In the backyard of Qingniu Medical Hall, colorful tents had been pitched. Huwa, wearing goggles made of pieced-together garlic skins and brandishing a brush dripping with glue, shouted at the top of his lungs: "Today we are all inventors! Whoever makes the most outrageous epidemic-prevention contraption gets rewarded with garlic cheese flatbread from Xiaotao Eatery—all you can eat!"
The moment his voice fell, the scene erupted into the chaos of a boiling pot of coptis decoction. A Tibetan apprentice from Tibet modified a yak saddle into a "mobile disinfection milk tea stall." With every step the yak took, the bronze kettle strapped to its back swayed and sprayed a disinfecting mist blended with the fragrance of Tibetan medicine, while a sign hung from the spout reading: "Epidemic prevention first, milk tea second!" An apprentice from Silla went even further, tinkering with abacus beads and bamboo tubes to create an "arithmetic epidemic-prevention music box." Flicks of the Abacus Bead could play the melody of the epidemic-prevention chants from *The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art*, though the rhythm sped up and slowed down erratically, making anyone who listened sway their head in dizziness.
Garlic steamed buns unlocked yet another new form. Huwa led the apprentices in attaching fluttering wings and tiny loudspeakers to the buns. These "buns spirits" careened wildly around the workshop, flying and shouting at the same time: "Take a bite of me, and dysentery bacteria w…
Chapter 520