At the hour of Mao, the weaving workshop was filled with the blended fragrance of sandalwood and indigo. Moli stared at the newly woven dragon-patterned tribute satin, her wolf-hair brush hesitating at the dragon's whiskers—according to court requirements, the whiskers were supposed to be embroidered with gold thread, but she always felt something lacked vitality. Suddenly, Huwa rushed over holding a carving knife, carving a little figure holding an abacus bead onto the edge of the satin: "Sister Xiao! Brother Fan says the dragon's eyes should be carved with abacus beads!"
"Nonsense!" Pei Hongxiu's ivory comb tapped Huwa's head, though her gold hair-pins cast dragon-scale-like light and shadow on the tribute satin. "How can court tribute be child's play?" Zhang Yifan stepped forward, rattling his abacus beads so they bounced into liquid-silver shapes among the dragon's whiskers: "Does Boss Pei know that The Exploitation of the Works of Nature says 'when dragon scales reflect the sun, water is born'—" He suddenly embedded an indigo abacus bead into the dragon's eye. "Using dyed abacus beads as pupils reflects shimmering light in the sunshine."
Moli's eyes lit up. Her wolf-hair brush descended for the final stroke, and hidden within the cloud pattern beside the dragon's eye was the "tribute-protecting ghost face" carved by Huwa, its abacus-bead tongue licking the dragon pearl. Pei Hongxiu's ivory comb paused in mid-air, and then she let out a soft laugh: "You rascals really k…
Chapter 105