At the third quarter of the morning hour, morning mist drifted through Chang'an. Moli stared in a daze at the young scholar in cyan robes whose hair was tied up in the mirror—Huwa had used a string of abacus beads to weave a neat hair bun for her, and tucked at her waist was a newly carved Merchant Protection Token with a grotesque mask, its abacus-bead eyes "watching" the copy of the Chang'an Consumption Records she was clutching tightly. Zhang Yifan leaned against the door frame with a faint chuckle, saying, "Master Xiao's disguise is even more spirited than a Sogdian camel caravan."
"Mind your own business!" Moli flicked her sleeve and walked out, only to have Huwa shove a wooden rain gear into her hands. "Sister Xiao, take this! This is a 'Rain-Warding Mask'; the umbrella ribs are carved with abacus-bead patterns, so it's guaranteed not to leak when the heavy rain comes!" The caravan's camel bells were already ringing. On the back of the Sogdian merchant Ali's camel, the corners of the glazed glass boxes all bore the 'Treasure-Guarding Masks' carved by Huwa, their abacus-bead eyes fixed on the box clasps.
When the caravan reached the Ziwu Valley, Moli's wolf-hair brush was writing swiftly in her pocket ledger: "Sogdians transport glazed glass, wrapping it in three layers of cotton paper and binding the outside with mask-patterned red silk; Han Chinese transport medicinal herbs, packing them in bamboo baskets lined with mugwort leaves, with the basket corners inlaid with…
Chapter 81