Seven days before the autumn auction, the candles in the East Market weaving workshop burned through the night. Moli stared at the draft of the Autumn Mountain Painting on her desk, the tip of her wolf-hair brush trembling as she dipped it into the indigo pigment. The Sogdian merchant Ali had made a last-minute request to add a "cloud sea and sunrise" pattern, leaving only three days to modify the jacquard cards.
"Don't rush," Zhang Yifan's abacus beads clicked and danced across her wrist, an indigo cord brushing against the plain silk. "Huwa's carving knife can chisel clouds and mist onto the jacquard card, and your wolf-hair brush can let the sunrise bleed into the brocade—" He chuckled softly, his warm breath grazing the tip of her ear. "Besides, my abacus already calculated it. Three days is plenty."
Huwa squatted beside the jacquard cards, his carving knife chipping intricate patterns into the wood. "Sister Xiao, look! This is a 'cloud-guarding goblin face', and the abacus eyes are staring right at the cotton threads. I guarantee the woven clouds will be softer than—" His nose was smudged with wood shavings, making him look just like a little calico cat, which drew suppressed chuckles from the weavers.
Chapter 98