When the fifth morning bell of the Qinzhou Post Station sounded, Xiao Moli was organizing the sheepskin ledgers, her fingertips brushing across the footnote reading "Hu merchants value flashiness, while Han people value substance." Suddenly, she saw Huwa pushing the door open, holding a newly carved Ghost-Face of Safe Return—it was a smiling face holding an abacus bead, the bead's eyes fixed on the ink stain at the edge of the ledger, and a dried piece of Qiang Village snow chrysanthemum was tangled in the bead's cord.
"Sister Xiao, look!" Huwa placed the wood carving right on the ledger, the Ghost-Face's abacus-bead tongue happening to lick the four characters "Symbiosis of Profit and Righteousness." "Brother Fan said that for the ledger of the return journey, we need the Ghost-Face to stare at the ledger, so the abacus beads won't jump into the wrong rows!" Xiao Moli was just about to scold him when she noticed a tiny pattern of the Old Cyan Ox carved on the base of the wood carving, identical down to the finest detail to the tattoo on Zhang Yifan's cuff.
As the caravan packed up, Zhang Yifan leaned against the doorframe with a slight smile, his abacus bead pouch jingling softly at his waist. "Young Master Xiao's Chronicle of Consumption is likely to end up three-tenths thicker than the Classic of Tea." He suddenly pointed at the Ghost-Face of Safe Cargo carved by Huwa for a Hu merchant's camel bell, the bead's eyes staring at the bell's tongue. "Last night, the Qiang peop…
Chapter 88