Clerk Tao set the weekly ledger in front of Yan and tapped a column with his brush handle.
“Transfers, injuries, salvage. Add the totals and copy them onto the summary page.”
Yan turned the ledger toward the lamp. The transfer count said six. The infirmary slips listed four names. The burial cart had taken two bodies from the slope. The sum might be six, but the categories did not match. A person who died could be counted as a transfer, but there was no line showing where the body had gone.
“These totals don’t add,” Yan said.
“They do. The ledger uses administrative categories.”
“Then what does ‘transferred’ mean?”
“It means the person is no longer on the shift list.”
“That doesn’t say where he went.”
Tao’s brush paused above the page. “Your job is to copy the total, not explain every word in the book.”
Yan wrote the official figure in the required box. Then he made a small charcoal mark beside it in his private copy. He did not change Tao’s number. The clerk could see the mark but could not say Yan had falsified the record.
Suli came in with a note folded under her fingers. “I have the night shift’s signatures.”
Tao looked up. “What signatures?”
“Two furnace hands remember Ren’s brother on the trial shift. They signed that he was there after the transfer date.” She set the note on the desk but kept one hand on it. “I want to know if I can appeal the wage hold.”
Yan moved the ledger aside so she had room. He put the transfer slip, the wage record, and the night roster in a row. The dates diverged in three places: the transfer before the shift, the pay ending before the last work date, the roster showing Ren’s brother at Furnace Two afterward.
Tao leaned over them. “This still doesn’t prove what happened to him.”
“No,” Suli said. “It proves he worked after the date you say he left.”
“The appeal could delay all salvage payments.”
“The payments are already delayed for my family.”
Tao glanced toward the office door. “If you submit this, your name goes on the request.”
“I know.” Suli held her hand on the signed note. “I want the correction. I don’t want my name in the public ledger until you tell me what happens next.”
Yan pointed to the marked roster. “The correction can state only that these dates conflict. It doesn’t have to claim anyone changed them on purpose.”
Tao frowned but took a blank form from the drawer. “We can send a correction request to the labor steward. I’ll leave the original ledger untouched.”
Suli read the form while he wrote. The request asked for review of the wage hold and the transfer entry. The night workers’ signatures were listed as supporting testimony. She checked the wording twice before signing. Tao added the time and stamped a receipt.
“Before you put that in the folder,” she said, “I want to make sure the men understood what they signed.”
The first furnace hand had waited in the corridor. He stepped inside, wiping his palms on his work trousers. “I said I saw him at the furnace on the eighth. I didn’t see him leave.”
“That’s what the note says,” Suli replied. “It doesn’t claim more.”
The second worker stayed by the doorway. “I heard his name when the crew was called. I saw him take his tools from the rack. I didn’t work beside him.”
“That’s also written down.” Suli showed him the line. “If you want it changed, I’ll change it.”
He read it, then looked at Tao. “Will this put my name in the public count?”
“The request and witness note go to the labor steward,” Tao said. “The weekly total stays as it is until the review. Your name is attached to what you said.”
The man rubbed his thumb over the edge of the paper. “Then leave it. I saw him take his tools.”
Tao folded the note into the red folder and pressed the seal closed. Suli watched him do it. The paper had changed hands, but each person had seen what it said before it was filed.
“Keep this,” he said. “It proves the request was filed. It doesn’t promise how the steward will rule.”
Suli folded the receipt and put it in her wage pouch. “That’s more than I had this morning.”
Tao placed the form in a red folder. He did not change the ledger number. “The original stays as it is until review.”
“I understand.”
The clerk left the folder by the door. Suli turned to Yan. “Thank you for checking the dates without putting my name in your notes.”
“You were the one who asked the workers.”
“I would have kept asking even without the copy. But I didn’t want to carry a false number to their door.”
Ren waited outside the office. Suli showed him the receipt. He read the stamp and nodded. “The steward has to look now.”
“He has to review it,” Suli corrected. “He doesn’t have to agree.”
Ren handed the receipt back. “Then we wait for the review.”
He wanted to go to the office and demand his brother’s wages. Suli held his sleeve. “The request is in. If you go now, they’ll say you threatened them.”
Ren’s jaw tightened. “I’m tired of waiting.”
“So am I. We got the next step. Let it work one day.”
Yan saw the strain in Ren’s shoulders. The porter’s cart had been repaired, but the man looked as though he was still holding its weight. “I can check whether the roster was copied to the storehouse.”
“Do it,” Suli said. “Don’t ask anyone what they think happened. Just see whether the dates match.”
Yan went to the record shelf and found the furnace roster. The copy showed the same signatures and date as Suli’s note. He returned and laid it beside the red folder.
Tao came back with a cup of tea. He inspected the copy. “It matches. I’ll attach this one too.”
Suli watched him file it. “And my name?”
“On the request only. It will not be copied into the public totals.”
“Then I’m satisfied for now.”
Tao stamped a second receipt for the attached roster and returned it to her. The family had proof of what they had submitted. The question of Ren’s brother remained unanswered, but the paper could no longer disappear without leaving a trace.
Yan went back to the ledger. Tao wanted him to copy the six transfers as six. He did that. He kept his own mark beside the number, separate from the official tally. The figures might be correct in the clerk’s categories, but they did not tell him what had happened to the people beneath them.
At the end of the shift, Suli came by once more. “I’ll speak to the other families before we widen the appeal.”
“Do you want me to make more copies?” Yan asked.
“Not yet. I want them to decide what they’re ready to put their names on.”
He nodded. “I’ll keep the date where I can find it.”
She left with the stamped receipt tucked safely away. Yan closed the ledger and returned it to the shelf. A mark in the margin had not solved anything, but today it had helped someone choose the next step for herself.