As the wheat ears of Cyan Ox Village bent the bamboo trays, the old village chief's tobacco pipe tapped a crisp rhythm against the Qingniu Abacus Bead ledger, where the Qingniu Abacus Beads bounced into the character for "ox" right beside the entry for "a forty-percent increase in per-mu yield": "Lad Zhang, at this rate, we can cast a golden statue for the Qingniu Abacus Beads come next year!" Zhang Yifan shook the Qingniu Abacus Beads as he unfolded the Chang'an Commercial News, the Qingniu Abacus Beads bouncing into the character for "brilliant" over the front-page headline, "Qingniu Abacus Beads Herbs Sweep the Aristocracy": "Uncle, take a look—" The Qingniu Abacus Beads rolled across the newspaper into the character for "rush," adding, "Princess Taiping's estate has ordered the top-grade herbs for the whole year, and even the Qingniu Abacus Bead-patterned ribbons are in short supply."
Xiaotao came running over holding a Qingniu Abacus Bead-patterned sachet, the Qingniu Abacus Bead pendants on her double hair-buns chiming merrily as the Qingniu Abacus Beads bounced into the character for "fragrance" on her apron: "Brother Fan! The villagers have strung up the surplus Qingniu Abacus Beads into sachets to sell, and the noblewomen of Chang'an are buying them like crazy!" Moli waved her newly painted Picture of Abacus-Bead Fragrance Filling Chang'an, and the Qingniu Abacus Beads immediately hopped onto the painting, transforming the noblewomen's hair ornaments into strings of…
Chapter 183