As the golden morning sun rose over Sunrise City on the fourth day, the fresh smell of morning dew and blossoming potato flowers drifted across the green plains of Planet #65-A.
Down at the base of the 100-Mile Royal Hot-Pot Cauldron, Third Young Master Jin Wuji had just finished licking his seventh barrel of Sweet-Spring Sesame Dipping Sauce clean. After eating balanced Yang-calming hot-pot all night long, the violent red blood-veins in his golden bird-eyes had completely faded, replaced by a warm, clear amber glow. Even the feathers on his back looked twice as glossy as before.
Suddenly—
CLACK-CLACK-CLACK!
The crisp, rhythmic sound of an iron abacus echoed up the metal steps leading to the stove-ring’s service trapdoor.
Abacus Su climbed up the iron ladder holding a thick, thirty-foot-long scroll of yellow accounting paper under one arm and a red ink-brush in his other hand. Behind him stood Pei Xuan, General Tie Zhan, Old Wei, and the twelve Golden-Crow Fire Envoys wearing neat, freshly washed yellow debtor vests over their sprouting new feathers.
“Good morning, Taxpayer #65-0001!” Abacus Su pushed his brass spectacles up his nose, beaming like a cat that had just cornered a very fat mouse. “Now that you have eaten seven barrels of staff meals and your two-hundred-year migraine is cured, it is time to settle the official Municipal Court & Utility Invoice for Branch #7 of the Golden-Crow Sun Clan!”
