Dawn outside the Bureau of Restitution in the inner administrative ring of Tsun-Ji. Black stone, hanging writ banners, and cold mist contrast with the warm but uneasy glow of the six lanterns around Yu.

Yu crosses from the noisy city into the hushed Bureau entrance. Masked clerks act as the first procedural wall.

Inside the Bureau, clerks stamp documents in relentless rhythm under shelves of writs. Yu walks through the machinery of legal punishment.

Director Wen receives Yu in a high hearing room lined with hanging writs and red seal tablets.

Yu carefully defines his standing before Wen can categorize him as a desperate petitioner.

Yu begins with the impossible filing number on the smeared third lantern.

Yu shows that the number was not a public archive error but an internal edit.

Yu identifies the square seal associated with former Registrar Zhao Yan, making the forgery more specific without accusing Wen directly.

Director Wen tries to make Yu's suspicion sound like an improper accusation. Yu holds to offer language.

Yu names his condition: the Bureau must identify whose body the forged debt is attached to.

Wen tries to close the door by calling the question improper, but Yu has prepared a code answer.

Yu explains the power-system consequence in concrete terms so the room understands the trap: accepting blind would be invalid, and the lantern recognizes valid law.

The clerks stop stamping as the legal danger becomes undeniable. Silence spreads through the Bureau.

Director Wen pressures Yu by pointing out how easily procedure can still ruin him.

Yu forces the Bureau to either answer or be seen refusing a valid condition.

Bei Ling, officially reassigned, steps into the hearing with old evidence in hand.

Director Wen orders Bei Ling silent, but her reassignment creates a narrow procedural gap.

Bei Ling reads the old entry: Zhao Yan's edit, the third lantern, and the attachment field.

The moment before the name. Wen tries to stop Bei Ling with career-ending threat, but she continues.

Bei Ling reveals the name attached to the forged lantern.

The third lantern responds to the true attachment name by turning corpse-white.

Yu's mind flashes to Yu Meiyan at the tea shop, making the abstract attachment painfully concrete.

The reveal settles into a new immediate danger: the hungry lantern now knows where it wants to go.