“One... one million Spirit Stones?!”
Inside the golden wire shopping basket, Madame Red-Silk uncovered one eye and peeked through her fingers at Abacus Su’s six-foot-long yellow paper scroll.
“How did ninety-five thousand Spirit Stones turn into one million?!” she cried out, her giant dandelion afro trembling with every word. “You people are worse than desert bandits! Even the Joyous-Gold Sect doesn’t rob people this hard!”
Abacus Su pushed his round spectacles up the bridge of his nose with one middle finger and began reading from the yellow scroll in a calm, rhythmic voice, clicking his iron abacus after every line.
“Item One: Unpaid VIP Spa balance for fifty jars of Supreme Scorpion-Collagen Mud Mask, fifty jars of Youth-Locking Jade Face Cream, twenty Cloud-Silk Push-Up Dresses, ten Glow-Pearl Lipsticks, ten cases of Rose-Honey Milk Tea, and three Ten-Foot Crystal Glass Mirrors—ninety-five thousand Spirit Stones.”
Clack-clack!
“Item Two: Previously unpaid municipal sanitation fine outside the East Barracks for spraying rotten-peach illusion gas on General Tie Zhan’s pork buns and running away from Patrol Squad Seven, plus late fees—one hundred Spirit Stones.”
Clack-clack!
