Chapter 68p2
Shen Zilin actually felt that since the program team had made such a big deal out of the registration, they were more likely to set up new, difficult tasks to obtain these foods, rather than playing tricks with the size and quantity. But despite his thoughts, Shen Zilin was still quite impressed by Wei Maomao’s performance, not giving them any loopholes to exploit. As a three-year-old baby, Wei Maomao was doing very well. In time, she would do even better, truly worthy of being the partner he had his eyes on, well… one of them.
Wei Maomao didn’t know why Shen Zilin was suddenly looking at her with such enthusiasm. For her, she just felt the program team’s recent direction was strange, and she really wanted to eat those three things, so she took some precautions, that’s all.
But what Wei Maomao didn’t expect was that the program team’s direction was indeed still strange, but not in their direction.
In the morning, while the babies went to Wen Qiming’s ancient literature activity, Wei Chengli stayed home to watch the child and wash the bedsheets. The other dads were taken by the villagers to experience activities such as collecting shrimp traps, picking vegetables, collecting eggs from chicken coops, picking watermelons in the field, and picking grapes from the vines. Many of the ingredients on the lunch table and the fruits after the meal were gathered by them this morning. Freshly harvested and eaten, delicious and nutritious.
It could be said that the dads had a relaxing morning, either utilizing their expertise, making up for their mistakes, or enjoying a half-day tour of rural produce collection. So when they received their task cards in the afternoon and saw the task of helping villagers harvest watermelons in the field, they couldn’t help but scoff.
As expected, the program team wouldn’t let them have it too easy, the last bit of their conscience was probably letting them nap until 3:30, avoiding the hottest part of the day.
However, what the dads didn’t expect was that the program team had even less conscience than they thought.
“This is… What they want to eat? Or what?” Wang Qingchuan, who was already at the front of the group, saw the blackboard standing by the watermelon field and ran over, taking three steps at a time.
He recognized all the words, he could roughly guess what it meant, but he… didn’t want to understand at all!
“Tsk, she wants to eat fried chicken and french fries? She even specified the size, no thin chicken or thin fries. Dream on, a three-year-old wanting to eat fried food. Eating the program team’s lunchbox is fine, I saw braised chicken in the lunchbox at noon, it smelled quite good.” Wei Chengli, who had also run over ahead of the others, immediately saw the two lines with the most words, belonging to his little chubby dumpling and Cheng Tingyan. Looking at the three food items, he couldn’t help but complain.
Wang Qingchuan, speechless, turned to look at Wei Chengli. “Are you only looking at what she wants to eat? Did you see the numbers next to the food items?”
“Could these numbers be the weight of the watermelons?” Cheng Feiying, also quick on his feet, arrived at the blackboard.
Wen Xiang, silently following behind, looked at the blackboard, speechless.
“They should be.” Shen Jianghe glanced at the three food items listed after Shen Zilin’s name: [Hamburger 3000kg], [Steak 2100kg], [Lamb Skewers 1500kg]. “It can’t be the weight of the food.”
“The program team might as well just take my life.” Wen Qiming, the last to arrive, looked at the endless watermelon field, then at the carts by the blackboard and the line of trucks parked on the dirt road in the distance. He walked to Wei Chengli’s side, patted his shoulder, and said, “Any leftovers from lunch? My family will just eat leftovers for dinner.”
Wei Chengli: “… “
Although Wen Qiming said that, he still listened carefully when the program team announced the additional rules for the task.
It was indeed as written on the blackboard, the three food items listed after each child’s name were the three things they wanted to eat the most, as freshly surveyed by the program team, and ranked based on their desire. Whether the baby could eat it, what they could eat, depended on how many kilograms the dad could harvest this afternoon.
“So you’re saying, the higher the weight requirement, the more the baby wants to eat that item?” Wei Chengli pointed at the blackboard and asked.
The host nodded with a smile. “Yes.”
“Then let’s say, hypothetically, I harvest 2100 kilograms of watermelon, do I get the fried chicken for the 2100kg tier, or do I get both the fried chicken for the 2100kg tier and the french fries for the 1500kg tier?” Wei Chengli asked again.
The host maintained his smile. “You can only get one food item.”
Wei Chengli looked at the 3000kg requirement for the lunchbox and asked one last question, “Then did the babies know what we had to do to exchange for these food items when they ranked them?”
The host shook his head. “No.”
Wei Chengli felt a bit better, his adorable little chubby dumpling, as expected, was still adorable, she didn’t intentionally坑 him.
Some people, after being tricked repeatedly, still didn’t realize it and were even eager to challenge the limits.
While others were much more rational.
Wen Qiming walked into the watermelon field from the edge, bent down to check a few watermelons, then climbed back up, looked at the vast field, and turned to the other dads. “These watermelons look about the same size as the ones we picked this morning, probably around eighty to ninety kilograms. Let’s assume an average of eight kilograms…”
“The first tier requires about 188 watermelons, the second tier 262, the third tier 375.” Shen Jianghe quickly calculated.
“We have to pick the watermelons from the field, the trucks can’t drive in, we have to transport them to the roadside in those carts.” Wen Qiming pointed at the carts by the blackboard, then at the trucks on the road in the distance. “Then we have to load them onto the trucks, the host said the weighing will be done by the trucks.”
“The watermelons aren’t all by the roadside, we’ll definitely have to go deeper into the field. Walking, picking, transporting, carrying the watermelons to the roadside for weighing, all take time.” Shen Jianghe said, calculating silently.
Wen Qiming continued, “These carts can only be pushed along the narrow paths in the field, we can’t just push them anywhere, we also have to factor in the time it takes to pick the watermelon and walk back to the cart.”
“An average of… fifteen seconds per watermelon?” Wei Chengli also calculated.
“If that’s your calculated time, it’ll definitely take longer in reality.” Wang Qingchuan said, stretching his limbs. “Don’t underestimate those eight or nine kilograms, we can easily carry them now. But this is continuous labor, we’ll get more and more tired. We have to add at least five seconds per watermelon, plus some time to catch our breath, I think it might even take double the time.”
“Double the time… The third tier will take an hour and a half, the second tier two and a half hours… the first tier three hours?” Shen Jianghe quickly finished his calculation and was stunned by the result.
“Are they kidding? In this heat?” Cheng Feiying looked at the blackboard, frowning.
The most annoying thing was their family, his two daughters had separate lists. It was fair, the weight requirement for each tier was halved… But it was still annoying.
“Technically, the tasks aren’t mandatory, should we do it?” Wen Qiming, who didn’t want to do it, said, taking advantage of Cheng Feiying’s words.
This task was a bit too much, even completing the lowest tier required an hour and a half, based on his ability, it might take even longer.
But he couldn’t be the only one to give up, that would look bad, not only would it make him seem incapable… It wouldn’t be fair to Wen Jiangyue if the other children got to eat while she had nothing.
If possible, it would be best if they all went on strike, then there wouldn’t be any problem.
Strength in numbers.
This task was also a bit…
Just as Wen Qiming was trying to persuade the others, Wen Xiang, who had been silently stretching behind Wang Qingchuan, walked into the field.
Wen Qiming: “… “
“I’ll go and play too.” Wang Qingchuan walked to the edge of the field, and before going down, he even turned back and reminded them, “Stretch your legs before you come down, don’t sprain your ankles.”
Wen Qiming: “… “
If they couldn’t stand united from the beginning, there was no point in talking about it later.
In the end, all the dads went into the field.
In the monitoring room, Zeng Huanian, seeing that Wen Qiming, the last one, had also entered the field, finally relaxed his clenched fist and breathed a sigh of relief.
“What’s wrong, so nervous?” Shi Dingshan, leisurely blowing on his tea, chuckled.
“It’s not nervousness. I was just worried they wouldn’t want to do this task…” Zeng Huanian rubbed his hands, then squatted down and poured himself a cup of tea.
Honestly, in Zeng Huanian’s opinion, this task was indeed too difficult. Not to mention for a parenting show, even for a celebrity farming show, this task was considered harsh. But thinking about what Shi Dingshan had arranged the night before, Zeng Huanian felt that there was a reason for its difficulty.
“If they don’t want to do it, then they don’t have to, our tasks aren’t mandatory.” Shi Dingshan chuckled. “Even if they don’t do this task, we’ll still provide dinner for them tonight, we won’t let them starve.”
“Then you’ll show the babies the footage of them giving up on the task tonight, right?” Zeng Huanian said helplessly.
“Of course, isn’t that what we agreed on?” Shi Dingshan put down his cup, took out his phone, and scrolled through it. “Mmm, it seems we have enough other footage, we just need this afternoon’s. Tell them to start editing while filming, in case some dads are too hardworking, and we don’t have enough time for editing after everyone finishes the task.”
“Okay.” Zeng Huanian nodded in agreement, took a sip of his tea, looked at the noticeable increase in gray hairs on Shi Dingshan’s head these past few days, and couldn’t help but say in a low voice, “Director Shi, you said earlier that we’re just filming a variety show, we don’t want to interfere in their family matters, it sounded… I didn’t expect you to have such a grand plan…”
“What, suddenly admiring me? Using such formal language. Stop it.” Shi Dingshan chuckled. “What grand plan? I think you’re misunderstanding something.”
“It’s just, you… Cough, you specifically asked the editors to compile footage of the dads working hard these past few days, planning to show it to the babies, so they’ll understand their dads’ hardships. Then when they become parents in the future, they’ll be more considerate of their dads’ hard work… You’re truly a good person.” Zeng Huanian tried to express his understanding.
Then he saw Shi Dingshan burst into laughter.
Shi Dingshan laughed for a while before calming down, wiping the tears from the corner of his eyes. “Xiao Zeng, stop overthinking, okay? We’re making a variety show, don’t be fooled by the surface. If I’m just showing them footage to let them know how hard their dads worked for their meals, wouldn’t a few hundred kilograms be enough?”
Zeng Huanian was stunned, thinking about it that way… It was a blind spot he had completely overlooked.
He remained stunned for a while.
After finally sorting out his thoughts, Zeng Huanian couldn’t believe what he had just realized.
“Director Shi, you mean, you want the babies to see… the dads giving up?” Zeng Huanian felt like his own voice was making his head buzz.
“Oh, no, not that.” Shi Dingshan shook his head. “I just want to show the babies the extent to which their dads are willing to go. Whether they do it, how much they do, it’s their own decision.”
“But, not doing your best doesn’t mean you don’t love your baby… This isn’t something that can be achieved overnight.” Zeng Huanian argued.
“This weight requirement isn’t excessive, they can all achieve it with time and persistence.” Shi Dingshan looked at the screen, Shen Jianghe was already organizing the dads to form a line, connecting the watermelon field to the carts on the path, using a human chain to transport the watermelons, increasing efficiency and reducing fatigue. “Everything is accumulated over time, it’s a gradual process. Tell me, when the babies become parents, to what extent will they be willing to go for dads like this?”
Zeng Huanian: “… “
Thinking about it that way, he actually felt that the babies… could do even more.
“So am I truly a good person now?” Shi Dingshan turned to look at Zeng Huanian.
His tired eyes were filled with a strange fervor…
Zeng Huanian couldn’t figure out what Shi Dingshan was trying to achieve, but… he still nodded.
Shi Dingshan chuckled and shook his head.
He wasn’t a good person.
He was just someone who had fallen into the sea, unwilling to sink, blindly flailing and searching for a plank to cling to.
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