The San Surname Debt House blocked the Seventh Stele Gallery and shook out a copy of the contract showing that Shen Yan's late father, Shen Kuo, had borrowed three hundred jin of lamp oil seventeen years ago, leaving three hundred lamp-oil tickets as collateral. With compound interest, they now demanded three hundred and eighty-seven tickets. If he couldn't pay, he would have to sign himself over to the lamp workshop and work there until he died. Shen Yan didn't run. He examined the account on the paper and spotted three discrepancies. The interest rate had been fifteen percent in the first year. In the second year, the city fell and the lamp market collapsed, so the Nine Lamp Bureau issued an order freezing compound interest for three years. The bookkeeper had copied a line wrong and added an extra eight jin and nine liang, which came to eight tickets. Shen Yan pointed it out in front of everyone. The bookkeeper flipped through the ledger, his face turning pale as he failed to find a way to dispute it. Wearing a short gray work shirt, Shen Yan gritted his teeth, tore off half a sheet of paper, wrote up a three-month promissory note, pressed his thumbprint onto it, and tossed it over. Shen Yan folded it into quarters and tucked it into his shirt. He had accepted the debt because, just before dying, his father had pressed the slip of paper covered in figures into his palm and said,
