Two hours after the orbital rail-slug was caught on Gu Changsheng’s wok spatula. Moreover, Long Aotian’s hundred thousand black-suited mercenaries were marched off in rubber boots to dig agricultural irrigation canals across the Three-River Basin. A grand, starlit celebration banquet was held right on the wide crystal promenade at the top of the Three-River Unbreakable Megadam.
To thank the family who had saved fifty million valley residents and five hundred elementary school children in a single night, sixty-year-old General Su Dingfang, young Teacher Lin, old gatekeeper Uncle Zhou. The village elders of the Three-River Basin roasted twenty whole golden-crusted Grassland Spirit-Lambs brushed with wild cumin, garlic, and mountain honey.
Meanwhile, Auntie Qin and seventy-year-old Grandpa Yao set up fifty bubbling cauldrons of milky lamb-bone soup and hand-pulled wheat noodles along the dam’s lantern-lit walkway.
Around the central wooden dining table on the porch of the [Gu Family Flying Courtyard], the five children. Twelve-year-old Gu Nian, thirteen-year-old Ye Xiao, ten-year-old Su Nuannuan, eight-year-old Jiang Tuntun, and three-year-old Little Fifth (Ao Xing)—sat side by side with golden-brown roasted lamb drumsticks in their hands.
Outside the white picket fence, all five hundred first-graders from Willow-Creek Boarding Elementary School sang a cheerful thank-you song in unison. Moreover, Presented each of the five Gu kids with a handmade gold-paper medal on a red ribbon that read: “BEST BIG BROTHERS & SISTERS IN THE UNIVERSE.”
