Chapter 35 p1
“What cartoons?” The corner of Wei Chengli’s mouth twitched, and when he spoke again, his voice was laced with exasperation. “It’s ‘Adventures of the Earthen Rabbit,’ the one you kept dragging me to watch every day, over and over again! You remember the things I said while watching the cartoon so well, how can you forget the cartoon itself?”
“Oh, that one.” Wei Maomao replied flatly.
Wei Chengli looked at the little chubby dumpling, who seemed completely unconcerned, and was shocked. “That’s it? Just ‘Oh, that one’? You’re done? Did you even listen to what Daddy just said?”
Wei Maomao glanced at Wei Chengli, shook her other wet foot, and placed it on his towel-covered knee.
“Maomao!” Wei Chengli’s expression turned serious. “Daddy is talking to you seriously!”
Wei Maomao rubbed her chubby feet against the towel.
“Baby…” Wei Chengli, seeing that the little chubby dumpling wasn’t fazed by his stern demeanor, sighed, continued to dry her feet, and repeated in a softer tone, “Baby, can you please… not mention those things I said when we were watching ‘Adventures of the Earthen Rabbit’?”
“Why can’t I say them? Daddy, did you lie when you said those things? Did you deceive your baby?” Wei Maomao feigned confusion.
Wei Maomao felt this topic needed to be prolonged. This way, it would have a chance of being noticed by the editors, a chance of being included in the main episode, providing a cover for her seemingly three-year-old brain.
“No, no, Daddy didn’t lie… How could I deceive my precious baby!” Wei Chengli was startled by Wei Maomao’s question, quickly denying it, and then tried to explain and persuade her. “It’s just… not quite appropriate. Some things are true, but they aren’t meant to be used that way, they aren’t suitable to be said all the time. You’re still young, you don’t quite understand the meaning of some things…”
“Are you saying I was wrong?” Wei Maomao stomped her feet on the towel on Wei Chengli’s knee twice, then slipped her feet into her slippers and stood up. “My feet are clean. Hmph! I’m going to take a bath!”
“… “ Wei Chengli reached out and grabbed the little chubby dumpling’s dirty skirt. “You’re not wrong, you’re not wrong, okay! I’m just saying, can you please not say those things anymore…”
Wei Maomao calculated that this topic had lasted long enough, she turned around, grinned, and yanked her skirt back, shouting, “No!”
“Wait, wait. Let’s discuss this further.” Wei Chengli held onto her skirt, preventing the little chubby dumpling from running, but the little one was quite strong.
Suddenly, an idea struck him, he remembered something he had seen that afternoon.
“Wait, Baby, I’ll show you something nice…” Wei Chengli said as he tugged at the skirt, “I’ll show you something that looks a lot like Yan Yan, okay?”
It was a tug-of-war, and when the stalemate was broken by one side suddenly letting go, the outcome was inevitable…
The force pulling the skirt vanished, Wei Chengli, caught off guard, fell back onto the ground, still holding onto the little dirty skirt he hadn’t had time to release.
Wei Maomao, pulled back by the skirt, bumped into Wei Chengli, her head hitting his hard chin.
How could her delicate three-year-old body withstand such a head-on collision? Before Wei Maomao could even react, large teardrops had already welled up in her eyes.
“Rub, rub, Daddy will rub it, it doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t hurt, blow, blow…” Wei Chengli sat on the ground, frantically rubbing the little chubby dumpling’s head.
Ugh, he had wanted to have a nice discussion, and now he had made the child cry again, this would be hard to coax… Wei Chengli felt a bit helpless.
But this time, Wei Chengli was wrong.
The little chubby dumpling didn’t make a fuss, instead, she wiped her own tears obediently and said resolutely, “Where’s the thing that looks like Yan Yan?”
Wei Chengli’s hand, rubbing the baby’s head, paused, and he chuckled in exasperation.
So whose fault was it that she fell! It wasn’t his fault after all! It was the fault of this little thing who immediately became obedient and stopped struggling when she heard the words “Yan Yan”!
“You’re something else, Wei Maomao!” Wei Chengli flicked Wei Maomao’s forehead. “Is Yan Yan the only thing that matters now?”
Although he said that, looking at the little chubby dumpling with red eyes and still sniffling, he beckoned to the staff.
He had seen a small flower in the afternoon and had impulsively asked his cameraman to take a picture of it, thinking he would show it to Maomao when they got back, but it was just a fleeting thought.
Later, halfway through his task, Wei Chengli remembered his lunch mishap, coupled with the pitiful sight of Maomao crying while eating the mush, he had been preoccupied with how to appease her. He diligently gathered ingredients and cooked dinner, and he even had a backup plan.
Because they were filming live, he couldn’t directly use the camera to show it, so Wei Chengli had asked the staff to print a photo of that small white flower in the afternoon.
He had already given away the Daddy Coins in exchange for Baby Coins, and he had also drunk the mush. After smoothing over the lunch incident, Wei Chengli had almost forgotten about this.
It turned out that offending his daughter was something that could happen at any moment…
The photo arrived in Wei Maomao’s hands, she looked at the small white flower growing from the crack in the wall, and fell silent.
“Baby, doesn’t it look a lot like her? I can’t explain why, hahaha, I just think it resembles her spirit.” Wei Chengli looked at the little chubby dumpling, who seemed to be studying the photo intently, and said softly, “I’m giving you this photo, and the things we talked about when we agreed to watch that cartoon together, that will be our secret. You can’t just tell anyone about it anymore, okay?”
“Firstly!” Wei Maomao suddenly looked up, raising a chubby finger. “I didn’t tell anyone randomly!”
Wei Chengli: “…”
“Secondly, Daddy, you said there’s nothing that can’t be said. If you do this, others will think we talked about something bad, something we can’t tell others.” Wei Maomao raised two chubby fingers and said seriously, “Wang Zhizhi said what you say makes a lot of sense! ‘Adventures of the Earthen Rabbit’ is a good cartoon, we didn’t say anything bad, I will talk about it tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow too!”
Wei Chengli: “…”
Here it comes, here it comes, just like that, his own words were used against him… But what did this have to do with Wang Zhizhi?
“Lastly!” Wei Maomao shook the photo in her hand. “It doesn’t look like Yan Yan at all! I’m going to take a bath!”
The little chubby dumpling ran off, holding the photo.
Wei Chengli chuckled, if it didn’t look like her, why didn’t she give it back?
And unbeknownst to them, countless people online, in the live broadcast room, on Weibo, forums, were searching for “Tu Tu Adventures,” “Earthen Earthen Adventures,” “Rabbit Rabbit Adventures”…
The problem was, it was really annoying that the live broadcast didn’t have subtitles!
There were just too many annoying things in this world.
Clearly, the situation Cheng Tingyan was facing, pressed against the wall, was ten thousand times more annoying than a live broadcast without subtitles.
“Sister, come with me…” Cheng Rongrong held onto Cheng Tingyan’s arm tightly, whispering weakly, “I’m scared to go alone.”
Cheng Tingyan pursed her lips, trying to pull her hand free, but Cheng Rongrong was clinging to her too tightly.
“Why don’t you just go help her? If I were a woman, I would just go in, why do you even need…” After a couple of kind words, Cheng Feiying became impatient.
“Daddy…” Cheng Rongrong quickly stopped Cheng Feiying’s rising anger. Her goal wasn’t to stage a father-scolding-daughter scene in the live broadcast.
“… “ Cheng Feiying calmed down under his younger daughter’s gaze and patiently persuaded Cheng Tingyan, “Rongrong is only three and a half years old, so young, she can’t bathe herself properly. You’re her older sister, it’s fine if you’re usually impatient with her, but even at a time like this, you’re still going to be stubborn and refuse to help her?”
“Sister… Sister…” Cheng Rongrong gently shook Cheng Tingyan’s hand.
Cheng Rongrong was prepared to act cute and coquettishly plead with her. She was over two years younger than Cheng Tingyan, pleading so humbly, Cheng Tingyan’s resistance and silent refusal would definitely appear heartless to the viewers.
Cheng Tingyan, pressed against the wall, ignored their words, her gaze fixed on the staff behind the row of cameras not far away.
“Cheng… Yan Yan, your sister and dad are talking to you, are you even listening?” Cheng Feiying frowned, rubbing his right hand impatiently, truly displeased with his wooden daughter.
Why was he getting angry again… Didn’t they agree that he would just try to persuade her, and the outcome didn’t matter! Seeing Cheng Feiying’s state, Cheng Rongrong was worried that if the standoff continued, the viewers wouldn’t remember Cheng Tingyan’s bad behavior but would focus on Cheng Feiying’s instead.
Although she had shown enough, and she could stop now that her efforts weren’t working, it was still a bit of a pity. Cheng Tingyan’s current refusal only made her seem heartless. If she could eventually wear her down and make her go into the bathroom, she could at least give her a reputation for bullying her sister behind closed doors.
If Cheng Tingyan went in with her and she fell, leaving some bruises, she would become the victim, and for the rest of the filming, the audience would be biased towards her, the weaker one. Ending it now was considered Cheng Tingyan’s good luck… It was all because of Cheng Feiying, he was actually angry, sigh, as expected of the dad who loved her the most.
“Then I… Then I’ll go by myself…” Cheng Rongrong decided to stop here.
But before she could retract her hand, she saw a sudden glint in Cheng Tingyan’s eyes.
She had found her!
“Su… Li…” Cheng Tingyan had barely spoken since returning, and because she had been tense, her voice was a bit hoarse when she finally spoke. But she quickly cleared her throat and called out to the bun-haired woman who was stuck at the door, crammed amongst the staff, “Sister Su Li!”
Cheng Rongrong’s hands, still clinging to Cheng Tingyan’s arm, suddenly tightened.
It was getting late, the wind in the courtyard was already a bit chilly. Su Li, who was squatting behind the cameraman munching on a biscuit, was startled by the sudden call of her name, her hand trembled, almost dropping the biscuit.
“She’s calling you!” The staff member beside her nudged Su Li.
Su Li stuffed the biscuit into the staff member’s hand, quickly brushing the crumbs off her mouth, but after standing up, she didn’t know how to react.
They, the staff, were all blocking the door, separated from the people inside by a few cameramen and cameras. The argument between the three, well, actually just between two of them, was so loud that everyone could clearly hear what was going on.
Su Li certainly hadn’t forgotten that her job was to take care of the two children when Cheng Feiying was away or unavailable. Like at noon, when Yan Yan went to the Wei family’s house, she had stayed behind to watch over Rongrong, who was still asleep.
But this situation… was different… All three of them were present, what was there for her to do?
Before joining the show, Director Jin had specifically instructed her, the Cheng family had made a special request to the program team. They said that because their two children had different mothers, they weren’t close, and they hoped that participating in this show, where the three of them were related by blood and had to rely on each other, could help foster a positive development in their family relationships. They also said that Cheng Tingyan was cold on the outside but warm on the inside, she would become more proactive if others were more enthusiastic towards her. Su Li understood what Director Jin meant, she was responsible for taking care of the children, but if the Cheng family members could take care of each other, she shouldn’t interfere. Even if they bickered and pushed each other back and forth, it was just them working things out, she shouldn’t get involved.
Wasn’t this the unspoken agreement between the Cheng family and the staff?
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