The morning mist had not yet lifted from the tea country of Muzhou, and the sound of bamboo baskets colliding already echoed along the bluestone path. Xiao Moli's green robe cuffs were stained with freshly gathered tea dew, and tucked at his waist was the "bud-protecting ghost face" newly carved by Huwa—a smiling face holding a tea needle, its abacus-bead eyes fixed on the pre-Qingming tea in the bamboo sieve, the pattern of the abacus beads complementing the veins of the tea leaves. Zhang Yifan leaned against an old tea tree and chuckled softly, "Master Xiao's outfit is more eye-catching than a tea merchant's bamboo hat."
"Mind your own business!" Xiao Moli flicked his sleeve and walked gleefully toward the tea market, slamming his sheepskin ledger down beside his leg, startling a few camellia petals resting on the "seedling-protecting wooden token" so that they fluttered up like butterflies. That was a smiling face carved out of tea twigs by Huwa, its abacus-bead eyes staring straight at the bamboo baskets carried by the tea farmers. The camel bells of the Hu merchants jingled crisply as the farmers traded new tea for Persian colored glass; the iridescent glow of the glass bottles and the emerald green of the tea leaves intertwined in the morning mist, creating a breathtaking sight.
"Watch closely now," Zhang Yifan's abacus beads bounced merrily on the tea stall, the dew making them gleam like strings of Feicui. "Hu merchants judge tea by whether the leaf tips are uniform…
Chapter 87