Chapter 13
The tiny dumpling pouted aggrievedly, her eyes slightly red, and big tears rolled down her snow-white, chubby cheeks.
“Sis…ter…can…you…give…me…the…bag…in…my…suitcase?” The little dumpling, sobbing so hard she could barely speak, took the tissue and tugged at the staff member’s sleeve, soft and helpless. “Please…”
Who could be heartless to such a polite and pitiful crying baby? The staff member being pulled couldn’t.
Wei Maomao quickly retrieved her little bunny backpack, the process so smooth she briefly felt anyone was more reliable than her father.
Wet wipes to wipe her head, tissues to wipe her face, a small comb to comb her hair, a bunny hair clip…
The poor little baby held back her tears, hiccuping from crying, her short, chubby hands working diligently and hard. Soon, the crying, messy-haired child in the camera transformed into a neat and clean little girl.
Immersed in trying to salvage her first impression, Wei Maomao was unaware that the platform’s live broadcast room was overflowing with comments calling for her.
“Baby, you’re already clean and cute, stop tidying up, look back at your poor father!”
“Hahaha, taking the little girl’s dirty hand for his daughter might become Director Wei’s biggest regret in life.”
“So did Maomao forget that her father is still waiting for her to bring back the tissues? Hahaha…”
“Maomao has a good memory, look, she even remembered to use a wet wipe to clean her head after her father touched it with his feet-touching hand!”
“So is she doing this on purpose? Director Wei called her, but she didn’t turn back, hahaha, Director Wei, you’ve finally lost your little padded jacket…”
“Director Wei is out of luck, hahaha, look, Maomao is applying cream now, wow, such a thick layer, is this the secret to a fair and tender little dumpling?”
Unaware of the outside world, Wei Maomao finished applying the cream and looked at the mirror held by the staff member. Hmm… only the slightly red eyes couldn’t be helped. She sniffed again, hmm, her face smelled good, her hands smelled good, perfect.
The clean and fragrant little dumpling clenched her fists and cheered herself up, turning back towards the village entrance.
And then…
She was stopped by the staff member.
Two tissues were stuffed into her chubby little hands. Wei Maomao looked up and saw the helpless twitch at the corner of the staff member’s mouth.
Back to Wei Chengli, when he saw the little dumpling in the distance taking the tissues waved by the staff member and seemingly wiping her face, he felt something was wrong. As expected… afterward, the staff member brought over the familiar suitcase, and the two of them, big and small, squatted down and started rummaging through the bunny backpack.
The people around them seemed to be chatting amongst themselves, but some gazes lingered on him and Cheng Rongrong, and an awkward silence began to spread…
Wei Chengli looked down at the little dirty hand he was holding, feeling it burn.
Trying to call Wei Maomao softly was fruitless and only attracted more attention, beads of sweat started to form on his forehead.
Looking around, Wei Chengli tried to find another kind staff member waving tissues.
Fortunately, although there were no kind staff members, a kind child appeared.
“Thank you so much!” Wei Chengli gratefully took the handkerchief handed over by Wen Jiangyue, quickly covered Cheng Rongrong’s hand with it, and let go.
Cheng Rongrong looked down at the handkerchief in her hand, plain white with a pink border, as simple and unadorned as Wen Jiangyue herself.
So!
What was wrong with this father and daughter!
Both of them avoided her hand like it was a venomous snake.
It was just a bit of potato chip crumbs, did everyone in this world have to be so obsessed with cleanliness?
Really… annoying.
When Wei Maomao returned with the corner of a tissue in her hand, Wen Jiangyue, who had just been sincerely praised by Wei Chengli, ran back to her father, blushing.
Seeing that Wei Chengli’s hands were empty, Wei Maomao didn’t inquire further. She casually stuffed the tissue into Wei Chengli’s hand and secretly looked at Cheng Tingyan.
“Maomao!” Wei Chengli said with a serious face.
“Hmm?” Wei Maomao looked at the crowd in the distance without raising her head.
“Daddy declares that today, Wen Jiangyue is Daddy’s favorite child!” Wei Chengli said angrily.
Wei Maomao happened to see the boys, including Shen Zilin, gathered together in the distance. Wen Jiangyue was with her father, Cheng Rongrong was here, and Cheng Tingyan was alone. Wei Maomao was considering how to naturally approach her, so she didn’t pay much attention to Wei Chengli’s words and just casually replied, “Hmm.”
Then the little dumpling ran away without looking back.
Wei Chengli, who had prepared a whole speech and was waiting for the little dumpling to “question” why she wasn’t his favorite child so that he could take the opportunity to educate her, was deeply hurt by the simple “hmm.”
Before the show officially started filming, Wei Maomao quietly approached Cheng Tingyan.
When she got closer, Wei Maomao stopped in time, grabbed a strand of hair from the back of her head, held it in front of her face, looked at the direction the hair was blowing, then moved a little and stood upwind from Cheng Tingyan, two steps away.
Wei Maomao felt that she was being discreet, but she didn’t know that Shi Hongxiao’s camera was following her skillfully. Whether it was the thick layer of cream she had applied earlier or the little movements she was making now, everything was captured clearly and accurately. Originally insignificant actions, after being filmed with these two close-ups, somehow gave people a few more associations.
“Hahaha, if our Maomao wasn’t only three years old, I would almost think she was playing hard to get!”
“Where is she playing hard to get?”
“First, she applied a lot of cream, then she stood upwind. Although it might be a coincidence, I have to say, Maomao, you’re good!”
“Hahaha, I’ll secretly tell you guys something. I have a relative who works at the station, and I saw the introduction pages for the children from the families. Maomao’s introduction is: Cute, cute, cute! A loyal viewer of ‘Where’s Baby Going,’ likes older sisters.”
“Eh! Thinking about it, isn’t Yan Yan the older sister from the first season? The analysis above seems possible.”
“Usually, when someone starts with ‘I have a relative,’ the relative is themselves, be careful not to be caught by the station, my friend.”
“??? How could making friends between children be so complicated, you’re all overthinking it. Our Maomao is just admiring her newly combed hair.”
“That… soft and fluffy hair… hahaha!”
“To be honest, I quite liked Cheng Tingyan in the first season, she was generous and cute. But this season, she seems very cold and rebellious. I think a soft and cuddly child like Maomao shouldn’t touch a hot stove, Rongrong is better, play with Rongrong, two little dumplings!”
From this point on, the comments went off track, starting to argue about whether Cheng Tingyan or Cheng Rongrong was cuter, and who Wei Maomao should be friends with. No one mentioned the fact that Wei Maomao had looked at her hair and then happened to walk to the upwind position from Cheng Tingyan.
After all, she was only a three-year-old child, how could she have so many tricks up her sleeve.
However, they didn’t know that Wei Maomao really did.
But Wei Maomao wasn’t doing this to play hard to get. It was just that the best opportunity for contact had already disappeared due to the previous farce. She really wanted to immediately go over and talk to Cheng Tingyan, but she couldn’t…
In her previous life, although they had become friends while hiding behind their online identities, they still spoke many true words when their real identities were hidden. Cheng Tingyan had talked about many things from her childhood, including a long period when she was young when she was like a hedgehog, wary of the whole world. During that time, she especially disliked children like Cheng Rongrong.
Wei Maomao wasn’t afraid of being pricked a few times, but she didn’t want those scenes to be edited into the broadcasted videos, becoming another piece of evidence of Cheng Tingyan’s unfriendliness.
She needed to first gain a little bit of Cheng Tingyan’s favor, a little bit of her liking. Wei Maomao had worked so hard to tidy herself up just to let Cheng Tingyan see that she and Cheng Rongrong were only similar in age, everything else was different!
Wind, blow a little harder!
Wei Maomao spread her arms a little wider and closed her eyes, praying that a stronger wind would carry away more of the cream scent she had applied thickly on her arms.
“Heh, there you go!”
With Wei Chengli’s shout, Wei Maomao’s forehead was pushed, and she stumbled back two steps, bumping right into Cheng Tingyan’s arms.
“Look at your little scheme.” Wei Chengli had protected Cheng Tingyan in advance, so she didn’t fall. Seeing his daughter looking at him in confusion, and smelling the fragrance on her, which was almost stronger than perfume, he couldn’t help but chuckle. “Didn’t you say you like Yan Yan the most? Why didn’t you say hello to her? What’s the use of applying so much fragrance and standing in the wind? Is your Yan Yan a butterfly?”
Wei Maomao: “…”
Cheng Tingyan: “…”
Audience: “I can tell that Director Wei is really deeply hurt by his leaky padded jacket…”
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