The back courtyard of Qingniu Medical Hall was filled with the aroma of freshly baked garlic flatbread, but it was thrown into chaos by a chorus of overlapping arguments. Huwa, wearing a "legislative councilor hat" woven from garlic braids and abacus beads, held up a smoking garlic-shaped megaphone and shouted, "Quiet down, everyone! Keep arguing and I'll carve your names onto the 'Violation Board'!"
"Pricing cannot exceed a twenty percent markup? This is cutting off people's livelihoods!" Ali, a Sogdian spice merchant, shook his gold ring. "The saffron I shipped all the way from Persia cost more than what others are selling theirs for!" Before his voice even faded, Su Wanyue adjusted her glasses made of garlic skins, pulled out an account book, and said, "Last month, the spices you sold to Old Lady Wang in the west of the city had a three-hundred-percent markup. The poor woman cried her eyes out!"
Pei Hongxiu was even more direct. She immediately unrolled a bolt of fabric embroidered with a comic strip Huwa had stayed up all night drawing titled "The Unmasking of the Unscrupulous Merchant." The protagonist, wearing a large gold ring, was using a magnifying glass to look at skyrocketing ledger books, accompanied by the caption: "Profiteering with a guilty conscience will invite a lightning strike flavored with garlic!" Ali's face turned redder than saffron. "This... this is slander!"
Chapter 553