At the You hour, the scent of licorice drifted through Banxian Medical Hall. Sitting on the threshold, Huwa was carving a "No-Visitors Ghost Face" onto a wooden bucket from the eatery. The blade carved crooked, smiling lines into the cypress wood, and he deliberately stuck out his tongue toward the abacus-bead-shaped eyes. "Brother Fan! Hunter Liu from the west of the city sent wild honey, enough to brew three jars of medicinal-dregs wine!"
Zhang Yifan emerged from the accounting room, clicking his abacus, the beads sticky with the honey Huwa had sneaked and smeared. "You little rascal! The wild honey is supposed to be saved for women after childbirth, and you're thinking of brewing wine with it?" Even as he scolded, he caught sight of the upper half of a wooden carving sticking out from inside Huwa's lapel—it was carved precisely in the image of Su Wanyue holding her horse whip, the hem of her skirt intertwined with abacus bead patterns.
The front hall was crowded with townspeople delivering thank-you gifts. Old Mrs. Wang was holding a freshly lined pair of shoe soles, the instep embroidered with a ghost face holding a medicine jar. "Master Su, after drinking your detox porridge, my stomach feels like there's a little immortal living inside it." Su Wanyue took the shoe soles and discovered tiny abacus bead patterns hidden among the stitches, clearly Huwa's idea.
Chapter 67