As the fragrance of winter wintersweet in Pingkang Ward blended with the steam from the cooking stoves, Xiaotao laid out her final dish in the Apricot Blossom Tower's back kitchen. The flour-sculpted Huwa atop her double buns wore a top scholar's cap, and the abacus beads in her apron pocket bounced together to form the character for "Graduation"—today was her "Abacus Character Graduation Ceremony," and she needed to prove what she had learned with a brand-new dish.
"Brother Fan, watch closely!" She lifted the steamer lid to reveal a dozen abacus-shaped steamed dumplings. On the dumpling wrappers, edible pigments traced out the numbers one through ten in abacus bead patterns, while the physical beads beside them hopped into the four characters for "Perfection in Every Way." Zhang Yifan raised an eyebrow as the beads bounced onto the dumplings to spell out "Tested": "This 'Arithmetic Steamed Dumpling' must be paired with 'The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art' soup—does Xiaotao know the character for 'Art'?"
Using her brush, Xiaotao dipped into sauce and wrote the character on the steamer lid. The beads rolled across her strokes, actually conjuring a three-dimensional abacus array amidst the rising steam. Just as she was feeling pleased, Boss Liu's plump face poked through the window: "Xiaotao! The Grand Court Judge's family wants to taste 'Barbarian Cheese'!" The beads instantly spelled out "Panic," but Xiaotao pinned them down: "Wait a moment, Boss! I have the 'Cheese …
Chapter 148