Chapter 16
In her previous life, although Jin Youliang had used editing and pitting guests against each other to turn the third season of “Where’s Baby Going” into a controversial hit filled with drama, the fixed program flow had many similarities with the second season produced by Shi Dingshan. At that time, when Shi Dingshan passed away, the third season was already nearing its filming date, leaving very little time. Jin Youliang most likely directly used the program flow that Shi Dingshan had already decided on.
Now, Shi Dingshan was alive and well, sitting in the area with the most cameras. Wei Maomao guessed that the program flow would be similar to the one she had seen in her previous life.
However, variety show procedures were basically the same old tricks. The key point wasn’t the program segments, but the people.
Starting from gathering at the village entrance and the families’ self-introductions, the third season of “Where’s Baby Going” officially began.
The children’s introductions started with the youngest, Wei Maomao.
If she hadn’t spoken to Cheng Tingyan before, Wei Maomao would have racked her brains to give a good introduction of herself.
But now, it wasn’t necessary.
“My name is Wei Maomao, I’m three years old.”
The small dumpling, smiling and confident, walked to the front, but her introduction was extremely brief. Before the host could even ask her to say a few more words or introduce her father, the little dumpling took her short legs and ran back.
The other people present didn’t know, but Cheng Tingyan, Wei Chengli, and the audience in the live broadcast room deeply felt the difference.
“This self-introduction is quite different from the ones before, has she already made the sale and is now lying flat? Haha!”
“It can’t be explained by shyness either, after all, she stuttered from shyness before, but still said a lot.”
“Hahaha, this little one has two faces, she can’t be bothered to play with you guys, how cool~~”
“Once you’ve seen the vast ocean, it’s hard to be impressed by a pond, once you’ve climbed Mount Wu, other mountains seem insignificant, she’s already said everything she needed to say to Xiao Yan Yan, the dumpling is bored, hahaha.”
Wei Maomao couldn’t see the comments, even if she could, it wouldn’t change anything. She had her own clear purpose, which didn’t include protecting her image.
With Wei Maomao setting this precedent, in order to prevent the following children from following suit and giving brief introductions, after briefly introducing Wei Chengli, the host had the fathers and children go up together as families.
Following the order of age, the next one to go up was Cheng Feiying with Cheng Tingyan and Cheng Rongrong.
Cheng Feiying was handsome, with sharp features. At thirty-six years old, he looked even younger than the thirty-three-year-old Wei Chengli.
In this one-to-two combination, Cheng Feiying stood in the middle, the younger one clinging to her father, and the older one standing three steps away on the other side.
The self-introduction process wasn’t long. Cheng Feiying spent a lot of time talking about his acting career, mentioning his two daughters in a seemingly impartial manner, without saying anything negative. However, the way Cheng Feiying repeatedly looked at Cheng Tingyan with loving yet helpless eyes, trying to get her closer, made Wei Maomao clench her fists so hard they hurt.
A hypocritical mask, she really wanted to tear it off right now, Wei Maomao tried her best to restrain herself.
After Cheng Feiying, it was Wang Qingchuan, eight years older than Cheng Feiying, a forty-four-year-old retired athlete, one of the families added to the show along with Wei Maomao’s family. Wang Qingchuan was big and looked older than his age. He brought his four-and-a-half-year-old son, Wang Zhizhi, with him. During the self-introduction, he talked more about his newborn daughter at home. When mentioning his son beside him, he only said that he had brought him on the show to learn how to get along with his sisters.
Looking at Wang Zhizhi with his curly hair, obviously starting to feel suffocated, Wei Maomao sighed inwardly. It seemed that even if he had participated in a different season, he probably wouldn’t be able to avoid the path of rebelling against his younger sibling.
Then it was the youngest father, twenty-nine-year-old singer Wen Xiang and his five-year-old son Wen Dongyu. Both of them looked delicate and gentle. Especially Wen Dongyu, who seemed soft and a bit spoiled.
Cheng Rongrong’s right-hand man, Wei Maomao looked away when the little curly-haired boy looked over with a grin.
Since she was here, she wouldn’t let the exclusion and isolation that Cheng Tingyan faced in her previous life happen again. She wouldn’t do anything to these children, but she didn’t plan to interact with them much either.
What happened in her previous life wouldn’t happen again in this life, but that didn’t mean it never happened.
Wei Maomao didn’t know that at this moment, Wen Dongyu, not far away, was scratching his face, feeling a bit like pinching the chubby little girl’s cheeks.
Forty-five-year-old Wen Qiming was the oldest father this season, bringing along his five-and-a-half-year-old overachiever daughter, Wen Jiangyue. Wen Qiming was a host, the kind who boasted about his profound cultural accomplishments, so he had high expectations for his daughter.
Looking at Wen Jiangyue, who was well-behaved and graceful like a young lady from a wealthy family at such a young age, Wei Maomao suddenly felt that Wei Chengli was okay. Oh, this Wei Chengli in this lifetime.
Finally, it was six-year-old Shen Zilin and his forty-year-old domineering CEO father, Shen Jianghe. Both of them were in suits, looking very much like business elites. Unlike the athlete Wang Qingchuan, who was quite strict with his son, Shen Jianghe was obviously much more gentle.
The Shen family’s biggest businesses were in real estate and the entertainment industry, standing at the forefront of making money. Shen Jianghe himself was a qualified domineering CEO, both in terms of his career success and his colorful love life.
In her previous life, Shen Zilin had inherited his father’s business acumen but not his father’s ability to navigate relationships with ease.
Cheng Rongrong’s left-hand man, Wei Maomao looked at the miniature version of the domineering CEO and sighed softly.
The self-introductions of each family weren’t very long, but Wei Maomao thought about many, many things.
It wasn’t until the host announced the next segment, house selection, that Wei Maomao put away her thoughts about her past and present lives and refocused.
This time, the method of choosing houses was drawing lots.
The small balls in the large glass jar, the staff member holding the glass jar, even the rules explained by the host were almost identical to her previous life.
Oh, there was a difference.
There were six small balls instead of four.
There were quite a few moments in “Where’s Baby Going” where the children had the final say, such as this moment of drawing lots.
Wei Maomao didn’t rush forward, instead, she looked towards the Cheng family.
As expected, Cheng Rongrong, with a humble expression, was urging Cheng Tingyan to draw a lot along with Cheng Feiying.
It wasn’t time yet, Wei Maomao stared at the hand Cheng Rongrong had placed on Cheng Tingyan’s back, trying to restrain herself.
Cheng Tingyan’s luck was still as good as ever.
The two best houses were drawn by her and Wen Jiangyue. The pictures on the unfolded balls showed rooms that were as well-decorated as model homes in the city.
Wei Maomao, who drew last, and Wang Zhizhi, who drew before her, each got an average house, the kind of ordinary house in the village, but at least it looked clean and hygienic.
The other two weren’t so lucky. Shen Zilin drew a house next to the pigsty, the picture looked dirty and old.
As for Wen Dongyu, after seeing the hole in the roof in the picture, he clung to his father’s leg, crying and whining, saying he wanted to go home.
Wei Maomao didn’t pay much attention to Wei Chengli, who was praising her good luck. She stood not too far away, watching Cheng Feiying holding the picture, his gaze shifting between the Shen and Wen families.
Then, he finally chose the Wen family and walked over with his two daughters.
“Don’t cry anymore, we should be happy when we participate in the show together.” Cheng Feiying smiled and touched Wen Dongyu’s head. “Don’t cry, your eyes are all swollen. How about this, our family will swap houses with your family, okay?”
“No, no, no need.” Wen Xiang waved his hand and patted his son’s head. “He’s just not used to it, he’ll be fine in a while.”
“Brother, let’s swap. I…” Cheng Rongrong pursed her lips, seemingly hesitant, then said resolutely, “I like looking at the stars at night.”
Wen Dongyu stopped crying and looked up at Wen Xiang expectantly.
“Really no need, we’ll get used to it after staying here for a while. I’ll go tidy up…” Wen Xiang took his son two steps back, but before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by his son’s loud crying again, his fair skin flushing red with embarrassment.
“It’s okay, let’s swap. I used to take them to the countryside to play, we often stayed in houses like this. I can go up and fix that hole.” Cheng Feiying said righteously. “Rongrong also agrees to swap, and Yan Yan has no objections, right, Yan Yan?”
Cheng Feiying nudged Cheng Tingyan as he spoke.
“Whatever.” Cheng Tingyan said indifferently, then moved two steps to the side.
“Brother, don’t cry.” Cheng Rongrong reached out to wipe Wen Dongyu’s tears. “We should have fun playing together.”
“Yes, it’s just a small matter, it’s settled, let’s swap, and then go see where the houses are.” Cheng Feiying said as he took two steps forward.
Just as Cheng Feiying was about to raise his hand to swap the pictures with Wen Dongyu, a Cheng Yaojin* jumped out.
“Uncle, you can’t be generous with other people’s things.”
“Daddy said so!”
Cheng Feiying looked down. The little dumpling, who had appeared out of nowhere, was standing between him and the Wen family with her chubby arms outstretched.
“It’s Maomao, little children shouldn’t use words they just learned randomly, do you even know what being generous with other people’s things means? Hahaha…” Cheng Feiying laughed awkwardly, looking at Wei Chengli in the distance, who seemed equally surprised.
“Being generous with other people’s things means using other people’s belongings to do favors or show off.” Wei Maomao replied seriously. “It means you’re using the good house that Yan Yan drew to swap for someone else’s bad house… Mmmph…”
Wei Chengli took three steps at a time and ran over to cover the little dumpling’s mouth, but it was still a bit too late.
As expected, the Chinese language was profound. “Being generous with other people’s things” sounded more euphemistic, but after Maomao’s explanation, it wasn’t just awkwardness spreading, it was an awkwardness explosion…
“Maomao, this un… oh, this uncle, is Yan Yan’s father, they’re family, there’s no such thing as what you’re saying… Aiya…” Wei Chengli let go of the hand covering the little dumpling’s mouth, four neat teeth marks on his palm.
“Daddy.” The little dumpling shrank back, seemingly a little nervous and scared. She touched the hair clip on her head and tugged at her skirt. “Daddy, will you give away baby’s bunny hair clip, dandelion dress to someone else?”
Wei Chengli: “…”
“Daddy… will you swap baby’s house with the little bamboo basket that we just drew for someone else’s house?” The little dumpling blinked her big, black eyes, tears welling up. Her small, chubby hands clutched the picture tightly against her chest, trembling slightly.
Wei Chengli: “…”
Weren’t you righteously trying to break up someone else’s family just now?
Why did you suddenly become so weak, innocent, and pitiful!
Do you know that this is against the rules?
“Director Wei…” Cheng Feiying sensed the bad trend in this questioning and silence and tried to speak.
“Daddy…” The little dumpling refused to back down, grabbing her father’s hand, a tear dropping onto Wei Chengli’s hand. “Will you…”
“No! No, no, no!” Wei Chengli, as if he had been burned, quickly interrupted the little dumpling and completely switched sides. “Absolutely not!”
*********************
T/N: Cheng Yaojin*: Refers to a historical figure from the early Tang Dynasty in China. He was a renowned general known for his bravery, strength, and, most importantly, his unpredictability in battle. He was famous for ambushing enemies, appearing suddenly and unexpectedly to turn the tide of a fight.
In modern Chinese, using “Cheng Yaojin” or “a Cheng Yaojin” in a sentence has become an idiom. It describes someone who unexpectedly inserts themselves into a situation, often disrupting the existing flow or creating a sudden change. This insertion can be either helpful or disruptive, depending on the context.
Leave a Reply