TWEEEEEEEEET!
The blast of the heavy brass crosswalk whistle was so loud, so sudden. Backed by such a terrifying Rank 2 Peak lung-capacity that all three child-traffickers from Black-Iron County jumped two feet into the air and dropped their unlit purple smoke-bombs straight into the snow!
“W-who’s there?!”
Scar-Face Zhao and his two accomplices whipped around with their daggers half-drawn—only for the blood to freeze solid in their veins!
Standing three paces behind them under the willow trees was a six-foot-four, two-hundred-and-fifty-pound mountain of scarred muscle with a shiny smooth scar. His left ear used to be: forty-two-year-old Commander One-Ear Scar , at Rank 2 Peak!
Over his thick winter tunic, the feared warlord was wearing a freshly washed, starched. Bright pink [Rank 2 “Good Citizen” Bunny Chore Apron] with a yellow cloth armband on his left bicep reading [GU FAMILY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. CHIEF CROSSWALK & RECESS MONITOR], and in his right hand he held a six-foot-tall, iron-reinforced wooden paddle painted bright yellow with big red characters:.
[SLOW DOWN: PRECIOUS CHILDREN CROSSING!]
Even more terrifyingly, the instant One-Ear Scar’s brass whistle echoed down the street—.
THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!
From the newly paved street corners, the school brickyard, the masonry sheds. The surrounding rooftops, all five hundred Rank 1 and Rank 2 former Blood-Wolf Mercenaries—along with eighty-one pink-aproned Five-Venom Scorpion Gang gardeners led by Rank 2 Mid Poison-Hand Wu. One hundred giant tail-wagging mountain war-wolves—charged out at full sprint and surrounded the three trembling child-traffickers in five tight, impenetrable concentric circles!
Every single one of the five hundred and eighty-one burly, scar-faced uncles was wearing a spotless pink bunny or honeybee apron and gripping either a heavy yellow “CHILDREN CROSSING” iron paddle. A bricklayer’s iron trowel, or a long-handled compost shovel!
“C-Commander One-Ear Scar of the Blood-Wolf Mercenary Corps?! And Poison-Hand Wu of the Five-Venom Scorpion Gang?!” Scar-Face Zhao’s knees knocked together so hard his teeth chipped.
He stared at the nearly six hundred ferocious martial artists in pink aprons glaring down at him like a pack of protective grizzly bears.
“W-why are you two legendary outlaw bosses wearing pink bunny aprons and guarding a primary school crosswalk?!”
“Who are you calling an outlaw boss, you child-stealing piece of garbage?!”
Commander One-Ear Scar’s scarred face turned purple with righteous fury as he looked down at the three burlap sacks and the [Sweet-Slumber Kidnapping Smoke-Bombs] lying in the snow at the traffickers’ feet!
Over the past six days of building the school, eating Gu Changsheng’s injury-healing stew three times a day. Having six-year-old Su Nuannuan and the thirty little orphans bring them cups of warm ginger tea and thank them. “Hardworking Pink-Apron Uncles” every afternoon, One-Ear Scar [Warmth: 85/100].
All five hundred of his men had come to view the six hundred students of the Gu Family Elementary School as their own precious nieces and nephews!
In fact, just that morning at the school assembly. Principal Gu Changsheng had hung a big red [School Security Honor Chart] inside the front gatehouse and announced that whichever security squad kept the school perimeter the safest. Cleanest this week would receive genuine [Little Red Flower Stickers] presented personally by Little Miss Nuannuan and Young Master Nian!
“Brothers of the Crosswalk Security Brigade!” Commander One-Ear Scar roared, cracking his iron-calloused knuckles with a sound like exploding firecrackers as his Rank 2 Peak aura locked all three traffickers to the spot. “Our five hundred brothers have been sweeping the crosswalks.
Carrying schoolbags since six o’clock this morning without earning a single Little Red Flower yet—and these three filthy rats from Black-Iron County dare bring burlap sacks.
Smoke-bombs to our school fence during afternoon recess?!”
“Wait! Hey, Scar-Head! That’s unfair!”
Rank 2 Mid Poison-Hand Wu shouted from the second circle, waving his iron gardening hoe indignantly in his pink honeybee apron.
“Our Herb-Field Squad smelled their cheap smoke-bombs from the greenhouse three seconds before you blew your whistle! Half of these three rats belong to our Honeybee Squad’s merit chart!”
“Boss Scar! Let our Third Masonry Squad have five whacks at the one in the middle!” thirty-eight-year-old Vice-Captain Bull bellowed.
Brandishing his yellow crosswalk paddle in his right hand while holding a warm half-eaten sesame flatbread in his left.
“Yesterday afternoon that little seven-year-old orphan girl from West-End Street braided a red yarn bow onto Old Gray’s tail and called me ‘Kind Uncle Bull’! Anyone who tries to stuff our school’s kids into a burlap sack gets paddled until his backside is flatter than our new bluestone sidewalk!”
“Whoever lands the most paddles gets the Little Red Flower! Remember Principal Gu’s rule: don’t kill them in front of the school fence, just beat them until their own mothers can’t recognize their noses!”
“FOR THE SCHOOL! FOR THE LITTLE RED FLOWERS! PADDLE THEM!”
*WHACK! THUMP! SMACK!
POW!*
Before the three child-traffickers could even let out a single scream, Commander One-Ear Scar, Vice-Captain Bull, Poison-Hand Wu. Fifty front-row pink-aproned security uncles swarmed over them with yellow “SLOW: CHILDREN CROSSING” paddles and flat masonry trowels!
For three full minutes outside the willow trees—completely screened from the playground children’s view by a neat wall of giant war-wolves sitting shoulder-to-shoulder. Singing a synchronized “Awooo-woof!” chorus so the kids inside the fence only thought the big doggies were playing—the rhythmic thump-smack-whack of non-lethal Rank 2 disciplinary paddling echoed like a carpenter’s workshop!
Inside the playground fence, six-year-old Su Nuannuan paused by the wooden seesaw, tilted her pink rabbit hood toward the southern willow trees, and blinked curiously at eight-year-old Gu Nian:.
“Big Brother Nian, why is Uncle Scar blowing his whistle and why are the big doggies singing outside the fence?”
“Uncle Scar’s squad is probably practicing their new crosswalk safety drill to win this week’s Little Red Flower,” eight-year-old Gu Nian replied with a knowing nod. Having already caught a brief glimpse of the three burlap sacks through the willow branches and seeing that fifty Rank 2 pink-aproned uncles had the situation 1,000% under control. “Come on, Nuannuan, let’s get the Little Red Flower sticker sheet ready for Uncle Scar and Uncle Wu when recess ends!”
When Town Magistrate Liu and Captain Gu Tie arrived with the county constables five minutes later. The three notorious Black-Iron County child-traffickers had been beaten into three symmetrical, swollen purple sandbags, neatly tied up with pink hemp ribbons. Stacked on a wheelbarrow with their own kidnapping smoke-bombs stuffed into their mouths and a polite wooden sign hung around their necks:.
[CAUGHT LITTERING NEAR THE SCHOOL FENCE — DELIVERED BY THE GU FAMILY CROSSWALK BRIGADE]
Inside the school courtyard after classes ended at four o’clock, sixty-two-year-old Grandpa Fu brought out the municipal debt ledger. Deducted the 50,000-silver bounty that Black-Iron County had posted for Scar-Face Zhao’s gang alongside six days of road-paving and school construction. Stamped a giant red [DEBT PAID IN FULL] seal across Commander One-Ear Scar’s page!
“Congratulations, Commander Scar,” Gu Changsheng smiled, walking out onto the school steps with eight-year-old Gu Nian and six-year-old Su Nuannuan holding a tray of gleaming [Little Red Flower Merit Stickers]. “Your two-hundred-thousand-silver debt is officially cleared. You and your five hundred brothers are free to take off your pink aprons and return to the northern mountains whenever you wish!”
Hearing that he was free to take off the pink bunny apron, forty-two-year-old Commander One-Ear Scar froze in panic!
Before his five hundred men could even blink, the two-hundred-and-fifty-pound Rank 2 Peak warlord dropped to one knee on the school steps. Clutched the front of his bright pink bunny apron with both hands so nobody could take it off him, and shouted at the top of his lungs:.
“Principal Gu! Little Fairy Nuannuan! Little President Nian!
Who said anything about going back to those freezing, miserable mountains?! My five hundred brothers haven’t even finished paving the west sidewalk yet, and we just got our first Little Red Flower pinned onto our aprons! Please, Principal Gu—hire us permanently as the [Gu Family Elementary School Crosswalk & Town Security Brigade]!
As long as we get three bowls of Auntie Qin’s meat stew a day and get to keep our pink bunny aprons, we’ll guard Frost-Pine Town’s children for the rest of our lives!”
“Me too, Principal Gu! Don’t take my pink apron away—Old Gray only listens to me when I’m wearing the bunny!” Vice-Captain Bull and all five hundred mercenaries dropped to their knees in unison.
Clutching their pink aprons like imperial dragon robes!
Laughing warmly on the school steps, Gu Changsheng nodded. Watched six-year-old Su Nuannuan pin a shiny red paper flower right above the smiling cartoon bunny on Commander One-Ear Scar’s chest—bringing tears of pure pride to the scarred warlord’s eyes!
“From today on,” Gu Changsheng announced in a clear voice that carried across the entire schoolyard. “Commander One-Ear Scar is officially appointed Captain of the [Gu Family Elementary School Crosswalk & Town Security Brigade], with Vice-Captain Bull. Deputy Captain, at a full monthly salary of ten silver taels per man, three hot Earth-Fire meals a day at the school canteen.
Free veterinary care and beef-bone rations for all five hundred mountain war-wolves!”
“LONG LIVE PRINCIPAL GU! LONG LIVE LITTLE PRESIDENT NIAN AND LITTLE MONITOR NUANNUAN!”
All five hundred pink-aproned security uncles threw their yellow “SLOW: CHILDREN CROSSING” paddles into the air and cheered so loudly that the winter icicles on the gatehouse roof chimed like wind-bells. All five hundred giant mountain war-wolves sat up on their haunches and howled a joyful “AWOOOO-WOOF!” in salute!
Standing at the front of the formation with his chest puffed out like a general who had just been conferred a dukedom by the Emperor himself. Forty-two-year-old Captain One-Ear Scar carefully touched the shiny [Little Red Flower Sticker] pinned above the cartoon bunny on his pink apron and barked at his men:.
“Listen up, First through Tenth Crosswalk Squads! Now that we are official salaried staff of the Gu Family Elementary School, nobody is allowed to let a single wrinkle or mud spot stay on his pink bunny apron! Starting at four-fifteen when the six hundred students walk home from school:.
- Squad One through Squad Five will stand every twenty paces along Frost-Pine Street with yellow crosswalk paddles raised!
- Squad Six through Squad Eight will help the first-grade toddlers carry their slate boards and heavy winter satchels all the way to their front doors!
- And Squad Nine and Squad Ten will hitch up our five hundred war-wolves to the heated wooden passenger sleds to drive the thirty West-End orphans and the outer-village children straight home before sunset!”
“SIR, YES, SIR!” five hundred burly, scarred former outlaws roared in unison, snapping to attention with their yellow crosswalk paddles held at a perfect ninety-degree angle!
Ten minutes later, when the townsfolk of Frost-Pine Town stepped out of their shops and houses at four-fifteen in the afternoon. They were treated to a sight so heartwarming and surreal that visiting merchants from neighboring counties dropped their reins in the street:.
Down the center of the heated bluestone avenue marched six hundred smiling schoolchildren in neat pairs. Every twenty yards along the curb stood a six-foot-tall, scar-faced Rank 2 martial artist in a spotless bright pink bunny apron blowing a brass whistle. Holding up a yellow “SLOW: CHILDREN CROSSING” paddle, and bowing politely to every passing grandmother:.
“Good afternoon, Grandma Zhang! Let Uncle Bull carry that basket of winter cabbages for you while the first-graders cross the street! Watch your step, little scholars—don’t run on the wet flagstones, and remember to do your arithmetic homework before supper!”
Watching from the school gatehouse steps beside twenty-four-year-old Auntie Qin and sixty-two-year-old Grandpa Fu, twenty-eight-year-old Gu Changsheng smiled as a warm golden wave of system notifications chimed inside his mind.
[ DING! 500 BLOOD-WOLF RIDERS PERMANENTLY RECRUITED! ]
* New Force : [Gu Family Pink-Apron School Security Brigade]
Beside the stove, Gu Changsheng wiped his hands on his clean white apron and checked the simmering broth with a steady nod.
Led by Captain One-Ear Scar (Rank 2 Peak |.
Warmth: 85 -> 92/100!) + 500 Riders & 500 Wolves!
* Daily Income : +82,000 DP/day -> +88,000 DP/day!