The threshold of the Taiji Chamber of Commerce Patent Office was polished to a shine. In the queue outside, someone carried an abacus that could turn somersaults, and someone else pushed a wooden cart loaded with talking garlic. Huwa wore a crooked top hat folded out of patent certificates and held up a garlic-shaped megaphone that sparked. "Line up! Line up! Anyone with an invention that's too ridiculous gets thrown straight to the yaks!" As soon as he finished speaking, a chorus of protests rose from the queue: "Our inventions are even more ridiculous than yaks!"
Wave One: Bizarre Inventions That Could "Eat" People
Granny Wang, the vegetable seller, dragged in a donkey wearing gold-rimmed spectacles. "Using green ox cultivation techniques and Muhammad's glass-making techniques, I've equipped this donkey with an 'intelligent accounting stomach'!" She patted the donkey's rump, and a slip of paper spat out from its donkey mouth: "Today's greens are eight cash, buy three catties get half a catty free, total price after discount..." Huwa leaned in to look: not only did the slip calculate the price, but it also drew a cartoon green ox holding an abacus.
Before Huwa could react, Old Man Zhang pushed his way in, clutching a cat wearing a suit. "My cat used Ali's Persian spice blending technique to invent the 'garlic-scented perfume abacus'!" With that, he thrust the abacus right under Huwa's nose. Sure enough, he smelled a peculiar scent mixed with saffron and garlic, and the aba…
Chapter 571