By afternoon, the assembly room had filled with residents who wanted to know whether the shipment could be used. Ning laid the manifest on the front bench. Beside it were Bai’s seal sketches, the transporters’ accounts, Qinghe’s assay, and Orra’s independent confirmation. The papers showed different parts of the same journey, but none showed who had put the additive in the suspect medicine.
Mera asked Bai to begin with the cargo. He named the grain and bandages that matched the public inventory, then the fever medicine Qinghe had tested. The suspect batch was listed separately by its missing number. Orra’s report confirmed the high concentration of a dependency-producing additive, but did not identify the person who placed it there.
A grower in the back row stood. “I don’t want the Registry to decide that taking one sack of grain means we agreed to return.”
Mera said, “The council accepts the grain because our people need it. The letter offers amnesty only to those who return. We will record those as separate decisions.”
“Can a family refuse its share?” the grower asked.
“Yes,” Ning said. “The storehouse will list what was accepted. No household has to take anything it does not want.”
