Night inside Mok-ho prefecture archive. Ledger scrolls, salt slips, canal toll papers, and grain tallies cover the floor like a battlefield.

Wen sorts the raw materials of the index edit: market salt slips, village grain rates, and canal toll receipts.

Wen explains the logic to himself by drawing arrows on a scrap map of the canal routes.

The five cooperative villages are recorded as moving grain downriver while Won Yul and Heuk-su remain separate problems.

Outside the prefecture, Mok-ho villagers whisper as grain barges prepare for downriver departure. Inside, Wen uses the public movement as the spine of the index.

Wen deliberately makes the index formula look ordinary, uneven, and local rather than too perfect.

A Salt Bureau courier arrives in the night with a sealed notice from the capital.

The courier delivers Chief Jang Ryeok's notice that an inspector is coming to Mok-ho.

Wen realizes the capital has noticed him before the khanate audit has even begun.

Saeryeon enters the prefecture hall and identifies herself with Salt Bureau authority.

Saeryeon reveals she knows Wen's old reputation and assumes his current work is corruption.

Wen decides that hiding from a Salt Bureau inspector would be worse than showing her the whole illegal shape.

Saeryeon immediately recognizes the downriver grain movement and challenges the method.

Saeryeon finds the two missing villages and understands that the plan is incomplete.

Saeryeon begins a long silent review while Wen is forced to wait.

During the silent review, Saeryeon tests the salt-grain index line by line.

Saeryeon forces Wen to explain the consequence of the index in simple terms.

Saeryeon notices the hostage names Wen has written beside the village map.

The name Han Mujo breaks Saeryeon's composure for the first time, though she tries to hide it.

After finishing the review, Saeryeon makes an unexpected demand: she will report the fraud unless she is allowed to sign it.

Wen asks why Saeryeon wants to attach herself to an illegal mercy, and she reveals Han Mujo is her brother.

Wen and Saeryeon both fail at comfort, then retreat into practical work.

Wen and Saeryeon seal the revised index together, turning one illegal mercy into a shared risk.