Hey, the wooden plaques at Green Ox Valley are going through another "upgrade wave" lately! Old Qian cradled a pile of scrapped jujube-wood plaques and sighed, "Bead-Chain! The noblewomen of Chang'an are demanding 'fragrant wooden plaques.' How on earth are we supposed to do that? Stuff a sachet inside the plaque?" Bead-Chain clattered and bounced into the form of a perfumer, materializing in the cracks of the wood: "Dunce! Soak Rhodiola in red wine, then bake the plaque in the kiln—it’ll smell sweet enough to attract butterflies!" Half-doubtful, Old Qian followed the advice, but no sooner had the plaque come out of the kiln than a swarm of passing bees chased it all over the place.
"Xiaoxiu! Come deal with your beads!" the plaque-making artisan shouted while waving a smoking piece of wood, only to see Bead-Chain tossing flower petals right into the kiln. "Add some wild chrysanthemums for a fresher scent! Then scatter some osmanthus—sweet enough to choke a fly!" Xiaoxiu chuckled as she looked at the kiln full of petals. "So Bead-Chain turned the drying kiln into an aromatherapy stove?" Bead-Chain materialized a winking Huwa: "What about it? These 'Bead-Chain Fragrant Plaques' are guaranteed to be in higher demand than anything in the Chang'an rouge shops!"
While the commotion was still going on, a message suddenly came back from Pei Hongxiu's caravan: "The aristocrats want 'luminous wooden plaques'! They say they can't see the codes clearly when taking medicine in the dark …
Chapter 309