Chapter 12
After transmigrating into the book, Cheng Rongrong, with her foreknowledge of the original plot, effectively improved her family relationships in almost two years. At the same time, she subtly influenced her parents, striving to skew the protagonist Cheng Tingyan’s life trajectory.
One of the most crucial changes was that in the original novel, although the young Cheng Tingyan participated in two parenting reality shows with Cheng Feiying to raise medical expenses for her paralyzed biological mother, her custody rights remained with her biological mother, Liu Qiongfang. Participating in the show with Cheng Feiying was essentially a cooperative relationship. If Cheng Feiying hadn’t reconciled with them later, Cheng Tingyan’s future success would have had nothing to do with him.
In this timeline, after participating in the first season of “Where’s Baby Going,” Cheng Feiying requested custody of Cheng Tingyan. Of course, to ensure Cheng Tingyan’s obedience, a portion of her earnings would still be given to Liu Qiongfang for medical treatment. However, from that point on, cooperation transformed into ownership. Before adulthood, Cheng Feiying had complete control over which shows Cheng Tingyan participated in, both in terms of freedom and finances.
Money was undoubtedly valuable, but for Cheng Rongrong, complete control was paramount.
Cheng Rongrong knew her foreknowledge relied entirely on the original novel. To thrive in this world, she had to seize the known benefits, which were mostly concentrated on Cheng Tingyan.
Since they were inherently at odds, she had to suppress Cheng Tingyan from the very beginning.
In this timeline, Cheng Tingyan, after being brought back to live with the Cheng family, attended a different kindergarten and lost the opportunity to meet the singing teacher from her original kindergarten, who was both talented and nurturing. She lost her foundation in singing and wouldn’t be able to sing those beautiful and ethereal children’s songs in the third season of “Where’s Baby Going.” The renowned international director who later invited her to star in his movie probably wouldn’t find her suitable for the singing and dancing child protagonist role he had envisioned.
Living with the Cheng family as a stepdaughter, Cheng Tingyan had her basic needs met but received little other education or attention. Without proper guidance and minimal interaction with others, Cheng Tingyan, growing up like this, could no longer be the intelligent and charming girl from the book who participated in the third season of “Where’s Baby Going.”
Limited by her young age, Cheng Rongrong could mostly only influence her parents’ thoughts through related movies and TV shows, news, and books. Fortunately, perhaps due to blood ties, her parents’ comprehension was generally good. Of course, it could also be that they didn’t particularly like Cheng Tingyan, making them easily swayed in a direction that wasn’t conducive to her growth.
Only twice did Cheng Rongrong have to risk using “childish talk” to guide her parents because the issues involved were too complex. The first time was the crucial turning point, making her father, Cheng Feiying, realize that without custody rights, he couldn’t fully control Cheng Tingyan, who might become a cash cow in the future. The second time was this time, she needed to make her parents understand who was closer and who was an outsider. At the same time, she had to make them realize that if the cash cow became too popular, it would be harder to control. Only by being both popular and controversial could they continuously suppress and control her.
Concealing her true intentions behind trivial and innocent words was quite challenging.
But it was worth it.
The current Cheng Tingyan, who didn’t know how to sing or dance, was inarticulate, and aloof, who would like such a child?
Of course, Cheng Tingyan still had her good looks. To be safe, Cheng Rongrong still guided her parents to make a choice. As long as she and her father worked together, Cheng Tingyan would display disrespect for her father, unfriendliness towards her siblings, and even an unreasonable bad temper on the show. Then, no matter how beautiful she was, no one would like her, right?
Unlike the first season, which was only briefly mentioned, the third season of “Where’s Baby Going” was a very important plot point in the original novel.
In the original novel, this season not only brought Cheng Tingyan to the attention of the international director but also allowed her to make two very useful friends. One was Shen Zilin, the domineering CEO who would inherit his father’s business and bring Cheng Tingyan a lot of resources. The other was Wen Dongyu, a talented singer who would surpass his father and have a prominent position in the music industry, paving the way and safeguarding Cheng Tingyan’s singing career. In the novel, they removed obstacles and contributed to Cheng Tingyan’s career. Although the original novel was a no-romance career-focused story, they were always the two most popular male lead candidates in the comment section.
Cheng Rongrong couldn’t let Cheng Tingyan gain their friendship, so in the past two years, apart from disrupting Cheng Tingyan’s original growth trajectory, she had also made many other preparations.
She had worked hard enough; the popularity, opportunities, and tools of the third season of “Where’s Baby Going” would all belong to her, Cheng Rongrong.
Because she had worked hard enough, she was confident enough. Even though two new families, who shouldn’t have been there, were added before the filming of the show began, Cheng Rongrong, although a little surprised, still felt after calming down that it was probably the impact of her hard work on the world of the original novel.
On the day the show started filming, Cheng Rongrong looked at Cheng Tingyan, who was forced to wear the same pink dress as her. Pink, the same as Cheng Rongrong’s, two things Cheng Tingyan hated the most were stepped on together. Just as she had expected, from the moment they set off in the morning, Cheng Tingyan was silent and gloomy, even more indifferent to the people and things around her. On the way, whether it was Cheng Feiying or her “friendly” attempts to strike up a conversation, Cheng Tingyan only gave short answers, and after a few times, she even started ignoring them.
Just like Cheng Rongrong had envisioned, this older sister began to walk the path of self-destruction.
When the families from different places gathered at the official filming location, Shen Zilin and the others, who quickly became friends with the protagonist in the original novel, all kept their distance from Cheng Tingyan because of her coldness and gloomy aura. On the other hand, Cheng Rongrong began friendly exchanges with them by sharing snacks that weren’t allowed to be brought into the village.
And Wang Zhizhi, the unexpected guest who was supposed to participate in the next season and who was known for hating his younger sibling, turned out to be just an ordinary little boy after interacting with him, which completely put Cheng Rongrong at ease.
Up to this point, everything was going smoothly according to Cheng Rongrong’s plan.
However, Cheng Rongrong didn’t expect that while Wang Zhizhi, who she had been a little worried about, didn’t make any unusual moves, another chubby ball, who was only three years old, almost made her break character.
Cheng Rongrong certainly didn’t think that the little girl named Wei Maomao kept staring at Cheng Tingyan and then burst into tears because she was scared by Cheng Tingyan. After all, it was just a gloomy aura and a cold face, at most, it just made people afraid to approach her. Cheng Tingyan’s face was still presentable, it wouldn’t scare a child.
But what a good opportunity. What did a three-year-old child understand? Let alone understand her deeper meaning, she might not even be able to understand what she was saying.
Cheng Rongrong, who had already “defended” her sister in front of the other children, spoke in the same way she had before.
Who knew what was wrong with this little fatty!
Wasn’t she crying because she was shy?
Why did she shake off her hand so hard and so quickly!
And what was with that horrified and disgusted look… wasn’t it a bit unfriendly to have “Don’t touch me” written all over her face!
Cheng Rongrong repeatedly told herself that this was a live broadcast and forced down her anger before squeezing out a timid smile at Wei Maomao, “Little sister? Don’t be afraid, little sister.”
Wei Maomao looked at Cheng Rongrong, the delicate little girl wearing the same pale pink dress as Cheng Tingyan and with a dozen colorful hair ties on her head. The surprise and anger in her eyes hadn’t even faded, and she was actually smiling at her again?
It was indeed a little scary…
Wei Maomao didn’t mean to make things difficult for a three-and-a-half-year-old child, but wait… what did she say before?
My sister just looks a little fierce?
That’s just like you, Cheng Rongrong, starting to smear her reputation right from the beginning!
Wei Maomao, who had already seen enough of Cheng Rongrong and Cheng Feiying’s scheming in the show in her previous life, puffed up her cheeks, racking her brains to come up with a retort.
But before she could speak, Cheng Rongrong turned to Cheng Tingyan and said, “Sister, smile a little, you scared the little sister to tears.”
Tears?
Wei Maomao raised her chubby paw and wiped her face.
Oh, so it wasn’t just the wind that made her face so cold…
“I’m not…” Wei Maomao randomly wiped her face twice, ready to fight.
“Don’t cry, little sister…” Cheng Rongrong interrupted the talkative little dumpling, stepped forward quickly, and reached out like a good older sister.
Wei Maomao was shocked, the enemy was strong, this was not giving her a chance to continue the previous topic.
Since you’re so good at smearing her reputation, I can only be sorry, little girl…
Wei Maomao, who wasn’t distracted this time, stretched out her chubby paw in time and blocked Cheng Rongrong’s hand, which was reaching out to wipe her tears and was almost touching her face.
“Daddy, I’m scared, can you give me a tissue…” Wei Maomao clamped Cheng Rongrong’s hand and held it up for her father to see, looking up and crying, “Dirty, it scared the baby…”
Shi Hongxiao steadily gave a close-up of Cheng Rongrong’s hand with potato chip crumbs on it.
The little dumpling’s hair was messy from crying, her eyes were red, with a kind of broken pitifulness. Although Wei Chengli didn’t know why she suddenly became so delicate that she called herself “baby,” he still felt a pang in his heart and quickly reached into his pocket.
Ah…
This…
Wei Chengli looked down at the little dumpling and smiled awkwardly, “Baby… the tissue is in the luggage.”
What!
Are!
You!
Doing!
Cheng Rongrong was so angry at Wei Maomao’s unexpected move that she forgot to pull her hand back, and in just two seconds, the man bent down and took the little dumpling’s place.
What was he still saying?
“Don’t be afraid, baby, don’t cry, Daddy will hold it for you, go borrow some tissues to wipe your sister’s hands.”
It was just a little bit of potato chip crumbs from when they were sharing snacks, it didn’t even touch her face! And she was scared to tears?
What!
Is!
Wrong!
With!
You!
Cheng Rongrong was furious, but she didn’t realize that this was just a variation of Wei Maomao’s words when Cheng Rongrong was smearing Cheng Tingyan’s reputation.
Wei Maomao, who had shaken off Cheng Rongrong, secretly glanced at Cheng Tingyan.
She really wanted to walk over.
But she was too dirty…
She had just wiped her face with the hand that Cheng Rongrong had held.
The first meeting could be imperfect, but why was it so frustrating…
Wei Maomao took small steps towards the staff member who was waving a tissue at her, the more she thought about it, the more aggrieved she felt, and she couldn’t help crying louder and louder.
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