Before the morning bell of Chang'an had finished ringing, the East Market suddenly erupted into a frenzy. Huwa was riding his green-ox wooden cart, trailing a giant abacus behind it, its Abacus Beads entirely covered in glowing garlic skins—this was his newly invented "pricing patrol radar," designed to rattle loudly with flashing beads whenever a price discrepancy exceeded the limit. Just as he turned a street corner, however, he spotted Uncle Zhang, the sesame biscuit vendor, running through the streets brandishing a running abacus and shouting, "Come play! Anyone who gets the price wrong gets bombarded by garlic skin cannons!"
The First Trial: The "Hide-and-Seek" Price Tag
Uncle Zhang's stall was surrounded by children. With a clap of his hands, the hanging price tags suddenly fluttered into the air—it turned out that Mohammed's glass springs had been installed behind them, stamped with cute expressions of the green ox drawn by Huwa. "Catch the price tags before buying sesame biscuits!" Uncle Zhang shook his garlic skin whistle. "Catch the 'eight-wen tag' and it's eight wen; catch the 'ten-wen tag' and..." Before he could finish, a price tag suddenly smacked Huwa right on the head, bearing the inscription: "Must answer the riddle correctly to buy."
Huwa rubbed his head and took a look. The riddle read: "The tofu next door is eight wen, my sesame biscuit sells for nine and a half wen. Is the markup over twenty percent?" Just as he finished calculating that it was "over by…
Chapter 575