A thin mist drifted over the Wei River dock at the third quarter of the Mao hour. Su Wanyue’s ebony horse whip tapped a hurried rhythm against the stone steps. The honeysuckle flowers at her temples had been replaced with fresh ones, their pale yellow petals still glistening with morning dew. She gazed at the three cargo ships moored on the river, their banners reading "Bashu Apothecary" snapping in the morning wind, when she suddenly heard the crisp, rattling sound of an abacus coming from overhead.
"Apothecary Su arrives just in time; the cargo ships have only just docked." Zhang Yifan crouched on a mooring post by the pier, holding a three-inch carving knife in his hand, busy carving a grinning ghost face onto a piece of ox bone. "I chatted with the ship master last night; half a hold on his vessel is still empty and waiting to take on Persian spices—" The carving knife scraped a crooked smile into the ox bone. "If our Notopterygium Root can share the same hold with the spices, we can squeeze the shipping fees down by another two wen."
Su Wanyue raised an eyebrow. "You actually managed to talk the master of the River Dolphin Gang into this? They’ve always looked down on medicine peddlers."
Chapter 49