Bai laid the depot inventory, the old account copy, and Sella’s parts list across the records room table.
“The province bought these collars for the modular design,” he said. “The depot has twelve listed. We need four collars and two valve plates for the bypass.”
The station clerk wanted to call the stored parts abandoned surplus. “That is the label in the depot ledger.”
“It is not the label on the purchase record,” Bai replied. “The parts were assigned to this furnace design before they were moved.”
Han read the two pages side by side. “Use the wording in the original order. Don’t call the parts stolen. We have no proof of who moved them.”
Bai drafted a request for the collars and valve plates. He included the inventory number, purchase date, and the station’s repair need. The letter asked the province to release the equipment or explain why the order had been reclassified. The language was plain and specific.
The station clerk spread the original order and the depot copy side by side. The purchase date matched, but the reclassification note appeared only in the depot copy. A later hand had written “surplus” in the margin. The clerk wanted to use the word because it was on the current inventory list.
