The morning sun of Chang'an West Market had just climbed over the eaves of Huyu Workshop when Zhang Yifan's stall was already surrounded by people swinging Persian scimitars and clutching Han merchant abacuses. The improved Wooden Ox and Gliding Horse carried two baskets of Western Regions grapes, and the gears at the ox's tail creaked as they turned, making it walk even more steadily than a real ox, causing the camel caravans of the Hu merchants to glance over repeatedly.
"Take a good look, everyone!" Zhang Yifan stood on the back of the wooden ox, waving raisins he had filched from the secret room. "What's stuffed inside this wooden ox's belly isn't fodder; it's our Cyan Ox Village's 'insect-repelling sawdust'—camels sneeze when they smell it, and wooden oxen run until their legs give out!" Before he finished speaking, the wooden ox suddenly let out a strange "moo," and its tail flicked out an abacus bead coated in chili powder, startling a spectating young noble into stumbling backward, his waist pendant nearly dropping into the grape basket.
"Well, you country bumpkin!" The young noble's face turned beet red. "How dare you use sorcery to startle me!" Zhang Yifan jumped down and pulled a small bamboo tube out of the ox's mouth—it was precisely the Beast-Startling Bell that Huwa had stuffed inside, with half a cicada slough stuck inside it. "My lord, you misunderstand. This is 'biomimicry,' imitating the cry of the Old Cyan Ox." He suddenly lowered his voice. "Just smell …
Chapter 16