104: Chapter 104 No Inspection Required, Old Case Deepens

Early the next morning. Blue Moon Island, Inner Harbor.

Lu Hu went to check on Zhou Laogen's makeshift shed before dawn. The shed was at the end of a row of old cargo sheds on the far east side of the Inner Harbor. Both the front and back sheds were empty; this was the only one occupied. Two old Dao soldiers were taking turns guarding the entrance—one was squatting on a wooden crate to the left of the shed, gnawing on dry rations, while the other was dozing off against a pillar to the right. Lu Hu patted the dozing one awake, gave a few low-voiced instructions, and then returned to the Lords Mansion.

"Old Zhou didn't sleep all night," Lu Hu said, hanging his riding crop by the door. "I asked the one on night watch—he said the old man sat on the edge of the bed with his eyes open until dawn. He didn't eat anything, nor did he speak. He only got up once in the middle of the night to drink some water."

"Scared?"

"Doesn't seem like fear," Lu Hu mused. "It seems more like he's waiting. Waiting to see if anyone will come to continue the questioning today."

Lu Changyuan took the interrogation notes he had taken yesterday from his pocket. It was a folded piece of paper with a few lines written in charcoal: twelve batches, the fifth of every month, Warehouse Chief Cui, private ledger, the wall base of the Seventh Warehouse. He stared at these lines for a good while, then refolded the paper.

"I'm going to ask him a second time. There are some things I didn't get to yesterday."

The side hall. Just like yesterday, only one lamp was left burning.

Zhou Laogen sat on the same old wooden chair. He had changed his clothes—Lu Hu had brought him a clean grey cloth shirt last night. The old man's eyes were a bit red, but his demeanor was steadier than yesterday. Seeing Lu Changyuan enter, he subconsciously stood up again, but this time his movements were half a beat slower—he hadn't slept all night, and his body couldn't quite hold up.

"Sit," Lu Changyuan said, placing a bowl of hot porridge in front of him. "Eat something first."

Zhou Laogen looked down at the bowl of porridge. He picked up the spoon, his hand still trembling, but slowly finished the whole bowl. When he put the spoon down, he pushed the bowl to the center of the table and clasped his hands together on the tabletop.

"Lord Lu. Regarding what I said yesterday—I thought about it all night after I went back. There are a few more things I didn't cover yesterday."

Lu Changyuan placed his hands on the table and remained silent.

"The twelve batches of goods didn't all go through the same channel," Zhou Laogen said. His voice was steadier than yesterday, as if he were less afraid now that he had opened up. "The first five batches—from the first lunar month to the fifth—went through normal sign-off procedures. The shipping manifests listed them as 'scrap material,' but the warehouse registration process was still followed: counted box by box, signed item by item. Warehouse Chief Cui was personally there to watch, but the procedures themselves didn't bypass the warehouse."

"It changed later?"

"It started changing in the sixth month. On the evening of the fourth day of the sixth month, Warehouse Chief Cui came to my duty shed—just like the previous months, he gave a verbal notice: 'Tomorrow is the fifth, scrap material shipment, same old rules.' But when the goods left the warehouse the next day, I brought the verification book over for him to sign—he didn't sign it. He showed me a transfer order instead."

Zhou Laogen looked up. His memory was much better than expected.

"The transfer order read: 'Effective immediately, the disposal of Sealed Fleet array materials from the Outer Ring Seventh Warehouse is exempted from inspection and released.' The signature wasn't Warehouse Chief Cui's—it was his superior's. The paper was the grey-blue official document paper used internally by the military warehouse, and there were two Seals in the top right corner—one was the warehouse Seal of the Outer Ring Seventh Warehouse, and the other was the material dispatch Seal of the East Sea Governors Office."

Lu Changyuan opened Xu Sanlan's testimony. Xu Sanlan had said that eight boxes were missing during the final verification of the Sealed Fleet—this was before they set sail. Zhou Laogen was talking about the warehouse shipments before and after the Sealed Fleet set sail—this was at the rear.

The two testimonies were separated by seventeen years, yet they described two consecutive links in the same chain: warehouse shipment (handled by Zhou Laogen) → loading onto ships (handled by Xu Sanlan) → being sealed at sea → the fleet's destruction.

"How long did the exemption from inspection last, starting from the sixth month?"

"Until the first month of the following year. Seven batches in total—from the sixth month to the twelfth month, seven months. The quantity of each batch was even greater than the first five—eighteen boxes at the least, twenty-two at the most." Zhou Laogen paused. "Three days after the seventh batch—the one in the first month—was released, news came back that the Sealed Fleet had met with an accident."

"What happened after the accident?"

"The exemption order was stopped immediately. The warehouse resumed normal verification. But the warehouse entry records for the previous seven batches of exempted goods—they were all removed. I went to check once, and the pages for the 'scrap material' entries for those seven months in the warehouse archive books had been neatly torn out. The tear was very smooth—it had been cut with a knife. The person who did it was used to clerical work; their hand was very steady."

Lu Changyuan recalled the shipping manifests Su Qingli had found in the old archives of the Yongtai Firm, where the consignee information had been cut off—the cut was neat, done with a knife. The method was identical. The warehouse entry records were cut; the Yongtai Firm's shipping manifests were cut. Was it the same person, or the same type of person taught by the same set of rules—that was not yet known. But these two cuts, separated by seventeen years, were made at the entrance and exit of the same case.

"What happened to Warehouse Chief Cui later?"

"For the first month after the fleet's accident, he still came to the warehouse as usual. Counting goods, patrolling, signing orders—it looked like nothing was wrong. He started coming less in the second month. In the third month—the transfer order arrived, and he was gone." Zhou Laogen drew a line on the table with his finger. "The transfer order came very quickly. It was sent directly from the East Sea Governors Office to the Seventh Warehouse—'Transfer Warehouse Chief Cui, the sign-off lead of the Outer Ring Seventh Warehouse, to the Liyuan Ferry military warehouse.' They didn't even give a handover period—he packed his things and left the day the order arrived."

Liyuan Ferry. Lu Changyuan memorized this place name. Liyuan Ferry was a small military ferry at the southernmost tip of the East Sea Governors Office's jurisdiction—in Governor Xue Zhen's territory.

"After he went to Liyuan Ferry, did you have any contact?"

"No. Before he left, he came to the duty shed once—not to hand over work, but to take his personal belongings from the warehouse storage locker. Before leaving, he said one thing to me: 'Old Zhou, if anyone asks in the future, you know nothing.'" Zhou Laogen's voice was very low. "That was the last thing he said to me. It's been seventeen years—you are the first person to come and ask."

Lu Changyuan turned to a new page in his interrogation notes. Exemption from inspection—seven batches. Source of transfer order—higher than Warehouse Chief Cui, stamped with the East Sea Governors Office Seal. Warehouse entry records cut. Warehouse Chief Cui transferred to Liyuan Ferry. Warning to Zhou Laogen to keep quiet before leaving.

Every link was like a fingerprint pressed onto it. Layer upon layer, pressed for seventeen years.

"That private ledger of yours—did it only record the dates and quantities of the twelve batches of goods?"

"Not just that." Zhou Laogen lifted his hands from the table. "I kept a copy of the exemption order. At the time, Warehouse Chief Cui only showed it to me and then took it back—but I've worked in the warehouse my whole life, and I know it's never wrong to keep an extra record. While he wasn't looking, I used blank warehouse registration paper to copy the contents of those seven exemption orders—the date, the order number, the scope of exemption, and the signatory."

"Who was the signatory on the transfer order?"

"The signature on the order was Warehouse Chief Cui's superior—the Warehouse Supervisor of the Outer Ring Seventh Warehouse. But below the supervisor's signature was a line of small text: 'This order is processed in accordance with East Sea Governors Office Material Dispatch Circular No. XX.' " Zhou Laogen said, enunciating each word. "I copied the number of that circular into the private ledger."

Lu Changyuan put down the charcoal. He didn't need to ask anymore—the importance of the private ledger had exceeded what Zhou Laogen thought was just "monthly salary reconciliation." That private ledger didn't just record the number of shipping boxes and Warehouse Chief Cui's verbal instructions; it also contained the contents of the exemption orders and a number that might point to an internal material dispatch circular from the East Sea Governors Office. A private ledger left behind by a warehouse verifier to calculate his monthly salary had, after seventeen years, become the only surviving, uncut record in the middle of a case whose entrance and exit had been torn away.

"Old Zhou. That private ledger—after you buried it, did you tell anyone?"

"No. I didn't even tell my wife."

"Why are you willing to talk now?"

Zhou Laogen was silent for a long while. He looked down at his hands, which had done decades of heavy lifting—the knuckles were thick, and the veins on the back of his hands bulged like twisted tree roots.

"Seventeen years. I've had nightmares for seventeen years. Dreaming of that Sealed Fleet ship at sea—the goods I personally released were on it, and I had verified that the Seals on those array materials were intact, yet the ship still sank." He turned his hands over, palms up on the table. "I don't know where the Sealed array materials in those boxes were actually used. I was just the one who signed—but I did sign."

The side hall was quiet for a long while. The lamp wick burned to the end, and the flame flickered.

"Lord Lu. I am old, and I can no longer afford to be afraid."

Lu Changyuan stood up. He took away the empty porridge bowl and replaced it with a cup of hot water in front of Zhou Laogen.

"You stay here for now. Someone will bring you food and clothing. If you need anything from the two soldiers outside—tell them. It won't be for long."

Zhou Laogen nodded.

Lu Changyuan walked out of the side hall. Lu Hu was not there—he had gone to the Outer Port Pier to meet someone. Commander Tie Zhan's reply had arrived.

Lords Mansion accounting room.

Su Qingli sat at the desk, with a newly translated message spread out in front of her. Commander Tie Zhan's reply was very short, totaling three lines.

"I have sent people to search for the private ledger at the original site of the Seventh Warehouse. The Seventh Warehouse was demolished and rebuilt ten years ago, and the position of the wall base has changed significantly; it will take time to find it. Records of Warehouse Chief Cui's transfer order are kept in the old archives—but the authority to search the old archives is not in my hands; I need to go through the coordination and approval procedures from the Command Headquarters. Wait, it may not be fast."

The third line had only one sentence, but before Su Qingli finished reading it, Lu Changyuan had already seen it.

"Additionally: Liyuan Ferry is in Governor Xue Zhen's jurisdiction—before finding the whereabouts of Warehouse Chief Cui's transfer order, do not alert Governor Xue Zhen."

Lu Changyuan placed the message on the table. Do not alert Governor Xue Zhen—this judgment differed from Commander Tie Zhan's previous attitude, which was "If this person is in Governor Xue Zhen's jurisdiction, your Governor Xue should be able to find him." Commander Tie Zhan must have discovered something while searching the old archives that made him feel that this matter should not be made known to Governor Xue Zhen before it was cleared up.

He picked up a pen and wrote two lines on the paper.

First line: Zhou Laogen confirmed—seven batches exempted from inspection, transfer order stamped with the East Sea Governors Office Seal, Warehouse Chief Cui transferred to Liyuan Ferry.

Second line: Commander Tie Zhan's reminder—do not alert Governor Xue Zhen while searching old case files.

He pushed the two lines of text to Su Qingli.

Su Qingli looked down for a long time. "The East Sea Governors Office Seal. Warehouse Chief Cui's transfer order was stamped with the East Sea Governors Office Seal, and the circular on the exemption order was also issued from the East Sea Governors Office. Now Commander Tie Zhan says—do not let Governor Xue Zhen know before it is cleared up." She put the paper down. "This case involves the Governors Office at the top."

"Not Governor Xue Zhen himself," Lu Changyuan said. "Seventeen years ago, Governor Xue Zhen was still working at the bottom of the Governors Office—he told me himself that when he took office, he personally approved the dispatch procedures for the Sealed Fleet. But the person who approves the procedures and the person who sets the rules are not the same. The exemption order was issued from the Governors Office—who issued it, and whether Governor Xue Zhen knew about it—these all need to be investigated."

"How to investigate?"

"Wait for Commander Tie Zhan. He has the transfer order number and the circular number; there should be corresponding signatory records in the old archives." Lu Changyuan stood up. "Also—tomorrow, Manager Wei is coming to pick up the second batch of purification liquid. One hundred and twenty bottles. Have Chen Mo count them in advance."

"Already counted." Su Qingli opened the inspection sheet Chen Mo had submitted in the morning. "One hundred and twenty bottles, all sealed, and the quality rating is even more stable than the first batch. Chen Mo added a line at the bottom of the inspection sheet—'After the slight adjustment to the formula, the quality remains consistently stable; it is recommended to fix this ratio for the following months.'"

"Good. When Manager Wei arrives tomorrow, give him the raw material traceability records and ratio records for these two months—he specifically requested this last time."

Su Qingli nodded. She clipped Chen Mo's inspection sheet into the ledger and wrote a small line on the title page of the ledger—"Second batch of one hundred and twenty bottles of purification liquid is ready, pending delivery and inspection tomorrow morning."

Lu Changyuan walked to the window. Outside the harbor, the cold light of the Starlight Coral mother branch was fading in the morning light. The distance that the cold blue light spread was a section wider than yesterday—the seawater within five zhang of the mother branch was already clear enough to see the texture of the reefs at the bottom.

The bottom creature was growing. The old case was being pursued. Goods were being delivered. A giant beast was sleeping.

He stood for a while, then turned to look at the last sentence of Commander Tie Zhan's message on the table—"Wait, it may not be fast."

But he wasn't empty-handed. Zhou Laogen was still alive. The private ledger had a clear burial location. The transfer order number and circular number were all in the private ledger—as long as the private ledger could be found, the clues for the next step of the investigation would be connected one by one.

When the day came that the private ledger was found, the entrance to this case would no longer be a pile of incomplete shipping manifests with the consignees cut off—it would be an original record written by hand seventeen years ago.