Hey, Qingniu Valley just received a "help letter"! The owner of a neighboring county's herb plantation ran over with a long face: "We tried copying your 'Qingniu Standard', but our drying kiln started puffing black smoke, our ledgers look like celestial scripts, and the villagers are accusing us of selling fake medicine!" With a clatter, the Bead bounced up like a little schoolteacher and projected the character "fool" onto his forehead: "Standards aren't for blind copying! The Bead is teaching you the 'Method of Adapting to Local Conditions'—"
"Old Qian! Bring over your family's 'rustic version of the Bead-Chain' ledger!" Xiao Moli shouted, and Old Qian came carrying a ledger filled with crookedly drawn Abacus Code: "Even a dog would shake its head looking at this ledger of mine!" The Bead projected a rolling-eyes Huwa: "This is called 'staying grounded'! Look—in the 'harvester' column, you draw a flower to represent Sister Wang, and for the 'drying hour', you draw a sun nodding three times, so even an illiterate person can understand it!" The neighboring county's owner slapped his thigh: "Brilliant! Our group of herb farmers only recognizes pictures!"
Just as the commotion was settling, the neighboring county's herb plantation's drying kiln started crackling again—the temperature hadn't been controlled properly, and the herbs had been baked into black charcoal. The Bead "swooshed" right into the kiln and projected a "fire-extinguishing dance": thousands of abacus beads li…
Chapter 301