Pei brought Yan to the yard office after Qinghe had tied the final dressing around his upper arm. The wound still throbbed beneath the bandage. His forearm slice stung when his sleeve moved, and his shoulder hurt if he lifted it. The physician’s note was folded in Pei’s hand.
Ren waited beside the door. Two workers stood near the wall, one from the drying racks and another who had arrived during the struggle. Ma sat at the table with his wrists unbound but a guard on either side.
Pei asked Ren, “What did you see?”
“Ma blocked Yan’s path. He demanded the name of the pill supplier. Yan asked to see a work order. Ma reached for his knife, then drew it.”
Ma shook his head. “Yan used a forbidden technique and grabbed me.”
“You said you were checking Zhao’s order,” Pei replied. “Where is it?”
“I had a note.”
Pei set the folded scrap on the table. Its signature line was blank. “This says you’re responsible for the crew. It does not authorize a search or a seizure.”
Ma looked at Yan. “He refuses to explain where the pills came from.”
“He told you he bought labeled rejects from Bai,” Pei said. “That is not permission to search his coat.”
The first worker confirmed she heard Ma demand a supplier’s name and call Yan a liar before the knife appeared. The second had arrived after Yan kicked the blade under the cart. Pei asked each person what they had seen and what they had only heard. He wrote the answers separately, leaving space for a signature.
The first worker gave her name and described where she had stood: close enough to hear Ma’s words, too far to see the blank order or the first movement of the knife. The second said he saw Yan holding Ma’s wrist against the rack post and the knife fall beneath the cart. Neither saw who had first reached for the weapon, so Pei did not write them as witnesses to the beginning.
“Did either of you hear Zhao give Ma an order?” Pei asked.
“No,” the first worker said. “I heard Ma say he was responsible for the crew.”
The second shook his head. “I only heard him after the fight.”
Pei wrote both answers exactly. He did not fill the missing part with a guess about the elder. Ren’s account remained the only direct description of Ma drawing the knife, and his position beside the cart matched the chalk marks from the lane.
Qinghe returned from the herb lane carrying her medical case. The shipment clerk had agreed to replace the damp bundle, and she had finished the stitches. “I want each witness to describe only what they saw, not what they assume Zhao intended.”
Ren pointed to the cart’s wheel mark and explained where it had stood. “Ma was between Yan and the open path. Yan called to me to stop the cart before the wheel reached them.”
The second worker described how Ma shoved Yan against the rack post. Her account matched Ren’s on the cart position and the order of movement. The first worker added that Ma had asked about the pills two days earlier, when she was sorting herbs by the same rack. She had not seen the knife drawn. The second worker confirmed he heard Ma call Yan a liar before the blade came out.
Pei did not combine what the witnesses saw with what they had heard. He wrote a separate line for each. “These accounts establish the sequence. They do not establish who gave Ma an order.”
Qinghe read the statement and signed the injury section as a physician. She noted that the upper-arm cut required stitches, the forearm slice was shallow, and the shoulder was bruised. The footwork had not damaged Yan’s tendons or channels. She did not say the knife was harmless.
Pei asked whether she could estimate when the wound happened. “It was still bleeding steadily when he reached the wash table,” she said. “The blood and the cut cloth are consistent with a fresh blade injury.” She did not claim to know who wielded the knife. “That is for your witness statements.”
Pei wrote her observation beneath the accounts and asked her to sign beside it. She did. Yan watched him keep the medical statement apart from the witness pages, then attach each to the same complaint packet. Ma turned toward her. “Tell them the forbidden footwork damaged his channels.”
“I can’t. My examination shows no tendon or meridian injury from the movement.” Qinghe checked the edge of the bandage. “I can also tell them the knife cut is real and needs care. Those are separate findings.”
Yan liked her directness, though the bandage itched as soon as she tied it. He kept his injured arm close and did not reach for the table.
Pei gathered the witness accounts and attached them to the yard complaint. He placed the knife in a cloth sleeve and folded the evidence flap over its handle. Yan watched him write the time on the seal. The blank work order went into the same envelope, but as a separate item.
Ma protested that he should be allowed to question workers. “I was looking into a possible theft from Zhao’s testing room.”
Pei kept his voice even. “You can ask questions after you stop carrying a knife into a conversation. You are on temporary yard duty away from Yan while Zhao reviews the incident.”
“I have a right to report a laborer.”
“You do. You do not have a right to cut one.”
Ma’s face reddened, but he did not move toward the door. Pei told him to remain in the office until the yard review concluded. One of the guards would escort him to a separate work area.
Ren offered to return to the racks. “The herb lane is blocked by the cart and the fallen bundles.”
“Move the cart after the guard records the position,” Pei said. “Keep the wet roots separate from the clean ones.”
Qinghe gave Ren the shipment note. “The damp bundle is marked for replacement. Don’t mix it into the dry stock.”
“I’ll keep it on the lower shelf until the storehouse collects it.”
Ren and the two workers left together. The lane would open before the next shift bell. Pei carried the sealed knife and statements to the office clerk. The report named what happened without claiming to know whether Zhao had ordered Ma to question Yan.
Qinghe asked Yan how the bandage felt. “Tight, but it’s holding.”
“Any numbness in the fingers?”
“No.”
“Then keep it still. I’ll check it tomorrow.”
Pei took Ma to the separate yard duty area. He told the guard to report any attempt to approach Yan before Zhao’s review. Ma argued all the way down the corridor, but Pei did not answer him.
Yan stayed with Qinghe until the yard office had copied his report. He gave the sequence of events once: Ma demanded a supplier, showed a blank order, reached for the knife, then lunged. Yan did not embellish the pain or claim to know Zhao’s intentions. He signed the account and kept a copy of the injury note.
The office released him before the next bell. The herb lane had reopened, the damp roots were separated, and Ma was assigned away from Yan. The cut still hurt beneath the stitches, but the witness statements now recorded where the cart, knife, and people had been.