When morning light filtered through the carved lattice windows of the Pei Cloth Shop in Chang'an, the abacus beads bounced among the "Qian Trigram Dragon Scales" of the Heaven-grade Dragon-patterned Brocade to form the character "Noble." A marquis was pressing the brocade down with a Hotan jade paperweight, and the beads bounced on the paperweight to spell the character "Earth." "Does the Marquis know? These dragon scales must be soaked in moonlight for forty-nine days to reveal their divinatory sign." The marquis stroked his beard and nodded, while the beads embroidered a hidden pattern of Huwa playing with jade onto his cuff.
Before Moli's Earth-grade cloth stall, a poet stroked his beard and chanted, "I wish for the line 'Abacus beads illuminate the night white,' to match this snow-white brocade!" The beads immediately jumped onto the wolf-hair brush, changing "illuminate the night white" to "roll through the night white," and the fabric surface surprisingly displayed the charming posture of abacus beads rolling through the snow. The poet bristled with anger, but the beads bounced onto his draft of poetry to form the character "Fun," adding the line, "Smiling as abacus beads roll, there are no worldly cares in the mortal world."
Huwa squatted among the piles of Human-grade Coarse Cloth to wrap packages for farm women, and the beads bounced on the "Qianniu Protects Agriculture" label to form the character "Full." "Aunt Wang buys ten zhang of cloth and donates ten wen of c…
Chapter 217