When the morning bell of Pingkang Ward struck five times, the back kitchen of Apricot Blossom Tower was already illuminated by candlelight. Xiaotao stood on tiptoe to peer into the oven. The dough figurine of Huwa atop her double buns wore a tiny longevity cap, and the Abacus Bead Pouch in her apron pocket bounded into the character for "hot": "Brother Fan! The fire in the oven looks like Lord Laozi's alchemy furnace!"
"This is called a 'walnut-shell charcoal oven,'" Zhang Yifan said, stoking the charcoal with his Abacus Bead Pouch, which bounced among the sparks to spell out "steady." "The Exploitation of the Works of Nature says the fire requires thirty percent pine twigs and seventy percent walnut shells so that the baked pastries carry a woody fragrance." Xiaotao understood only half of it, but as she filled the molds with dough, she suddenly remembered something: "The abacus bead! It should be hidden inside the pastry!"
As if it understood human speech, the abacus bead leapt right out of her pocket and bounced onto the dough to form the character for "hide." Xiaotao scrambled to catch it, but only succeeded in rolling it straight into a jar of icing, covering it in white powder from head to toe: "Brother Fan! The abacus bead has turned into a snow doll!" Zhang Yifan chuckled softly, and the abacus bead traced the character for "longevity" in the icing: "Just right. The character we are learning today is 'longevity'—the longevity of the longevity star."
Chapter 146