When the terraced fields of Cyan Ox Village shimmered with a coat of fresh green, the old village chief squatted on a ridge, puffing on his tobacco pipe. Abacus beads hopped within the wrinkles of his brow, spelling out the character for "sorrow": "Lad Zhang, what's this 'crop rotation and fallow' nonsense you keep talking about? For generations, our ancestors have farmed every plot year-round!" Zhang Yifan shook an abacus bead and squatted down beside him. The beads bounced across the dirt, forming the character for "field": "Just like an abacus is split into upper and lower decks, our fields need a 'busy and idle deck' as well—" He used the beads to mark out three separate plots. "This plot grows Cyan Ox Seven, that one grows corn, and the third rests to recover its fertility. Next year, we rotate them."
The old village chief scratched his head: "That's even more convoluted than an abacus!" The abacus beads instantly rearranged themselves into the character for "simple," while individual beads hopped beside the three plots to spell out "medicine," "grain," and "fertilizer." Moli squatted nearby, sketching a comic. An abacus bead hopped right onto her brush tip, turning her drawing of "fallow land" into a picture of Huwa sleeping on a field ridge, which sent the mountain folk into roars of laughter.
At three o'clock in the afternoon, a villager came running in a panic: "Bad news! The leaves on the Cyan Ox Seven are curling!" Su Wanyue's disciple rushed into the fields with…
Chapter 174