Attendant Mo stopped Yan at the reading room door just before the night watch changed.
“Stay where I can see you.”
Yan glanced at the stack of public primers. “What happened?”
“A book is missing from the restricted shelf. The watch is searching every room.” Mo took the circulation diagram from him and checked the fold. “You used this one?”
“Only this one.”
“Did you return it to the public table?”
“Yes.”
Mo looked toward the back wall, where two guards were checking the shelves. Their lanterns cast long bars of light across the floor. One guard had already opened the storage cabinet. The other was asking an apprentice which books he had touched.
“Wait here,” Mo said.
Yan stayed beside the entrance. He had nothing from the restricted shelf, but the missing book could still make every worker in the room look suspicious. The guards checked the public tables first. One opened Yan’s work bag and found only a pair of gloves, his tally notebook, and a stale bun.
“What were you reading?” the guard asked.
“A beginner circulation chart.”
“Who gave it to you?”
“Mo checked the catalog. It was misfiled on the public table.”
The guard looked toward Mo. “Is that true?”
Mo came over with the catalog slip. “It is. The book belongs in the beginner section. I allowed him to copy it during posted hours.”
The guard studied Yan’s hands. “Have you been near the restricted shelf?”
“No.”
“Can anyone confirm?”
“I left before the watch changed. My shift list has the time.”
Yan showed the notes he had made at the furnace. The entries marked the lamp changes and the last cart count. The guard compared the times with the night schedule. Mo held the catalog slip beside them, and both records fit.
The second guard came from the upper walkway. “The window latch was loose. Someone could have reached the shelf from outside.”
Mo looked toward the high windows. One had a narrow gap beneath its frame. “That latch was repaired last winter.”
“Not well enough.” The guard leaned out, checked the ledge, and saw a scrape in the dust. “We should search the walkway too.”
Yan’s shoulders loosened. He had not been accused, but the search had shown how little separated the public room from the restricted shelves. Mo took the loose latch pin from the frame and examined it.
“Someone could have reached in?” Yan asked.
“Only if they knew the shelf’s position and had a long hook.”
The guard nodded. “We’ll check the walkway before we question more readers.”
The guards took Yan outside and asked him to show where he had entered. He pointed to the public door, then to the table where he had copied the diagram. The upper walkway ran along the back wall. A person at the window could reach the restricted shelves only with a hook long enough to cross the room.
“Could you reach the book?” the guard asked.
Yan measured the gap with his eyes. “Not with my arm.”
“What about the hook?”
“If it was long and the shelf was open.”
Mo came to the window with the catalog book. “The restricted case has a bar across its doors. A hook would have to lift it first.”
The guard looked at the bent latch pin. “Then it’s possible, but not simple.”
“That doesn’t make it my entry,” Yan said.
“No,” the guard replied. “Your times match.”
They checked the ledge together. The dust showed a scrape where something had rested, but no shoe prints. The guard scraped a little grit into an envelope and wrote the time on it. He asked Mo to sign the repair record after the latch was fixed. Yan watched the guard seal the grit, then return to the room to continue the search. The missing manual had not been found, but the search now had a likely route to examine.
Mo drove a spare pin through the latch. It fit tightly enough to keep the window shut. The guard asked him to record the repair in the maintenance book and sign the entry. Mo did so. The watchman signed beside him as witness.
“Can I take the diagram?” Yan asked.
“Not until we finish the search.”
“I already copied it.”
“Then you can read your copy at home. The original stays here.”
Mo checked the public catalog again and found the book’s proper number. He wrote a temporary note that it had been recovered from the public table and that Yan had copied it with permission. The missing restricted text remained unaccounted for, but Yan was not its suspect.
As the guards moved to the upper walkway, one complained that the search would cost him his meal break. The other told him to check the latch before blaming the readers. Yan heard them through the open door and put away his work notebook.
Mo returned the circulation chart to its shelf. “You should study only during posted hours until we find the missing book.”
“That’s fair.”
“You have a talent for making rules sound like bargains.”
“I have to bargain for the time.”
Mo examined him for a moment, then nodded toward the door. “Go home. Don’t stop by the restricted room.”
Yan stepped out into the upper walkway. A pair of watchmen stood by the window, checking the outer ledge. He continued down the stairs, keeping his hands visible and his pace ordinary.
Near the yard gate, two guards talked in low voices. “Elder Zhao’s testing the new draught tomorrow,” one said. “He wants laborers with clean attendance records.”
“Why laborers?”
“Cheaper than disciples, I suppose.”
Yan slowed, then kept walking. They had not seen him. He knew nothing about the draught beyond the rumor. He could not tell whether the tests were for medicine, cultivation, or a new furnace process. He wrote the words on the edge of his shift list when he reached the quarters, then looked at the infirmary hours posted by the door.
Ning would have an appointment soon. Before he agreed to any extra work, he wanted to know whether the physician’s plan could start on time.
He placed the copied circulation diagram beside her bill and tucked the shift list into his sleeve. Tomorrow he would ask the infirmary what they knew. The rumor could wait until he had a fact to put beside it.
Ning shifted on the bed as he came in. “You’re late.”
“The library had a search.”
“For you?”
“For a missing restricted book. I had a public diagram.”
“Did they believe you?”
“My shift notes matched the lamp changes. Mo checked the catalog.” Yan pulled the stool closer to the bed. “The window latch was loose. Someone may have reached through from the walkway.”
Ning rubbed her hands together, warming them over the small brazier. “Did you see anyone?”
“No. The guards found a scrape in the dust, but no prints.”
“So the book is still missing.”
“Yes.”
“And you still have your copy?”
“The diagram, yes. They kept the original.”
She looked at the medicine jar on the shelf. “Tomorrow I need to ask He about the next broth. There are two doses left.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“You were going to ask about the rumor?”
“I don’t know if it’s true. I’ll ask whether the plan can start on time before I agree to anything else.”
Ning studied him for a moment, then nodded. “That’s a question I can use.”
Yan set his shift list beside the bill. The warning about the test sat at the bottom of the page, in small writing. He would not make it larger until he knew what it meant.