After Ruan left, Tessa stayed beside the records table. The clinic room had gone quiet for a few breaths, but the unsigned copy of the notice still lay open between the ledgers.
“Can I read the note I signed?” she asked.
“Of course.” Qinghe turned the ledger around so Tessa could see the full page.
Tessa read it from top to bottom. “Here it says I prepared the study.”
Qinghe leaned in. “You’re right. That is too broad. You measured the safe mixture, not the stabilizer study.”
“I want the record to say what I did. The town clinic may see this if the guild sends its report. I don’t want it to look as if I handled a test I never joined.”
Qinghe crossed out the phrase with a single line and wrote “measured the safe mixture for ordinary care.” Tessa checked the wording and initialed the correction. The record now named her work without placing her inside someone else’s experiment.
Ning watched her finish. “Your name will appear on the ordinary-care shift only.”
