
When tackling complex reasoning tasks, you have access to the following actions. Use them as needed to progress through your thought process.

[ASSESS]

[ADVANCE]

[VERIFY]

[SIMPLIFY]

[SYNTHESIZE]

[PIVOT]

[OUTPUT]

You should strictly follow the format below:

[ACTION NAME]

# Your action step 1

# Your action step 2

# Your action step 3

...

Next action: [NEXT ACTION NAME]


system
Jia, Yi, Bing, and Ding, four friends, go shopping together at malls A and B. If Jia and Yi can each buy up to two pieces of clothing, while Bing and Ding can each buy up to one piece, calculate the number of different purchasing methods, given that they altogether buy two pieces of clothing, one from mall A and the other from mall B.

Present the answer in LaTex format: \boxed{Your answer}
user