On Suzaku Avenue in Chang'an, the deafening sound of gongs and drums suddenly shattered the peace. Wearing a theatrical costume pieced together from coptis leaves and garlic skins, Huwa came careening through on a wooden cart decorated to look like an ox. A large horn on the cart blasted a looped recording: "Emergency notice! Dysentery bacteria invasion? Watch our live epidemic prevention spectacular!"
In the blink of an eye, the roadside stalls transformed into stage props. A butcher's cutting board became the "Quarantine Point Command Center," while a vegetable vendor's baskets turned upside down served as "disinfectant water turrets." Dawa, an apprentice from Tibet, stepped into a yak plush costume, its horns hung with copper bells that scattered Tibetan medicine incense powder. Jin, an apprentice from Silla, hoisted a glowing bamboo slip of the *Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art*, running and shouting: "Calculate the epidemic's trajectory, and dysentery bacteria won't escape!" Most brilliantly of all, the staff of Xiaotao Eatery pushed a "mobile supply cart" draped in steamed garlic buns. The buns wore miniature face masks, and the cart bore the slogan: "Eat me when you're hungry, and germs will tremble!"
The impromptu street performance was a riot of laughs. Huwa grabbed a candied hawthorn vendor on the spot to play the "chief villain of dysentery." Holding up a string of candied hawthorns as a weapon, the old man bellowed at the top of his lungs: "I'm going to mak…
Chapter 532