Chapter 4
In her previous life, Wei Maomao had watched both the first and third seasons of “Where’s Baby Going” that Cheng Tingyan had participated in over and over again. However, she had only skimmed through the second season, which had the best reputation, so she naturally wouldn’t have paid special attention to Shi Dingshan, the chief director of the second season.
In fact, it wasn’t until Wei Maomao was about seventeen years old in her previous life that she learned about Shi Dingshan from related news on trending topics.
News of a vicious crime.
During an anti-gambling operation, the police arrested several people for gambling, one of whom, a man named Shi Xiaoxiao, repeatedly asked the police during the interrogation whether they had received any specific reports before the operation, which aroused the police’s suspicion.
After a detailed interrogation, an old case was uncovered from the gambling case.
Fourteen years ago, Shi Xiaoxiao’s father, the famous director Shi Dingshan, died of a heart attack in a hotel. A few days later, while sorting through his father’s belongings in his old house, Shi Xiaoxiao discovered several security cameras and found a special video from the stored surveillance footage.
The video clearly showed his young stepmother switching the medicine in the pendant of his father’s necklace while his father was taking a shower.
According to Shi Xiaoxiao’s confession, because Shi Dingshan’s will was very unfair in terms of property distribution, nearly 90% of the inheritance was left to his younger brother Shi Xuxuan, who was born to his young stepmother. Therefore, he did not hand over the video to the police at the time, but chose to blackmail his stepmother for a long time.
According to Shi Xiaoxiao’s confession, it had become more and more difficult to get the money in the past two years, and he often felt like he was being followed, suspecting that the other party was going to fight back desperately. And the place they went to this time was very secretive. If someone hadn’t followed and reported them, how could they have been caught so accurately?
Since the other party was being unreasonable, he couldn’t be blamed for being unjust. Shi Xiaoxiao handed over the surveillance video from back then.
Shi Dingshan was a well-known commercial film director before his death. Later, he became interested in variety shows and directed several popular ones. Even though he had passed away for more than ten years, his name still remained in the industry.
Celebrity, criminal case, family ethics, the news was hot for quite a few days, and there were many follow-up reports.
Shi Dingshan was alone in the hotel and died of a heart attack. The medical staff who arrived at the scene found from the scattered pills that he might have taken expired nitroglycerin tablets.
It wasn’t until more than ten years later that the truth came out. Those expired pills were not due to his negligence, but were switched by his second wife.
Some things, after re-investigation, were finally settled.
But some things… never had an explanation.
Why was the inheritance distribution so unfair when they were both his sons? The old Shi family house was equipped with surveillance cameras, why didn’t Shi Dingshan’s wife know anything about it? Shi Dingshan had call records with both his wives and his eldest son before his death, was his heart attack related to those calls? How much potency did the expired pills still have, and had Shi Dingshan taken them? If Shi Dingshan had taken the normal pills in time, could he have held on until the ambulance arrived? Was Shi Xiaoxiao, who was already in debt and desperate, really trying to retaliate because he thought he had been reported by his stepmother, or did he want to avenge his father when he still had the heart and strength?
Those unanswered questions eventually became the source of inspiration for many gossips and rumors.
And now, having traveled through time and space, the protagonist of those gossips was standing right in front of Wei Maomao.
Chubby, with a kind smile, he was stuffing a little cat doll into her hand.
No wonder she had no memory of such an uncle.
Because he had died when she was so young that she couldn’t even remember things properly…
“Look, baby, this is a small bowl for feeding the kitty. If you use it to feed the kitty, it’s Wei Maomao feeding the kitty, isn’t that cute~~” Shi Dingshan’s eyes crinkled with a smile as he shook the toy food bowl he had taken out in front of the little dumpling. But the little dumpling just stared at him, unmoved by the shaking bowl.
Shi Dingshan followed the little dumpling’s gaze and looked down. Was there something wrong with the neckline of his T-shirt?
“Uncle…” Wei Maomao, who had been piled on the table with the toys by Shi Dingshan, clenched her fists and stood up.
Shi Dingshan, who was standing by the table, hurriedly reached out to protect her.
The soft little dumpling leaned over, and before Shi Dingshan could even sigh at her cuteness, he felt a tightness around his neck.
“Maomao likes this? This is a little gourd…” Shi Dingshan tilted his head with difficulty. Even though he was already a little suffocated by the necklace, he still patiently smiled and introduced, “Do you know what a little gourd is? Cough… there’s a song that goes like this, a vine…”
Wei Maomao had no time for him.
He didn’t even know how to solve the problem of one gourd, let alone seven.
Tsk, why was the mouth of this gourd so tight…
According to the analysis of those news reports in her previous life, expired pills would have some differences in appearance. Wei Maomao didn’t know if it was true, and she didn’t know if Shi Dingshan would be able to tell the difference even if there was one. She couldn’t even judge what was in his gourd now because she didn’t remember the specific date of Shi Dingshan’s death.
However, it was already mid-July, and the third season of “Where’s Baby Going” was officially announced to start in mid-August, which meant that filming would begin in early August. In other words, Shi Dingshan might have less than half a month left to live.
Now that he was right in front of her, she had to give it a try.
Not to mention the distant future, just for the kindness that was right in front of her…
Wei Maomao tried her best to twist the pendant, but her will couldn’t match her body, and her chubby fingers couldn’t exert enough strength.
It was too tight, why was it so tight! If it was this tight, even if it was real medicine, would he be able to open it when he felt uncomfortable?
Her complaints didn’t help. Just as Wei Maomao was considering whether to just ask Shi Dingshan to open it for her, a phone rang.
A three-year-old child couldn’t shake this huge world.
The pendant in her hand was easily taken away. Wei Maomao watched helplessly as Shi Dingshan took out his phone and said “Okay, I’ll be right there” to the other side after only a few words.
Shi Dingshan came and went in a hurry. Before Wei Maomao could even pretend to be a three-year-old throwing a tantrum, he had grabbed Wei Chengli to the table to watch over her.
The table was so high, and the person was so far away.
Wei Maomao only had time to stand on the table and shout at Shi Dingshan, “Uncle, will you come again tomorrow?”
Shi Dingshan responded by winking and nodding at her while talking on the phone, and his chubby hand waving high as he turned and left.
“Hmph, you like Uncle Shi so much. Why don’t you miss Daddy so much when he goes out?” Wei Chengli pouted slightly, blocking Wei Maomao’s view of the empty doorway.
Was that like?
That was the frustration of being afraid that he wouldn’t live.
Wei Maomao pushed her father’s face away and glanced at the clock on the wall.
2:20 pm.
Although she didn’t remember the exact date of Shi Dingshan’s death, she remembered the report saying that he had just finished lunch at that time.
In other words, he had survived today, at least until lunch tomorrow. That was why she didn’t try to keep him.
“Daddy. Tomorrow, morning, have breakfast with Uncle.” Wei Maomao patted her father’s big face, which was leaning in for love, and emphasized seriously, “Definitely!”
Wei Chengli: ???
He was jealous…
Wei Chengli was indeed not very reliable. But Wei Maomao had already proved in the past two weeks how stubborn she could be.
So at the dinner table, when Wei Maomao emphasized for the seventeenth time that she wanted to have breakfast with Shi Dingshan tomorrow morning, Wei Chengli honestly made the call in front of her.
Shi Dingshan, who had been busy all afternoon, hadn’t had time to continue the previous topic about the variety show with Wei Chengli, so he happily agreed and immediately booked a teahouse that was said to be very suitable for children to eat at.
Wei Maomao’s heart, which had been tangled all afternoon, finally relaxed a little.
Late at night.
In the master bedroom, Wei Chengli was telling Zhang Shilan about the afternoon, unable to hide his jealousy.
He didn’t know if he was being too sensitive, but he felt that his precious daughter had been a little disgusted with him lately. Wasn’t it said that the chance of a daughter disliking her father only started during puberty… Sob, sob, sob.
“Old Shi had something to do in the afternoon, so he left before we could talk about the specifics of the variety show. From the tone of his voice today, although he said that all the families had been found, it sounded like he was deliberately trying to provoke me. There should still be a chance. I think if we talk about it tomorrow and there’s still a chance to join, we’ll join. Sigh…” Wei Chengli sighed as he spoke.
Zhang Shilan frowned slightly, “Didn’t you say we’d ask about the specific filming arrangements first and then discuss it? Are we going to join directly now?”
“Looking at Maomao these past few days, it doesn’t seem like she’ll forget about it. If we keep delaying it and she really can’t go in the end, who knows what she’ll be like. Didn’t those experts we found before also say that there’s no external stimulation, and the reason why Maomao’s mood fluctuates so much might be because she’s thinking too much without realizing it? They told us to take her out more often, let her exercise more, and when she’s tired from playing, she won’t have time to think, and she’ll be able to sleep better at night.” Wei Chengli patted the back of Zhang Shilan’s hand. “Now that she’s getting better these past few days, why don’t we just go along with her?”
“You always say that I spoil the child, look at you… She’s still so young, does she really know what filming a variety show is? Really…” Zhang Shilan’s voice trailed off.
This was the trouble of a family that spoiled their child. Even though they knew that she was being unreasonable, they couldn’t bear to be harsh.
“Don’t worry, there’s still some time before filming starts, I’ll work hard to learn how to take care of children, I’ll take good care of Maomao. Besides, this is a parent-child variety show, I heard it can make the parent-child relationship better…” Wei Chengli felt that his father-daughter relationship with the little dumpling needed to be saved.
Zhang Shilan laughed in exasperation, “Oh, so you’re going for the sake of your relationship with her!”
Wei Chengli: “…”
Although the master bedroom and the children’s room were separated by a corridor and some distance, the couple had been keeping their voices down, not daring to speak loudly even when they were joking, for fear of waking up the sleeping child.
But they didn’t know that behind the pink bedroom door of the children’s room, Wei Maomao, who should have been sound asleep, was clenching her fists and cheering herself on in the darkness.
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