After the closing rattle of Green Ox Lodge sounded, Xiaotao stood behind the counter holding the abacus beads, the Huwa wooden carving on her double buns wearing a butterfly knot, the beads hopping in her palm to form the character "steadfast"—today she had finally balanced all the accounts correctly.
"Brother Fan, look quickly!" She shook the ledger, the beads hopping in the "candied haws" and "osmanthus cake" columns to form the character "clear": "Three strings for ten cash with a buy-five-get-one-free deal, four strings of cash... I didn't calculate it wrong!" Zhang Yifan chuckled softly, an abacus bead dropping a flake of sugar frost into her hair, spelling out the character "Tao": "Xiaotao, my lady, you've truly graduated—" With the flourish of a magician, he suddenly produced a string of candied haws, the beads hopping on the bamboo skewer to form the character "heart": "This is your 'abacus graduation gift'."
Xiaotao's eyes lit up, but as she took the candied haws, she noticed small characters carved on the bamboo skewer: "Fan, Tao..." The bead immediately hopped beside "Fan", adding a stroke to become the character "love"—it turned out the protagonist had hidden a secret by the character "Fan" with a carving knife. The tips of her ears burned hot, and an abacus bead seized the opportunity to roll into her apron pocket, licking up the residual sugar frost.
Chapter 166