As the drums of the Chang'an prefectural yamen sounded for the third time, the heads of the apothecary guilds knelt in a row, the abacus beads bouncing across their trembling spines to spell out the character for "lies." Wang, the lead shopkeeper, held up a written grievance and shouted, "My Lord! Qingniu Medical Hall is using dark arts to delude the masses!" The abacus beads instantly leaped onto the petition, forming the character for "frame-up" and soaking the words "dark arts" into a blob of ink.
"Dark arts?" Zhang Yifan walked into the public hall, rattling his abacus as the beads jumped between his sleeves to spell "proof." "Let us see how these abacus beads dismantle a lie—" He pulled out the abacus-bead microscope carved by Huwa, and the beads formed the character for "detail" upon the lens. "Everyone, please look. The veins of the Qingniu Seven-Leaf Herb have seven ridges, while dogtail grass only has five—" The beads rolled into shopkeeper Wang's cuff, spilling out half a handful of dogtail grass. "This is the evidence of their tampering!"
The crowd broke into an uproar. A farmwoman brandishing an abacus bead shouted, "I've seen dogtail grass in shopkeeper Wang's backyard!" The beads immediately bounced onto her hair, forming the character for "stolen goods." Taking advantage of the moment, Moli flourished her writing brush, the beads dancing across her plain silk to form the character for "illustration"—the painting showed shopkeeper Wang mixing dogtail grass int…
Chapter 186