Zhou Dynasty Roof Tiles: From Purchasing Clerk to Minister of Rites

“Sister Woka, the strength test report for this batch of blue bricks is in. It’s 0.2 MPa below the level specified in the contract, but the supplier insists the ‘bumps during transport caused it.’ The project manager is pressing us for the materials. What should we do?” Over the phone, Xiao Lin, the intern, sounded close to tears. Wokasha had just filed away the last purchase contract for glazed tiles for the “Tang Dynasty-Style Architecture Restoration Project.” At the news, she pinched the bridge of her nose, her fingertips sliding over the building-material samples spread across the desk: an antiqued blue brick with pale gray ripples, a sample from the “problem batch” the supplier had just delivered.