Chapter 20
Wei Chengli realised he had made an inappropriate analogy, but just as he was about to correct himself, the person who was supposed to play along with him closed her eyes, tilted her head, kicked her feet, and fell asleep.
“Maomao? Maomao?” Wei Chengli shook the little dumpling in his arms incredulously.
She remained oblivious, her chubby legs swinging gently with his movements, the cute tips of her sandals leaving two grey marks on his chest.
Wei Chengli: “…”
Although he had gradually gotten used to Wei Maomao’s ability to fall asleep at any moment, why did she have to do it at such a crucial time…
How could she break off with a friend just because of Daddy’s hypothetical situation! Wei Chengli was overwhelmed with guilt.
But his attempts to wake her were futile. In the end, he could only sigh, both amused and exasperated, and put the little dumpling back in his arms.
The soft child nestled in his arms, warm and well-behaved, strangely eased his gloomy mood, allowing him to refocus on the map in his hand.
This was the first stop of the third season of “Where’s Baby Going”, an ancient village a good two hours’ drive from the city. As far as the eye could see, the black-tiled, white-walled houses were mostly only one or two stories high, some arranged in rows of two or three, others connected in longer lines, twisting and turning, giving the whole village an ancient and unorganized charm.
Judging from the map, the families’ houses weren’t far apart.
The Cheng family’s house was the closest to the village entrance. They hadn’t walked far, Maomao and Yan Yan hadn’t even said much, and they had already arrived. Then there was Wang Zhizhi’s house, just a few houses down from the Cheng family’s.
Wei Chengli saw Wang Zhizhi and his father enter the house from afar, then continued walking along the alley paved with bluestone and gravel. After turning two corners, he saw a rather impressive iron gate, that was the house drawn by the Wen family, similar in decoration to the Cheng family’s.
After passing the Wen family’s house, going down a slope and then up another, he arrived at the house Maomao had drawn.
Pushing open the courtyard gate adorned with a “Fu” character, he saw a simple and clean courtyard. On one side of the courtyard was a pile of bamboo baskets, split bamboo strips, and semi-finished bamboo products. On the other side was an open-air earthen stove with a pile of firewood beside it.
And on the earthen stove platform, there was a pile of fresh vegetables…
Wei Chengli suddenly had a bad feeling. He retracted the foot he was about to step into the courtyard, looked at the time on his watch, and asked the cameraman, “It’s almost 1 pm now, after we’ve seen the houses, the program team will arrange lunch for everyone, right?”
The cameraman, caught off guard by Wei Chengli’s sudden question, smiled awkwardly, took out a card from his bag, and handed it over politely. “Today’s first task, to celebrate the official start of this wonderful journey for dads and their babies, is for dads to independently prepare a sumptuous lunch for themselves and their babies. As time is tight, the ingredients have been prepared for you by the program team. After lunch break, dads and babies will complete separate challenge tasks. The dads’ next task will officially start at 3 pm, the babies’ task will start a bit later, at 4 pm.”
Wei Chengli had been prepared for the fact that he might need to cook during this show, and even took the time to practice lighting a fire on the earthen stove of the neighboring film crew before coming here.
But he was a novice cook, even using the gas stove at home took him a lot of time to prepare a meal, and now with the time limit…
The countdown of less than two and a half hours hanging over Wei Chengli’s head made him feel quite pressured. Without saying much, he carried the little dumpling and quickly crossed the courtyard, entering the main room. Not in the mood to examine the surroundings, Wei Chengli only felt the bedding, judged it to be new and clean, and put the little dumpling on it.
But as he was about to leave, Wei Chengli saw the luggage, which had been brought into the room by the program team in advance and piled up by the door, and stopped.
“Maomao, Maomao? Daddy needs some time to make lunch, why don’t you eat your breakfast first to tide you over?” Wei Chengli turned back and gently nudged the little one who was sleeping soundly on the bed.
He nudged her again and again…
An impatient chubby foot lifted up and landed warmly on his wrist, still ignoring him.
“Hmph, don’t regret it later.” Wei Chengli pinched the little dumpling’s chubby cheek and went out with the insulated bag.
As the families found their houses one after another, guided by the task cards, the dads in each live broadcast room started to showcase their culinary skills, whether they existed or not, boiling, stewing, steaming, or stir-frying.
At first, it was quite harmonious, after all, no matter what dish they were making, they had to start with washing the vegetables.
But as the live broadcast went on, something seemed to be off…
“When CEO Shen was cooking noodles, Director Wei was washing vegetables, now CEO Shen and his family have finished eating, how come Director Wei is still washing vegetables…”
“Not to mention the lazy CEO Shen, even Cheng Feiying, who made the most dishes, has finished his last braised chicken leg, and Director Wei is still washing vegetables…”
“Is Director Wei’s vegetable washing speed a bit slow? Maomao hasn’t even had breakfast yet, won’t she faint from hunger?”
“Speaking of which, I’m really curious what’s in Director Wei’s insulated bag, Maomao wouldn’t even eat it when she pretended to sleep in the car.”
“Actually, Director Wei has it tough too, he has to entertain the children while washing vegetables, so of course he’s slower.”
“Hahaha, entertaining the children only took a few minutes, even if each child took a minute, it’s only three minutes in total. Director Wei has been washing vegetables for over an hour, hasn’t he?”
“This… Does Director Wei plan to wash all the vegetables?”
“Does Maomao eat that much?”
…
The viewers in the live broadcast room watched as the Shen family finished their noodles with vegetables and meat slices, the Wen family finished their steamed eggs with minced meat and rice, the Wen family finished their bitter gourd with scrambled eggs and shredded pork with lettuce, the Wang family finished their vegetable and meat stew, and finally, even the Cheng family, who had made three dishes and a soup, was cleaning up…
Wei Chengli… was still washing vegetables…
Washing each type of vegetable three times, peeling those that needed to be peeled, blanching those that needed to be blanched, the vegetables and meat provided by the program team were plentiful, and Wei Chengli meticulously processed them all.
The viewers in the live broadcast room couldn’t figure out what dishes Wei Chengli was planning to make, as it was already close to 2:30 pm.
Various guesses popped up in the comments, and then, in the remaining half hour, they watched as Wei Chengli chopped and minced everything, then piled it all into a large bowl, added water and rice, and put it on the steamer.
As the live broadcast reached 3 pm, Wei Chengli received the task card with one hand and stoked the fire in the stove with the other. The comments in the live broadcast room fell silent for a moment.
“This…”
“So this is the lunch that Maomao missed two boiled eggs for…”
“Although Director Wei finally opened the insulated box and ate the eggs, satisfying my curiosity, if I had another chance, I would beg him to show mercy…”
“The legendary Buddha Jumps Over the Wall* is also a mixture of various ingredients, this should also be good… (Sorry, I can’t continue making this up…)”
“I shouldn’t have said that CEO Shen was slacking off by making noodles, I apologize.”
“But Director Wei is really serious about washing vegetables, and he chops them very finely, is there a slight possibility that it will actually be delicious?”
“With all due respect, unless he adds some secret family recipe or a lot of high-tech stuff, from what I’ve seen, this…”
…
Wei Chengli was unaware of the speechless reactions in the comments. He had tried his best to get the meal steaming before receiving the task card.
“I’ll go do my task, this meal will be ready in about half an hour. Please wake Maomao up to eat when it’s time.” Wei Chengli asked the staff member as he added two more pieces of firewood to the stove.
“Okay. But what if I can’t wake her up…” The staff member said hesitantly.
She had personally witnessed Wen Dongyu, Shen Zilin, and Wang Zhizhi coming to play with Maomao earlier, and even after Wei Chengli went into the bedroom three times, he couldn’t wake her up…
“She should have slept long enough, if it really doesn’t work, you can…” Wei Chengli lowered his voice, “You can secretly tickle the soles of her feet.”
The staff member: “…” It wasn’t really possible to do that secretly.
Regardless, the task still had to be done. According to the show’s previous format, the completion of tasks was related to rewards. Wei Chengli couldn’t imagine how disappointed the little dumpling would be when she woke up and found that others had this and that, but she had nothing.
But just as he was about to leave, Wei Chengli suddenly remembered the children who had come over while he was washing vegetables.
The little boys had all come to play with Maomao, wouldn’t those three identical Rubik’s cubes hurt their feelings…
In the end, before leaving, Wei Chengli went back to the main room, pulled out Wei Maomao’s little bunny backpack, twisted the three Rubik’s cubes, and instantly turned them into three different… Rubik’s cubes.
Maomao, for your social life, your Daddy has really put in a lot of effort!
Wei Chengli stuffed the Rubik’s cubes back into the bag, couldn’t help but pinch the little dumpling’s chubby cheeks a few more times before leaving with a humph.
Perhaps because the feeling of the little dumpling’s cheeks was too good, even after walking almost to the village entrance, the soft and squishy feeling still lingered on his hand. Seeing Cheng Tingyan playing at the entrance of the Cheng family’s house, Wei Chengli, who was in a hurry, suddenly stopped.
“Yan Yan.” Wei Chengli squatted down. “Has your dad gone to do his task?”
Cheng Tingyan nodded slightly.
“What about Rongrong? What’s Rongrong doing?” Wei Chengli asked kindly.
Rongrong…
“Sleeping.” Cheng Tingyan replied concisely.
“Children do sleep a lot. Maomao is also sleeping now, she hasn’t even had lunch yet, she’ll sleep for another half an hour before waking up.” Wei Chengli didn’t mind Cheng Tingyan’s coldness, and said with a smile, “Uncle also needs to go do his task. Can Yan Yan do Uncle a favor? When it’s almost time for your task, can you and Rongrong go pick up Maomao?”
Maomao…
Cheng Tingyan pursed her lips and didn’t speak.
“Yan Yan is a big sister now, Uncle can only feel at ease if Yan Yan is looking after the younger sisters. Didn’t your dad also ask you to look after Rongrong? You can wait for Rongrong to wake up and then take her to pick up Maomao, okay?” Wei Chengli tried to persuade her. Let the cute children play together happily, quickly forget about Daddy’s terrible hypothetical situation!
Rongrong…
Cheng Tingyan clenched her hands. “Dad didn’t ask me to look after Rongrong.”
Wei Chengli: “…”
“No Rongrong.” Cheng Tingyan slightly raised her head, her clear black and white eyes looking at Wei Chengli indifferently. “Just me, do you still want me to go?”
************
T/N; Legendary Buddha Jumps Over the Wall*: The dish’s name is an allusion to the dish’s ability to entice the vegetarian Buddhist monks from their temples to partake in the meat-based dish, and implies that even the strictly vegetarian Gautama Buddha would try to jump over a wall to sample it.
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