The clerk drew the document into the lamplight. The banquet table had been cleared except for the wine and fish. Yan moved his cup aside so no drop could reach the paper.
“This is the standard disciple agreement for the experimental wing,” the clerk said. “Elder Zhao has added the support provisions.”
Yan read the first page. Formal adoption, a monthly stipend, a private room, and access to restricted manuals. The benefits were specific. He could see how much each one would change his life. The room would give Ning quiet. The stipend could pay for medicine. The manuals might answer questions no ordinary teacher would touch.
The second page gave the laboratory ownership of discoveries made from Yan’s cultivation, even if he found them outside the wing. The next clause required monthly examinations and authorized controlled bodily tests. It did not name procedures, say who chose them, or set a stopping point.
Yan read the line twice. “What does ‘controlled bodily tests’ mean?”
The clerk, Shen, placed a finger beneath the phrase. “It can include pulse measurements, channel scans, samples, and other procedures approved by the senior physician.”
“Which physician?”
“Elder Zhao’s laboratory physician.”
