Chapter 189

As the gongs and drums of the Chang'an Liyuan thundered through the air, Moli added the final stroke with her wolf-hair brush to an abacus-bead shadow puppet. The abacus beads instantly sprang onto the puppet stick in Huwa's hand, spelling out the character "Bright." The abacus-bead shadow puppet carved by Huwa blinked its eyes, and its tail could even wag into the shape of an abacus. "Watch closely!" she commanded, waving her wolf-hair brush as the abacus beads bounded across the screen to form the character "Shadow." "This is my newly adapted shadow play, *The Tale of the Broken Lies of Beads*, and the protagonist is the Abacus-Bead Hero!" Zhang Yifan shook abacus beads as he added fluorescent powder to the shadow puppet paint. The beads bounced in the paint jar to form the character "Dazzling." "Moli's shadow play is marvelous—" Suddenly, the abacus beads sprang onto the screen, spelling out the character "True." "However, true skill still relies on the abacus beads verifying medicine on the spot." At the third quarter of the *wei* hour, the shadow play began, and the abacus beads bounced across the screen to form the character "Screen." When the performance reached the scene where the pharmacy sold adulterated medicine, the abacus beads suddenly leaped from behind the screen to the front of the stage, jumping right into the medicinal soup of the audience and spelling out the character "Turbid," prompting gasps of astonishment from the common folk: "Look! The abacus bead…