Qin Yan kneels on the packed-earth platform at the slave market. The broker hangs up the deed for an indentured servant who has been sold to pay off a debt, valuing it at four taels and five qian. Cao Sanniang knocks the price down to two taels and demands that the Salt Transport Office settle an account. The clerk writes that Qin Yan will be sent to a salt field as a laborer for three years to pay off the debt.
Qin Yan knows he won't survive until autumn if he goes to the salt field. His master, Wei Laozuan, died at East Lake Shoal three years ago, officially from falling into the water while drunk. Qin Yan steps forward and publicly recites three old water-level readings from the canal inspection office: on the seventh day of the third month, Chen Canal Mouth was two chi and one cun; on the second day of the fifth month, Liu Family Weir was one chi and nine cun; on the ninth day of the seventh month, the water at North Channel Head had dropped by three cun and seven fen. Wei Laozuan recorded them in the ledger. Qin Yan signed them, and the dates and seals are all there.
The gray-robed old clerk flips through the old papers and verifies the figures. The clerk revises the document to read, “Debt to be settled in silver against the land.” Cao Sanniang's smile fades for a moment, then returns. But who altered the register that labeled him “unfamiliar with canal affairs” after Wei Laozuan died?
