Chapter 48: The Exchange

Magistrate Wen stood up. He did it slowly, as he did everything, with his beautiful hands resting on the lacquer desk. The crimson underlayer showed at his collar. His face had gone pale, and then composed, and now it was kind again, kinder than she had ever seen it, and Ming did not like it at all. "Very well," he said. "The Bench has seen the evidence." The hall was silent. "It seems the Recorder's father's date was altered," said Wen. "Before her appointment. By whom, the Bench will determine in due course." He inclined his head toward Zhou's table with great courtesy. "But it follows, does it not, that her strike was made against a false date. And that a debt entered for striking a false date is no debt at all." He spread his hands. "It's void. The First Chair rules it void. The debt is struck." Behind…