The Lacquerware Lane of Jingchu was suffused with the fragrance of raw lacquer. Just as Zhang Yifan's team of Wooden Oxen turned through the hanging-flower gate, the ink-dyed eyebrows on an ox accidentally brushed against the vermilion lacquer on the lacquer rack, startling the artisans into brandishing their brushes and shouting in dismay. Huwa was busy wrapping lacquer cord around a Wooden Ox's horns, boastfully calling it "crowning the divine ox with gold."
"You little rascal!" Zhang Yifan chased after him, brandishing an ink-dripping abacus in a huff. "Raw lacquer will change color if it gets stained with ink!" Huwa ducked behind a lacquer vat, the lacquer cord on the ox's horns still dripping with gold powder, and laughed cheerfully, "Brother Fan, look! Gold lacquer paired with a ghost face—bugs will definitely mistake it for King Zhuang of Chu's bronze ox when they see it!"
The lacquer workshop owner hurried up with a long face, holding a lacquer box riddled with wormholes. "Do you gentlemen know that Jingchu's 'lacquer-spot beetles' specifically feed on vermilion lacquer, and even the burial objects in the King of Chu's mausoleum haven't been spared?" Xiaoxiu stepped forward for a closer look, and sure enough, hiding in the cracks of the lacquer box were fingernail-sized purple bugs, drooling over the gold lacquer.
Chapter 42