Today, Yangzhou Yunjin Workshop looked just like the "Huwa Telephone Exchange." At the Silk Selection Station, Master Zhang shouted at the top of his lungs, "Auntie Wang! How did the '01 Peach Pink' you dyed turn into 'pot-bottom ash'? My silk is practically piled up as high as Huwa's earwax mountain!" Over at the Dyeing Station, Auntie Wang covered her ears and stamped her foot, "Who knew Huwa would put the 'process telephone' inside a cricket jar!" Meanwhile, Huwa was hiding behind a jacquard loom, giggling and clutching a bamboo megaphone marked with the "1010" Code—he had turned the codes for the five production steps into an "animal sound cipher." A "meow" meant silk selection was complete, and a "woof" signaled the end of dyeing, which was even more spellbinding than Huwa's own rhymes.
"Moli! Quickly fetch the 'telephone counter'!" shouted the Protagonist. Moli blinked and pulled out Huwa's toy horn, saying, "Look! 'Sound for inches'! Ten 'meows' equal ten baskets of selected silk, and one 'woof' equals one basin of dyed silk!" She handed the horn to Master Zhang, who meowed into the bamboo tube ten times, causing the counter to clatter and spit out a wooden token stamped with a cat's paw. A junior apprentice marveled, "This saves so much more effort than shouting our throats hoarse!"
Amidst the chaos, a weaver started licking a megaphone as if it were a candied haw on a stick. "Lady Moli! This '10' code tube is sweeter than my malt sugar!" Moli "swoosh" yanked back t…
Chapter 377