Chapter Three: Rules Do Not Protect the Greedy

It cannot collect wealth that does not belong to the signatory, and it cannot monopolize a victory that belongs to many.” Su Tang caught the implication. “So gifts and shared ownership change the debt.” “They can. But don't imagine the loopholes are cheap. Sham gifts, nominees, and transfers after the fact cannot fool the ledger. It recognizes whoever truly enjoyed the benefit.” Lu Chen described the midnight change that had reduced nineteen years to eleven months. For the first time, Chen looked surprised. He took a stopped pocket watch from the wall. “The Society consolidates its ledgers every October seventeenth. Sign before midnight and you enter the old ledger, whose exemptions the powerful have exhausted. After midnight begins the new one.