Yang Ruoqian thought he had finished fighting dates.
Then an owner sent a photo.
In the bottom corner was a small line:
Taken this morning.
Yang stared at the four words.
The date had not disappeared.
It had crawled into the proof.
At nine, finance brought the same photo to the meeting.
"This reduces uncertainty."
Yang did not like how calmly she said it.
Uncertainty was one of his last loyal employees.
"Why does a photo need a date?"
The operations manager answered, "Because venue conditions change."
"Good. Let them change."
"Then old proof becomes unreliable."
"Good."
"So owners are adding freshness notes."
"Bad."
Freshness sounded harmless.
That was how vegetables entered budgets.
At nine-thirty, Yang issued the first order.
"Do not ask for dated proof."
The assistant lead nodded.
"We do not ask."
"Then why are they giving it?"
"They want to show the material is current."
"Tell them not to want."
No one wrote that down.
