On the twenty-fourth day of the Twelfth Lunar Month, a fine snow drifted over Banxian Medical Hall. Huwa was squatting before the Wall of Merit, gilding the characters of the Renxin Ledger, when his carving knife slipped against the blue brick, accidentally carving "Grand Secretary Li" as "Li the Laughing Elder." This moved the man himself to burst into hearty laughter: "Splendid! 'Laughing' is worth far more than the title of Grand Secretary." Zhang Yifan emerged from the accounting room, tapping a frost-covered abacus with abacus beads stuck with the gold powder Huwa had secretly scattered: "Little rascal! This gold powder is enough to buy three doses of anti-wind medicine. Save it to treat the children in the east of the city for their spring coughs!"
An eight-bearer warm sedan chair was parked in the front hall. Li Yuniang walked in as her Feicui abacus jingled, her skirt brushing against the newly carved "Prosperity-Welcoming Ghost-Face" doormat: "Master Zhang, is the charity ledger for the year-end banquet ready?" She suddenly pointed at the crooked name on the Wall of Merit, "My 'Yu' character has been carved into the shape of an abacus bead, making it look as though my abacus could pop out a smiling face."
"It has been ready for some time." Zhang Yifan unfurled a scroll of counting rod diagrams several feet long, with each counting rod tied to a miniature merit plaque carved by Huwa. "Grand Secretary Li's fifty taels exchanged for a hundred doses of medicine, saving…
Chapter 64