The archive survived.
Yang Ruoqian accepted that with the calm of a man accepting a falling piano.
Then he discovered the archive had a search box.
The calm disappeared.
At nine, the assistant lead demonstrated it.
She typed lobby.
Old lobby files appeared.
She typed no stage.
Old no-stage decisions appeared.
She typed seal missing.
Old seal-follow-up notes appeared.
Yang stared at the screen.
"Why does it answer?"
"Because it searches."
"Search should not be so enthusiastic."
"It is a search box."
That was the kind of circular logic efficiency loved.
At nine-thirty, he issued the rule.
"Make the search box blind."
The operations manager asked, "Blind how?"
"It should search and not find."
Finance said, "Then it is not search."
"Exactly."
"Reviewers will stop using it."
"Good."
"Owners will send old references again."
Yang looked away.
The owners had become an external search box with feelings.
At ten, he tried a softer method.
"Search only exact titles."
