In the reservoir's maintenance shed, Qu Zhiyuan was pressured to sign a statement accepting responsibility for a 3,000-yuan poverty relief fund shortfall. He insisted that he had not written the word "voluntary." Feng Sanjiang blocked the door with members of the local security team, while Cheng Mantun forced an ink pad on him and demanded his fingerprint. Qu Zhiyuan proposed having all three parties present, seeing the accounts first, and setting a three-day deadline. He forced Feng Sanjiang to put the statement away, though Feng secretly ordered, "There'll be a price whether we find something or not." Qu Zhiyuan's left leg had been broken and badly reset. He walked alone to the spillway gate, remembering what the old accountant had told him in the hospital twenty-three years later about the eleven people killed in the Qingshidu coal mine. Back in the shed, he felt a rough seam under the armpit of his shirt. He picked it open and found a hard object, soaked through with water. Who had hidden it in his clothes?
