Question about chocolates arranged in rows

[safeTrex]

You are given a box of 9 individual chocolates arranged in 3 rows of 3 chocolates each. You leave them unguarded and return to find two of them missing. You later discover that your brother has taken one and your sister the other. The number of ways the two missing chocolates could be distributed between brother and sister in the box is

My work:
Originally 9 chocolates can be arranged 3! * 3! = 36 ways
And now in 2! * 2! = 4 or 3! * 1! = 6 ways
I don't know what to do

 

[Dr.Peterson]

You are given a box of 9 individual chocolates arranged in 3 rows of 3 chocolates each. You leave them unguarded and return to find two of them missing. You later discover that your brother has taken one and your sister the other. The number of ways the two missing chocolates could be distributed between brother and sister in the box is

My work:
Originally 9 chocolates can be arranged 3! * 3! = 36 ways
And now in 2! * 2! = 4 or 3! * 1! = 6 ways
I don't know what to do

The rows and columns don't really affect the ways you can arrange them; whether in a single line or in rows, there are still 9 distinct positions. How many ways are there to arrange 9 distinct items in 9 distinct positions?

But, of course, you don't really need to think about ways to arrange all the chocolates! It's about how many ways two of them can be chosen, one for the brother and the other for the sister.

 

[pka]

You are given a box of 9 individual chocolates arranged in 3 rows of 3 chocolates each. You leave them unguarded and return to find two of them missing. You later discover that your brother has taken one and your sister the other. The number of ways the two missing chocolates could be distributed between brother and sister in the box is
My work:
Originally 9 chocolates can be arranged 3! * 3! = 36 ways
And now in 2! * 2! = 4 or 3! * 1! = 6 ways

Thank for showing your work. But I would approach it differently.
I do assume that the chocolates are all different.
There three rows of three each: \(9!=\mathcal{P}_3^9\cdot \mathcal{P}_3^6\cdot \mathcal{P}_3^3=362880 \) ways.
That is a-lot, a-lot of ways to arrange the chocolates. It seems to me that your brother had nine choices and your sister had eight.
Together that is seventy-two, in any arrangement of the nine.
It is my opinion that the author of the question either had no idea about the enormity of possibilities or did not consider what it meant.
In short: I don't know what "The number of ways the two missing chocolates could be distributed between brother and sister in the box is" means.