The morning mist of Mount Zhongnan drifted into the Yi School, carrying with it the sound of reading aloud. Daoist Master Yuqing stood on the podium holding the *Tao Te Ching*. The abacus bead hair accessory in her hair shimmered with delicate light in the morning sun, and the abacus bead pattern on the cuffs of her Daoist robe fluttered gently in the breeze, looking just like the stars dancing under Huwa's carving knife. Zhang Yifan leaned against the door frame, flicking an abacus bead that bounced into the character for "morning" between his fingers, coaxing the pupils into covering their mouths with their smiles.
"Today we are covering Chapter Forty-Two of the *Tao Te Ching*," Yuqing said, her horsetail whisk pointing at the bamboo slips, while an abacus bead on her hair accessory bounced into the character for "affection." "'The Dao produces one, one produces two, two produce three...'" Suddenly Huwa raised his hand, his carving knife chipping a "peach-dividing ghost face" onto his desk, the abacus bead eyes gazing at Zhang Yifan: "Brother Fan says that 'two produce three' means two people will produce three abacus beads!"
The whole room burst into laughter. Yuqing's horsetail whisk tapped lightly on Huwa's head: "Stop making a fuss!" Yet when an abacus bead rolled to her feet, she discovered the characters "Qing and Fan" carved onto its surface—the unmistakable mark of Huwa's knife work. Zhang Yifan raised an eyebrow, and an abacus bead bounced into the character for …
Chapter 138