Freshly bound paper lanterns fluttered in front of Qingniu Medical Hall on Vermilion Bird Street. Painted on each lantern were the ghost faces carved by Huwa—some holding medicine hoes, others clicking abacus beads, their corners stained with ink-drawn dregs like living creatures that had just hopped out of the *Essential Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Gold*. Su Wanyue’s riding crop had barely brushed against the steps when Huwa came stumbling over with a bundle of wooden signs. The golden characters reading "Cyan Ox Seven, Three Cash an Ounce" slanted so badly they looked drunk.
"Sister Su! Brother Fan asked me to carve these, but the ghost-face signs came out crooked!" Huwa held up a sign, the tip of his nose smudged with gold powder. "Look at this grinning face. I carved its eyes into abacus beads and its mouth into a carving knife!" Su Wanyue looked at the crooked grin on the sign, suddenly recalling what Zhang Yifan often said: "The path of commerce is like a carving knife; only crooked and warped does it carry the flavor of the mortal world." She couldn't help a soft chuckle. "It's fine. It has three parts more spirit than a proper sign."
Before opening time, the entrance of the medical hall was already surrounded by farmers carrying bamboo baskets filled with empty medicine-dreg buckets. "Master Su, save us two pounds of Cyan Ox Seven! With yesterday's medicine-dreg fertilizer, the coat on my donkey is so shiny it can reflect a person's face!" Zhang Yifan squatted on…
Chapter 53