Bai carried the sealed packet to the records table with both hands. A strip of paper crossed the lid, signed over the seam. He set it down in front of the elders but did not push it toward them.
“This contains the unsigned sample request, the disposal orders, the seal comparison, and the contract refusal copy,” he said. “The items are listed on the outside. Nothing inside has been opened since it was sealed.”
The central elder asked Luo to verify the seal. Luo checked the signatures and packet number, then turned it so the other elders could inspect the strip. No one broke it.
“Where did you receive it?”
“I gathered the papers from their separate sources. The refusal copy came from Yan. The sample request is an archive copy. The disposal orders and seal comparison were in the laboratory bundle.”
“Were the pages attached to each other?”
“No. They had separate sleeves. I kept them separate.”
Bai opened his route book to the page where he had logged the packet’s custody. He read the dates and handoffs aloud. The record showed who had given him each paper and where. He had not written the documents’ contents as facts; he had written only what he had seen and when.
