Wintersweet blossoms at Banxian Medical Hall were in full bloom. Huwa squatted on the threshold, carving ghost faces onto counting rods. His blade slipped against the bamboo strip, accidentally turning the "Renxin Ledger" into the "Renixiao Ledger"—though it somehow suited the medical hall's atmosphere even better. Su Wanyue was just about to tap him on the head with her riding crop when Li Yuniang's sedan chair stopped under the plum tree, the ghost-face tassels on the curtain catching on a plum branch and startling Huwa so much that his carving knife dropped into the accumulated snow with a clang.
"Master Zhang, the year-end is approaching," Li Yuniang said, crossing the threshold in her embroidered shoes while frost crystallized on her Feicui abacus. "My charity registry has been circled in red by the Censorate—" She suddenly pointed at the crooked counting rods in Huwa's hands. "They say these ghost-face counting rods don't conform to official bookkeeping regulations." Zhang Yifan smiled as he took the counting rods, the smiling faces on the bamboo strips grinning as they "gnawed" on the abacus beads. "The rules are dead, but people's hearts are alive—" He suddenly pointed toward the Wall of Merit in the veranda. "Butcher Liu's butchering knife and Granny Li's mugwort are all carved onto these counting rods, carrying a truer warmth of human life than any official ledger."
From the front hall came the sound of Imperial Physician Wang coughing. The old man was chuckling a…
Chapter 62