The flagstone pavement of the Chang'an West Market had just been dampened by the morning dew when Zhang Yifan's team of Wooden Oxen came barging into the market with a series of low moos. Bits of candied hawthorn from the oxen's mouths dropped onto the bluestone with a pattering sound—taking advantage of his inattention, Huwa had stuffed every single Wooden Ox with sweet hawthorns brought back from the Western Regions, jamming their gears until they sparked furiously.
"Little rascal!" Zhang Yifan pursued him while clicking his Abacus Bead. "If you gum up the oxen's teeth again, watch out for the Old Cyan Ox goring your backside!" Stick out his tongue, Huwa ducked behind a Wooden Ox, when suddenly, with a clatter, a string of glass bells tumbled out from the ox's belly—the very ones Xiaoxiu had sewn onto a sachet. "Brother Fan, look! The Wooden Oxen are laughing, and the bells ring clearer than the camel bells of the Hu merchants!"
Just as the plaque for the "Qingniu Pavilion" was hung up, Ali the Persian merchant rushed in carrying a glass lamp, sugar frost still clinging to his thick beard: "Young master! My young wife insists on having the Wooden Oxen wear golden bells, saying they look better than her own jewelry!" Zhang Yifan raised an eyebrow, noticing that Huwa had stuck a mischievous paper-cut face over the glass eyes of a Wooden Ox, making it look as though it were wearing a comical pair of sunglasses.
Chapter 31