Chapter 11 – Recruiting a Little Brother

“Thirteen plus fifteen?”

“Twenty-eight.”

“Twenty-six minus seven?”

“Nineteen.”

…

Chu An had asked a few more arithmetic questions in a row, and found that Huo Ran could give the answers in just a few seconds each time, with a one-hundred-percent accuracy rate.

This was like having a cheat code—definitely a cheat code!

The Huo family must have been blessed by their ancestors. Huo Zeye had unlimited potential, and it turned out his younger siblings were geniuses too?

“Sister-in-law, can I have candy now?”

“Of course you can.” Chu An nodded.

Huo Ran didn’t keep all ten White Rabbit milk candies for himself. He slowly divided three for his younger sister, kept three for himself, and then pushed the remaining four into Chu An’s hands.

“This is…” Chu An looked at the White Rabbit candies in her palm, somewhat surprised.

Huo Ran turned his head away and said lightly: “You eat too.”

Huo Mian echoed like a parrot, nodding vigorously. “Eat.”

A sudden warmth filled Chu An’s eyes.

She didn’t refuse the cubs; she clutched the four candies in her hand. “Thank you\~”

Huo Ran blinked awkwardly, the tips of his ears turning bright red.

Chu An had originally wanted to tease the two little ones more, but not far away, someone who was setting up a fish rack waved toward her, their voice earnest in asking for help:

“Comrade, can you give us a hand?”

“Of course.” Chu An stood up and said seriously to the two children: “Comrade Huo Ran, Comrade Huo Mian, you are to stay here on the beach and play. You must not go into the water without permission, and you must not leave my sight. Can you do that?”

Her solemn expression immediately gave the two cubs a sense of mission.

Huo Mian straightened her chest and said loudly: “We can do it!”

Huo Ran also nodded seriously. “We can.”

“Good. If anything happens, call me right away. I’ll just help for a moment and come back.” Chu An knew the two cubs had a sense of propriety, so she walked toward the fishermen without worry.

Those people were securing the fish rack with ropes and nails so that bamboo strips could be laid later for drying fish. Chu An walked over and helped hold the wobbly rack steady.

“Thank you, comrade.” One fisherman noticed her neat and well-tailored clothes and felt a little embarrassed. “Your clothes will get dirty.”

“It’s fine.” Chu An waved her hand.

After all, she changed clothes every day. Helping a little and getting a bit of dust on them was nothing.

While Sister-in-law went to help others, Huo Ran and Huo Mian behaved very well. They didn’t run around but stayed where they were, continuing to play in the sand.

Sister-in-law had said that the thing she was building was called a castle, the kind of place where princesses and princes lived in fairy tales.

Sister-in-law had also said she wanted to buy Andersen’s Fairy Tales so she could tell them stories.

Mei Qiukuai and his group of little buddies came to the beach with arms slung over each other’s shoulders, and from a distance, they spotted Huo Ran and Huo Mian.

His steps froze for an instant as he remembered being beaten up two days ago.

His mouth still hurt now.

“Mei Qiukuai, why aren’t you moving? Didn’t you say we were going to catch crabs?” Miao Zhengfu sniffled and asked in confusion.

“I… I…” Mei Qiukuai stammered and took a step back.

Someone in the group quickly exposed him. “You’re not scared of Huo Ran, are you?”

Theirs was the most unruly gang in the courtyard. Other kids would avoid them on sight. They were used to throwing their weight around, and none of them had ever backed down before.

Mei Qiukuai was provoked. He stiffened his neck and said: “Who’s scared of him?”

“Then why are you avoiding him?”

“I’m not avoiding him! Come on, let’s go right now!” Mei Qiukuai, as if seeking reassurance, hefted the small box in his hand.

Inside were sandworms for crab fishing—long, thin creatures with fleshy parapodia on each segment, wriggling at both ends. They looked disgusting and creepy.

If Huo Ran dared embarrass him again and threaten his “little overlord of the courtyard” reputation, he would use the sandworms to teach him a lesson!

The troublemakers exchanged knowing looks and closed in on Huo Ran and Huo Mian.

Huo Mian pursed her lips and tugged at her big brother’s shirt, whispering: “Big Brother, the bad guys are here again!”

“Ignore them.”

Huo Ran didn’t even lift his head, continuing to build the castle.

The ignored troublemakers felt stifled. “Hey, scruffy, want to come catch crabs with us?”

“No.” Huo Ran refused.

“What’s so fun about building that stupid thing?” Mei Qiukuai approached the castle Chu An had built earlier, his foot just about to step on the heart shape Huo Mian had drawn.

Huo Ran, who had not given them a single proper glance, suddenly raised his head.

Mei Qiukuai froze for a moment, then slowly pulled his foot back, daring only to provoke with words. “You won’t even catch crabs—guess you’re just a coward!”

“My big brother is not a coward!” Huo Mian said unhappily.

“Not a coward, huh? Then do you dare to go into the sea?” Mei Qiukuai pointed at a reef in the distance. “Let’s have a contest—see who dares to climb onto that reef.

“If you make it over there, I’ll admit you’re real men! But if you lose, you have to shout three times in the town square, ‘I am a coward.’ How about it?”

This was the plan Mei Qiukuai had come up with after much thought—a way to regain his pride while avoiding direct conflict with Huo Ran.

What he hadn’t expected was that such a “brilliant” suggestion would be rejected outright by Huo Ran.

“No.”

“What?! So you admit you’re a coward?” Mei Qiukuai exchanged glances with his gang and laughed provocatively.

“Coward, useless, always backing off when trouble comes;

Coward, turtle, crying at thunder and lightning!”

They began chanting a taunting rhyme as they circled the two children. After a moment, Huo Mian couldn’t help quietly saying to her big brother: “They’re so childish.”

Huo Ran nodded in agreement. “Exactly.”

He had promised Sister-in-law he wouldn’t go into the sea, and he would keep his word.

The group of boys bristled. “Who are you calling childish?”

“Talking about you.” Huo Ran said, standing up in irritation. “Going to dangerous places isn’t bravery—that’s what idiots do.”

“We stay in safe places, don’t go into the water without permission, and don’t act like idiots!” Huo Mian recited with a wag of her head, repeating what Chu An had told them.

Mei Qiukuai and the others turned red with anger. “You dare call us idiots?!”

“Let’s teach them a lesson!”

Mei Qiukuai snapped open the box in his hands and suddenly dumped the sandworms onto Huo Ran and Huo Mian. “Scruffy and bean sprout, let’s see if you dare insult us again!”

Clatter.

The entire boxful of sandworms tumbled out, spilling all over Huo Ran and Huo Mian.

Sandworms were segmented marine creatures, looking much like worms. They usually grew ten centimeters or longer, and their appearance alone could make people uncomfortable. Even the gang of boys had used leaves to pick them up when collecting them—grabbing them with bare hands was too disgusting.

Feeling the worms squirming on him, Huo Ran froze, his lips moving but no tears falling.

He could not cry.

If these bullies caught a weakness, they would take pleasure in it and never stop with the pranks.

Huo Ran had to stay calm and find a way to put them in their place.

“Mian Mian, don’t be afraid.” His little face was pale, but he still reassured his sister.

Huo Mian’s voice trembled with the beginnings of a sob, but she nodded. “Mm, I’m not afraid.”

“Stop pretending—you’re about to pee your pants, coward!” Mei Qiukuai shrugged smugly at them.

Before he could finish taunting, a sandworm as thick as a finger suddenly flew through the air and landed right on his head.

All further mocking turned into a terrified scream. “Aaaaahhhhhh—!”

“Help me get it off!”

“It’s not that we won’t help…” The other boys were crying and sniffling, shielding themselves with their hands.

Huo Ran was picking up the worms with his small hands, one by one, and tossing them precisely onto the boys. “That’s for bullying us! That’s for throwing worms at us!”

The gang squealed and flailed, terrified by the wriggling sandworms now on their own bodies.

Tears still clung to Huo Mian’s lashes, but she pressed her lips together in silence and grabbed a few worms, trying to shove them into Mei Qiukuai’s mouth.

Huo Ran pried open Mei Qiukuai’s mouth and asked coldly: “Still want to play?”

“No, no! We won’t ever dare again!”

Seeing the worms so close to their mouths, the boys begged for mercy.

These two siblings—one ruthless, one quick with their hands—were more dangerous than the gang itself. Who would dare provoke them again?

Mei Qiukuai, his mouth still held open, mumbled with difficulty: “Can you… take the worms away…”

Huo Ran stopped right there. “Forget it.”

If it had been before, he would’ve made them eat the worms.

But Sister-in-law was still nearby, and after a moment of thought, he decided he couldn’t stoop to their level.

Huo Mian, still holding a worm, tilted her head in thought. “Mm, an eye for an eye will never end!”

Huo Ran thought his sister had used the saying wrong, but with his limited learning, he couldn’t quite figure out why.

No, he had to study harder from now on—no more daydreaming!

The gang, spared from the worst, scrambled to their feet, shaking all the sandworms off onto the beach.

“Go, go! Stay far away from the castle my Sister-in-law built!” Huo Mian chased them away, worried they’d step on it with their clumsy hands and feet.

That was the hard-earned result of Sister-in-law’s work with them!

The boys hurriedly moved away from the sandcastle.

Miao Zhengfu, sniffling, looked at them with admiration. “Big Brother, Big Sister!”

“Who’s your big brother and big sister?” Huo Ran frowned impatiently.

“You are!” Miao Zhengfu’s eyes sparkled. “You’re not afraid of worms, and you didn’t shove them in our mouths when you had the chance—you’ve got honor!”

After 1985, The Legend of the Condor Heroes had been popular on mainland TV, and the boys often squeezed into the unit activity rooms with adults to catch a glimpse, spending their days dreaming of being martial arts heroes.

Mei Qiukuai stammered: “Yeah… you’ve got honor. We’ll call you Big Brother and Big Sister.”

Huo Mian scrunched her little face, looking at the pitch-black Mei Qiukuai, then at the perpetually runny-nosed Miao Zhengfu, with zero interest in being their Big Sister.

The boys hurried to swear loyalty. “We heard your Sister-in-law is really bad—if she ever bullies you, Big Brother and Big Sister, we’ll throw worms at her!”

“You dare!” Huo Ran barked fiercely. “You’re not allowed to throw worms at my Sister-in-law!”

“My Sister-in-law is great!” Huo Mian added with hands on her hips.

So, when Chu An came back carrying two fish gifted to her, she was met with the sight of a group of little brats standing meekly behind the two cubs. When they saw her, they all bowed deeply in unison.

“Hello, Boss!”

Chu An: “?”