When the sound of the looms at the Pei Silk Shop in Chang'an came to an abrupt halt, Pei Hongxiu's embroidered shoe kicked fiercely against a dye vat. Indigo dye splashed onto her pomegranate-red skirt, and the abacus beads on the golden hairpin in her hair bounced into the shape of the character for "anger": "Those Persian merchants are too deceitful! Lapis lazuli dye has soared to twenty strings of cash per catty. Do they take my silk shop for a bottomless money bag?"
Zhang Yifan rattled his abacus beads and pushed open the door of the dye workshop, the beads spelling out the character for "classic" between his sleeves: "Hongxiu, don't fret. Just look at the *Tribute of Yu*—" The abacus beads leaped into the ancient text in her hands, spelling out the characters "Yaokun": "Yangzhou pays tribute of 'Yaokun,' annotated as lapis lazuli. Why should we bow to the whims of Persian merchants?"
Xiao Moli chuckled as she twirled her wolf-hair brush, and the abacus beads instantly hopped to the tip of her brush, forming the character for "map": "My *Yangzhou Mineral Prospecting Map* was finished long ago—" As the scroll unfurled, a small carving of Huwa was shown using abacus beads to probe mineral veins, and the beads bounced across the map in the shape of the character for "flash": "As for the location in Yushan, the abacus beads guarantee it's without error."
Chapter 194