When the winter solstice sleet tapped against the window paper of the weaving workshop, Moli was staring in dismay at the newly woven Brocade of Ten Thousand Nations Paying Homage—the Chang'an city gate tower in the center of the brocade looked grand, but lacked a touch of worldly warmth. Suddenly, Huwa bounced onto the table holding a carving knife, carving a little man selling sesame flatbreads in a corner of the city wall, his abacus-bead eyes fixed on the steaming flatbread oven: "Sister Xiao! Brother Fan says that worldly warmth is hidden wherever abacus beads bounce!"
"Nonsense!" Pei Hongxiu's ivory comb tapped Huwa's bottom, her golden hairpins gleaming softly in the snowy light reflected from the brocade. "This is a state gift for the Persian delegation, and you actually carved a flatbread stall?" Zhang Yifan strolled in twirling gilded abacus beads, which bounced into the character for "fragrance" on Huwa's wooden flatbread-stall carving: "Does Boss Pei know that the Persian prince loves Chang'an sesame flatbreads? This is called 'hidden wit in a state gift,' which wins people's hearts far more than dragon patterns."
Moli's eyes lit up, and her wolf-hair brush added a dove holding an abacus bead above the flatbread stall, with a "flatbread-guarding goblin face" carved by Huwa tied to the bead string. Pei Hongxiu's ivory comb paused in mid-air, and she suddenly chuckled: "The rascal really is opening a West Market right inside the brocade—though if the Persian deleg…
Chapter 110