Chapter 140
It was the fourth day of the “Where’s Baby Going” Season 3 live broadcast in Shudian.
On the evening of the first day, they settled into the villa area near Shudian. On the morning of the second day, the babies visited the dance academy that Cheng Rongrong wanted to see, and in the evening, they went to the night market that Shen Zilin wanted to visit. On the afternoon of the third day, although the inflatable pool in the courtyard was a bit simple, Wen Dongyu, who wanted to go to a water park, still had a great time, and in the evening, at the amusement park that Wen Jiangyue wanted to visit, they created many beautiful memories and made promises for the future.
The places the little babies wanted to go, they had visited them one by one.
Now, it was Wang Zhizhi’s turn, he wanted to go to a laser tag arena.
And finally, the smooth-sailing arrangements encountered an obstacle.
“It’s not even the weekend, how is business so good!” Zeng Huanian said, his head starting to ache as he looked at the messages from the other staff members on his phone, all saying that the laser tag places nearby were fully booked.
“Maybe they think our business is too small, only booking the smallest area. How about this, tell them to book a bigger area, the biggest, the more the merrier?” Jin Youliang said, offering a solution, then sighed. “Tell them to hurry up, the guests have already finished breakfast.”
Zeng Huanian, his head lowered, frantically sent messages, then shook his head after a while. “No, even if we offer to book the entire place, it’s still not possible, they all said they’re fully booked.”
“It’s just using water guns, just get them a few water guns and let them play in the courtyard, children don’t even know what laser tag is, right?” Jin Youliang said kindly.
“But Wang Zhizhi…” Zeng Huanian said, glancing at Wang Zhizhi’s live broadcast window on the monitoring wall, the little boy was excitedly talking about laser tag with the other babies. “Yesterday’s water park, that was unavoidable, we couldn’t do a live broadcast in such a crowded place, and we couldn’t move it to midnight and clear the area, so we had to find a substitute. But turning Wang Zhizhi’s wish into a simple water gun fight is a bit too…”
“Right, it’s a bit too disrespectful of the little baby’s wish. Our show is called ‘Where’s Baby Going,’ if we keep doing things so poorly, it’ll be like ‘Tricking the Babies.’” Jin Youliang said, subtly criticizing, then continued, “Then… how about moving the laser tag to tomorrow? We can rearrange tomorrow’s schedule.”
Zeng Huanian shook his head even more vigorously. “We’re going to the fourth location the day after tomorrow, tomorrow’s activities need to be prepared today, we can’t swap them with today’s!”
“Sigh, this is truly troublesome, we just need a room with many obstacles. But there’s nothing we can do without a suitable location, we can only disappoint Wang Zhizhi for now. We’ll see if there’s a chance to make it up to him at the fourth location, but I don’t think it’s likely, that place…” Jin Youliang said, secretly glancing at Zeng Huanian, whose face was becoming increasingly pale, he was annoyed that even after hinting so much, this guy was still clueless, but he softened his tone, subtly adding more persuasive words to his comfort. “So many babies’ wishes were fulfilled smoothly before, only Wang Zhizhi’s couldn’t be, there’s nothing we can do if he’s sad. It’s all about timing and fate, just consider it a lesson from reality, let him grow up early, life isn’t always smooth-sailing. Just look at you, those two projects you designed, the one about experiencing the entire process of making and selling snacks in Yinye Village, you spent a lot of time on it, right? But in the end, we didn’t even go to Yinye Village. And the treasure hunt in the air-raid shelter, it was originally scheduled for this afternoon, you even went scouting several times at night, cleaned it up, set it up, even found the camera positions, then, one notification the night before, and it was canceled. Wang Zhizhi’s little setback, compared to your wasted efforts, it’s nothing.”
“Wang Zhizhi is still young, he… Mmm?” Zeng Huanian, who had been casually responding to Jin Youliang while frantically tapping on his phone, suddenly looked up.
Jin Youliang, looking at the sudden spark of realization in Zeng Huanian’s eyes, chuckled inwardly, it seemed that repeatedly emphasizing certain keywords had finally knocked some sense into this blockhead.
“That air-raid shelter…” Zeng Huanian said excitedly, looking at Jin Youliang. “If we remove the treasure chests and puzzles, and turn on the lights, then the air-raid shelter can be used as a laser tag arena! There are enough paths and obstacles, and I’ve already designed the camera positions, we can also cancel the cameramen following them, like at the actual laser tag place, to give the babies more freedom!”
“Right! Why didn’t I think of that!” Jin Youliang exclaimed, slapping his hand. “I think we don’t even need to remove the treasure chests and puzzles, wouldn’t it be even more interesting to have them play laser tag while solving puzzles and finding treasures!”
“But Director Shi canceled this project because he felt some of the paths were too dark, even with flashlights, it wasn’t safe enough…” Zeng Huanian said, his expression darkening again. “If we block off those paths, the space would be too small…”
Jin Youliang smiled. “It’s because of Wei Maomao’s fall, right? Didn’t Director Qin already explain yesterday, it was probably an accident, or maybe some child was being mischievous. And to be mischievous, they would need to be in a familiar place, use familiar things, and plan in advance. A three-and-a-half-year-old brain, how could she possibly come up with a scheme in an unfamiliar place? And besides, there were no cameras in the bathroom, but in your air-raid shelter, wouldn’t there be cameras everywhere? How would she dare to do anything?”
It had to be said that Jin Youliang’s words resonated with Zeng Huanian.
“I’ll ask Director Shi…” Zeng Huanian said, his heart tempted, but he still didn’t dare to make such a big change to the project on his own.
“Director Shi…” Jin Youliang said, handing his phone to Zeng Huanian with a troubled expression, he pointed at his private chat window with Xiao Wang. “Director Qin left to see Director Shi this morning, I just found out something happened.”
[Jin: How’s Director Shi? Can he come back today? Will you guys come back on your own, or should we send a car to pick you up?]
[Wang: He can’t come back! Help! ‘Link: Shi Dingshan’s wife causes a scene at the hospital, variety show director rushed to emergency again’! It’s trending! Why isn’t Director Qin here yet! Has he left? Director Shi’s wife is terrifying! If Director Qin doesn’t come soon, I can’t handle it anymore, I’m going to die, ahhh!]
[Jin: … He’s already on his way, don’t worry about anyone else, just take good care of Director Shi! It’ll be fine once Director Qin arrives!]
[Wang: I’ll try my best, I’m so scared! Crying!]
…
Zeng Huanian’s vision went black, he almost dropped Jin Youliang’s phone.
“The situation over there isn’t good, it’s just the two of us now, we have to help Director Shi keep this show running.” Jin Youliang said, patting Zeng Huanian’s shoulder.
The dads and babies had separate tasks today.
The dads had to complete a mysterious task assigned by the program team, while the babies were going to play the laser tag that Wang Zhizhi had been looking forward to.
Even though the host had made it clear that the baby version of laser tag used very safe water guns with weak force, small water balloons, and even demonstrated their safety in front of the dads, it still looked like a pretend play version for babies, but Wei Chengli… still didn’t want to be separated from his chubby baby!
For this, Wei Chengli even broke the rules again, finding an opportunity to secretly remove his microphone and avoid the camera, he grabbed a staff member and asked if there was any way to change it.
However… there wasn’t.
The mysterious task for the dads was actually to go to Shudian for costume fittings and rehearsals for tomorrow’s live-action role-playing game… If he didn’t participate properly, he would become the worst dad tomorrow… directly affecting his adorable little chubby dumpling’s gaming experience tomorrow.
In the end… they were still separated.
The dads were taken to Shudian in a van first, the babies waited at the villa for almost an hour before they were also taken away.
The car ride wasn’t long, but the destination was quite surprising.
Wei Maomao looked at the dark entrance of the air-raid shelter ahead, like the gaping maw of an abyss, she had to use all her willpower to stop herself from pulling Cheng Tingyan and running back to chase the van that had just left.
“Babies, don’t be afraid, it’s not completely dark inside, there are lights in many places!” The host said with a smile, looking at the little babies, their faces tense, he waved his hand behind him.
Suddenly, lights turned on inside the cave-like structure.
From the outside, it just looked like a simple tunnel, not scary at all.
“Now, let’s talk about the rules of today’s game.” The host said, taking out a large piece of paper and starting to read. “This used to be an air-raid shelter, today, we’ve transformed it into a game area that combines live-action laser tag and a treasure hunt. Many areas have lights, some paths require you to find the light switches yourselves, and some areas have no lights at all. But don’t worry, babies, your equipment includes night vision goggles, you can see clearly in the darkness with them. And you’ll have a chance to get flashlights from the treasure chests inside. Besides the night vision goggles, each baby will also receive a water gun filled with water, two small water bottles for refilling, and five small water balloons. The water in the water guns, bottles, and balloons will be different colors for each baby. And before entering, you’ll also have to wear the white clothes we prepared, so we can see the colors clearly during the laser tag game.”
As the host explained, the staff handed each baby a small box.
Wei Maomao looked down at the water gun in her box, with a little bunny drawn on it, filled with orange water, then at the water gun in front of Cheng Tingyan, with a small flower drawn on it, filled with light green water.
They were truly thoughtful, but she still felt resistant.
“Next, let’s talk about the scoring rules for the laser tag game. For… mmm, let’s take our little friend Wang Zhizhi as an example, the purple water he has, whether it’s from the water gun or the water balloons, each hit on a baby earns him one point, but repeated hits on the same baby before they change their white clothes don’t count. And the white clothes you’re wearing, if you’re hit by all six other colors, then you’re out, you have to come to the entrance, change into a clean white shirt, and then you can continue playing. After an hour and a half, we’ll tally the number of colors on each baby’s clothes to determine the ranking for this laser tag game. The winner will get a priority clue for tomorrow’s mysterious activity. And one more important thing, besides the initial water and water balloons we provide, you’ll need to find ammo vouchers inside to refill your ammunition.” The host said, pointing at the air-raid shelter. “This air-raid shelter, besides being a laser tag arena, also has multiple hidden treasure chests, with various goodies inside, including ammo vouchers, flashlights, vouchers for redeeming various treasures, so besides attacking and hiding, everyone should also search carefully.”
Wei Maomao secretly glanced around, the other babies’ faces were full of excitement. Especially Wang Zhizhi, he looked like he couldn’t wait to rush in.
There would be dark areas, it didn’t sound very safe.
Wei Maomao looked at Cheng Tingyan, who was also barely concealing her anticipation, hesitantly.
At this moment, the host continued, “The treasures include various snacks and toys, considering that our babies can’t read yet, they’re all pictures, each one is a real photo of the actual item! And there are also multiple staff members inside who can provide clues to the treasure chests, the hidden treasure chests found through their clues will have even bigger rewards! A little hint for you, there are limited-edition dinosaur toys, an army of toy soldiers, a Sudoku set, a giant bunny plush taller than a baby, and many other goodies you’ll definitely love.”
Okay…
Wei Maomao understood what Cheng Tingyan’s suddenly brighter eyes meant.
There was no air-raid shelter in the show in her previous life, no laser tag, no treasure hunt. Wei Maomao wasn’t sure if the accident in her previous life was the one in the bathroom, she also wasn’t sure if this place was safe… A dark place, it just sounded…
“Maomao, do you want me to help you put them on?” Cheng Tingyan asked, picking up the night vision goggles that Wei Maomao had been holding.
“It’s bright here, I’ll wear them when it gets dark.” Wei Maomao said, then asked tentatively, “Yan Yan, do you want to go in?”
“Mmm?” Cheng Tingyan asked softly. “You don’t want to go in? Are you scared? We won’t go if you’re scared.”
Cheng Tingyan’s decision was quick, so quick that Wei Maomao had to look closely to notice the fleeting disappointment in her eyes between her initial surprise and her gentle smile.
Playing water guns with good friends, wearing cool equipment, plus a well-designed treasure hunt and truly interesting prizes… It was something even the six-year-old Yan Yan couldn’t resist.
The little babies were led into the air-raid shelter one by one by the staff, starting at different locations.
But Wei Maomao and Cheng Tingyan were the last to enter, and they insisted on staying together. To ensure fairness, Wei Maomao handed over her water gun and water balloons. This way, they wouldn’t create a bug where they couldn’t be hit by the other babies because they weren’t shooting at each other and didn’t have to change their clothes. Sharing one set of water gun and ammunition was also fair to the other babies.
“Yan Yan, let’s hold hands and not separate, take small steps, don’t run, okay?” Wei Maomao said, confirming with Cheng Tingyan again, standing at the entrance of the air-raid shelter.
Being hit a few times, how many times, it didn’t matter. It was all about… participation. Don’t take risks for the ranking, just have fun, the most important thing was safety… and staying away from Cheng Rongrong.
“Mmm.” Cheng Tingyan nodded again, promising. “I won’t run, I’ll protect you, Maomao, don’t be afraid.”
Taking small steps, stepping firmly, avoiding dark areas before finding a flashlight, it should… be safe, right?
Wei Maomao, feeling a bit uneasy, took a small step forward and entered the air-raid shelter.
Next to her, Cheng Tingyan also took a step, crossing…
The boundary between two lifetimes.
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