A light snow was drifting on the night before New Year's Eve outside Banxian Medical Hall. Huwa was squatting in front of the Renxin Ledger, carving a ghost-face onto the final page. His blade slipped on the xuan paper, turning the characters for "settled ledger" into "smiled ledger," inadvertently lending a clumsy, endearing footnote to a whole year of calculations. Su Wanyue was just raising her horsewhip to tap him on the back when she noticed Li Yuniang's sedan chair halted in the lamplight. Frost crystals glazed the ghost-face tassels on the curtains, casting a brilliant reflection on the Feicui abacus.
"Master Zhang, the year-end accounts are settled." The noblewoman stepped across the threshold in her embroidered shoes, her gaze sweeping over the strings of Ghost-face Counting Rods hanging along the corridor. "The Censorate's red pen is watching closely. If even a single coin comes up short—"
Huwa suddenly poked his head out from behind the ledger, brandishing his carving knife and half a cake. "Miss Li, look! Brother Fan carved your charitable donation into a 'Jade-Guarding Ghost-Face.' The abacus-bead eyes are fixed on the mouse hole, so not a single coin can run away!"
Chapter 65