in a jacket that cost more than Chenxis monthly rent, looked Jinyan up and down like he was appraising a horse, and said, without even a greeting, Can he move? Like, actually move, not just stand there being pretty?

He can move, Chenxi said, before Jinyan could ask what pretty meant in this context and make things worse.

Good. We need him Friday. Streetwear line, outdoor shoot, nothing complicated, walk, stand, look like you dont care about the camera. Ren was already typing something into his phone, not really looking at either of them anymore. Pays decent. Hell need an ID for the paperwork, though.

Silence. The kind that stretched a beat too long.

He lost it, Chenxi said quickly. Recently. Long story.

Ren looked up, unbothered. Apparently this was a normal enough problem in his line of work that he didnt question it. Fine, well figure something out. Friday. Ten a m. Dont be late, and dont, he gestured vaguely at Jinyans whole presence, do whatever that was with the sword thing Mei mentioned. Thats not the vibe.

He left as abruptly as he had arrived.

Jinyan looked at Chenxi. I do not know what a vibe is.

Neither do half the people who use that word, Chenxi muttered, already rubbing his temples like he could feel a headache building days in advance. Okay. We have three days to teach you how to exist in front of a camera without looking like youre about to draw a weapon on it.

It was, Jinyan would later admit, a strange kind of training. Nothing like the discipline of court or the drills of the training yard, and yet Chenxi approached it with the same seriousness, standing him in front of the mirror for hours, showing him how to hold his shoulders loose instead of squared for battle, how to let his face go still and unreadable instead of watchful. Mei came by twice to help, mostly to laugh at him and occasionally to give advice that turned out, against all odds, to actually be useful.

You keep looking at the camera like it insulted your mother, she said on the second night, phone held up, snapping photo after photo while Jinyan tried and failed to look anything close to relaxed. Think about something you actually like. Anything. What did you like, back then?

Jinyan thought about it. Genuinely thought, longer than the question probably deserved.

The quiet after a long ride, he said finally. When the horses are calm and no one wants anything from you.

Mei lowered the phone, something soft crossing her face for just a second before she covered it with a grin. Okay, wow, thats unexpectedly poetic for a guy who almost stabbed my friends TV. Think about that. Right now.

He did.

The next photo, she turned the phone around to show him, and for the first time since arriving in this strange, loud century, Jinyan saw himself look like something other than a man drowning.

There he is, Mei said, satisfied, like she had solved a puzzle. Chenxi, look at this. Rens going to lose his mind.

Chenxi leaned over her shoulder to look, and went quiet for a second too long.

Yeah, he said, a little strangely, not quite meeting Jinyans eyes when Jinyan glanced over. Thats, yeah. Thats good.

Friday came faster than Jinyan expected, the way all time in this world seemed to move, fast, relentless, nothing like the long unhurried days of his old life. The shoot itself was chaos he didnt fully understand, bright lights on poles, people shouting instructions, a small crowd gathering at the edge of the street just to watch.

But when the camera came up, he thought of the quiet after a long ride. He thought, without quite meaning to, of the way Chenxi had looked at that photo like it had surprised him.

Ren stopped scrolling through the shots halfway through the shoot, his expression changed slower first, then all at once.

Who, he said, to no one in particular, did you say this guy was?

Chenxi, watching from the sidewalk with his arms crossed and a look Jinyan couldnt quite place, didnt answer right away.

My cousin, he said finally, and something in his voice made it sound, for the first time, like he almost regretted the lie.