The formal submission to the Ministry of Revenue took three days to prepare.
I worked on it myself. Not because Shen Bao couldn't have done it, and not because my handwriting was better than his—although it was—but because there are documents that need to carry the weight of the person who was most wronged by their absence. This was one of those documents.
I organized the Southern Province materials in chronological order, beginning with the earliest correspondence and moving forward through the estate dissolution proceedings, the contested sale, and finally the letter Liang Pou had sent to Lady Baek. I did not include that last letter in the formal submission, as I had indicated to Liang Pou; but I noted, in careful legal language, that independent correspondence from a Ministry official at the time of the sale indicated awareness of the below-market valuation. The reference was oblique enough to require inquiry if anyone wanted to pursue it, which suited my purposes precisely.
