Chapter 68: You Really Are a Little Smarty

The three of them rushed to the village square, where quite a few people were already lined up. Meifang quickly grabbed Hualan and dragged Ge Miao to join the queue.

“Auntie, Meifang Auntie, why are you pulling me in here?”

“For the recruitment, what else? I saw your fingers are pretty nimble, maybe you’ll get picked.”

Hearing this, Ge Miao immediately puffed out his chest and grinned, “Auntie, I already got recruited just now.”

“You did? Then why didn’t we know about it?” Meifang gave him a look that said, “If you don’t explain yourself, I’m going to scratch you,” which startled Ge Miao. He hurriedly spilled everything: how Yun Qimu had picked up Shapi and rescued Lu Xiaomao, and the bit about the candy recruitment.

Meifang glared, “Well, aren’t you something! There was even candy, huh? I’m jealous. And you didn’t think to call your mom or your auntie over before? Hmph.”

Ge Miao quickly pleaded, “It was all so rushed just now, I didn’t have time! Besides, earlier they were only recruiting strong men, and now they’re looking for people with nimble hands like you. That’s why I came to tell you.”

“That’s more like it. Too bad Hawei went to the neighboring village to work with his dad, otherwise he might have gotten picked too. Didn’t you say this Village Chief Yun is even recruiting people without powers?”

Meifang’s angry face faded into a smile as she started fussing about her son. She tiptoed to look ahead, “Miao Miao, help Auntie see what’s going on up there. How are they recruiting this time?”

“Auntie, they’re doing paper-cutting up front. They’re handing out paper and scissors now. I heard they’ll pick the ten people who cut the best.”

“Paper-cutting? Your Uncle Kuke is great at that!”

Meifang beamed, bragging about her own family, “He’s the best with his hands. Miao Miao, hurry and run over to the next village and call your Uncle Kuke back. They’re recruiting nimble hands, and they didn’t say it had to be men or women. I think your Uncle Kuke is perfect. None of the girls or young wives in our village can cut paper as beautifully as he can. It’s just that he usually doesn’t have paper to work with. Otherwise, today he wouldn’t be Carpenter Kuke, he’d be Window-Flower Kuke.”

Ge Miao muttered to himself, “Can Uncle Kuke’s carpentry skills really compare to paper-cutting? That doesn’t seem related at all…”

Hualan chuckled and glanced at Ge Miao. “Go on, go call your Uncle Kuke back.”

Meifang was delighted and urged him warmly, “Go on, quick! By now your Uncle Kuke and Hawei should be on their way back from work. If you leave the village now, you might just run into them.”

“Alright, Auntie, I’m going!” Ge Miao answered smoothly. He really couldn’t say no to these two women, so he could only set off helplessly, running out of the village.

Watching his figure disappear into the distance, Meifang felt much more at ease and kept praising Miao Miao as a good kid.

This “nimble hands” recruitment had far fewer people than the earlier one. Yun Qimu got the scissors and paper ready and had Ah Hua help distribute them.

“One at a time, don’t rush, don’t rush.”

“There’s plenty of paper, but not many scissors. If you know each other, share and take turns. Just bring your finished work to the village chief in half an hour.”

Ah Hua dutifully handed out the paper while reminding everyone. Meifang pulled Hualan over and greeted her with a big smile, “Oh, isn’t this Ah Hua? I’m your Aunt Meifang! I even held you when you were little in the Poor Whale Village, remember?”

Ah Hua looked up in a daze, “Mei… Meifang Auntie?”

“That’s right! I knew you were the sharpest girl around!” Meifang beamed, then said familiarly, “Ah Hua, give your Aunt Meifang a couple extra sheets of paper. Your Uncle Kuke will be here soon for this test. He’s really skilled, even better than the girls. I’ll take a few more sheets for him to practice.”

As she spoke, she took advantage of Ah Hua’s confusion to snatch several sheets of paper and even a pair of scissors, then happily dragged Hualan away.

Ah Hua: ……

“Ah Hua, why are you just standing there? Are you done handing them out?” Yun Qimu squeezed out from the crowd of enthusiastic young wives and saw Ah Hua standing there in a daze.

“Ah, I… just now an auntie took a few extra sheets from me and said she held me when I was little, but I can’t remember her.” Ah Hua looked frustrated, even a bit guilty.

Yun Qimu tiptoed to rub her not-so-bright head, thinking, “She just wanted to get more paper from you by pretending to be close.”

Wow, you really can’t let your guard down anywhere these days. People are just too sly!

But out loud, she comforted, “It’s okay, maybe you were too little back then. If you want to recognize her as your auntie, it’s not too late to remember now.”

“Oh.” Ah Hua nodded blankly, scratched her head, and grinned. “Village Chief, you’re right.”

Then she went back to handing out paper, completely at ease.

Yun Qimu looked in the direction Ah Hua had been staring, but didn’t see the so-called auntie. Instead, she spotted the simple-minded young clan leader, Ge Miao, leading someone back.

“Mom, Aunt Meifang, guess what I just saw?”

Ge Miao, flushed with excitement, dashed from the village gate to Hualan and Meifang, waving his arms and legs in excitement.

“What did you see?” Meifang asked absentmindedly, scissors in hand, as she tried cutting the paper.

“I saw chickens! Two chickens flying with their whiskers!” Ge Miao blurted out excitedly.

“What? Chickens flying with whiskers?” Meifang looked up in surprise, eyes wide. “What kind of berserk beast is that? Never heard of it before. Is it a new evolution? Is there a lot of meat on it? Maybe the new species hasn’t been contaminated by dark matter yet.”

“No, no, Aunt Meifang, it’s not a new berserk beast. It’s a little monster from Earth Village.”

“Little monster?” Meifang looked confused.

Hualan was equally puzzled.

Ge Miao, not minding the trouble, excitedly recounted everything he had just seen.

Turns out, when he was sent out to fetch someone, he happened to see two chickens with long, beautiful tails and flying with their whiskers attacking his Uncle Kuke and Hawei.

He rushed over to help, killed one of the chickens, and its body disappeared into thin air right before their eyes, scaring the three of them into running away.

Later, they ran into Amos, who came by and killed the other chicken with three whacks.

This time, although the chicken disappeared, it left behind a bronze treasure chest.

“Mom, Aunt Meifang, I really saw it! Amos just opened that bronze chest and took out a cleaned chicken leg and a sharp dagger!”

“Look, this is it! He gave me the dagger!” Ge Miao held up the knife, grinning from ear to ear. “From now on, Amos is my best buddy!”"