Printer Du spread several kinds of paper across his counter. The shop smelled of ink and damp wood. Ren leaned over the sheets, turning each one until she found the rough fan mark pressed into the fibers.
“This is the watermark,” she said. “The broadside used this stock.”
Du raised both hands. “So do half the shops east of the canal. I buy from the common supplier.”
“But you remember a customer who ordered a single run,” Bai said.
“I remember the coins. They were clipped short by one copper mark.” Du pulled a narrow order slip from beneath a weight. “The name is false, but the address was written here.”
The address led to a rented room near the guild. The current tenant showed them a lease and said the room had been used as an office by a pharmaceutical lobby the previous year. He had no reason to know who rented it before him. The lease was paid by a broker’s firm.
Gu recognized the firm from the Pale River supply ledger. He did not treat that as proof. “The broker handled storage for the supplier. That connects the address to the supply network, but not to this notice.”
