The classification certificate for the Longshun No. 9 expires at midnight tonight. The shipowner is blocking the dock gate and demanding a signature, while the company director pounds his chest and vouches for a third-party report that says everything passed inspection. But Shen Heng, a fifth-grade surveyor, spots that 21 of the 37 measurement points lie along the edges of overlapping plates, six are on plates newly patched last year, and not a single measurement was taken below the waterline. He goes down alone into the cargo hold, where water stands half a foot deep, and presses his palm against the hull plate, feeling his way along it inch by inch until he finds that section B-217 measures just 7.4 millimeters, far below the minimum of 11.2. The newly patched plate was simply nailed onto the old one and does nothing to reinforce it. The captain admits that the port side leaked last month. He reported it to the shipowner, but never heard back. The shipowner slaps down the dock fees and a daily delay penalty of 4,800, pressuring him to issue the certificate first. On the last line of his report, Shen Heng writes: "Recommend dry-docking for a reinspection of bulkhead No. 3." The company director turns to the last page and stares at it for a long time.
