Chang'an's plum rain season had soaked the West Market until it felt soft to the touch. The moment Zhang Yifan's team of Wooden Oxen stepped out of Qingniu Pavilion, the oxen hooves slipped with a squelch. The glazed bells Huwa had attached to the Wooden Oxen jingled wildly, startling the foreign merchants who were hiding from the rain and making them clutch their cargo while hopping mad.
"You little rascal!" Zhang Yifan chased after him, holding half a skewer of candied haws dripping with sugar water. "I told you to rub anti-slip powder on the Wooden Oxen hooves, so why on earth did you use Western Regions honey instead?" Huwa hid behind a Wooden Ox, where the honey on the ox's hooves was already drawing a line of marching ants. "Brother Fan doesn't understand! Honey attracts ants, and ants carry bugs—this is called the 'biological pest-control chain'!"
Ali the Persian merchant's camel caravan was dozing under the corridor when, with a sudden thud, one of the Wooden Oxen slipped and crashed right into his pile of spices. The Sneeze Bomb mechanism on the ox's tail was accidentally triggered, spraying chili powder mixed with the scent of cumin and making the camels snort continuously. "My cumin!" Ali wrung his hands in anguish, but Huwa's eyes lit up. "Just in time! Spicy cumin paired with a spicy Wooden Ox—the foreign merchants will definitely fight to buy them!"
Chapter 34