As the wutong leaves of the Minister's Estate drifted onto the bluestone steps, Moli sat staring blankly at an empty inkstone. Her father had smashed her merchant ledger just yesterday, and a fragment of the "ink-guarding goblin face" carved by Huwa was still wedged in a crack of the inkstone, its abacus-bead eyes gazing at the bamboo shadows outside the window as if in silent accusation.
"Miss, the Master says if you continue to associate with merchants, your monthly allowance will be cut off," Feicui said, standing in the corridor holding an empty lacquer box. The bottom of the box still had half a leftover sesame cake—the "brain-boosting pastry" Zhang Yifan had asked Huwa to send the day before, with a smiling face formed from sesame seeds on top.
Moli's wolf-hair brush scratched crooked ink marks across the plain silk. Just as the tip was about to drop the characters for "commercial path," she heard the sound of abacus beads coming from the side gate. Zhang Yifan shook his Abacus Bead Pouch as he stepped over the low bamboo fence, the hem of his cyan robe carrying the medicinal fragrance of the West Market. "Is Miss Xiao trying to emulate Bo Yi and Shu Qi, starving while guarding Mount Shouyang?"
Chapter 90