Category: Back to Three Years Old: Crushing Scumbags on a Parenting Reality Show

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?

Chapter 34

The mush, made of minced meat, minced vegetables, rice, and water, all steamed together, had smelled decent when it was freshly cooked at noon. Like a hidden trap, only when a spoonful entered the mouth did one discover the devastatingly awful flavor concealed beneath that mild aroma.

After being refrigerated for half a day and then reheated, the smell emanating from this terrifying concoction was even stronger, transforming from a trap to a blatant assault, repelling anyone who dared to approach.

As the sun set and a cool breeze arose, the large soup bowl on the stone table, previously filled to the brim with mush, now had a small corner missing.

The young warrior, heartbroken and defeated, had retreated. Only Wei Chengli and his daughter remained by the stone table.

“Maomao…” Wei Chengli looked at the bowl and mumbled, “Can the bite Wang Zhizhi had count as him eating it for me? That way I only need to eat one bite…”

Wei Maomao, who was squatting on the ground closing the suitcase, unhesitatingly opened the lid and grabbed a handful of Baby Coins.

The clinking sound of coins brought Wei Chengli back to his senses. He hurriedly pleaded, “Baby, Baby! I was wrong, I was wrong! Two spoonfuls, just two spoonfuls! I’ll eat it now!”

No way, he had finally used Daddy Coins to exchange for Baby Coins and earn his little chubby dumpling’s sympathy, he couldn’t possibly take them back… This large bowl of mush, it would take at least a dozen, maybe even twenty spoonfuls to finish…

Besides, it was his fault, Yan Yan and Maomao had eaten more than two spoonfuls at noon, there was no escaping it.

“Baby, Daddy’s going to eat it now. After Daddy finishes these two spoonfuls, we’ll forget about what happened at noon, okay? Baby, look up at Daddy, watch Daddy eat…” Wei Chengli held the bowl and waited. He didn’t want to eat it and then have Maomao say she didn’t see it, that would be a loss.

Wei Maomao looked up.

Wei Chengli, unable to wait for a loving display of sympathy, could only obediently scoop a spoonful into his mouth, then quickly scooped another spoonful before starting to swallow.

Thankfully, he had chopped the ingredients finely at noon, and thankfully for the fridge and microwave. Wei Chengli deliberately ate two spoonfuls at once, without chewing, just swallowing, significantly reducing the difficulty. But even though he tried to force it down his throat, the fishy smell lingered in his mouth… In the end, Wei Chengli couldn’t help but gag slightly.

The viewers in the live broadcast room, who had waited since noon, finally saw Wei Chengli eating the mush, feeling a sense of completion.

“What goes around comes around, hahaha, Director Wei tried so hard but still couldn’t escape those two spoonfuls of mush.”

“Decisive action, using his entire fortune, six Daddy Coins, to buy the right to not eat all the mush, our Director Wei has some skills when it comes to appeasing his child!”

“Hahaha, I say, Director Wei should really thank his new son! Maomao didn’t seem like she would fall for his tricks.”

“Right, if it weren’t for Wen Dongyu, Maomao wouldn’t have softened so easily.”

“Why? I didn’t see Wen Dongdong persuading Maomao to forgive Director Wei! I have a whole row of live broadcast windows open! What did I miss!”

“Wen Dongdong didn’t persuade her. It’s just that when Director Wei put the newly exchanged Baby Coins into Maomao’s suitcase, Maomao immediately picked them out. Maomao’s second camera captured it clearly, hahaha, she picked out the ones Wei Chengli put in. But just after she picked them out, Wen Dongdong shook them loose!”

“I’m dying of laughter. Did you see Maomao’s expression when those coins fell back in, hahaha… She was completely speechless with Wen Dongdong.”

“Our little bunny is truly magnanimous, forgiving Director Wei, otherwise, with a whole suitcase of Baby Coins, she could have easily grabbed six more and returned them.”

“Speaking of which, each person has two cameras, Maomao’s second camera is really something, besides filming Maomao, the other things it captures are also quite funny. Like Director Wei’s insulated bag in the morning, Cheng Rongrong’s hand covered in potato chip crumbs, and the staff member taking care of Maomao secretly drinking the mush and then throwing up at noon, hahaha…”

“Right! Maomao’s second camera sometimes captures Yan Yan too. I feel like the Yan Yan filmed by this camera looks even better than the ones filmed by her own two cameramen. There were two times where it specifically focused on Yan Yan, and she looked like she was bathed in a soft light, it made her whole person look much brighter.”

“Aww, I missed it! Why doesn’t the live broadcast have replays!”

“Hahaha, those who missed it, you can only wait for the edited version of the show. Hopefully, the editors will include those beautiful shots of Yan Yan.”

“I actually think that the Yan Yan filmed by Maomao’s cameraman looks stunning because she’s with Maomao, hahaha!”

“To be fair, Yan Yan seems quite happy when she’s with Maomao, she even smiled at Maomao when she was leaving. But when she’s with her dad and sister, she never smiles… You guys can pay attention to this later.”

“At least Yan Yan left the Wei family’s house with a smile. Unlike Wang Zhizhi, hahaha, I saw in his live broadcast room, he was stumbling when he left.”

“Hahaha, Wang Zhizhi is still too young, he just boasted that he could eat Director Wei’s cooking every day, then the next second, he was defeated by the mush.”

“Director Wei is still the best, Wen Xiang still hasn’t learned his lesson, he should grab Wen Dongdong and feed him Director Wei’s mush, see if he still calls Director Wei Daddy.”

“Person above, do you have a grudge against Wen Dongdong, hahaha…”

…

Wen Dongyu, who had directly called Wei Chengli Daddy, escaped a tribulation.

Wang Zhizhi, who had been subtle and reserved, endured the baptism of mush.

The world was truly unpredictable.

At first, Wang Zhizhi, smelling the unusual aroma of the mush Wei Chengli had brought, had held onto a glimmer of hope. He held his breath, insisting on eating it, determined to prove to Maomao that he could! But when a spoonful of mush entered his mouth, before he could even start chewing, that strange, fishy smell started to spread.

What was that smell? It was probably the first time he had experienced such a cruel attack from food.

People instinctively sought pleasure and avoided pain, Wang Zhizhi almost reflexively wanted to spit it out.

But when Wang Zhizhi met Maomao’s eyes, calm, as if she had already known this would be the outcome, he suddenly suppressed his urge to vomit, he endured it.

Wang Zhizhi ran away, covering his mouth, his steps faltering.

Running away was also a form of surrender, but it was better than throwing up in front of Maomao and her dad.

Wang Zhizhi ran blindly, ignoring the staff’s calls behind him, disappearing into the maze of alleys.

Don’t throw up, don’t throw up!

No one knew that at this moment, in Wang Zhizhi’s mind, this mouthful of mush was a test, a hurdle, something he felt he had to overcome, or how could he face future challenges?

But it was truly too hard to swallow!

Perhaps running did divert Wang Zhizhi’s attention, he had resolutely kept the mush in his mouth until he turned a corner and saw his own house not far ahead.

“Why didn’t you come straight home? Who allowed you to run around? You’re so old, still so mischievous, can you set a good example for your sisters?” Wang Qingchuan stood at the gate, his face grim, looking at his son who had stopped in the distance.

Wang Qingchuan’s voice was loud and clear, even from afar, every word reached Wang Zhizhi’s ears.

Gulp…

He swallowed the mush.

The strange, disgusting taste lingered in his mouth, but after smacking his lips, Wang Zhizhi suddenly felt that it was nothing.

There was only so much pain a person could endure at the same time. When one side was extremely painful, the discomfort on the other side was naturally ignored.

Wang Zhizhi didn’t argue, he just lowered his head and walked towards his dad, gently touching the coin purse at his waist, regretting not leaving it at Maomao’s house like Wen Dongyu. And… regretting not persevering and eating the mush at Maomao’s house. He thought he could do it, at this moment, he thought he could.

Regret was a very common emotion.

If Wang Zhizhi’s current regret was the size of a peach, then Zhang Jin’s regret had clearly grown from a potato in the afternoon to a pumpkin by evening.

“Who told you to post that video?” Zhang Jin said through gritted teeth, forcing himself to stay calm. “I’ve been calling you since this afternoon, why didn’t you answer? You saw so many missed calls, couldn’t you at least call me back? Didn’t you know to discuss it with me, your manager, before posting the video?”

“I was getting a spa treatment this afternoon, I didn’t hear the phone. I’m not the only one who called you, do I have time to call each of you back? You’re Cheng Feiying’s manager, not mine.” Bai Lei said coldly, admiring her newly manicured nails. “What’s wrong with the video I posted? Isn’t it the truth? Is a child allowed to say whatever she wants on the show, and I’m not allowed to refute?”

“Why are you arguing with a child? Does she even know how the family’s finances are managed? Does she even know what property is? She’s just counting her own allowance. If you hadn’t posted that video, when the opportunity arises, we could have easily hired some internet trolls to hype things up, and it would have blown over.” Zhang Jin rubbed his temples, which were throbbing. “What’s the point of showing off your snack cabinet now?”

Bai Lei scoffed. “Of course it’s useful. There are plenty of snacks at home, she still wants to buy those expired things, isn’t that just her having low taste? Low taste, unhealthy preferences, isn’t it normal not to give her more allowance?”

“Right, I’m not saying your logic is wrong, the key is your timing. Why are you in such a hurry? You’re the stepmother, being so anxious makes you look guilty. And it’s not just about allowance and expired snacks,” Zhang Jin said with exasperation. “Did you even watch the live broadcast, did you read the comments, or did you just listen to someone’s retelling? The real issue now is, where’s the money Cheng Tingyan earned from filming variety shows and commercials?”

“They’re actually concerned about other people’s money now? Cheng Tingyan’s custody is with us, we provide her with food and shelter, we even take care of her paralyzed mother. She’s only six years old, should we keep her money with netizens instead?” Bai Lei scoffed disdainfully. “But she’s quite bold, actually bringing this up on the show, I thought she was really obedient. I have to tell Cheng Feiying, he needs to keep her on a tighter leash.”

“It’s not that simple, Director Shi confiscated their phones, they can’t contact the outside world unless…” Zhang Jin was talking on the phone, scrolling through online comments, but before he could finish, Bai Lei interrupted him.

“You don’t have to worry, I have my ways.” Bai Lei said, then smiled. “Old Zhang, don’t tell me you still have feelings for Liu Qiongfang and want to side with her?”

Zhang Jin was stunned, before he could say anything, Bai Lei hung up.

“What a mess!” Zhang Jin, his neck red with anger, slammed the phone down on the table.

He shouldn’t have been greedy for Cheng Feiying’s popularity back then and stayed on as his manager after the divorce.

He had been too naive, thinking that he had been with Cheng Feiying since he was unknown, sticking with him would be better than managing a newcomer. But popularity could decline so easily… If it weren’t for him pulling strings and getting Cheng Feiying onto the first season of “Where’s Baby Going,” giving him a lifeline, and then the second season becoming a hit, boosting the popularity of the first season and giving him another push, who knows what level Cheng Feiying would have fallen to.

But as Cheng Feiying’s popularity stabilized, his character worsened. As his manager, Zhang Jin had often been scolded by Bai Lei. He had talked to Cheng Feiying several times, but he had always been brushed off. From then on, Zhang Jin knew that Cheng Feiying had truly changed for the worse.

It was ironic, only when you experienced the hardship yourself did you understand the pain.

Zhang Jin gulped down a large mouthful of ice water, the coldness spreading from his throat to his heart. Back then, he and Liu Qiongfang, one a manager, the other an assistant, had accompanied Cheng Feiying for so many years, witnessing his rise from nothing. Even Liu Qiongfang, who had married Cheng Feiying and borne him a daughter, could be discarded so easily, let alone him, an outsider who was just a manager.

Actually, Zhang Jin had known all along that unreliable people were unreliable, but he had still been greedy for the money.

Bai Lei asked if he wanted to side with Liu Qiongfang.

Hah, the moment he agreed to Cheng Feiying taking custody of Cheng Tingyan and using her as an asset, it was already too late.

Zhang Jin felt a chill in his heart, he numbly scrolled through posts discussing the Cheng family’s dynamics and the conversations at the convenience store.

As he was scrolling, Zhang Jin froze.

The earlier posts were mostly sympathetic towards Cheng Tingyan, the daughter of the ex-wife, struggling to survive in the Cheng family, discussing whether her income from filming was being embezzled by the Cheng family. But the recent replies were all about the video Bai Lei had posted, the one showing the snack cabinet and the two daughters’ bedrooms.

“A whole wall of snacks! Who needs anything else! Isn’t this enough to eat?”

“Maybe Cheng Tingyan just likes eating expired things, cheap things, maybe she doesn’t like these imported snacks, hahaha.”

“Right, chicken legs and mushrooms are so nutritious and delicious, she’s still being picky, maybe she’s the same with snacks. I wasted my sympathy on her.”

“The two children’s bedrooms are about the same size, decorated similarly, in a pink princess style, the Cheng family seems to be treating them equally.”

“I think it’s right to give her less allowance, it’s not good for such a young child to learn to spend money recklessly, having some emergency money is enough. It’s just an ordinary actor’s family, should they compare themselves to Shen Zilin’s family?”

“??? What are you guys talking about? Have you forgotten that Cheng Rongrong said she has two million three hundred thousand yuan?”

“Rongrong was just a child talking nonsense, how old is she? Can she even distinguish between ‘hundred’ and ‘ten thousand’?”

“So Cheng Tingyan just gets a normal allowance, but she’s greedy and doesn’t eat the expensive snacks at home, just loves those cheap, expired things outside, I wrongly blamed Cheng Feiying.”

“So many snacks, and there’s even a fridge, a dream wall! Does Cheng Feiying have another daughter somewhere? (Raises hand secretly)”

…

Zhang Jin scrolled quickly, except for one comment mentioning Cheng Rongrong’s assets, the rest were all siding with the Cheng family, claiming they were innocent and that Cheng Tingyan was in the wrong.

“Heh…” Zhang Jin tossed the mouse aside and rubbed his face. Alright, Bai Lei had hired internet trolls, it was his fault for reminding her earlier.

The choices you made were important.

Zhang Jin felt pain for his own choices, so much pain that he went downstairs to buy alcohol and didn’t continue watching the live broadcast.

Unbeknownst to him, Bai Lei’s internet trolls had also reached Cheng Tingyan’s live broadcast room, but here, they weren’t as successful as in other places online.

Hearsay was no match for seeing with your own eyes.

In the morning, Cheng Tingyan’s live broadcast room had been filled with voices criticizing her for being too cold towards her father and sister. But now, most of the comments were filled with sympathy and concern.

If someone was cold and distant from beginning to end, like ice, like sharp thorns, like the lingering darkness in the shadows, it would naturally make others feel uncomfortable, instinctively disliking them.

But if someone’s coldness had cracks, if they could also be close while being distant, if there was warmth beneath their icy shell, if there was a shining heart in the darkness, this contrast would make people feel heartbroken and captivated.

The viewers who remained in Cheng Tingyan’s live broadcast room, the ones who typed countless comments for her, wouldn’t allow anyone to trample on the ground they cherished.

“A whole wall of snacks, heh, my family owns a supermarket, and I would get beaten for taking snacks when I was young. Does having things mean you can have them? Grow up and use your brain!”

“Be a decent human being, okay? Only a non-human would say a six-year-old eats expired things because she likes them. She doesn’t eat good food, do you think everyone is blind like you!”

“I’m dying of laughter, having the same bedroom means being treated equally? Didn’t you see how reluctant Cheng Feiying was to give Yan Yan the chicken leg tonight?”

“And saying Cheng Rongrong doesn’t know the difference between ‘hundred’ and ‘ten thousand’ and was just talking nonsense, can you spout out the number two million three hundred thousand so precisely when you’re talking nonsense? Can you ask Shen Zilin about the details of the cooperation on your way back to the village? She’s only three and a half, but she’s sharp, unlike you, fool!”

“This is too much, and someone still wants to be Cheng Feiying’s daughter? You go! Go quickly! Trade places with Yan Yan, we’ll pool our money to raise her! No more expired snacks, aww!”

“Friends above, don’t waste your time replying to these idiots, they’re all internet trolls! I saw many comments like this slandering Yan Yan on Weibo and other forums, the wording is exactly the same, it’s like they were copied and pasted!”

“This is disgusting! Hiring internet trolls already! Didn’t they say the participants can’t contact the outside world, that their phones have been confiscated?”

“You guys must have been watching the live broadcast the whole time and haven’t switched tabs. Earlier, Yan Yan’s stepmother, Cheng Rongrong’s biological mother, Bai Lei, posted a video of their house.”

“That Bai Lei, what did she say?”

“I watched it too, she didn’t say anything, she just focused on filming that wall of snacks and the two daughters’ bedrooms.”

“Actions speak louder than words? So shady… Cheng Feiying is still on the live broadcast, it’s obvious who hired these trolls who keep bringing up the video.”

…

It was impossible for someone to participate in a show without being talked about, just like a banner in the wind couldn’t stay still. The question was whether the east wind would prevail over the west wind, or vice versa.

Wei Maomao, soaking her chubby feet in a basin while sitting on a small chair, didn’t know that the battlefield she thought would only emerge when the main episode aired had already appeared and was in full swing. She also didn’t know… that her boundless enthusiasm and kindness had already led many people to see the true Cheng Tingyan.

The little girl who was slightly aloof from the crowd, helping to drink half a bowl of mush so disgusting it made people cry and throw up.

The cold girl who only responded to her father and sister with a few words, but whispered countless words of concern while bending over.

The restored Rubik’s Cube, the small gold flower, the Baby Coins she gave away, the hard-earned chicken soup, and the begrudgingly offered sweet and sour pork…

Beneath her tough exterior was a soft underbelly, precious and beautiful… so beautiful that it made people question and feel angry about the origin of that tough exterior.

In Cheng Tingyan’s live broadcast room, the viewers, while fiercely battling the internet trolls, watched the little girl wash handkerchiefs.

One, two, three…

The one she used to wipe potato chips off Maomao, the one she used to wipe Maomao’s sweat, the one she used to wipe Maomao’s tears… and the one she used to wipe Maomao’s drool, and the one she used to wipe her tears again…

Cheng Tingyan washed them carefully. Soon, under the darkening sky, a row of handkerchiefs fluttered in the wind on the clothesline.

“Yan Yan, you probably don’t like pink, you like green, right…”

Someone in the live broadcast room mumbled.

There were quite a few things Wei Maomao didn’t know anymore. For example, at this moment, she didn’t know that her achievements today were being displayed in Cheng Tingyan’s courtyard, broadcasted live.

But there was one thing she knew.

Wei Maomao looked away, pretending not to see Wei Chengli squatting beside her, holding a towel, and smiling brightly at her.

There was no such thing as a free lunch…

“Maomao…” Wei Chengli grabbed her dripping foot, placed it on the towel spread over his knee, and said kindly, “Can we talk about something?”

Wei Maomao yawned.

“Don’t sleep!” Wei Chengli shook her foot, then panicked and caught the little chubby dumpling, who almost fell off the stool because of his shaking.

Wei Maomao: “…”

“A mistake, a mistake…” Wei Chengli chuckled awkwardly and tickled the sole of her foot. “Ah, it’s actually not a big deal. I just wanted to ask, can you… not mention the things I said… that I accidentally said when we were watching cartoons?”

Honestly, he had wanted to discuss this with the little chubby dumpling after the cameras in the room stopped working at night. But then it would be too late, he was afraid Maomao would fall asleep and he wouldn’t be able to wake her up, and then he would face another day of “My daddy says…”

“Oh…” Wei Maomao drew out the sound, then, under Wei Chengli’s expectant gaze, tilted her head and asked, “What cartoons?”

Wei Chengli: ???

 

Chapter 33

“Thank you, Daddy.” Cheng Tingyan politely interrupted Cheng Feiying’s words.

Cheng Feiying stared at the small bowl steadily waiting beneath the chicken leg: “…”

What “thank you, Daddy”! He was just about to say that she wouldn’t even eat it properly, what was the point of giving it to her!

“You at lunch…” Cheng Feiying’s chopsticks, holding the chicken leg, froze. Cheng Tingyan’s bowl was right below, and a few drops of soup had already dripped into it as he spoke.

“Daddy, the chicken leg is going to fall.” Cheng Rongrong urged. Both her dad and mom were too foolish, they knew Cheng Tingyan didn’t like chicken legs, but they didn’t notice when she had started to dislike them. Cheng Tingyan used to love chicken legs, until Cheng Rongrong started eating solid food. When they stewed a chicken, Cheng Rongrong would eat one drumstick, and when Cheng Tingyan tried to take the other, Cheng Rongrong would reach out and grab it. After being told a few times by their mom in front of their dad that Cheng Tingyan, being older, should know to let her younger sister have it, she gradually stopped eating them. Later, when they started stewing two chickens each time, Cheng Tingyan wouldn’t even look at the drumsticks, and no one at home ever gave her one.

Cheng Rongrong thought that a six-year-old was truly easy to manipulate. Although Cheng Tingyan didn’t eat the chicken leg Cheng Feiying gave her at lunch, she must have softened up inside. Staying at the Cheng family’s house every day, how could she not want someone to rely on, she must have always longed for her father’s love. That’s why she thought this chicken leg was also for her and took the initiative to accept it, how foolish.

But it was also good, she was being modest, while Cheng Tingyan was reaching out and snatching, everyone had seen how poorly she behaved.

Cheng Feiying glanced at Cheng Rongrong, under her seemingly anxious gaze, he finally listened to his younger daughter and placed the chicken leg into Cheng Tingyan’s bowl.

“You…” Cheng Feiying wanted to take this opportunity to lecture Cheng Tingyan, but he was interrupted again.

“Daddy, can you give me some soup please? Thank you, Daddy.” Cheng Tingyan’s interruption was very polite.

Cheng Feiying felt inexplicably frustrated, he couldn’t help but give her a big spoonful of mushrooms along with the soup.

But Cheng Tingyan, as if she didn’t see the bowl full of her most hated mushrooms, said “Thank you, Daddy” and happily and carefully retracted her hand.

Then…

She ran away with the bowl of soup?

“Cheng Tingyan…” Cheng Feiying frowned.

Cheng Tingyan, who had taken a few steps away, stopped and turned around, saying politely once again, “Thank you.”

With that, she walked towards the right side of the long table.

Cheng Feiying, seeing where she was going: “…”

Meanwhile, Wei Maomao was resting her chin on her hand, staring blankly at Wei Chengli, who was stuffing egg custard into his mouth, thinking about the chicken leg, mushrooms, and pineapple that Cheng Tingyan was now facing, all things she didn’t like. Wei Chengli, on the other hand, kept asking her which dish she liked, eager to start his begging-for-food business.

“Enough for two people…” Wei Maomao, having made a decision, started to speak, but before she could finish her sentence, there were hurried footsteps behind her. Just as she was about to turn around, she heard Cheng Tingyan’s voice.

“Don’t move, it’s hot.”

Along with the voice came a small bowl of chicken soup.

The bowl wasn’t big, but the soup was rich and full of mushrooms, and there was even a big chicken leg in it…

“Maomao, eat.” Cheng Tingyan placed the bowl on the table in front of Wei Maomao, then gently adjusted its position, placing it where she thought the little chubby bunny could easily reach.

“Wow, delicious chicken soup, Maomao, quickly thank your sister!”

“Let me see your hand…”

Wei Chengli and Wei Maomao’s voices rang out almost simultaneously.

Ah, I’m so bad… Wei Chengli, feeling the stark contrast in their behavior, froze for a moment, almost choking on the ginger “shrimp cake” he hadn’t swallowed yet.

Wei Maomao took Cheng Tingyan’s hand, her fingertips were indeed red.

“Yan Yan, don’t move, I’ll rinse it for you.” Wei Maomao made Cheng Tingyan extend her hand, then she grabbed the almost cold cup from the table with her chubby paws and slowly poured the water onto Cheng Tingyan’s hand.

“I’m fine, it doesn’t hurt.” Cheng Tingyan felt a bit embarrassed to be taken care of by the little chubby bunny, but she still obediently extended her hand.

Wei Chengli, forcing the “shrimp cake” down his throat, looked at the two little ones beside him, one bringing soup from afar, the other immediately concerned about her hand, feeling a bit touched.

“It doesn’t seem like a burn, maybe the bowl was a bit hot, that’s why it’s a bit red.” Wei Chengli reached out to touch the bowl Cheng Tingyan had brought over, offering comfort.

“Yes, I didn’t get burned. I’m fine, Maomao, you eat quickly, it will get cold soon.” Cheng Tingyan retracted her hand.

Wei Maomao glanced at Wei Chengli.

Wei Chengli: “…” Hmm? There couldn’t possibly be murderous intent in his cute little baby’s eyes!

Indeed, there was no burn, Wei Maomao, after carefully observing, breathed a sigh of relief.

“Maomao, do you want to eat sweet and sour pork?” Cheng Tingyan asked while putting a spoon into the soup bowl for the little chubby bunny.

“No.” Wei Maomao refused.

“She ate those two bites of sweet and sour pork with gusto earlier!” Wei Chengli subtly hinted that he wanted some.

Wei Maomao glanced at Wei Chengli again.

Wei Chengli: “…” Heh, still murderous intent, he must be seeing things!

“There should be a portion for me over there, Maomao, have some soup first, it really will get cold.” Cheng Tingyan said, quickly grabbing the small empty bowl from Wei Maomao’s table and running off.

“Wait… What did Yan Yan mean by ‘should’ when she said there should be a portion for her?” Wei Chengli muttered subconsciously.

“It means she’s not sure, Daddy, don’t you even know that?” Wei Maomao turned and sat properly facing Wei Chengli.

“Daddy knows. But… Forget it, never mind.” Wei Chengli frowned, maybe his thoughts were jumping around too much, he was overthinking it.

Well, a bit sensitive, but not overly so…

Wei Maomao turned back to face the table disappointedly.

Yan Yan’s words, at first glance, were so ordinary, so nonsensical. Could anyone else, aside from her, understand the anxiety and uncertainty hidden within them?

Even Wei Chengli hadn’t thought much of it, the editors probably wouldn’t think much of it either.

Sentences they deemed meaningless wouldn’t be edited into the main episode… Wei Maomao thought randomly, letting her thoughts wander chaotically, forcing herself to not think about the tension, awkwardness, and anxiety Cheng Tingyan must be feeling as she went to ask for that bowl of sweet and sour pork…

Wei Maomao knew that Cheng Tingyan was currently in a state of going with the flow. To be more precise, she would take what was given to her, and if it wasn’t given, she wouldn’t ask.

This bowl of soup was probably given to Cheng Tingyan by Cheng Feiying. But the next bowl of meat was something Cheng Tingyan had to ask for herself.

Wei Maomao certainly wouldn’t let Cheng Tingyan suffer this grievance just because she wanted a bowl of meat. But she had to tell herself to be patient. Since Yan Yan had gone, let the cameras capture her awkwardness and stiffness as she asked for the meat… This way, those kinds of shots would have a chance of appearing in the main episode, giving the viewers a chance to see that Cheng Tingyan’s status in the family wasn’t at all like what Cheng Feiying and Cheng Rongrong had portrayed.

Just sitting here, waiting…

Time passed second by second, the torment was like being fried in hot oil, a thin layer of sweat forming on her back.

Screw patience!

Just as Wei Chengli scooped a spoonful of minced meat egg custard, the sound of a heavy object falling beside him startled him, his hand trembled, spilling most of the custard. He thought something had fallen over.

But when he turned around, he saw that his little chubby dumpling was gone.

There were two families between the Wei family’s table and the Cheng family’s. Wei Maomao ran quickly, but Cheng Tingyan was even faster.

“Why are you here?” Cheng Tingyan, holding the bowl and having already left the Cheng family’s table, met Wei Maomao on her way back. Seeing the little chubby bunny staring intently at the bowl in her hand, she couldn’t help but smile. “I got my portion.”

Wei Maomao: “…”

“The bowl isn’t hot.” Cheng Tingyan held the bowl with one hand and extended the other, showing her palm to Wei Maomao. “See, it’s not red, right?”

Indeed, the bowl of sweet and sour pork wasn’t hot, but Wei Maomao’s heart was burning hot, almost scorching her.

She wanted the final victory, that was true, but did Cheng Tingyan really have to face this grievance again?

And Wei Maomao didn’t know that at this moment, she wasn’t the only one whose heart was burning. Many in the show’s live broadcast room felt the same.

“I already felt something was off when Cheng Feiying gave Yan Yan the chicken leg and soup earlier. She kept saying ‘thank you’ so politely, if you didn’t know, you would have thought she was talking to her boss or a client!”

“Saying thank you four times for a bowl of food, I don’t know whether to call this politeness or fear. If my child had to be like this to get something to eat, I would be heartbroken!”

“Friend above, was that chicken leg even meant for Yan Yan? Look closely, his hand was moving towards the left…”

“That was Yan Yan snatching the chicken leg for Maomao, hahaha! Our Yan Yan even remembered that the little chubby bunny loves chicken legs and mushrooms!”

“Although… but I can’t laugh. A chicken has two drumsticks, isn’t it normal for two daughters to each have one? But listening to Cheng Feiying’s unfinished words earlier, I feel like he didn’t want to give it to Yan Yan.”

“Exactly, at lunch, he kept giving her chicken legs, but now, with only two, he’s not giving her any, interesting.”

“??? Cheng Tingyan didn’t eat the chicken leg at lunch, isn’t it normal for Cheng Feiying not to give her one so as not to waste it? Cheng Tingyan asked for the chicken leg later, and Cheng Feiying gave it to her.”

“That’s even more interesting. She didn’t eat the chicken leg at lunch, so Cheng Feiying didn’t give her one at dinner. But she didn’t eat mushrooms at lunch either, so why did Cheng Feiying give her a whole bowl?”

“Did you notice that when Yan Yan talked about the sweet and sour pork, she used phrases like ‘there should be a portion for me’ and ‘I got my portion’?”

“Yes, Director Wei seemed to notice it too.”

“So what if he noticed, I noticed it too. For the house she drew in the morning, Cheng Feiying couldn’t make decisions for her. But for the food Cheng Feiying cooked tonight, she seems to think she has a say and even gave her portion away.”

“I’m dying of laughter, can’t the person above see the point? The point is, Yan Yan said ‘my portion,’ which means she gave her own portion to Maomao, she didn’t take more from Cheng Feiying to give away!”

“Right! That’s the point, she didn’t ask for extra, why didn’t she just ask Cheng Feiying for another portion for Maomao? Cheng Feiying was going to share with the other families anyway.”

“Isn’t her portion also made by Cheng Feiying? She still took it upon herself to give it away.”

“The person above, please get it straight, Cheng Tingyan is only six years old, Cheng Feiying has an obligation to provide her with food, okay? It’s her sustenance! Otherwise, should she go work at six years old to earn money for food to survive? When she grows old, she will also have an obligation to support Cheng Feiying financially, it’s all stipulated by law! How is her giving her own food to Maomao considered overstepping her boundaries with Cheng Feiying? Is it the same as the house incident this morning!”

“So, that’s why she didn’t ask for another portion. Because she knows that she only has this one.”

“… You guys talking about sustenance and only having this one portion, it’s breaking my heart.”

“Breaking your heart is nothing, I’m furious. Yan Yan was standing so politely, holding the bowl, and saying ‘Daddy, can I have a little bit of sweet and sour pork please? Thank you,’ it’s infuriatingly polite. Which child asks their dad for food like this…”

“What’s infuriating is that after being treated so sarcastically, Yan Yan still politely accepted the meat, thanked him, and then left. And when she saw our little bunny, she didn’t mention the grievance at all… She was just worried that our little bunny would worry about her hand. Really, I’m going to cry!”

“Even if Cheng Feiying was going to share with the other families, he probably wouldn’t have given the chicken leg to Maomao.”

“That’s right, we can already see it, Rongrong didn’t eat the other chicken leg, and he gave it to Shen Zilin.”

“Got it, distribution according to wealth, tsk, tsk.”

“Well, am I the only one who cares about where Yan Yan’s sustenance for tonight is?”

…

The sustenance, of course, was on the Wei family’s table.

After Cheng Tingyan brought over the sweet and sour pork, Wei Maomao held her back and didn’t let her leave. Although there wasn’t much to eat on their own table, Cheng Tingyan didn’t like the food on the Cheng family’s table either. Most importantly, Cheng Tingyan had already brought over what she considered to be her portion, even if she went back and there was more to eat, with her personality of adhering to her limits, she wouldn’t have much more.

And, to begin with, Wei Maomao also wanted to call her over.

So the pressure was now on…

“Daddy, go beg for food.” Wei Maomao climbed onto the stool, extended her chubby foot, and stepped on Wei Chengli’s knee.

“Which dish do you want to eat?” Wei Chengli immediately stood up.

Wei Maomao said without hesitation, “Not the two burnt ones, I want everything else, Yan Yan and I will eat together.”

Wei Chengli: “…” Although he had agreed to beg for food, he wasn’t prepared to beg from every family.

“I don’t…” Cheng Tingyan waved her hand.

“Boss!” Wen Dongyu waved frantically from the table beside them. “My daddy found an empty bowl, have some of ours!”

“Ah, thank you, thank you!” Wei Chengli, his pressure greatly reduced, quickly thanked him and reached out to take the bowl, which contained the unburnt stir-fried chicken with peas and corn.

“You’re welcome, Daddy, eat quickly.” Wen Dongyu waved his hand generously.

Wei Chengli: “…” He didn’t dare to look at Wen Xiang’s expression at this moment.

“Yan Yan, eat.” Wei Maomao pushed the Wen family’s bowl to Cheng Tingyan, then looked at Wei Chengli, “Daddy…”

“Baby…” Wei Chengli lowered his voice, leaning closer, and pinched the little chubby dumpling’s cheeks. “Honestly, when you asked me to get enough food for two people, did those two people not include me?”

Wei Maomao glanced at the two serving dishes belonging to their family.

Wei Chengli: Hehe, understood.

“Daddy, hurry up!” Wei Maomao urged.

“Okay, okay, I’m going.” Wei Chengli said, but his speed began to approach that of a sloth.

The program team had only provided one empty bowl for each child and dad to eat from. What if the other families, like Wen Xiang, had to find new, clean bowls?

Just in case, just in case there were kind souls who took the initiative…

Wei Chengli’s calculations were quite good, and his wish was actually granted.

Almost simultaneously, Shen Zilin, Wen Jiangyue, and Wang Zhizhi all came to offer food aid, carrying dishes made by their families.

Wei Chengli, touching the cute little bowls, would have almost been moved to tears if it weren’t for the looks of sympathy mixed with a bit of avoidance from most of the children who brought the food.

But regardless, being helped was better than begging.

Looking at the two little ones beside him eating with gusto, Wei Chengli took a bite of his ginger “shrimp cake” with tears in his eyes.

Wei Maomao, gnawing on a chicken leg, glanced at Cheng Tingyan beside her, who was carefully eating winter melon.

Finally escaping the blandness and mushy texture of baby food, reunited and getting along well with her old friend, Wei Maomao was quite satisfied with this dinner.

Of course, it would have been even better if Cheng Feiying hadn’t walked over with an empty bowl, pretending to look for food, and then made a few sarcastic comments about the dishes on their table before leaving.

So, there was some truth to the old saying that you didn’t need to know the hen to eat its eggs, and you didn’t need to see the cook to eat the food.

After dinner, the program team didn’t come up with any more torturous activities.

After all, the families had traveled from afar today, and they had been doing tasks non-stop since they got off the car. They had been tired all day, there was no need to push them too hard on the first day.

The way back from the square was similar to the way back from the village entrance.

But because they needed to put away the Baby Coins, Wen Dongyu and Cheng Tingyan told their dads they would go to Maomao’s house first.

Wen Xiang, who had been exasperated by Wen Dongyu all day, simply responded with a “hmph” and turned his back on him, looking a bit aloof.

Unfortunately, Wen Dongyu was never good at reading the room. By the time Wen Xiang turned back, all he could see was his son happily following behind Wei Maomao. Look at how happy he was, he would have wagged his tail if he had one! Wen Xiang resolved to give him a good lecture when he got back.

Cheng Feiying didn’t really understand why Bai Lei insisted that he and Rongrong show excessive friendliness and deference towards Cheng Tingyan on the show. In his opinion, Cheng Tingyan was taciturn and had a bad temper, even if Rongrong didn’t deliberately try to be friendly, she was a thousand times more lovable than Cheng Tingyan. But since Bai Lei insisted, and Rongrong agreed, Cheng Feiying went along with this persona. However, he never liked having Cheng Tingyan around, so he subconsciously nodded his consent, even thinking that she didn’t need to ask.

Cheng Rongrong still remembered her persona as the good little sister who loved to cling to her older sister, so she bravely and resolutely followed, saying she wanted to go play too. She wasn’t afraid of being rejected by Cheng Tingyan, being close and being rejected was also a form of contrast.

But before Cheng Tingyan and Wei Maomao could say anything, Wen Dongyu, looking surprised, spoke up, “We’re going to Boss’s house to put away our Baby Coins, are you also going to put away Baby Coins?”

Before Cheng Rongrong could even shake her head, Wen Dongyu continued, answering his own question, “Oh, you and Yan Yan have the same dad, so your property is also in danger! Come on, follow us, we’ll all put our Baby Coins at Boss’s house, Boss is amazing! Boss’s, no, my daddy is super nice too!”

“…” Cheng Rongrong didn’t even want to look at Wen Dongyu, who seemed to be either brainwashed or brainwashing himself.

Cheng Rongrong defended Cheng Feiying, but the other three didn’t seem convinced. However, Cheng Rongrong wasn’t explaining for them, and it wasn’t really appropriate for her to follow them anymore.

After getting rid of Cheng Rongrong, the three walked towards Wei Maomao’s house. Just as they were approaching the courtyard, Wen Dongyu, who was always running around, suddenly noticed someone following them.

“Zhizhi! What are you doing here?” Wen Dongyu ran back quickly, shouting, “Are you lost? I’m here to save you!”

Wang Zhizhi, who had wanted to turn into a side alley to hide, was forced to stop by this enthusiastic greeting.

Fortunately, Wen Dongyu wasn’t one to press for details. Wang Zhizhi simply used the excuse of “wanting to walk around the village” to fool him. Then, under Wen Dongyu’s enthusiastic invitation, Wang Zhizhi successfully joined the group, his walk around the village turning into a visit to the Wei family’s house.

Wang Zhizhi listened to Wen Dongyu chattering beside Wei Maomao and Cheng Tingyan, mentioning his name, bragging about how adventurous he was, exploring the ancient village at night… Wang Zhizhi lowered his head, his face gradually turning red.

Entering the Wei family’s courtyard, the children gathered around the stone table, taking advantage of the remaining daylight to exchange Baby Coins.

Wen Dongyu eagerly presented his bulging coin purse.

While Cheng Tingyan was helping Wei Maomao count the Baby Coins, Wei Chengli appeared from somewhere, carrying a tray with four bowls of watermelon.

Wang Zhizhi, accepting his bowl and thanking him, seemingly casually glanced at the other three bowls.

The amount of watermelon in each bowl seemed to be the same, without any bias based on age or gender.

Wen Dongyu’s Baby Coins were quickly counted, Wei Maomao took them inside to put away, and Cheng Tingyan told him to come and get them tomorrow if he needed them.

Then it was time for Wei Maomao and Cheng Tingyan’s Baby Coins.

Because there were quite a lot, Wei Chengli went to the inner room and emptied one of Wei Maomao’s suitcases, so they wouldn’t have to carry the Baby Coins all the time when they went to the convenience store.

Wei Chengli knew the prices at the convenience store, looking at the suitcase full of Baby Coins, he wasn’t worried that they would buy so many snacks that they wouldn’t be able to eat dinner.

After Wei Maomao and Cheng Tingyan poured all the Baby Coins from their bags into the suitcase, Wei Chengli took out six more from his pocket and gently placed them inside, smiling. “Here, buy some snacks.”

“Wow! They’re Baby Coins too! How did you get them! Did you exchange them with Daddy Coins?” Wen Dongyu looked at Wei Chengli in shock.

“Mmm.” Wei Chengli nodded, his eyes following the little chubby dumpling who was picking up the six Baby Coins.

“You’re so nice! Daddy! Daddy! I wish you were my real daddy!” Wen Dongyu, looking envious, shook Wei Maomao. “Boss, how come you have such a nice daddy!”

Clink, clang… Clatter…

Wei Maomao, who had just picked up the six Baby Coins, lost her grip when she was shaken by Wen Dongyu, most of them falling back into the suitcase. This time, they were lost in the pile of Baby Coins, impossible to find.

“…” Wei Maomao resignedly threw the remaining two in her hand into the suitcase, looked up at Wei Chengli, and said, “Daddy, for the food I saved for you, you have to eat at least two spoonfuls.”

“Okay!” Wei Chengli smiled. “I knew my little baby is the best little baby in the world.”

The others didn’t understand their exchange, but they understood what Wei Chengli had said.

The atmosphere suddenly fell silent.

Wei Chengli looked at the remaining three children staring at him and laughed awkwardly. “Um, you’re also very cute, especially cute, the cutest little babies in your dads’ hearts!”

The three: “…” There was no need for that.

Wei Chengli used the excuse of reheating the food to leave. The staff members from the other families came to urge the children to go home, they still had individual interviews to do tonight.

Wen Dongyu, stuffing the last few pieces of watermelon into his mouth, was dragged away dejectedly.

Cheng Tingyan, reluctantly stroking the little chubby bunny’s soft hair, also left.

Although the cute little sister belonged to someone else, and she only had… But they could still play together tomorrow, it was the best thing. It was just that everything today was too good, so good it felt like a dream, making her feel a bit insecure.

Tomorrow, would tomorrow really be the same as today, would it be different… Cheng Tingyan, having already left the courtyard, couldn’t help but look back. The little chubby bunny inside immediately raised her hand again, waving goodbye to her.

Cheng Tingyan pursed her lips and smiled, this time, she really left.

After Cheng Tingyan left, Wei Maomao couldn’t help but feel down.

The sky was getting dark, the light source was gone, no more power.

But she couldn’t go to sleep yet…

There was still one more person in the courtyard.

“Are you also going to put your Baby Coins with me?” Wei Maomao didn’t beat around the bush, this was the only reason she could think of for Wang Zhizhi following them all the way here.

Wang Zhizhi was stunned.

Wei Maomao didn’t urge him, just waited quietly. After all, all she could do for him was to help him safekeep those coins that were useless in the outside world.

“Wei Maomao, you have a good dad. Everything he says makes sense. He treats you well, he’s fair and just.” Wang Zhizhi said earnestly, his ears turning red.

Because of what she had heard in her previous life, Wei Maomao had a bit of a sympathetic filter for Wang Zhizhi, so she had been patient. However, that didn’t mean she wanted to hear these irritating words. How could Wang Zhizhi already know how Wei Chengli was when she herself hadn’t even figured it out?

“Are you also going to call him Daddy like Wen Dongyu?” Wei Maomao said with amusement.

Although Wang Zhizhi’s words surprised her, she didn’t believe there could be another person as nonsensical as Wen Dongyu. Speaking of which, she wondered if Wen Xiang was already preparing to give him a beating.

However, Wang Zhizhi’s answer was unexpected.

Ignoring Wei Maomao’s question again, Wang Zhizhi changed the subject and said seriously, “You’re also good, you can take care of yourself and others, you’re smart and loyal, you’re a good little sister. If my sister was like you, I could also be a good brother.”

Wait… Wei Maomao sat up straight, startled by Wang Zhizhi’s serious tone, her scalp tingling.

Wen Dongyu was joking, but this one in front of her, he seemed to be genuinely considering joining their family!

“No, no, no… I can’t, I’m a crybaby, I love to eat and sleep, Daddy and Mommy both say I’m troublesome! My daddy isn’t good either, the food he makes is terrible, really terrible!” Wei Maomao criticized Wei Chengli earnestly.

“It’s not terrible. Ginger, I can eat it.” Wang Zhizhi said solemnly. “I’m not a picky eater. I can eat the food your dad makes every day.”

Wei Maomao was shocked. “No, you can’t…”

“I can.” Wang Zhizhi said firmly.

Wei Maomao was at her wit’s end… Where was Wen Dongyu, come out! A perfectly good child, where did you lead him astray!

Just then, Wei Chengli passed by the door to the inner room, carrying that familiar large soup bowl.

“Daddy!” Wei Maomao climbed onto the stool and shouted loudly, “Wang Zhizhi said he can eat the food you make every day, come and feed him! Come quickly!”

Chapter 32

It was just a simple pre-dinner taste test, but they had to wear blindfolds and be fed, and the two dishes made by the same dad weren’t served consecutively. They had to taste all twelve dishes first, and only in the second round could they discuss and vote, making it quite elaborate. It was as if they were treating a bunch of three to six-year-olds like seasoned gourmands, overestimating their discerning palates.

There had been a similar guess-the-dad-by-dish segment in the show in her previous life, but without blindfolds, and no Baby Coins or Daddy Coins as rewards.

Because two of the twelve dishes were made by Wei Chengli, and because of his hesitant demeanor before they started, Wei Maomao felt a mix of apprehension and trepidation with every bite she took while blindfolded.

The first bite, stir-fried chicken with peas and corn, and the second bite, stir-fried pork with mushrooms, both tasted alright. They were standard low-salt, low-oil versions, though the chicken and pork were a bit tough… Overall, they somewhat soothed Wei Maomao’s taste buds, which had been tortured for days.

Of the dads who had participated in the show in her previous life, except for Cheng Feiying, the others were all mediocre cooks, with only a few signature dishes. Based on her experience watching the show, Wei Maomao judged that these two dishes were probably made by Wen Xiang and Shen Jianghe respectively.

The spoon Wei Chengli chose seemed a bit small, even after taking a whole spoonful, it was only about half a mouthful for Wei Maomao. She felt a bit unsatisfied, just as she was about to ask Wei Chengli to give her more per spoonful, the third bite was fed into her mouth.

Braised beef with potatoes, the seasoning was just right, saltier than baby food but less salty than regular adult food, unfortunately, the potatoes were burnt, filling Wei Maomao’s mouth with a burnt taste. She hesitated and gave up on asking for more per spoonful, mentally labeling this dish as [Wei Chengli’s Dish Candidate 1].

The fourth bite, a cold tomato salad, saved Wei Maomao from the burnt taste. This simple vegetarian dish could have been made by any of the dads, but Wen Qiming was the most likely candidate.

After finishing the tomatoes, Wei Maomao waited for a long time but didn’t get the fifth bite. She only heard the sound of Wei Chengli blowing on something, it sounded like a very hot dish.

It was a soup with crunchy mushrooms and some shredded chicken… The mushrooms seemed to have small caps, probably termite mushrooms. The soup was rich and flavorful, the chicken tender and fragrant, very delicious. It was undoubtedly Cheng Feiying’s signature termite mushroom soup… Wei Maomao swallowed it with a straight face.

Five out of the twelve dishes had been tasted. According to the pattern, if the burnt braised beef with potatoes wasn’t Wei Chengli’s creation, then the next one was very likely his.

Wei Maomao braced herself, even adjusting her position on the small stool to sit more steadily.

However, Wei Maomao had underestimated the enemy.

“Pfft…”

“Ugh… Blegh…”

“Spit…”

“Ahhhh!!!! Spicy, spicy, spicy, spicy!”

Before the guess-the-dad-by-dish segment started, the host had said that the children weren’t allowed to talk, discuss, or influence each other’s judgment during the first round of tasting, they could only voice their opinions and vote in the second round.

For the first five dishes, everyone ate quietly. Only Wen Dongyu had whispered a complaint to Wen Xiang, “The soup is still hot.”

But it was different now. Listening to the sounds of the other children’s distress, Wei Maomao silently spat out the steamed egg custard with minced meat and ginger.

“Daddy…” Wei Maomao called out softly amidst the commotion.

There were rustling sounds from Wei Chengli beside her, but he didn’t utter a single word.

“Oh, I understand…” Wei Maomao sighed. “Don’t give me this in the second round. Thank you, Daddy…”

Silence fell around her.

In stark contrast, at the Wen family’s table on the left, Wen Dongyu was screaming, “I hate ginger the most! Are there four million pieces of ginger in this! Daddy, are you trying to poison me because I have another daddy now!!”

If nothing unexpected happened, this was probably made for you by your other daddy… Wei Maomao smacked her lips slightly, spitting out a piece of minced ginger that was still stuck in her mouth.

“Daddy, why is there ginger in the egg, it’s so spicy.”

Wen Jiangyue’s soft, aggrieved voice came from the Wen family’s table on the right.

Wei Maomao also wanted to know why… Even if she had done something wrong, please don’t kill her with food! She hadn’t eaten a single decent meal all day, if she had to eat another bowl of this egg custard with a near-lethal amount of ginger tonight, she would die!

The sounds of children asking their dads not to give them this egg custard again in the next round and questioning if their dads were trying to poison them filled the air.

Finally, the chaos gradually subsided amidst the sounds of water being poured, sipped, and mouths being rinsed.

The seventh dish, stir-fried celery with shredded pork, was bland, but the children ate it without complaint. Wei Maomao even heard Wen Jiangyue whispering to herself, “I used to dislike celery, I was so blind.”

The corner of Wei Maomao’s mouth twitched slightly. Well, thank you, Wei Chengli, on behalf of celery…

Thanks to the contrast with the previous egg custard, when the eighth dish, winter melon and pork rib soup, which tasted quite good, was served, Wen Dongyu, ignoring the rules, insisted that Wen Xiang give him a few more spoonfuls.

In the blink of an eye, only four dishes remained.

A one-in-four chance of stepping on a landmine…

Wei Maomao no longer disliked the small spoon and even opened her mouth even smaller. She tensed up as she tasted the ninth dish, stir-fried cucumber with pork slices. The pork slices were as tough as the ones in the stir-fried pork with mushrooms, Wei Maomao chewed vigorously, sighing inwardly. Shen Jianghe really liked stir-frying pork slices. So why couldn’t he learn how to tenderize them? As expected of a CEO, always doing things his own way, no need for improvement.

Interestingly, the tenth dish, braised fish, was also burnt, just like the braised beef with potatoes. But Wei Maomao wouldn’t associate this dish, which tasted alright despite being a bit burnt, with Wei Chengli anymore.

Wei Chengli’s abilities were far beyond such mediocrity.

For the second-to-last dish, Wei Maomao cautiously took a small bite from the edge of the spoon and felt relieved.

Heh, who would believe this was the “shrimp cake” the host had mentioned? It tasted like a chewy ginger cake with a burnt flavor.

Wei Maomao didn’t quite understand Wei Chengli’s tendency to go overboard. He usually remembered to remove the fishy smell from meat when practicing at home, only occasionally forgetting to squeeze the ginger juice and directly adding minced ginger, or occasionally adding a bit too much ginger juice. But this lethal amount… was truly exaggerated.

The other children weren’t as prescient as Wei Maomao, the sounds of distress they had made during the egg custard round resounded once again.

Wei Maomao sighed softly, and at the same time, she heard a sigh from Wei Chengli beside her.

After being tortured by the “shrimp cakes,” the last dish, sweet and sour pork with pineapple, was truly exceptional.

Wei Maomao thought Cheng Feiying was truly boring, from chicken legs to mushrooms, and now to pineapple, which Cheng Tingyan didn’t like, did he really enjoy disciplining his child in public like this? Couldn’t people have some food preferences? There were so many things in the world that wouldn’t kill you if you ate them, why didn’t Cheng Feiying try them all and expand his culinary horizons?

It was annoying! She really wanted to make him eat all the things Wei Chengli had cooked!

The second round of tasting and voting began. The other dishes, in comparison to the egg custard and “shrimp cakes,” seemed insignificant. After all, the children could at most try to identify their dads’ familiar flavors from those dishes, the rest was just guesswork.

But when it came to the egg custard and “shrimp cakes,” it was complete chaos.

Firstly, all the children refused to take a second bite of either dish. Secondly, both Wang Zhizhi and Wen Dongyu immediately and firmly attributed both dishes to their own dads.

It could only be said that settling scores before dinner wasn’t a good idea.

Apart from Wei Maomao, Cheng Tingyan also voted for Wei Chengli for both dishes. Wei Maomao felt a bit complicated, it seemed Cheng Tingyan had already grasped her family’s culinary level, she wondered if she would still be interested in coming over for dinner after the show was over.

The remaining three, Shen Zilin, Wen Jiangyue, and Cheng Rongrong, just voted randomly. Their six votes were scattered across the two dishes, with Shen Zilin and Wen Jiangyue each casting one vote for Wei Chengli.

Soon, the second round ended, the children took off their blindfolds, and it was time to announce the results.

The twelve dishes were kept warm in buffet-style serving dishes, covered with lids, and were carried by the staff from the host’s large table to the long table where the dads and children were sitting. The host would announce one result and then open one dish.

Cheng Feiying’s termite mushroom chicken soup and sweet and sour pork, Wen Xiang’s stir-fried chicken with peas and corn and burnt braised fish, Shen Jianghe’s stir-fried pork with mushrooms and stir-fried cucumber with pork slices, Wang Qingchuan’s burnt braised beef with potatoes and winter melon and pork rib soup, Wen Qiming’s cold tomato salad and stir-fried celery with shredded pork, and…

Wei Maomao had thought that eating the ginger-infused minced meat egg custard and ginger “shrimp cakes” blindfolded, listening to the other children’s cries of agony, was the most speechless moment of her night.

She didn’t expect that the best was yet to come…

“Let me explain.” Wei Chengli stood up, forcing a smile, and looked around. “At noon, when I was cooking, I forgot to remove the fishy smell. So when I was making dinner, I kept thinking about doing it properly… I added ginger juice once, then I went to do something else and forgot, I thought I hadn’t added it, so I added it again… This time, I remembered to taste it before serving, and I realized I had added too much ginger. So I added some water to dilute it, to try and fix it, but because of that, one dish became too mushy, and the other had to be cut open and rinsed, so after I fixed them, they looked a bit… unappetizing… But it seems the fix didn’t work, the ginger was still too spicy for the children, I’m really sorry, it was my negligence.”

Wei Maomao looked at the two serving dishes in front of her, opened by the host, one was a mushy mess of minced meat and egg, the other was a pile of unidentifiable minced meat that had once been “shrimp cakes”…

Was the reason for the blindfolds that she would have immediately recognized them as two bowls of mush if she had seen them?

It was really…

Since he had only practiced making mush during his preparations, he might as well have just made mush… Wei Maomao couldn’t help but complain, he was cramming at the last minute and even cramming the wrong things.

But then Wei Maomao accidentally looked up and saw Wei Chengli’s red ears and face.

A visible sense of awkwardness emanated from him, Wei Maomao was stunned for a moment, forgetting what she had been complaining about in her mind.

How old was Wei Chengli this year, Wei Maomao tilted her head, thinking. Thirty-three, right? Still very young, an age that hadn’t been weathered by life’s storms.

After all, Wei Chengli was still a young director with a bright future. If it weren’t for her insistence on participating in this show, he wouldn’t have had the chance to expose this weakness of his… and he wouldn’t be apologizing so awkwardly, as if he had done something wrong…

Looking at Wei Chengli’s hand, awkwardly clutching the edge of the table, Wei Maomao rubbed her feet on the ground and stood up.

“Daddy, you’ve improved!” Wei Maomao gently tugged at Wei Chengli’s shirt, looking up and saying, “Daddy did better tonight than at lunch, tomorrow will be better than today, and the day after tomorrow will be better than tomorrow. By the time we go home, Daddy will be able to cook delicious food!”

Wei Chengli looked down at his precious little dumpling in a daze, his eyes turning red as he listened to her childish, hopeful words.

“Baby, Baby, are you serious…” Wei Chengli picked up the little dumpling.

Wei Maomao nodded and patted Wei Chengli’s face. “Daddy, you can do it!”

Wei Chengli didn’t speak, he pinched his palm hard, he was going to cry! His little baby was truly the cutest little angel in the world! When the whole world was criticizing him, he still had his most caring little dumpling…

The Wen family’s table was next to the Wei family’s. Wen Dongyu, after watching for a while, turned to Wang Zhizhi at the table on the other side and said in surprise, “This is called improvement? What did Maomao eat at lunch?”

“…” Wei Chengli heard it.

“Baby, Daddy will work hard to make delicious food for you every day, improve every day… Then, about lunch, have you forgiven Daddy?” Wei Chengli asked weakly.

Wei Maomao: “…”

She had only given him a step down, he didn’t have to seek redemption every day, this kind of improvement was a bit scary.

Wei Maomao felt that Wei Chengli might be a bit overly moved. To prevent him from truly torturing her with his cooking three times a day, Wei Maomao decided it was necessary to bring him back to the harsh reality.

“There’s food waiting for you at home, Daddy, do you remember?” Wei Maomao whispered.

Wei Chengli’s smile froze, it was obvious that he remembered and that’s why he wanted to be forgiven.

“Yan Yan and I ate it, Daddy will eat it too, right?” Wei Maomao tilted her head. “Daddy, you said we have to face our mistakes to correct them and improve.”

“Did I say that? But…” Wei Chengli glanced at his two serving dishes, unable to claim that there was new food tonight.

And unbeknownst to him, the viewers in the live broadcast room were already arguing about his dinner.

“Minced ginger is the most terrifying thing in the world! Especially when one or two pieces appear unexpectedly in places they shouldn’t, it’s like an assassin’s ultimate move! And our Director Wei probably dropped half a handful into the egg mixture! His dinner must be these two ginger universes!”

“But Maomao and Yan Yan cried and threw up from the mush at noon, I think Director Wei should finish the rest of the mush tonight.”

“Eat both, eat both, one for dinner, one for a late-night snack, Maomao said, we have to face our mistakes to correct them and improve, hahaha…”

“I have a brilliant idea, why don’t we have Director Wei mix the mush from noon with the two dishes from tonight, perfect…”

“??? If the live broadcast wasn’t still going, I would have thought you were Maomao’s alt account! Hahaha, what the hell, mixing them together… I’ll kowtow to you on behalf of Director Wei!”

“Our Maomao is so good, she still praised Director Wei for improving after all this, I hope Director Wei will learn his lesson!”

“Actually, Director Wei really is trying to improve, didn’t he humbly ask for advice before cooking tonight? He worked hard to bring back so many ingredients this afternoon, most of which were used as tuition fees. Wen Xiang taught him the minced meat egg custard, Wang Qingchuan taught him the shrimp cakes, actually, before he went and did that dilution thing, the two dishes looked quite decent.”

“Hahaha, only the appearance was decent, the inside was already concentrated ginger.”

“Speaking of which, Wen Xiang and Wang Qingchuan really are… Their apprentice’s cooking backfired, their apprentice’s daughter collected their sons’ ‘Daddy’s Kiss Cards,’ they were ‘scammed’ inside and out by the Wei family, hahaha.”

“Cheng Feiying’s cooking skills are still the best. After Wen Xiang and Wang Qingchuan went out to do the Kiss Card task, they came back and each burnt a dish, wasting the beef and fish Wei Chengli used for his tuition. How consistent is Cheng Feiying, that chicken soup and sweet and sour pork look so delicious. Wen Dongyu even whispered to his dad during the second round of tasting to give him a big piece of sweet and sour pork.”

“Mmm, he’s quite consistent, consistently adding mushrooms to the chicken soup…”

“I really suspect that if he could put mushrooms in the sweet and sour pork, he would have done it too. Is disliking mushrooms some kind of unforgivable sin in their family…”

“Speaking of which, Yan Yan only told Maomao that she doesn’t like mushrooms, what if Cheng Feiying doesn’t know and isn’t deliberately adding mushrooms?”

“Wouldn’t that be even funnier? As a father, he doesn’t even know what his daughter dislikes?”

…

While the viewers in the live broadcast room were constantly arguing, in the village square, the host had finished counting the children’s votes and was distributing the Daddy Coins and Baby Coins.

The one who received the most Baby Coins was Wei Maomao, she had guessed seven dishes correctly. And unexpectedly… the one who received the most Daddy Coins was actually Wei Chengli, he got six in total. It seemed that being exceptionally bad at cooking could also be a unique characteristic.

Wei Maomao thought to herself that she had been a bit too conservative in deliberately choosing five dishes incorrectly, but seven correct guesses shouldn’t be too conspicuous.

After the rewards were distributed, dinner officially began.

During the blind tasting, the serving dishes had been on the host’s large table. Before the answers were revealed, each dish was carried to its creator.

Now, the six families were sitting at a long table formed by six tables pushed together, each family with the two dishes they had made.

Although there was no rule saying they couldn’t share, looking at the two dishes in front of him, Wei Chengli knew it was impossible to share them.

“Baby, it’s actually not that bad, you’ll get used to it after a few bites, will you have some with Daddy?” Wei Chengli didn’t hold out any hope, but he still picked up the spoon and gestured towards the serving dish.

Just in case…

His baby was so considerate, maybe she would choose to share his suffering, and then he would say, “Daddy was just kidding, Daddy loves you the most, Daddy will eat it himself!” Then maybe his little baby would forgive him. Maybe she would even feel sorry for him, hehe…

Unfortunately, Wei Chengli’s occupational hazard had made his imagination run wild.

The next second, Wei Chengli watched as his cute, soft little dumpling stopped fiddling with her hands, slowly looked up at him, and asked with confusion, “Daddy, do I look like a one-year-old who’s easy to fool?”

Okay, understood.

Wei Chengli began to eat with tears in his eyes, asking as he stuffed the egg custard into his mouth, “Which dish did you like from the ones you tasted earlier? Daddy will get you some, you have to eat dinner.”

Wei Maomao: “…” Sigh, on the first day of the trip, she was already reduced to begging for food to survive.

Life was all about balance, some wanted to beg for food, while others wanted to offer it.

Cheng Feiying was somewhat confident in his cooking skills, especially after witnessing the other dads’ levels.

His two serving dishes were placed on the table, the chicken soup was rich and fragrant, the sweet and sour pork looked tempting. Cheng Feiying glanced at Cheng Tingyan. Taking the house she had drawn to do a good deed this morning didn’t work out. But tonight’s dishes, except for some ingredients that Wei Chengli couldn’t handle, which were shared, were all earned through his own efforts, cooked by him. Surely no one could object to him sharing them to make friends?

The one who took the initiative to share first would shine the brightest.

Almost the moment the host announced that they could start eating, Cheng Feiying said to his two daughters, “We can’t finish all these dishes, let’s take a little and share the rest with the other dads and babies.”

Cheng Rongrong immediately agreed supportively.

Cheng Tingyan had always been invisible at home, only ever receiving instructions, rarely asked for her opinion. It wasn’t until Cheng Feiying stared at her for a while that she realized she also needed to express her opinion. Of course, by the time she nodded, it was already much slower than Cheng Rongrong’s enthusiastic response.

Cheng Tingyan didn’t think much of this delay. But Cheng Rongrong was secretly pleased with Cheng Tingyan’s lack of enthusiasm, which could be interpreted as reluctance. Her dad was amazing, this three-and-a-half-year-old body was still too weak, when she was alone, her plans were always disrupted, now that she had her dad, it was much easier to highlight Cheng Tingyan’s coldness and selfishness.

However, Cheng Rongrong soon realized she had celebrated too soon.

Cheng Feiying picked up his chopsticks with one hand and the spoon from the chicken soup bowl with the other, expertly removing a chicken leg and was about to walk to the left.

“Daddy, give it to Sister first.” Cheng Rongrong, sitting on Cheng Feiying’s left, reminded him with a sweet smile, sighing inwardly. Cheng Feiying always messed up the details. They had agreed that he would prioritize Cheng Tingyan on the show, but he always remembered her first, what a sweet burden.

Cheng Feiying shook the excess soup off the chicken leg, feeling a bit reluctant.

In his opinion, the best parts of a stewed chicken were the drumsticks and wings, the rest was just filler. Others must think the same, during the guess-the-dad-by-dish segment, they had only taken a little bit of chicken breast and back with the shared chopsticks.

To make friends, you had to offer some delicious meat.

Cheng Feiying knew that Rongrong, like her mother, loved chicken drumsticks. At home, he would have to stew two chickens at a time, two drumsticks for Rongrong, two drumsticks for Bai Lei, and he would only get the wings.

Now there was only one chicken with two drumsticks.

Cheng Feiying wanted to give away some good meat and also save a drumstick for Rongrong, so naturally, he didn’t want to prioritize Cheng Tingyan. Besides, Cheng Tingyan didn’t like chicken drumsticks or wings… It wouldn’t make much difference if he didn’t specifically prioritize her this once or twice. And it was him who was distributing the chicken, Rongrong had already spoken, she had already shown herself to be friendlier than Yan Yan, that was enough.

“Give it to her, she also…” Cheng Feiying said, continuing to move the drumstick to the left.

Just as the drumstick was about to leave the airspace above the serving dish, a small bowl suddenly appeared from the right.

Chapter 31

Following Wang Qingchuan, Wen Xiang was also sent back in a huff.

Wen Jiangyue, seeing Wang Zhizhi facing the wall and Wen Dongyu squatting dejectedly, couldn’t help but lean towards Wei Maomao and whisper, “Maomao, why don’t you just take my card…”

Wei Maomao: …She didn’t really want to live as a Daddy’s Kiss Card dealer.

“Listen to what your dad says first,” Cheng Tingyan suggested, “If you can’t fulfill his request, then give it to Maomao.”

Wen Jiangyue thought about it and agreed.

Unlike Wang Qingchuan, who remained silent in his anger, Wen Xiang’s anger was loud and boisterous.

Wen Qiming quickly understood the situation and, on his way out, decisively changed his requirement from reciting fifty Song dynasty poems to five.

Wen Xiang’s willingness to share allowed the Wen family’s “Daddy’s Kiss Card” exchange to proceed quickly and smoothly.

Both his daughter’s swift agreement to his request and her soft, still-chubby cheeks, which he hadn’t kissed in a long time, put Wen Qiming in a good mood.

Similarly, Wen Jiangyue, who hadn’t experienced such closeness with her father in a long time, felt embarrassed but also a little happy. Only five Song poems! And she was allowed to start reciting them tomorrow, one poem a day, her dad was so nice! Of course, Wen Jiangyue temporarily forgot that she had to recite texts every day at home, and they had agreed to take a break from studying during the show.

Regardless, Wen Jiangyue’s success at least made the staff breathe a sigh of relief.

It was the same for Shi Dingshan. After all, with one failure followed by another, he had truly considered the possibility of a complete wipeout.

Ugh, it was just a game segment, why were these dads taking it so seriously! He should have written the scripts for each “request” himself and not let them improvise!

But the parent-child relationships in these families were really… somewhat fragile. Thinking this, Shi Dingshan subconsciously looked at the screen displaying the feed from Wei Maomao’s second camera. Shi Hongxiao had captured several good shots throughout the day, he might actually have some talent for this job, even though he wasn’t a biological father.

Now, only Cheng Rongrong and Wei Maomao had cards left.

Wei Maomao had three cards. Thinking that Cheng Rongrong should go first and then she could wrap things up, the sooner the better, she waited.

But Cheng Rongrong insisted on going last, so Wei Maomao asked the staff to call Wei Chengli out first.

However… Wei Maomao glanced at Cheng Rongrong, feeling like something was off.

In this short amount of time, Wen Xiang had already spread the story of Wen Dongyu throughout the courtyard. When Wei Chengli came out, he had a complicated expression. Seeing Wei Maomao and Wen Dongyu behind her, he even slowed down his pace, looking almost furtive…

“Baby…” Wei Chengli shuffled out, squatted down, and reached out to pat the little dumpling’s head, then he saw the dried yellow juice on his hand and retracted it.

“Daddy…” Wei Maomao was also feeling complicated. So much had happened in the short half day they had been apart.

Father and daughter looked at each other, both with weariness in their eyes.

“Boss! Quickly give Daddy our Kiss Card!” Wen Dongyu urged. “Dinner is almost ready!”

Wei Chengli: “…”

Wei Maomao: “…”

“My request is…” Wei Chengli, having learned from Wen Xiang’s outburst, was prepared to just ask for a kiss from Maomao and be done with it.

“Daddy.” Wei Maomao suddenly extended her hand. “What is this?”

Wei Chengli stared at it for a moment, then said hesitantly, “A hand? A chubby hand? A white and chubby hand?”

“…” Wei Maomao held back her frustration, then extended a foot. “Daddy, look, what is this?”

“Why is there so much mud on your foot? Didn’t they give you tools to dig? Did you dig with your foot?” Wei Chengli asked in shock.

Wei Maomao wiggled her toes and smiled politely. “Daddy, what was your request? Are you asking to kiss this hand? Or are you asking to kiss this foot? Or this foot?”

Wei Chengli watched as the little dumpling presented her hand, one muddy foot, and then the other muddy foot, his pupils dilated in shock.

“Baby, you have so little faith in me! I’m not someone who makes unreasonable requests! Why don’t you even listen to my request!” Wei Chengli protested.

“Oh, is Daddy asking to kiss this foot?” Wei Maomao obediently extended her left foot.

Inside the light green sandals was a sweaty, muddy chubby foot…

“No… You heard wrong, I’m asking to kiss your chubby, meaty, delicious-looking little face!” Wei Chengli said through gritted teeth.

“Oh, you want to kiss this one.” Wei Maomao obediently switched to her right foot.

Wei Chengli: …

“Baby, are you still angry about lunch? Daddy was wrong!” Wei Chengli finally remembered something other than the task at hand.

Ah, he had planned to apologize as soon as he was summoned! It was Wen Xiang’s outburst that had made him so nervous about the task that he had forgotten to apologize!

“Alright, then what is Daddy’s request?” Wei Maomao waved her hands repeatedly.

“Daddy wants…” Looking at his little rascal’s obvious hint, Wei Chengli chuckled wearily. “Daddy wants to kiss this cute little hand of my precious baby.”

Making a request and getting a kiss in one go, as expected of you, mischievous Maomao.

“Okay!” Wei Maomao extended her hand, taking out three cards at the same time. “Two more requests.”

Wei Chengli looked at Wei Maomao’s muddy feet in surprise.

Wei Maomao: “…”

Thankfully, his shock was short-lived, Wei Chengli quickly realized he had misunderstood.

But including Wen Dongyu’s, weren’t there only two cards…

Wei Maomao fanned the cards, silently urging him.

“Alright, my other two requests are, for my precious baby to let Daddy kiss this cute little hand once, and then once again.” Wei Chengli said tentatively.

“Daddy, Daddy, you’re the best daddy!” Wei Maomao smiled with satisfaction and patted Wei Chengli’s shoulder.

Wei Chengli was both exasperated and amused, he planted three kisses on Wei Maomao’s chubby paw. “There, see how simple my requests are? You can’t stay mad at me about lunch anymore!”

Wei Maomao didn’t say yes or no, she just pulled Wei Chengli closer by his collar, leaning close to his ear and whispering something very softly.

Wei Chengli paused after listening, then chuckled and tapped the little dumpling’s forehead a few times.

This time, Wei Maomao didn’t dodge, she even grinned at Wei Chengli ingratiatingly and then put a chubby finger to her lips, making a “shh” gesture.

Although Wei Chengli thought what Wei Maomao had said was unnecessary, he nodded under her insistent stare, but before leaving, he couldn’t help but retort, “If you had known this would happen, why did you do it in the first place.”

The others couldn’t hear the father and daughter’s whispered conversation, they only thought Wei Chengli’s actions and words were strange. But the staff members with audio equipment and the viewers in the live broadcast room couldn’t hold back their laughter.

The little dumpling who had been fearless in the morning was now afraid of Cheng Feiying.

At this moment, they all thought Wei Chengli’s last retort was spot on.

Because of Wei Chengli’s leniency, Wei Maomao’s three Kiss Cards were used without any trouble.

Soon, the staff called out the last one, Cheng Feiying.

Although the children weren’t allowed to enter the courtyard, the gate had been left open after they arrived.

Before Cheng Feiying even reached the gate, Cheng Rongrong saw him from afar, turned around, and ran to Cheng Tingyan’s side.

“Sister, I have two cards, I’ll give you one.” Cheng Rongrong took out the card she had been holding in her hand and stuffed it into Cheng Tingyan’s hand, a friendly, almost ingratiating smile on her face. “You…”

Cheng Tingyan was startled by Cheng Rongrong’s sudden approach, she froze for a moment before quickly trying to toss the card away.

But Cheng Rongrong had already retracted her hand, the light card couldn’t withstand Cheng Tingyan’s toss.

However, the card didn’t fall to the ground. In fact, it had only left Cheng Tingyan’s hand by a few millimeters when a chubby paw shot out and caught it.

“Rongrong, you’re so nice!” Wei Maomao quickly cut off Cheng Rongrong, not giving her a chance to react. She rushed towards the gate, shouting, “Daddy!”

The next second, Wei Chengli, who should have gone back to continue cooking, dashed out from behind the gate.

“Maomao?” Wei Chengli had dashed out too quickly, he hadn’t even found his little chubby dumpling amongst the crowd outside when he was pulled back two steps by a force crashing into his legs.

“Daddy, tell me your request!” Wei Maomao said concisely, stuffing the newly acquired card into Wei Chengli’s hand.

“Why another one?” Wei Chengli was speechless. “Didn’t you say…”

“Daddy!” Wei Maomao stomped her foot, a muddy foot landing on Wei Chengli’s pant leg. “Hurry up!”

“Uncle!” Cheng Rongrong ran over from afar.

“Don’t, don’t step on me! Okay, okay, my request is to kiss your chubby little hand.” Wei Chengli helplessly lowered his head, picked up a seemingly clean chubby paw, and kissed it, then turned to Cheng Rongrong, who had just arrived. “What’s wrong, Rongrong?”

“Uncle, that was the card I gave to my sister.” Cheng Rongrong said aggrievedly.

“Maomao, is Rongrong telling the truth?” Wei Chengli frowned slightly, his baby couldn’t have snatched the card, could she? Weren’t they all given to her?

“Daddy, Yan Yan and I are using our Baby Coins together. Yan Yan’s card is my card, Daddy’s requests are the easiest, I want Baby Coins.” Wei Maomao swayed Wei Chengli’s hand.

“But…” Wei Chengli felt like there was nothing wrong, but something also felt a bit off.

Wei Maomao turned to Cheng Rongrong and smiled. “Thank you, Rongrong. Isn’t my daddy’s request simple? You still have one card left, do you want me to use it for you?”

“You, that’s not right. I gave my sister the card because she didn’t have one, Daddy could only kiss me, it’s not fair…” Cheng Rongrong said softly, acting aggrieved, while cursing Wei Maomao eight hundred times in her heart.

She was everywhere, she had even taken precautions and let her exchange first, how could she have the audacity to call her dad out again when he was cooking? And that Wei Chengli, why did he come out so quickly, why didn’t he even ask why she wanted to exchange another card before kissing? Was there something wrong with this father and daughter!

“Daddy, what’s fair? I don’t understand…” Wei Maomao tilted her head, thinking for a moment, then clutched her stomach. “Ah, I need to poop.”

Without waiting for Wei Chengli’s reaction, Wei Maomao turned and ran, not forgetting to pull Cheng Tingyan along as she passed by, shouting as they ran, “Ahhh, I can’t hold it anymore!”

Wei Chengli: “…” He felt like he had been tricked again.

Cheng Rongrong: “…” Enough! First peeing, now pooping! Was this too much!

“Hey… Rongrong, Maomao is still young, she might not understand what fairness is. Anyway, Yan Yan and Maomao are using their Baby Coins together, it’s the same whoever exchanges them, right? You still have one card, go let your dad kiss you, he’s still cooking…” Wei Chengli said softly, trying to smooth things over for the little rascal.

As he spoke, Wei Chengli suddenly remembered that when Shi Dingshan persuaded him to join the show, one reason was that he could make more friends on the show… Now it seemed that it would be good if he didn’t make more enemies after the show was over.

What else could Cheng Rongrong do now! Even if she wanted to give the other card to Cheng Tingyan, they had to come back, she couldn’t let Cheng Feiying wait here forever…

She hadn’t intended to make Cheng Feiying and Cheng Tingyan interact, she just wanted the viewers in the live broadcast room to see Cheng Tingyan’s aversion to her and the “Daddy’s Kiss Card.” A younger sister who wanted her older sister to also receive a kiss from their dad, and an older sister who disliked both her sister and her dad, wouldn’t the contrast be obvious?

It was all because of Wei Maomao! Why was she everywhere!

Cheng Rongrong, suppressing her anger and resentment, still had to obediently walk to Cheng Feiying’s side.

“Rongrong, Daddy knows you’re the best. It’s okay, you used the card, it’s no big deal.” Cheng Feiying patted Cheng Rongrong’s head, saying kindly.

Cheng Rongrong: “…” Why did he have to use the word “best”? They had agreed that he would act like he loved Cheng Tingyan the most on the show! Why wasn’t even her dad cooperating!

“Daddy, what’s your request?” Cheng Rongrong suppressed her frustration at everything going wrong and looked up, smiling sweetly.

Hopefully, Cheng Feiying was smart enough to say something like he didn’t have any requests or that he hoped she would be happy, to refute that little fatty’s claim that her dad’s requests were simple. If that didn’t work, at least he shouldn’t be as foolish as Wen Xiang and Wang Qingchuan.

“Daddy’s request is very simple. Daddy worked hard to find ingredients for you and cook dinner today, so Rongrong just give Daddy a shoulder massage for twenty seconds.” Cheng Feiying said with a smile.

They had been busy cooking in the courtyard, and they hadn’t really discussed the “requests” with each other at first. It wasn’t until Wen Xiang came back that they realized these “requests” couldn’t be made casually. Children these days had tempers, and things could easily go wrong.

But Cheng Feiying had already thought about his request. He felt that it could highlight his paternal love in words and show Cheng Rongrong’s filial piety when she completed the request. It was also simple, just a twenty-second massage, it was definitely easier than the five Song poems Wen Qiming had mentioned.

Although he didn’t know what request Wei Chengli, who had left in a daze and hadn’t returned, had made, Cheng Feiying was confident that his was the easiest to fulfill.

It wasn’t until he was tricked by that little chubby girl as soon as he came out that Cheng Feiying realized that Wei Chengli’s non-request must have been the easiest. Time was limited, Cheng Feiying couldn’t think of a simpler and more creative request, so he stuck with his original plan.

After hearing it, Cheng Rongrong wasn’t sure whether she was relieved or still frustrated. The request wasn’t difficult, but it felt pointless… If they were talking about the effect on the live broadcast, their family would probably be the most boring.

Even though she thought this, Cheng Rongrong still diligently and considerately massaged Cheng Feiying, even exceeding the twenty seconds. The father and daughter pretended to refuse a few times, then kissed each other on the cheek, concluding the task with a heartwarming display of paternal love and filial piety.

When Cheng Rongrong successfully passed the test and received the coin purse containing fifty Baby Coins from the staff, she didn’t feel happy at all.

What was there to be happy about? She had participated in this show, had planned and prepared so much, was it all for these worthless coins?

Cheng Rongrong was fuming inside, but she still maintained a polite smile on her face.

Actually, there was one thing Cheng Rongrong guessed right.

In this task, her and Cheng Feiying’s performance was indeed the most bland. And because they were the last family to complete the task, by the end, a large portion of the audience’s attention was no longer on their interaction, but on the world of online commentary.

“Children really don’t know how to do math. If Wang Zhizhi had agreed to Wang Qingchuan’s request, he could have had ten more Baby Coins, now he has nothing.”

“??? That’s not not knowing how to do math, that’s called refusing to compromise for a small gain. The funny thing is that he earned those coins himself.”

“I actually think Wang Qingchuan’s request was okay. Forty coins was a bit expensive, but spending twenty or thirty on a gift for his sister wasn’t a big deal. It was just that Wang Qingchuan’s attitude was a bit forceful, otherwise it would have been quite meaningful for Wang Zhizhi to buy a gift for his family with the first money he earned himself.”

“I didn’t want to type this out because it’s too long… but I can’t hold back. I believe there are many people in this world who want to buy things for their families after earning their first paycheck, both as a memento and as a form of gratitude. But maybe I’m an outlier, when I earned my first paycheck, I really wanted to save it, really, really wanted to. It was only 1460 yuan, not even 1500, but at the time, I felt like it was a foundation, a start for me to stand on my own two feet in society as an independent person, to start building my own savings, strength, and even a future, do you understand what I mean? I just didn’t want to spend it… But my mom told me, since I had earned money, to buy a soy milk maker for my dad, her tone was casual and matter-of-fact. I bought it, a 459 yuan soy milk maker for my dad, and a 530 yuan pair of shoes for my mom. I’m not ungrateful towards my parents, in the past decade or so, I’ve bought many things for them, from small appliances to a new house… But that first paycheck was the only one I spent unwillingly. I even feel like that incident has affected me for many years, making me feel like I can’t protect my own possessions, no matter how old I am, my parents still have control over me. Control over not just my money, but also my person.”

“Wow, friend above, you make me feel like you’re still affected by something that happened over a decade ago, you even remember the numbers down to the single digits…”

“There must be some filial piety warriors on the way, let’s hug Zhizhi, Dongdong, and the anonymous friend above first. I can understand that feeling of helplessness, sometimes it’s not that you don’t want to repay your parents, to be filial and kind, it’s that their tone of taking it for granted makes you rebellious. After all, when we were young, we would act cute and coquettishly ask our parents for things…”

“Hugging Zhizhi, Dongdong, the anonymous friend above, and myself. I can also understand the friend above, it’s that feeling of being deprived, because parents have invested so much, they occupy the position of always being right. This problem is actually unsolvable, after all, this is the tradition of our society…”

“People should have morals, but we shouldn’t raise the moral standard to an unreasonable level. Wang Zhizhi and Wen Dongyu can voice their opinions, saying no to unreasonable demands for repayment, we should be able to do the same. We can give love, give money, as a form of repayment to our parents, but this shouldn’t include sacrificing our personality, our personal space, our mental health…”

“Right, reasonable requests will be met with reasonable rewards. I think Wen Qiming’s ‘request’ was okay, Wen Jiangyue seemed quite happy, she’s a studious little girl.”

“Looking at it this way, although Director Wei’s mush was terrible, at least he didn’t make things difficult for Maomao in this task, he’s not bad.”

“Hahaha, I’m dying of laughter, who could Director Wei possibly make things difficult for, it’s good enough that he wasn’t made things difficult for by Maomao.”

“It seems Wen Dongdong has some judgment, although Director Wei is a bit of a scammer, Wen Xiang seems even worse…”

“Maomao is truly amazing, I suspect Director Wei told her the story of the golden axe and the silver axe, hahaha, do you want the golden axe, the silver axe, or this muddy foot? Hahaha~~”

“You can tell Director Wei’s deep love from how he chopped so many vegetables at noon, and chopped them so finely, it’s just that his cooking skills are a bit lacking, which resulted in him turning from a daughter’s slave to a slave to his daughter, hahaha!”

“Our little chubby bunny is both smart and cowardly, she stood up to Cheng Feiying this morning, but now she’s scared and asking her dad to hide and protect her. Looking at Wei Chengli’s expression at the time, hahaha, it was truly a mix of exasperation and amusement.”

“Who would have thought, not only was the protection unsuccessful, but he was almost forced to kiss a muddy little foot again, hahaha…”

“To be fair, Maomao’s choice wasn’t wrong, Wei Chengli’s ‘request’ was indeed the simplest, worthy of being a slave to his daughter.”

“Honestly, maybe I’m overthinking it, after all, Maomao is only three years old. But I feel like she saw, and understood, Yan Yan’s uncomfortable and aggrieved expression when she offered to use the card on the road. That’s why she quickly took the card Rongrong gave her and used it.”

“Hahaha, I don’t believe that Maomao, who never stops talking, wouldn’t know what ‘fairness’ is, it’s all for the older sister she loves!”

“Right! I think so too! I even think she used the poop escape tactic in the end!”

“Hahaha, I don’t think so, Maomao really did spend a long time in the bathroom, Yan Yan came out a while ago, and she’s still inside.”

“I’m dying of laughter, go watch, Maomao is pooping and calling out for Yan Yan every now and then.”

“The funniest thing is that Maomao is only three years old, but she’s already so concerned about her image, she wants Yan Yan to be there, but also doesn’t want her to be inside, hahaha.”

…

Wei Maomao, squatting in the bathroom, was speechless at herself. She had used it as an excuse to take Yan Yan away, but she actually had the urge to… So she had hastily shooed Yan Yan out.

Speaking of which, that father and daughter were really… It wasn’t enough for them to join forces and step on Yan Yan’s reputation in her previous life, now they were even putting on a show of fatherly love and filial piety with a kiss? When Cheng Rongrong stuffed the card into Cheng Tingyan’s hand, Wei Maomao felt sicker than when she drank the mush Wei Chengli made at lunch.

Earlier, while waiting to exchange her cards, Wei Maomao had felt like something was off. She had paid attention to Cheng Rongrong while exchanging with Wei Chengli, seeing her glance at Cheng Tingyan several times, she had some suspicions. Wei Maomao didn’t pull Cheng Tingyan away immediately, Cheng Rongrong had two cards, she had to see if this trick would be used. Although she had found an excuse to have Wei Chengli hide, she still doubted if she was overthinking it. After all, Cheng Rongrong hadn’t mentioned sharing the card the whole way, she couldn’t possibly do it at the last minute, could she?

Well, she did.

Thankfully, Wei Chengli kept his promise and jumped out, allowing her to quickly get rid of the card.

Now Cheng Rongrong still had one card left, she couldn’t possibly use some sharing excuse to keep waiting, right? It was a good time to take care of her personal business and delay things.

Thinking this, Wei Maomao called out, “Yan Yan, are you still there?”

Soon, Cheng Tingyan’s voice came from outside, “I’m here, don’t be afraid. Tell me if you need me to come in.”

The gentle voice laced with concern made Wei Maomao blush.

Coming in wasn’t necessary. Wei Maomao wasn’t afraid of using the bathroom alone. She was afraid that while she was in the bathroom, Cheng Tingyan would be taken away by those people again. Wei Maomao felt awkward letting Cheng Tingyan stay inside the bathroom, so she found an excuse to make her wait outside and not go back.

Cheng Tingyan, unaware of Wei Maomao’s thoughts, obediently stood outside, closest to the bathroom door, her ears perked up, afraid of missing any sounds from inside, afraid that Maomao would be scared if she didn’t get a response.

When Maomao pulled her over earlier, Cheng Tingyan thought the little chubby bunny wanted to take off their microphones and whisper secrets again, she didn’t expect…

On their way over, Cheng Tingyan was still thinking about whether she should ask Maomao about her dad when they whispered.

He had made food that made Maomao throw up and forced her to eat it by threatening to take her home, he seemed like a bad father…

But just now, he hadn’t made any difficult “requests,” allowing Maomao to exchange four Kiss Cards without any trouble. He seemed much kinder than Wang Zhizhi and Wen Dongyu’s dads.

Cheng Tingyan couldn’t understand this erratic behavior, she had quite a few questions.

But now that they couldn’t whisper, she calmed down, standing by the bathroom door, and felt like there was nothing to ask anymore.

Wasn’t she the same… With a dad who seemed good, but was actually bad. Maomao’s view of her dad and her own view of her dad should be similar…

Cheng Tingyan thought, if they whispered, and Maomao asked about her dad, she… wouldn’t be able to explain. Maomao probably couldn’t explain either…

Those adults, good and bad.

Everyone thought they were good, only they, the children, knew they were both good and bad.

But no one would believe children.

They were safe only if they didn’t say anything.

Cheng Tingyan lowered her eyes, her toes gently rubbing the dirt on the ground, as if she was slowly, slowly burying herself again.

Wei Maomao, inside the bathroom, diligently fanning her skirt, was completely unaware that she had missed the opportunity to remove a burden that didn’t belong to Wei Chengli…

After fanning for a while, sniffing herself to make sure she didn’t smell bad, Wei Maomao carefully walked out of the bathroom, then, before Cheng Tingyan could approach, she ran around in a circle, making sure it was safe before going back to her.

Cheng Tingyan watched the little chubby bunny running in circles, puzzled.

The viewers in the live broadcast room, many of whom were imaginative, guessed what was happening and laughed at the three-year-old’s concern for her image.

It was a pity they didn’t see Wei Maomao diligently fanning her skirt, otherwise they would have died of laughter.

As Wei Maomao had expected, when they returned, this segment was completely over, Cheng Rongrong hadn’t waited with the last card.

But after this incident, Wei Maomao’s vigilance towards Cheng Rongrong increased. This three-and-a-half-year-old little girl was more dangerous than she had appeared in the show in her previous life.

Now that Wei Maomao was back, the rewards for the four Kiss Cards were naturally distributed. Wei Maomao asked the staff to exchange the four cards separately and then gave two of the four bags to Wen Dongyu and Wang Zhizhi.

“Thank you, Boss! Love you!” Wen Dongyu hugged the coin purse, grinning happily.

Wang Zhizhi, however, was different. He put his hands behind his back, refusing to take the purse, and said fiercely, “I don’t want it, I gave you that card.”

Wen Dongyu was stunned, his gaze shifting between the coin purse in his arms, Wang Zhizhi, and Wei Maomao, then reluctantly offered the purse to Wei Maomao. “Oh right, I gave you my card too…”

“Okay. Then I’ll give you each a bag of coins.” Wei Maomao offered the coin purse in her hand to Wang Zhizhi. “Take it, it’s for you.”

“I don’t want it!” Wang Zhizhi seemed even angrier, his voice louder. “I hate these, I don’t want them anymore!”

Seeing that Wang Zhizhi’s eyes were about to turn red again, Wei Maomao paused and retracted her hand.

Forget it, she would just buy snacks for them to share later.

“Then I…” Wen Dongyu held up the coin purse, looking confused.

“It’s for you.” Wei Maomao said and left.

Hehe, Wen Dongyu touched the coin purse in his arms, his face beaming with happiness, then he quickly caught up to Wei Maomao, muttering, “Boss, like I said before, I’ll put my Baby Coins with you, you keep them.”

“Give them to me when we get back, they’re too heavy.” Wei Maomao lifted the coin purse in her hand, the coins were well-made and quite heavy.

Ugh, this three-year-old body was truly weak!

Now, Wei Maomao and Cheng Tingyan’s Baby Coins combined were over two hundred, it was getting heavy.

In the end, Cheng Tingyan offered her shoulder bag and carried most of their Baby Coins, agreeing to go to Wei Maomao’s house after dinner to put them away.

And after they finished dividing the Baby Coins, the main event for tonight was about to begin.

The children were led by the staff to the tents in the square, sitting beside their dads, who were either sulking, their eyes burning with anger, smiling gently, feeling uneasy, or looking incredibly loving.

“Hello everyone, I, your host, Uncle Xiong, am back!” The host hopped onto the stage. “Our babies and dads are all here. Before we start our dinner today, I have a task to announce!”

The crowd below, having been through a lot: …

“Ahem, the task is like this.” The host, not getting any response, continued diligently, “As you all know, dinner tonight was made by the dads, but what they cooked has been kept secret. Before we officially start our dinner, we have a taste-and-guess-the-dad segment. That is, our babies need to taste a dish and guess which dad made it. And dads can only feed them the food, you’re not allowed to give any hints.”

Wei Maomao subconsciously turned to look at Wei Chengli, who lowered his head guiltily.

No way, Wei Maomao wondered, during the “Daddy’s Kiss Card” segment earlier, she had seen the dried ginger juice on Wei Chengli’s hand. When he pinched her face, the smell of ginger was so strong it filled her nose. Even with that, he should have removed the fishy smell from the meat, right…

Just as Wei Maomao was suspicious, Wei Chengli raised his head, giving her a complicated look.

Wei Maomao: ???

“There are twelve dishes in total, two dishes for each dad. So each of you will guess twelve times. For every correct guess, you’ll get one Baby Coin, and the dad who made the dish will get one Daddy Coin.” The host smiled. “Alright, now let’s put on blindfolds for the babies. For fairness, we’ll be doing a blind tasting.”

Wei Maomao wasn’t sure if it was just her imagination, but she felt like the host glanced at their table when he said the last sentence…

Chapter 30

The Baby Coin digging field wasn’t far from the village entrance. After walking back for a short while, the convenience store, stocked with a variety of delicious treats, appeared before the children.

However, at this moment, the convenience store held no allure for them…

After opening the treasure boxes and dividing the items, Wen Dongyu had eagerly asked Yang Ning if they could go to the convenience store and exchange for snacks on their way back.

But the convenience store had strict business hours: 9 am to 5 pm. Even though the “shopkeeper” was right there, there were no exceptions.

Wei Maomao sighed softly, looking at the approaching convenience store. For a convenience store, it had a more regular schedule than the average worker.

“Why are you sighing, Maomao?” Wen Jiangyue reached out and stroked the little chubby girl’s head. Her soft hair made her squint her eyes with pleasure, she felt like a cat at her grandmother’s house.

Cheng Tingyan, walking on Wei Maomao’s other side, tilted her head slightly, glancing at Wen Jiangyue’s hand, which was stroking Maomao’s hair repeatedly. She had only lightly touched that soft bunny fur once before… Cheng Tingyan pursed her lips, restraining herself from looking again. Her other hand, which wasn’t holding the little chubby paw, slowly clenched.

“The convenience store is closed.” Wei Maomao pointed at the locked store, now very close, answering Wen Jiangyue.

“We can go tomorrow morning.” Wen Jiangyue offered comfort, then rubbed the little chubby girl’s head again. After a pause, she said, “Maomao, can I give you my ‘Daddy’s Kiss Card’ too?”

Wei Maomao turned to her in confusion.

Wen Jiang yue smiled shyly. “I’m five and a half years old now, I’m a big girl, I’d be embarrassed if Daddy kissed me. You’re only three, still a baby, can you be kissed by your daddy one more time?”

Wei Maomao: “But…”

“I know, you said that even when babies grow up, they are still Daddy’s little babies and can be kissed.” Wen Jiangyue interrupted. “But I’m really embarrassed, my daddy hasn’t kissed me for a very, very long time.”

Wei Maomao: “Wait…”

“Please help me, Maomao…” Wen Jiangyue gently tugged at Wei Maomao’s hand, pleading softly.

“I wanted to say…” Wei Maomao pressed her hand over Wen Jiangyue’s hand, which was reaching for the card. “You don’t have to use the ‘Daddy’s Kiss Card’ even if you have it. I’m not using mine.”

???

Wen Jiangyue, who had been taking out the card while walking, stopped abruptly.

“You can do that?” Wen Jiangyue asked in shock.

“We can choose whether to use the things we dug up.” Cheng Tingyan said softly.

Wei Maomao happily swung their clasped hands, as expected of the friend she had gotten along so well with in her previous life, even at six years old, they were on the same wavelength.

Wen Jiangyue pondered for a moment, realizing there was nothing wrong with it, and her face brightened.

This was how the world worked, some were happy, some were worried. Wei Maomao and Cheng Tingyan’s simple words cleared the clouds for Wen Jiangyue but made Shi Dingshan so angry he almost fell out of his chair.

“Maomao is really…” In the village, Shi Dingshan leaned back heavily, his gaze fixed on the screen displaying Wei Maomao’s second camera feed. He said, both exasperated and amused, “How can she stir things up wherever she goes? Now that she’s said that, haven’t I wasted my effort arranging those cards?”

“Director Shi, did you want to say she’s like a…” The staff member beside him laughed.

But before she could finish her sentence, Shi Dingshan quickly interrupted, “You can’t say that about a little baby! Even if she likes to stir things up, she’s still a cute little baby!”

The staff member quickly agreed, but couldn’t help but complain inwardly about Shi Dingshan’s mood swings lately.

Not only had his emotions been erratic recently, but the show’s content was also constantly changing at his whims. That convenience store… It was almost time for filming, and they only had a few days to set up, stock the goods, and get everything ready. And those Daddy Coins and Baby Coins, just choosing the designs and finding a place to mint them was enough to keep people working around the clock. After they were made, they still had to bury them…

It would have been fine if they had followed the normal procedures, but these were all Shi Dingshan’s last-minute ideas. With such tight deadlines, it took double the effort.

Compared to those painstakingly created things, the few “Daddy’s Kiss Cards” that Wei Maomao had just rendered useless were nothing.

Unfortunately, this was just wishful thinking on the part of the staff, Shi Dingshan didn’t see it that way.

As for Yang Ning, after all the unexpected twists and turns at the treasure hunt location, seeing the closed convenience store approaching, she thought that all she had to do was bring these little ancestors here and she could clock out and eat. Thinking of this, she couldn’t help but smile with relief.

But her happiness was short-lived.

Listening to the voice coming through her earpiece, her smile vanished, and her brows furrowed, her head suddenly felt twice as heavy.

Secretly working her jaw, Yang Ning turned to face the children, wearing a professional, kind smile. No one knew that at this moment, she was silently praying that Maomao wouldn’t start with “My daddy says…” and throw her off course again.

“Everyone, stop here, babies, stop here, look over here, look at Sister Yang Yang.” Yang Ning stopped, and when the children gathered around, she pointed at the convenience store behind her. “We’ve said before, the convenience store is open from 9 am to 5 pm, during this time, you can all come and exchange your Baby Coins for things.”

Yang Ning looked at the children, their gazes were filled with innocent confusion, as if asking why she was repeating this…

“But the prerequisite for exchanging is that you have enough Baby Coins, right?” Yang Ning, who had been questioned too many times by the little ones, carefully laid the groundwork, then continued kindly, “Now, we have a new task where you can earn Baby Coins.”

“I want to do the task!” Wen Dongyu was the first to show his support, rushing forward with his hand raised high.

Yang Ning smiled with relief, but she didn’t dare to relax, quickly continuing, “This task is open to any little baby who has the ‘Daddy’s Kiss Card’ that you dug up earlier. The task is to use the ‘Daddy’s Kiss Card’ before our dinner starts at 6:30 pm, and you can earn fifty Baby Coins! You can get a kiss from Daddy and earn more Baby Coins, isn’t that great!”

“That’s great!” Wen Dongyu took out his card, holding it up and waving it excitedly. “I have one! I can get fifty Baby Coins!”

Yang Ning observed that apart from the overly excited Wen Dongyu, the other children had lukewarm reactions, especially Wei Maomao… Did she just twitch the corner of her mouth? She couldn’t be dissatisfied, could she… Yang Ning felt a bit uneasy, after all, she had only told them the good part!

Of course, Wei Maomao was dissatisfied. Just after telling Wen Jiangyue that they didn’t have to use the cards, the program team gave them a reason to use them… Wei Maomao didn’t even have to think, this was most likely Shi Dingshan’s doing.

“But, Daddy’s kiss isn’t so easy to get~~” Yang Ning braced herself, trying to sound lively, interesting, and kind while reading the prompt from her earpiece. “Love is mutual, it requires giving from both sides. Before you use the card on your dads, they will ask you for a small favor. Only if you agree to do it and let Daddy feel your love can you use the ‘Daddy’s Kiss Card,’ get a kiss from Daddy, and finally get the reward of fifty Baby Coins~~”

Silence… Quiet… Even Wen Dongyu sensed the strange atmosphere, looking left and right, and lowered his raised arm.

Yang Ning: “…”

Well, she had said her piece, it was time to clock out~~~

Shi Dingshan, watching the little ones through the screen, his gaze fixed on Wei Maomao, who was no longer as happy as before, couldn’t help but smile. “Hmph, little one, you have your brilliant plan, and I have my ladder to climb over the wall.”

The happy worker clocked out, leaving behind the frowning little ones.

“Why aren’t you happy? Fifty Baby Coins! I only have ten! If I have fifty more, I’ll have a lot! I can eat lollipops, shrimp crackers, and buy beef jerky with you…” Wen Dongyu muttered, swaying in front of the others.

Shen Zilin, relaxed because he didn’t have a Daddy Card, laughed at Wen Dongyu’s silliness. “To get the Baby Coins, you have to agree to your dad’s request first. What if your dad asks you to never ask him to get back your airplane and Charizard again?”

“Ah?” Wen Dongyu’s jaw dropped, his happiness vanished.

Fifty Baby Coins, or his Charizard… Wen Dongyu frowned, conflicted.

“Maybe your dad won’t ask that, let’s go back and see.” Wen Jiangyue, feeling a bit sorry for him, tried to console him.

“We exchanged ten Baby Coins for your card, it’s fifty now.” Wei Maomao said to Wen Jiangyue.

“That was supposed to be yours anyway, we agreed to split everything we find fifty-fifty.” Wen Jiangyue clutched her coin purse protectively and moved away from Wei Maomao.

Wei Maomao: “…” A deal was a deal, but she had given up on sharing when she saw it was a Daddy Card, and later, she had only exchanged for one as an act of kindness.

Forget it… She would figure it out later, it was impossible to keep track so precisely anyway.

“Then, are you going to use the card on your dads?” Wang Zhizhi suddenly spoke.

“I’ll think about it.” Wen Dongyu was conflicted.

“I’ll think about it too.” Wen Jiangyue pursed her lips.

“I’ll think about it too.” Cheng Rongrong lowered her eyes, but she was already scheming something else in her heart.

Wang Zhizhi looked at Wei Maomao. “What about you?”

“Oh, I’m using it. Fifty Baby Coins! I can buy so much!” Wei Maomao said resolutely.

Cheng Tingyan, holding Wei Maomao’s hand, tightened her grip.

As they continued walking towards the village entrance, the children gradually spread out. Cheng Tingyan gently pulled Wei Maomao aside and whispered, “Let me use that card…”

Wei Maomao was shocked, she turned to look at Cheng Tingyan, whose face was filled with conflict, rejection, and discomfort, completely unlike the casual tone of her voice.

“No, I’ll use it.” Wei Maomao said firmly. What a joke, if she made Cheng Tingyan use this card on Cheng Feiying for fifty Baby Coins, she might as well bury herself in the ground.

“But…” Cheng Tingyan bit her lip. “What if your dad’s request is for you to keep eating the food you had at lunch?”

“He wouldn’t.” Wei Maomao didn’t think Wei Chengli would go that far, the mush at noon was a genuine mistake, he usually remembered to remove the fishy smell from meat. But to reassure Cheng Tingyan, she added, “Even if he asks me to eat the mush, I have a way!”

Cheng Tingyan looked at the little chubby bunny, who was holding her head high with confidence, and temporarily gave up on the idea of using the card herself.

After all… Cheng Feiying had been very fierce towards her at home, he seemed to have suddenly become much nicer here, but she still didn’t like getting close to him, she was even a bit afraid.

But if Maomao’s dad asked Maomao to eat the food from lunch, she would be willing to let Cheng Feiying kiss her.

The program team’s new task gave the children something to think about on their way back to the village, and they each made their decisions.

The viewers in the live broadcast room were also racking their brains, but they weren’t thinking about whether to use the cards or who should use them, but what requests the dads would make…

“Wen Dongyu is so naive, I also think Wen Xiang will ask him to give up his airplane and Charizard.”

“Then Wen Xiang might as well just ask Wen Dongyu to never ask for anything back after he gives it away, hahaha!”

“Wen Qiming loves to educate his daughter, so what awaits Wen Jiangyue must be reciting one hundred ancient poems, hahaha, I’m dying of laughter.”

“One hundred poems! That’s too much for fifty Baby Coins! The program team is bullying our babies who can’t do math!”

“Looking at Director Wei’s dazed reaction after hearing that Maomao and Yan Yan threw up from his cooking, I don’t think he’ll ask Maomao to keep eating the mush. The most likely scenario is he’ll ask Maomao to throw away the mush in the fridge at home, hahaha!”

“The program team is biased towards the dads! They’re letting Director Wei get away with it! I still want to see Director Wei eat the mush from noon!”

“The test for Maomao is here, does she want to see her dad eat the mush, or get fifty Baby Coins, hahaha.”

“Actually, there’s a bug in this task. They didn’t restrict the transfer of the ‘Daddy’s Kiss Cards.’ What if the babies realize they can just give the card to whichever baby’s dad has the easiest request, and then just wait for the money?”

“??? What did the chosen baby do wrong, hahaha, having to agree to so many requests from their dad for the sake of other babies?”

“The program team is also evil, they must have heard Maomao saying that if you can’t feel the love, there’s none. Now they’ve added a precondition, you have to agree to your dad’s request before you can get a kiss. They’re educating the babies that their dad’s love and kisses are also precious!”

“I disagree, if you’re talking about love, shouldn’t it be unconditional?”

“I just want to point out, when Yan Yan offered to use the ‘Daddy’s Kiss Card’ herself, her expression looked really… uncomfortable.”

“Right! I saw it too! I can’t even describe her expression, but Yan Yan looked really… painful, like she had made a huge decision before saying she would use the card.”

“Damn it, I thought Yan Yan’s expression just now looked familiar, I remember now! It was the same as when she was drinking Director Wei’s mush at lunch! Just that she didn’t throw up this time…”

“??? Seriously? Cheng Feiying seems to be quite good to Cheng Tingyan, sure, the house incident this morning might have hurt her feelings, but he’s her dad, is a kiss from her dad really that repulsive to her? How sad would Cheng Feiying be if he knew!”

“Honestly, Yan Yan has barely interacted with Cheng Feiying on the show, it seems her aversion is real. I can only say, children are really sensitive, if he truly treats her well, she wouldn’t have that expression when it comes to being kissed by her dad. Look at Wang Zhizhi, no matter how much trouble he gives his dad, when it comes to being kissed by his dad, he’s only shy and pretends to be angry.”

“That’s true, Wang Zhizhi is quite, hahaha, what’s it called… tsundere.”

“Anyway, Yan Yan doesn’t have a ‘Daddy’s Kiss Card,’ I just want to know if Director Wei will eat the mush tonight! I’ve been watching the outdoor camera feed, why hasn’t anyone taken the mush out of his fridge! Dinner is almost ready, @program team!”

“Hahaha, what’s with the grudge, you’re watching the outdoor camera feed just to make sure Director Wei eats the mush! You must be a spy sent by the little chubby bunny!”

…

Dinner, a shared meal for all the families, was arranged in the village square.

When the children arrived at the square, the tents, tables, chairs, and benches were all set up, but there were no dads or food in sight.

Wen Dongyu ran around and came back to tell the others that the dads were all locked in the big house on the left side of the square, cooking. They had to hurry and use their “Daddy’s Kiss Cards,” as dinner would start soon.

So the question instantly shifted from “whether to use it” to “who uses it first.”

The children chattered excitedly as they rushed to the house where the dads were cooking, but they were stopped by the staff before they could even enter the courtyard.

Dinner had important segments, so the children couldn’t enter the courtyard and see the dishes the dads were making. If they wanted to use their Daddy Cards, they could only have the staff call their dads out. But they couldn’t all come out together, because someone had to watch the pots, they could only be called out one by one.

Although time was tight, the children still politely offered to go last.

Faced with the situation, even Wen Dongyu, who had been the most eager, shrank back and joined the “you go first, no, you go first” dance.

Wei Maomao and Cheng Tingyan had drunk a lot of water at the treasure hunt location and had used the bathroom when they entered the village, wasting some time, but they hadn’t missed anything…

“Then…” Wei Maomao didn’t care about the order, seeing that they couldn’t decide after all this time, she wanted to say she would go first.

But she was two seconds too late, those who were pushing each other back and forth finally came to a decision.

“I’ll go first then!” Wang Zhizhi, his face flushed, pushed away Wen Dongyu, who was still clinging to his arm, and glared at him. “That’s useless!”

What else could he do, he couldn’t possibly let his pitiful older sisters and younger sisters go first.

Shen Zilin stood aside, watching the show as he popped a vegetable chip into his mouth and munched on it with a crunch. Unsurprisingly, he was glared at by Wang Zhizhi as he passed by.

Wang Qingchuan came out quickly, obviously, the program team had already briefed the dads. He glanced at the card in Wang Zhizhi’s hand and the coin purse at his waist, then smiled, “I heard you had a great harvest from the treasure hunt today. With the fifty Baby Coins from the ‘Daddy’s Kiss Card,’ you’ll have eighty-nine, won’t you? That’s amazing!”

“It’s alright.” Wang Zhizhi straightened his back, his little face flushed. “I also dug up two bags of snacks.”

“You’re so amazing!” Wang Qingchuan reached out and patted Wang Zhizhi’s head. “Are you going to use the ‘Daddy’s Kiss Card’ on me now?”

Wang Zhizhi turned his flushed face away, looking vaguely to the side, but nodded slightly.

“Then I’ll make my request.” Wang Qingchuan smiled and rubbed Wang Zhizhi’s head. “Look how amazing you are on the show, you dug up so many Baby Coins, isn’t it enough that I know how amazing you are? We also have to let Mom and your little sister know, right? So my request, oh no, my hope is, that you can use your Baby Coins to buy some gifts for Mom and your little sister to take back home, wouldn’t that be meaningful? Your sister would be so happy! When she grows up, we can tell her…”

Before Wang Qingchuan could finish his sentence, the head he was rubbing vanished.

“Wang Zhizhi.” Wang Qingchuan looked at Wang Zhizhi, who had suddenly stepped back, looking at him stubbornly. He suppressed his anger, maintaining his smile, but his tone inevitably became a bit sterner. “Aren’t you learning to be a good brother? Bringing gifts for your little sister when you’re out, isn’t this exactly what a good brother should do? Wang Zhizhi, I’m talking to you, are you listening?”

Wang Zhizhi wasn’t listening, he had stopped listening to what Wang Qingchuan was saying a while ago. He just stared blankly at Wang Qingchuan’s moving lips, Wei Maomao’s childish yet assertive voice echoing in his mind…

“If someone loves you, you can definitely feel it. If you can’t feel the love, there’s nothing there.”

“Daddy loves you so much, he’s even cooking for you right now, I can’t be out here for long. Do you still want to exchange that ‘Daddy’s Kiss Card’?” Wang Qingchuan took a step forward, holding Wang Zhizhi’s shoulder, trying to soften his tone. “I asked the staff, your convenience store also has things other than food, like hair ties, charms, those things that little girls like, they’re not expensive, just thirty or forty Baby Coins. You can have fifty if you use this card. Fifty, even if you spend forty on a gift for your sister, you still have ten left.”

Wang Qingchuan even helpfully calculated it for Wang Zhizhi, afraid he wouldn’t be able to do the math.

Wang Zhizhi suddenly looked at Wei Maomao.

Wei Maomao was startled by his reddened eyes, she instinctively clenched her hand and saw the tears welling up in his eyes.

Cheng Tingyan, feeling the squeeze, thought Maomao was scared and stepped forward, shielding the little chubby bunny behind her.

“I’m not exchanging it anymore.” Wang Zhizhi struggled free from Wang Qingchuan’s hand on his shoulder and ran towards… Wei Maomao.

“Wang…” Wang Qingchuan’s face darkened, just as he was about to scold his son, he saw Wang Zhizhi stuff the card into Wei Maomao’s hand.

“Here you go. Your dad is right.” Wang Zhizhi clenched his fists, he didn’t cry.

Earlier, when Wang Qingchuan had just started speaking and was acting proud of Wang Zhizhi, Wei Maomao had already guessed what he would say next. In several video clips from her previous life, Wang Qingchuan was always like this, first praising Wang Zhizhi, then saying he loved him, then asking him to love and protect his younger sister…

Looking at Wang Qingchuan, whose face had turned pale with anger, Wei Maomao silently apologized to Wei Chengli. She didn’t refuse the card, under Wang Qingchuan’s gaze, she slowly put Wang Zhizhi’s card into her bag.

Wang Qingchuan, enraged by Wang Zhizhi, returned to the courtyard.

Both the children and the staff were a bit shocked, and the atmosphere turned silent for a moment.

So Wen Dongyu’s voice, whispering into Shen Zilin’s ear, became particularly clear. “What happened to them? Isn’t fifty minus forty ten?”

Shen Zilin grabbed a handful of vegetable chips and stuffed them into Wen Dongyu’s mouth.

Was this the time to talk about math?

Wang Zhizhi’s personal property wasn’t protected!

Why did these dads like to control their children’s possessions so much? Shen Zilin glanced at Cheng Tingyan, then at Wang Zhizhi, and suddenly felt that his own dad, who rarely came home, wasn’t so bad after all.

Inside the courtyard, Wen Xiang saw Wang Qingchuan returning and wanted to ask what had happened, but seeing how dark his expression was, he tiptoed back to his stove in fear.

Curious, but more cowardly.

So when the staff informed him that Wen Dongyu was calling for him, Wen Xiang ran out quickly.

“My request is, you can’t call anyone other than me Daddy!” Wen Xiang thought this was a brilliant request, completely eliminating the possibility of Wen Dongyu using this against him in the future.

Wen Dongyu scratched his head, not agreeing immediately.

“My request is reasonable, right? This is fifty Baby Coins for you!” Wen Xiang said, exasperated. “If you call someone else Daddy outside, Mommy will spank you when we get home!”

Wen Dongyu turned to look at Wei Maomao.

Wei Maomao: ??? Wang Zhizhi was one thing, but what was this guy looking at her for!

“Daddy, if I don’t call anyone else Daddy, will you help me get back my airplane and Charizard?” Wen Dongyu, remembering what Shen Zilin had said earlier, suddenly became a bit smarter.

“Of course, I already promised you.” Wen Xiang suddenly thought of Wang Qingchuan, his expression just now, he couldn’t have made an unreasonable request and been questioned by Wang Zhizhi, could he? Suddenly, he felt like watching some drama.

“Then, will you and Mommy stop giving my things to others in the future?” Wen Dongyu asked again.

“What things do you have? You’re just a little kid with nothing, everything you have is bought by me and your mom, you’re a big boy now, you should be gene…” Wen Xiang instinctively wanted to lecture his son, but before he could finish his sentence about being generous, the little rascal ran away.

“Boss, I’m giving you my card too. Use it together when my daddy comes out.” Wen Dongyu stuffed the card into Wei Maomao’s hand with a calm expression.

???

Wei Maomao even had to think for a moment to figure out who Wen Dongyu was calling “Daddy”.

Chapter 29p2

….

Cheng Rongrong didn’t manage to appease the live broadcast room as she had hoped, but this was something she couldn’t know for now.

Yang Ning, calculating that it was almost dinner time, sped up the box opening process after Wang Zhizhi and the others finished dividing the fifty Baby Coins.

Then, Wei Maomao realized she had celebrated too soon.

“Why are there so many ‘Daddy’s Kiss Cards’!” Wei Maomao counted the items her team had received and said angrily, “My daddy says good things are rare, the better they are, the rarer they are, things that are everywhere are worthless!”

“Well… it’s not like they’re everywhere. Maomao, how do you even know the phrase ‘everywhere’…” Yang Ning couldn’t help but retort, then tried to appease her. “It’s only six cards, six out of fifteen boxes, that’s not a lot. There are seven of you, even if you split them evenly, one of you won’t get one, it’s less, not more!”

Wei Maomao: “…” Really, is that how you calculate it? Trying to fool us little ones.

“I don’t want to share.” Shen Zilin said with a serious face. “You said the treasures are better than Baby Coins, but we can’t feel how good they are, so they’re not good, they’re…”

“They’re nothing!” Wen Dongyu quickly finished Shen Zilin’s sentence, which he was too embarrassed to say.

Wei Maomao looked at the two in shock, this familiar sentence… Wait, although she was angry that the drop rate of this card was so high, they couldn’t use this sentence like that, could they?

“We can just ask Daddy for a kiss, and he’ll kiss us, why do we need a card, taking up space in our treasure boxes!” Shen Zilin was furious. “This treasure is false advertising!”

Yang Ning: “…” Why did children these days know so many words! She felt personally attacked…

“Sister Yang Yang, there’s a bag of beef jerky and your dad. Do you want to eat the beef jerky, or do you want to be kissed twice by your dad?” Wen Jiangyue, holding the two “Daddy’s Kiss Cards” in her hand, asked politely and with restraint.

Yang Ning’s scalp went numb, she subconsciously glanced at the cameras pointed at her. She had a feeling that no matter what she chose, her dad would treat her to bamboo shoots stir-fried with pork when she got back.

“Yue Yue…” Yang Ning said weakly.

“Sister Yang Yang.” Wen Jiangyue gently held Yang Ning’s hand and said earnestly, “Don’t do unto others what you don’t want others to do unto you.”

Yang Ning’s eyes teared up. “Sister, I’m just a worker, I didn’t put the cards in the boxes. It was the director who said he wanted to give you more parent-child time!”

Wei Maomao clenched her fists, as expected, it was you, ungrateful Shi Dingshan!

But no matter how angry the little ones were, they couldn’t just throw a tantrum on the spot, they couldn’t defeat the program team.

Wei Maomao and her team had dug up a total of twelve treasure boxes. Wang Zhizhi had dug up one by himself, and after learning about the red brick fragments, he dug up three more, for a total of four. Shen Zilin dug up three, Wen Dongyu and Wen Jiangyue each dug up two, and then there was Cheng Tingyan’s one. Good heavens, out of twelve treasure boxes, they actually got four “Daddy’s Kiss Cards”!

One was from the box Wang Zhizhi had dug up himself, Wen Dongyu got one, and Wen Jiangyue… she only dug up two boxes and got two cards.

The remaining three boxes Wang Zhizhi dug up contained fifty Baby Coins, a bag of marshmallows, and a bag of fruit and vegetable cookies.

Shen Zilin’s three boxes contained twenty Baby Coins, ten Baby Coins, and a bag of vegetable chips.

Wen Dongyu’s remaining box contained… a fishing game machine.

The box Cheng Tingyan dug up contained thirty-five Baby Coins, the second-highest number of Baby Coins they had found in a box.

Wei Maomao calculated, she had informed everyone about the red brick fragments when about half of the digging time had passed, which meant that as long as the value of the items in the boxes was roughly equal to the number of Baby Coins they had dug up before they started searching for the treasure boxes, it was worth it.

Plus, they had dug up all the treasure boxes and also searched for Baby Coins for a while… Although the Daddy Cards occupied four boxes, the time they spent digging for treasure boxes was definitely more worthwhile than just digging for Baby Coins.

Oh… except for Wen Jiangyue.

Wen Jiangyue had already dug up four Baby Coins before she told her about the red brick fragments. She had spent time digging up two Daddy Card boxes, and in the remaining time, she only dug up one Baby Coin… She lost out.

They had been sharing the items while opening the boxes. Now, including the three Baby Coins she had dug up herself, Wei Maomao had twenty-three Baby Coins and a bag of snacks mixed with marshmallows, vegetable cookies, and vegetable chips…

The appearance of the Daddy’s Kiss Cards was something Wei Maomao hadn’t expected. After all, although most of the prizes from the little games in her previous life were won by Cheng Rongrong, they were still decent items. She hadn’t expected this time…

Wei Maomao, considering herself the mastermind behind this treasure hunt, naturally felt responsible for Wen Jiangyue’s loss. But the question was, should she take three Baby Coins from her fund for buying things for Yan Yan, or from Yan Yan’s fund for buying things for her…

Just as Wei Maomao was hesitating, Cheng Tingyan gently tugged at her.

This tug pulled her out of the crowd, all the way to the edge of the empty field.

“Maomao… I’ll share half of the Baby Coins I dug up with you.” Cheng Tingyan said, opening her previously closed hands, revealing a handful of Baby Coins.

“I don’t want them.” Wei Maomao quickly backed away, trying to return to the group.

“Wait, there’s one more thing.” Cheng Tingyan sighed softly. “There’s something I haven’t figured out.”

“What is it?” Wei Maomao quickly came back.

“Everyone dug up good things, each of them has at least a dozen, or even more, Baby Coins. Wen Jiangyue only got two ‘Daddy’s Kiss Cards,’ I want to share some Baby Coins with her. But I can’t decide whether to give her some from the ones I’m saving to buy you things, or from the ones you’re saving for me…” Cheng Tingyan put the Baby Coins back in her pocket and rubbed her forehead with her eyes closed. “It just feels wrong either way, it’s giving me a headache.”

But Cheng Tingyan didn’t expect that in the brief time she closed and opened her eyes, the little chubby bunny in front of her was actually… crying?

“Maomao, what’s… wrong?” Cheng Tingyan was shocked and instinctively reached out to wipe the tears from the little chubby face, this time even forgetting to take out her handkerchief.

“Waa… Yan Yan, you’re so nice…” Wei Maomao also wiped her own tears.

Wei Maomao understood, she understood the kindness towards Wen Jiangyue in Cheng Tingyan’s dilemma, she also understood her desire to save money to buy her popcorn, and she understood her acknowledgement of her sincerity in wanting to save money to buy things for her. Facing a similar predicament, having similar feelings…

This useless three-year-old body, truly couldn’t handle even a little bit of touching emotions.

Cheng Tingyan, her hand covered in tears, laughed in exasperation. “Why are you crying about this! How am I nice!”

The little chubby bunny cried even harder. “Yan Yan is nice in every way. Let’s just spend our Baby Coins together! Then we won’t have to worry about which ones to use!”

“Oh, right, we can do that! Maomao, you’re so smart!” Cheng Tingyan was delighted, then she shook her hand and took out a blue handkerchief with a bamboo leaf pattern from her shoulder bag to wipe the crying bunny’s face. “This is my last handkerchief… Don’t cry anymore today.”

The little chubby bunny nodded vigorously while sobbing.

After wiping her face, the two discussed for a bit. Wei Maomao took ten Baby Coins, and they put the rest of their Baby Coins in Wei Maomao’s bag, planning to buy things and eat together later.

“Here, I’ll exchange one Daddy Card with you.” Wei Maomao walked to Wen Jiangyue’s side, grabbed the cloth coin purse at her waist, and stuffed the coins in.

“Wait!” Wen Jiangyue, hearing the clinking sound from her waist, quickly reached out to stop her. “I should give you one anyway, why did you say you didn’t want it before… I’ll get it for you, don’t give me Baby Coins!”

With that, Wen Jiangyue took out a Daddy’s Kiss Card with one hand and reached for the Baby Coins Wei Maomao had just put in her purse with the other.

“No, we’re exchanging.” Wei Maomao, her tears not yet dry, put on a slightly aggrieved expression, her eyes and nose turning red. “I want to exchange, if you don’t let me, I’ll lie down on the ground and cry, kicking my legs and getting mud all over us!”

Wen Jiangyue: “…” She hadn’t realized the chubby little sister was like this.

“Let’s eat together.” Cheng Tingyan took out her bag of snacks, mixed with marshmallows, vegetable cookies, and vegetable chips, and offered it to Wen Jiangyue, interrupting her thoughts of returning the coins. She then turned to Wen Dongyu, who was looking over curiously. “Do you want some too?” Although Sister Yang Yang said the fishing game machine cost 100 Baby Coins at the convenience store, you couldn’t eat a fishing game machine.

“Thank you, Yan Yan!” Wen Dongyu reached out without hesitation.

Slap, he was slapped by the little chubby bunny.

“Wash your hands before eating snacks.” Wei Maomao pulled Wen Jiangyue along. “Come on, let’s wash our hands.”

Shen Zilin watched for a while, took out three Baby Coins from his cloth bag, caught up with them, and handed them to Wei Maomao. “I want to exchange for a marshmallow too.”

Wei Maomao glanced at Shen Zilin, she didn’t see the gluttony in his eyes like Wen Dongyu’s, but instead a kind of… tolerance and approval? Wei Maomao felt like her eyes might be failing her, but she could probably guess that he had noticed they were subsidizing Wen Jiangyue.

Wang Zhizhi, who had also noticed, quietly munched on a cookie, sigh, why didn’t anyone want to exchange his Daddy Cards!

After receiving Shen Zilin’s Baby Coins, Wei Maomao raised her chin. “Come on, let’s wash our hands.”

No matter what, Yan Yan was the best! She had originally only thought about calculating Wen Jiangyue’s loss and making up for the three-coin difference. But Yan Yan thought she had the least and was willing to give her ten.

Calculating this way, Cheng Rongrong, who had dug up four Baby Coins and three boxes, with two boxes containing Daddy Cards and one box containing five Baby Coins, became the one with the least Baby Coins.

Wait!

Wei Maomao had a sudden realization.

They were all washing their hands and eating snacks… Then…

Wei Maomao glanced back at Cheng Rongrong, who was standing beside Yang Ning. They couldn’t let Cheng Rongrong be alone now, there would always be some moralists who would use this to criticize Yan Yan.

But she didn’t want to call her over…

After hesitating for a moment, Wei Maomao walked back to Cheng Rongrong, shook her bag of mixed snacks, and asked kindly, “Rongrong, do you want to exchange three Baby Coins for candy?”

“…” Cheng Rongrong shook her head warily.

Wei Maomao happily ran away. Thanks to Shen Zilin, sharing had turned into a business!

Because they still had dinner to eat, they only had a few bites of snacks after washing their hands and were then urged by the staff to go to the dinner venue.

Wei Maomao, hand in hand with Cheng Tingyan, walked under the setting sun. She watched Wang Zhizhi give Wen Dongyu a piece of cookie, listened to Wen Jiangyue talking softly beside her, and the sweet taste of marshmallows lingered in her mouth. It was so nice… It seemed like she didn’t crave popcorn that much anymore.

Oh, Shen Zilin, Shen Zilin was called to the back of the group by Cheng Rongrong.

Meanwhile, the dads, who should be preparing dinner, were pausing their work, listening to the staff briefly describe the children’s activities while they were separated in the afternoon.

The others were fine, but halfway through the explanation, Wei Chengli started feeling dizzy and had to hold onto the table.

He had called Liu Ming earlier, and she had relayed some information, but she had been very brief. This staff member was being very detailed… How they cried while eating, how they threw up, how they continued eating after crying and throwing up…

His poor baby, and him, who was about to become pitiful… What were they going to do!

Wei Chengli’s head was buzzing, he didn’t even hear someone talking to him for a long time.

“Director Wei… Director Wei?” After calling out several times without a response, Wang Qingchuan couldn’t help but pat Wei Chengli’s shoulder.

Then, he met a pair of lifeless eyes.

“Um…” Wang Qingchuan felt a bit sympathetic, but he had to harden his heart. He pointed at the soy sauce bottle on the stove not far away and hinted, “Director Wei, that’s the soy sauce from our show’s sponsor, it’s actually quite tasty, you know what I mean?”

He felt a bit embarrassed, but it was his old friend’s company.

“Do I need to add it when I cook later?” Wei Chengli, who had been lost in thought, asked uncertainly.

Wang Qingchuan was stunned for a moment, then coughed. “Ahem, no… um… what I meant was, maybe you shouldn’t add it.”

Wei Chengli: “…”

Chapter 29p1

Wang Zhizhi glanced back at Wei Maomao, and in that brief moment, the sounds of stifled laughter around him increased.

Heat, carrying a flush of red, crept up from the base of his ears, spreading across his cheeks…

“I don’t want this treasure!” Wang Zhizhi’s face flushed even deeper as he stepped back, away from Yang Ning.

“Eh?” Yang Ning was also holding back laughter, but she managed to put on a perfectly surprised expression. “What’s wrong? Isn’t this treasure great? Wang Zhizhi, are you shy?”

“…” Wang Zhizhi’s face turned even redder. “I’m not! I’m a big boy now, I don’t want to be kissed by Daddy!”

The shy and stubborn little boy looked truly adorable in his childish innocence.

But amidst the playful laughter, Wei Maomao’s smile gradually faded.

She felt a pang of regret.

The card Wang Zhizhi had drawn was indeed funny, and when Yang Ning first took it out, Wei Maomao genuinely couldn’t help but laugh.

But… Wang Zhizhi wasn’t really a big boy who didn’t need his father’s kisses anymore, like he had just claimed.

Wei Maomao hadn’t watched the fourth season of “Where’s Baby Going,” but she had occasionally come across clips from it. Aside from Wang Qingchuan, anyone with eyes could see that Wang Zhizhi actually longed for closeness with his father. However, Wang Qingchuan was so fixated on educating Wang Zhizhi to “treat his little sister well,” his entire focus on his daughter, that the little curly-haired boy became conflicted and rebellious, growing to resent his younger sister even more, trapped in a vicious cycle within the family.

“Big boys can also be kissed by their dads.” Wei Maomao wiggled her chubby toes in her sandals, unable to hold back any longer. She stepped forward and, looking at Wang Zhizhi, continued, “Daddy is always bigger than us, we’ll always be Daddy’s little babies, even when we grow up, we’re still Daddy’s little babies and can be kissed by him.”

Wang Zhizhi: “…” Who was the one who laughed first?

“Yeah, my mommy and daddy kiss me goodnight every day!” Wen Dongyu nodded in agreement, then sighed. “It’s a shame that only Daddy can kiss me while we’re here.”

Wei Maomao: “…” You don’t have to be so smug about it.

“I have a question. Didn’t you say that the mystery treasures have better rewards than Baby Coins?” Shen Zilin pointed to the card in Yang Ning’s hand. “Is this better than Baby Coins?”

“Of course it is, a kiss from Daddy, isn’t that a better reward than Baby Coins?” Yang Ning cleared her throat. “It can improve the relationship between dads and their babies, the bond between a child and their father is the most precious, right?”

After a moment of silence, only Cheng Rongrong nodded earnestly and replied, “Right!”

“I can ask Daddy to kiss me, and he will. Can I ask the convenience store for beef jerky, and it will give it to me?” Shen Zilin said seriously, then pointed at Wen Dongyu. “His dad kisses him every day, can he exchange an extra kiss for a Baby Coin?”

“But…” Yang Ning, without a script to follow, could only struggle on her own. “But because some dads aren’t good at expressing love, paternal love can sometimes be deep and subtle, children might not be able to feel their dad’s love. Oh, what I mean is, dads love their children, but they might not show it in ways that are easy for children to understand, like kisses and such. So this card can help dads express their love…”

“Sister Yang Yang, my daddy says…” Wei Maomao spoke softly.

Yang Ning’s back stiffened. The story of how this little chubby girl had used “My daddy says…” as a starting point to completely destroy Cheng Feiying had already become a legend within the program team. As soon as she heard this phrase, she wanted to cover the little one’s chattering mouth.

Of course, Yang Ning couldn’t do that.

So she was forced to listen as the little chubby girl said earnestly, “My daddy says… If someone loves you, you can definitely feel it. If you can’t feel the love, there’s nothing there.”

Damn it! Yang Ning wanted to beat up Wei Chengli.

Wei Maomao didn’t say this to refute Yang Ning. In fact, she hadn’t intended to use this phrase here when she had drawn that episode of the cartoon and led Wei Chengli to analyze it.

But…

Wei Maomao glanced at Wang Zhizhi from the corner of her eye.

That treasure card was actually quite suitable for Wang Zhizhi, his sister had just been born, and they were already participating in this show. Perhaps Wang Qingchuan wasn’t yet the daughter-obsessed fanatic he had become in her previous life, maybe Wang Zhizhi still had a chance to hold onto his father’s love, to improve their father-son relationship, like Yang Ning said.

But Wei Maomao also had reservations. A child’s love was still love, and over time, it became a sunk cost. In her previous life, Wang Zhizhi had desperately tried to win back his parents’ love from his sister, becoming stubborn and troublesome, pushing those who were already distant even further away, eventually ending up alienated and alone, consumed by pain and madness.

Wei Maomao hoped Wang Zhizhi would accept the card and try again, but she also hoped he wouldn’t end up hurt like he did in her previous life.

If Wang Zhizhi really couldn’t feel the love, then there was none. Even if there was, when the pain he felt outweighed the love by a thousandfold, was it still love? Instead of being bound and suppressed for so many years by Wang Qingchuan’s empty words of love and hope… perhaps he should consider another possibility.

Obsession was a demon.

Wei Maomao had seen it and experienced it too many times in her previous life.

Wang Zhizhi was different from Cheng Tingyan, Wei Maomao had no intention of deeply involving herself in his life. But… perhaps everyone deserved a chance, a few more choices.

Wang Zhizhi, however, was oblivious to Wei Maomao’s hesitation and her attempt to plan for his long-term well-being.

But the phrase “If you can’t feel the love, there’s nothing there” still struck a chord in his heart, leaving him feeling inexplicably uneasy.

Wang Zhizhi tried to say something to mask his inner panic, then he looked at Wei Maomao and blurted out, “‘Nothing there’ is a bad word, good children shouldn’t say bad words.”

Wei Maomao, who had good intentions: “…”

“Ahem, let’s open the next mystery treasure. Let me see, Wang 2…” Yang Ning had tried to refute Wei Maomao, but after thinking about it for a while, she felt that Wei Chengli’s words were actually quite reasonable. Unable to come up with a rebuttal, she could only quickly change the subject.

Anyway, the children probably only had a vague understanding of love, hehe…

Yang Ning comforted herself and picked up Wang Zhizhi’s second treasure box.

Wang Zhizhi was a bit nervous. He had dug up four boxes in total, and he had shaken each one, but there was no sound of coins clinking. In fact, they were all light and weightless, just like the first one, making no sound when shaken.

There couldn’t be three more “Daddy’s Kiss Cards,” could there?

Thankfully, there weren’t…

Yang Ning, regardless of whether the little ones could read, showed the card as usual and smiled. “Wang Zhizhi’s second treasure box contains fifty Baby Coins!”

Wang Zhizhi let out a long sigh of relief and glanced at Wei Maomao and Cheng Tingyan with a hint of pride.

Wei Maomao gave the proud little curly-haired boy a thumbs-up, temporarily forgiving him for criticizing her earlier.

“Fifty Baby Coins is a bit heavy, do you want to exchange them now?” Yang Ning asked routinely, but if they were sharing, they would probably choose to exchange directly.

Wang Zhizhi nodded, then took the cloth bag Yang Ning handed him, walked to Wei Maomao’s side, poured the Baby Coins onto the ground, squatted down, looked up, and urged, “Come on, I’ll take two, and you each take one.”

Wei Maomao, not minding the dirt, plopped down on the ground.

After Wang Zhizhi took two coins, Wei Maomao took one in each hand. She put the one in her left hand into the cloth bag at her waist, wiped the one in her right hand on her skirt, then held it up high and offered it to Cheng Tingyan, who was standing beside her.

Cheng Tingyan: “…”

“Yan Yan, quick, tired.” Wei Maomao looked up, waving her chubby paw urgingly.

Although she was collecting them to buy popcorn for the little chubby bunny, it still felt a bit strange… Cheng Tingyan sighed softly and took the Baby Coin from her paw.

Cheng Rongrong watched coldly from the sidelines, she thought she had figured it out. Cheng Tingyan must have discovered the secret of the broken red bricks and used it to exchange for Baby Coins with the other children. She had indeed changed some things, Cheng Tingyan was no longer the warm and selfless person from the original novel.

So young, yet so mercenary.

Cheng Rongrong, believing she had discovered the truth, felt that this was the best time for her to take the initiative.

“Wang Zhizhi, why are you giving Baby Coins to Yan Yan and Maomao?” Cheng Rongrong approached the coin-sharing trio, her face full of surprise and curiosity.

Calling Wang Zhizhi “Zhizhi” gave her goosebumps, but she couldn’t let her persona of politeness crumble, and it certainly wasn’t the time to dwell on such discomfort.

“We made a deal.” Wang Zhizhi didn’t look up, he still remembered the strange look Cheng Rongrong had given him when he accidentally walked to her side while digging for treasure.

Cheng Rongrong: “…” How was she supposed to respond to that?

“They told us how to find treasures, we agreed to share half of what we find with them.” Wen Dongyu looked at Cheng Rongrong with confusion. “You’re not going to back out of the deal, are you?”

“I… They didn’t tell me how to find treasures.” Cheng Rongrong quickly picked up the topic, looking at Cheng Tingyan with a hint of grievance. “Sister…”

“Rongrong knows how to find treasures.” Wei Maomao looked up, her face innocent. “Rongrong was the first to find them.”

“I, I don’t know, I was just lucky.” Cheng Rongrong, having decided to stick with the “luck” excuse, now had a flawless expression of surprise on her face.

“Ah!” Wei Maomao acted even more surprised than Cheng Rongrong, slapping a paw on the pile of Baby Coins in front of her, clutching her chest with her other paw, her face full of regret. “I was wrong! Ahhh, what a pity! I can’t share Rongrong’s half anymore!”

Why did it sound like the one who discovered the secret of the red brick fragments wasn’t Cheng Tingyan, but Wei Maomao? Cheng Rongrong felt a slight panic.

“We’ve already dug everything up, whoever digs now can only share half of these few coins.” Wang Zhizhi extended a finger and pushed Wei Maomao’s chubby paw away from the pile of Baby Coins. “It’s my turn to take some.”

“Oh.” Wei Maomao returned to normal in a second.

Cheng Rongrong, excluded from the conversation once again, bit her lip, these two… they were making it impossible for her to speak.

Forget it, she had at least explained it to the viewers in the live broadcast room, hadn’t she?

Cheng Rongrong, who had originally wanted to take this opportunity to subtly criticize Cheng Tingyan’s mercenary behavior, gave up on saying anything more when she realized she had been talking to Wei Maomao the whole time, and the mastermind behind this was likely this three-year-old.

Age was truly a natural advantage. Wei Maomao was only three years old, those negative words couldn’t be applied to her. And she was younger than her, so her words would be even more innocent and unrestrained, effectively restricting her.

Cheng Rongrong pursed her lips, seeming aggrieved as she stepped aside and stopped speaking. But the viewers in the live broadcast room, their mouths wouldn’t stop chattering.

“Cheng Rongrong dug up three treasure boxes purely by luck? Do you believe it? I don’t…”

“It’s still possible, there are lucky and unlucky players in mobile games too, and there weren’t that few boxes.”

“I was watching Rongrong’s live broadcast, she didn’t find a treasure immediately, she was just lucky to be standing in a spot with a box. She dug for Baby Coins around it and just happened to dig up a treasure.”

“No way, do you really believe she didn’t notice the red brick fragments? After Maomao told everyone about the red brick fragments and they all started finding treasures, Cheng Rongrong didn’t find any more, isn’t that suspicious?”

“It’s normal for luck to change, if she could always find treasures, one after another, that would be strange, wouldn’t it?”

“When the edited version of the show comes out, you guys should check out what Wang Zhizhi’s camera captured when there were about ten minutes left on the timer. I saw it in his live broadcast, Rongrong’s shovel almost hit a red brick fragment in front of him, then she stopped and moved away, like she was deliberately avoiding it. Later, Wen Dongyu dug in that spot and found a treasure.”

“??? No way, if that’s true, it’s a bit scary!”

“Right, knowing how to find treasures and not telling anyone, just digging for herself, is understandable. After all, everyone has some selfishness, we can’t set the moral standard for young children too high. But… seeing that others have also discovered it, then hiding the fact that she knew, that’s a bit…”

“Maybe she’s afraid? Afraid that everyone would find out that she knew and didn’t tell them, especially since Maomao told everyone as soon as she discovered it, maybe she’s afraid of being compared?”

“Wait, are you guys already convicting Rongrong? What if she was really just lucky??”

“It’s not convicting, I just don’t believe she was just lucky.”

“Honestly, earlier, Cheng Rongrong could find a treasure box every time she dug up a Baby Coin, one coin, one box. You know, the ratio of coins to boxes buried is 200:15, if she was lucky, that would be too lucky, wouldn’t it?”

“The key is! She even played dumb and acted innocent when Wang Zhizhi and the others were sharing the Baby Coins! It actually scared me a little.”

“Only three and a half years old… Children these days are too mature…”

“Rongrong is three and a half, Maomao is only three. Maomao is also very smart, the phrase she said earlier, ‘If someone loves you, you can definitely feel it. If you can’t feel the love, there’s nothing there,’ really gave me goosebumps. I wish I could have heard Maomao say that to me when I was twenty.”

“Hahaha, that was Director Wei who said that!”

“Friend above, don’t put our Boss Mao and Cheng Rongrong together, okay! Protect our Boss Mao!”

 

Chapter 28p2

After Wang Zhizhi left, Cheng Tingyan squeezed the chubby paw in her hand. “This is the secret you discovered, why should Wang Zhizhi share with me when he finds something? I don’t want it.”

“Yan Yan…”

The little chubby bunny’s raised face was full of grievance, Cheng Tingyan felt like something had hit her heart.

“I don’t want it…” Cheng Tingyan hardened her heart.

“Yan Yan… my hand is red, can you rub it for me?” After playing the grievance card, Wei Maomao switched to acting cute.

Cheng Tingyan didn’t say anything, but her hand automatically started to massage the chubby paw.

“If you’re massaging my hand, you can’t dig for treasure. It’s all my fault, I’m a burden…” Wei Maomao whispered.

“…” Cheng Tingyan looked down at the chubby paw in her hand and subtly switched to massaging the other one.

Apart from being a bit muddy, the two chubby paws weren’t red at all.

The ones that were red were…

Cheng Tingyan turned her palm over, it was her own hands that were red.

“Yan Yan, have you forgotten, the treasures you share are for me to exchange for popcorn?” Wei Maomao asked weakly.

“Oh, right!” Cheng Tingyan was stunned, that’s right, the things she shared were all for buying popcorn for the little chubby bunny, why wouldn’t she want them?

Wait… then what about the little chubby bunny’s share… Cheng Tingyan looked at Wei Maomao.

Wei Maomao pretended to be shocked. “Yan Yan, you wouldn’t stop me from sharing just because what I get is for buying you things, would you? I don’t want to dig anymore!”

“…” Cheng Tingyan’s little plan was overturned.

“So can we share half of the treasures they find?” Wei Maomao asked weakly again.

“They?” Cheng Tingyan suddenly realized something was wrong.

“Yes, they.” As they spoke, Wei Maomao had already pulled her to Wen Jiangyue’s side.

Wen Jiangyue, then Wen Dongyu, and finally Shen Zilin.

By the time they finished talking to Shen Zilin, Wang Zhizhi, who was the first to make a deal with Wei Maomao, had already dug up another mystery treasure.

“Am I the last one you told?” Shen Zilin looked around and saw that the other children had all changed their locations, seemingly still searching for something.

Wei Maomao nodded. “Good luck!”

“… Why am I the last one?” Shen Zilin didn’t rush off, he asked with a slightly hurt tone.

“Because you’re the farthest from me…” Wei Maomao gestured with her hand. “This is how I walked over.”

Shen Zilin: “…”

As Shen Zilin ran away awkwardly, Wei Maomao finally completed her treasure hunt.

“Yan Yan, shall we go rest over there? Ming Ming brought us water.” Wei Maomao gently tugged at Cheng Tingyan’s hand.

Cheng Tingyan was speechless. She had originally thought Wei Maomao would only ask Wang Zhizhi to help her dig, but she ended up informing everyone. Now that they were going to rest, the treasures the remaining children dug up would all be shared with them… Cheng Tingyan had never seen or heard of such a move.

But looking at the dirty little chubby bunny beside her, who was beaming with happiness because they could rest, walking with a spring in her step, swinging her arms and skipping, Cheng Tingyan felt that it was quite good, as long as Maomao was happy.

Just…

How did her dress get so dirty…

Cheng Tingyan couldn’t resist and patted her a couple more times.

“Ahhhh!” The startled dirty chubby bunny dashed away.

Cheng Tingyan: “…”

And in fact, Cheng Tingyan wasn’t the only one who was left speechless by Wei Maomao’s actions.

“Alright, our Boss Mao has completed her recruitment, now let’s witness the rise of a new tycoon!”

“Hahaha, this is hilarious, the children are so cute, they believed whatever Maomao said, they’re now working as surrogate diggers, not even bargaining!”

“I think the fifty-fifty split is quite fair, one contributes brains, the other contributes labor, our little Maomao is so smart!”

“I’m dying of laughter, our Boss Mao really worked hard, when she was starting from scratch, she didn’t even cry when she fell! She quietly got up, patted her dress, and continued working hard!”

“But when it comes to being smart, Rongrong is still the smartest. She was the first to dig up a treasure and the luckiest, and she was probably the first to discover the pattern of the broken red bricks, she’s almost dug up her third box now.”

“Indeed, Maomao probably also guessed that the broken red bricks were markers from the trash left behind by Rongrong. But Maomao is still smart, if it were me, I would have probably failed at the first step, I wouldn’t even look at the places Rongrong had dug, hahaha!”

“I don’t think those red brick fragments are much bigger than a fingernail, it’s normal to have them in the field. If it were me, I wouldn’t have thought of them as markers. They couldn’t have been left there specifically for the children to discover the treasure pattern, right? I feel like they are markers for the staff themselves, for easier retrieval of the boxes?”

“The boxes are all locked, I really want to see what’s inside! They’ll probably be opened together when the time is up, right? Why hasn’t this hour passed yet!”

“I also think it’s for easier retrieval. This looks like a field where the villagers can still grow things, right? The Baby Coins and treasure boxes that the children didn’t dig up, the program team will probably dig them up before they leave.”

“So our Maomao discovered a bug, hahaha!”

“Technically, Rongrong was the first to discover it, wasn’t she?”

“Right, to be fair, Rongrong was the first to discover it. But I still like Maomao, it’s better to be happy together than happy alone, hahaha! Rongrong just dug by herself.”

“Maomao is just being lazy, wanting half of other people’s findings, she’s essentially the same as Rongrong.”

“??? They’re very different, okay? Without Maomao, the others definitely wouldn’t be able to dig up so many treasures, it’s a win for them to get half after digging. And Maomao is truly good to Yan Yan, she immediately let Yan Yan experience the joy of finding treasures after discovering the secret~~~”

“And then protected Yan Yan after she had her fun and found four workers, hahahahaha!”

“Hahaha, I’m dying of laughter, that’s just like you! The chubby bunny who likes older sisters!”

“The funniest thing is that Maomao jumped away like her butt was on fire after being patted twice by Yan Yan, you can really feel her shyness through the screen, hahaha!”

“Hahaha, she really looks like a little ball, flying away with a ‘biu’ every time she’s patted, hahaha!”

…

Back in the field, Wei Maomao, after being caught by Liu Ming and having her hands and face washed in a basin along with Cheng Tingyan, was taking a few sips from her water bottle when Yang Ning announced that Wen Dongyu had also dug up a treasure, followed by Cheng Rongrong, Shen Zilin, and Wen Jiangyue…

The treasures that had only appeared twice in half an hour suddenly became as common as cabbages in the field.

Yang Ning was the poor cabbage carrier, either hands were being raised on this side, or she was being called from that side, she walked back and forth across the field, couldn’t help but cast a resentful look at Wei Maomao, who was sitting on a small stool by the edge of the field, sucking on her water bottle.

But Wei Maomao, who was busy massaging Cheng Tingyan’s hands in return, didn’t notice at all because she was too far away.

And she also didn’t notice the gaze from Cheng Rongrong.

In the original novel, there was also a treasure hunt segment, but instead of burying Baby Coins, they directly buried snacks, toys, and various surprises in small wooden boxes. To facilitate retrieval for the program team, they had marked the spots by sticking a different type of grass with wider leaves than the weeds in the field into the soil. At first glance, all grass looked similar, the program team thought the children wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. But it would be easy to distinguish when the program team went to retrieve the boxes. However, the program team didn’t expect to encounter Cheng Tingyan. In the original novel, Cheng Tingyan had good luck and dug up a box not long after entering the field, then she keenly noticed that the grass that came out with the soil… its roots were already broken, it wasn’t originally growing in this field.

The rest was history, after experimenting with two more spots with wider-leaved grass and confirming her findings, Cheng Tingyan quickly told all the other children, and the whole field had a bumper harvest! Intelligence, wit, kindness, generosity… Many positive qualities were once again gathered in the heroine, further deepening the bond between her and her friends.

This time, Cheng Rongrong was here, Cheng Tingyan’s custody had been transferred to the Cheng family, and more money couldn’t be sent to Liu Qiongfang. Liu Qiongfang didn’t have the money to move to the better neighborhood mentioned in the original novel, and even though Cheng Tingyan often visited her, she didn’t have the chance to meet the neighbor grandma who loved gardening in the original novel, and she couldn’t learn more about plants.

But this wasn’t enough for Cheng Rongrong.

Cheng Rongrong had prepared for this show for a long time, prepared a lot. She even contacted a staff member of the program team using an anonymous number, mentioning some hidden details from the original novel and making some deals.

But maybe because she had done too much, had flapped the butterfly’s wings too many times, some parts of the original novel had changed, and the information she provided lost its accuracy. Before the filming started, the staff member stopped contacting her anonymous number. But after entering the field and seeing the broken red bricks, Cheng Rongrong knew that they had indeed listened to her request and replaced the wider-leaved grass markers with more inconspicuous broken red bricks.

As for why there were these Baby Coins, which didn’t exist in the original novel, Cheng Rongrong was a bit puzzled. Maybe it was also a consequence of the butterfly effect. But as long as the general direction was correct, it was fine.

Cheng Rongrong really couldn’t understand how things had turned out this way…

It had gone smoothly at first. She had rushed into the field and found a small piece of broken red brick embedded in the ground not far away. To be safe, she pretended to dig around the red brick for a while, and after finding a Baby Coin, she slowly moved her shovel towards the red brick, and as expected, she dug up a treasure box.

She observed and found that everyone basically stayed in the same spot after they started digging. To reasonably search for the next red brick fragment, she specifically ran back to the edge of the field and handed the treasure box to Yang Ning. Then, naturally, she changed her location on her way back to the field, stopping at another spot with a red brick fragment.

Dig for Baby Coins for a while, then dig up a treasure box, hand it over, change locations… Everything was going smoothly, except for the fact that her three-and-a-half-year-old body was too weak, making the digging slow.

When did things start to go wrong…

When Wang Zhizhi dug up a treasure box almost half an hour in, Cheng Rongrong still thought it was normal, after all, so much time had passed, it was normal for one or two boxes to appear on the others’ side by chance.

So when Cheng Tingyan also dug up a treasure box shortly after, Cheng Rongrong still didn’t think much of it.

Then it seemed like something started to be off…

First, there were chaotic footsteps in the field, then the sound of shovels nearby. When Cheng Rongrong sensed something was wrong and looked up, Wang Zhizhi, Wen Jiangyue, and Wen Dongyu had already changed their locations and were digging elsewhere, while Cheng Tingyan and Wei Maomao were talking to Shen Zilin in the distance.

Before she could think too much, Wang Zhizhi not far away raised a box, then Shen Zilin started running all over the field…

Then it became completely chaotic, Cheng Rongrong hadn’t even finished digging up the box she had been working on for a while when Wen Dongyu dug up another treasure box, then Shen Zilin…

Cheng Rongrong didn’t look for a fourth box to dig, she realized with fear that the actions of these people and the continuous appearance of treasure boxes all indicated one thing, they had discovered the secret of the broken red bricks.

How could this be!

How was this possible…

Those brick fragments were so inconspicuous! Much more so than the grass!

Was it… Cheng Tingyan…

Cheng Rongrong, thinking of how Shen Zilin had started running after talking to Cheng Tingyan and Wei Maomao, couldn’t help but look at Cheng Tingyan, who was already resting outside the field.

Impossible, she was working so hard, how could it still be like this!

She had planned it all out, she would dig up three or four boxes, then announce it, claim this pattern as her own discovery. Wasn’t it the same in the original novel… Cheng Tingyan had also dug up three blades of grass to confirm the pattern before telling the others!

She was just weaker and slower at digging! She was just being cautious because they were live on air, so she had used digging up Baby Coins as a cover for a while!

Well, she should have spoken up after digging up two boxes, knowing that she was slow. But who told those people to talk behind her back at the convenience store… Cheng Rongrong was a bit angry, thinking she had to dig up at least a third one, to be ahead of them before making the announcement.

But she only thought about delaying it a little, to ensure that she would have the most treasures in the end, she never intended not to tell them.

Now, how did she get into this predicament!

Cheng Rongrong lowered her head, pretending to continue digging for Baby Coins. She knew that she had lost the opportunity to tell the others about the broken red bricks. Everyone knew, everyone was digging them up, if she said it now, no one would believe she had intended to tell them in the first place.

She now had only two choices. One was to act surprised, ask someone, and join their secret. The other was to pretend she hadn’t noticed the commotion in the field. But both choices had a common prerequisite, the three treasure boxes she had dug up earlier could only be attributed to her good luck, not to her discovering the pattern…

But, three… would anyone believe it…

Definitely no one would believe it, otherwise, why didn’t anyone tell her when they all knew about the broken red bricks?

Cheng Rongrong pondered, digging randomly as a cover, when a small patch of red suddenly appeared before her, startling her into moving her shovel away.

That was close, how could there be a broken red brick so close? Cheng Rongrong tried to discreetly dig in other places, then a pair of feet appeared in front of her.

Cheng Rongrong looked up, it was Wang Zhizhi… He was looking at the small red brick fragment she had almost dug up just now!

Right, he was here to dig for the red brick fragments.

Dig quickly, dig in front of me, dig it up, then I can praise you and ask you why you’re so amazing! Then I can learn from you…

Cheng Rongrong’s beautiful imagination was cut short by Wang Zhizhi giving her a strange look and then turning away coldly.

How could there be such a person! I’m a second child! But not your family’s second child! Was it necessary to be like this!

Cheng Rongrong complained internally.

But she didn’t know that Wang Zhizhi, walking away, was secretly relieved.

Tsk, second children were truly annoying, those eyes looked exactly like Zeng Yongming’s from kindergarten. That’s how his eyes looked, scary and burning, when he tricked his brother into eating bread with a caterpillar in it.

Cheng Rongrong, hurt by Wang Zhizhi, finally gave up on the idea of pretending to be impressed and asking someone.

To be safe, she would just pretend the previous three boxes were all due to her luck, and then when someone brought it up, she could play the victim who was being excluded.

The remaining time passed quickly as the children cleared all the red brick fragments from the field, dug for some more Baby Coins, and then ran out of time.

Yang Ning hammered her sore legs, took a few gulps of water, and called the children over for the final tally.

“Shall we look at the Baby Coins you dug up first, or shall we open our treasures first?” Yang Ning smiled.

“Treasures!”

The children shouted in unison.

“Alright, I’ve kept all the treasures you dug up here, look, they even have your last names written on them. Which one shall we open first?” Yang Ning pointed at the row of boxes on the ground.

Several gazes fell on Cheng Rongrong, who had dug up the first treasure box, but she didn’t say anything, looking at the more than ten boxes lined up on the ground.

“Let’s open mine first, the first one I dug up.” Wang Zhizhi stepped forward and then turned to Wei Maomao. “The first one I dug up was all by myself, the treasures inside are all mine, mine alone, I don’t have to share them with you.”

Wei Maomao nodded.

Cheng Rongrong: ??? What sharing? This is strange, wait, let’s see what happens…

“Then let’s open Wang Zhizhi’s mystery treasure box first.” Yang Ning picked up the box labeled “Wang 1” and said while unlocking it, “This is the first one you dug up. Congratulations to our Wang Zhizhi, you have won… [A kiss from Daddy]!”

Yang Ning smiled and raised the card in her hand.

Wang Zhizhi: …

“Pfft… hahaha…” Wei Maomao really couldn’t hold it back.

Chapter 28 p1

Yang Ning had only mentioned that there were mystery treasures buried in the field, without specifying the number of treasures, unlike when she mentioned there were 200 Baby Coins.

Half an hour had passed, and only Cheng Rongrong had dug up two treasures. On the one hand, it showed that there were definitely not that many treasures, on the other hand, it highlighted Cheng Rongrong’s good luck.

Speaking of good luck, Wei Maomao suddenly remembered that in the third season of “Where’s Baby Going” in her previous life, although there were no Daddy Coins or Baby Coins, Cheng Rongrong’s luck in many games was quite good. She received envy from her peers and amazement from the adults, later, even marketing accounts amplified her good fortune during her growth, giving her the reputation of a kind-hearted national little sister blessed with good luck.

In her previous life, Jin Youliang was the main director, and he wanted to create conflicts and topics. After watching the show many times, Wei Maomao had strongly suspected that Cheng Rongrong’s good luck in the games was likely manipulated by the program team. After all, only when the guests received vastly different things would there be a strong contrast, leading to stimulating topics…

But this time, Shi Dingshan was still around. Jin Youliang was just an assistant director, he couldn’t arbitrarily shape the show like he did in her previous life, he shouldn’t have the need to play those tricks, right?

Wei Maomao couldn’t help but wonder, had she misunderstood everything? Was the good luck in her previous life not manipulation by the program team, but Cheng Rongrong herself actually having good luck? Could she continue this good luck even with Shi Dingshan as the director and completely different games?

This was the most likely explanation, but as Wei Maomao thought about it, leaning on her shovel, she still couldn’t convince herself.

Now that she was here, she had to see for herself the doubts she had from watching behind a screen in her previous life.

Earlier, after receiving the tools, when Yang Ning announced the start of the timer, everyone rushed into the circled area. The place was so big, everyone tacitly scattered, each choosing a random direction and starting to dig. Wei Maomao was no exception.

Wei Maomao was still small and not very strong, after digging for a while, she was basically just circling within a couple of square meters.

Now that she had doubts, she started to feel… the world outside was quite interesting.

Wei Maomao thought to herself, tossed her little shovel aside, and began to wander around the area.

Cheng Tingyan, who was closest to Wei Maomao, had already dug up an area three or four times the size of hers. Wei Maomao glanced over guiltily, just as she was about to tiptoe away and continue running along the ribbons, she saw Cheng Tingyan sticking her shovel into the ground and panting. Standing not far behind her, Wei Maomao clearly saw a distinct red mark on the palm of Cheng Tingyan’s right hand, which was hanging by her side.

But Cheng Tingyan didn’t rest for long, she didn’t even take a few breaths, and before her breathing had stabilized, she pulled out the shovel and started digging again.

She was working too hard…

This shovelful of dirt from Cheng Tingyan seemed to dig into Wei Maomao’s heart, making her feel a pang of pain. Wei Maomao suddenly felt that even if she never got to eat popcorn, it wouldn’t be a big deal.

Passing by the others’ digging areas, Wei Maomao only glanced at the approximate size of the areas they had dug up, not approaching to disturb them.

It wasn’t until she had narrowed down her search area, going around and around, and saw an unattended, particularly deep, and somewhat large hole that she quickly ran over, squatted down, and examined it carefully.

The three Baby Coins Wei Maomao had found were buried at about the same depth, similar to the depth of the first Baby Coin she had seen Cheng Tingyan dig up. And this hole was obviously much deeper, coupled with its somewhat regular shape, it should have been where one of the two treasures Cheng Rongrong had dug up earlier was buried.

After poking around in the hole and turning over the soil, Wei Maomao looked at the opening for a while before standing up and continuing to search for the second one.

“Boss, I’ve already found eight Baby Coins! How many have you found?”

Passing by the large area that Wen Dongyu had dug up, Wei Maomao felt a blow to her heart.

She couldn’t help but touch the small coin purse Yang Ning had given her, it was thin and flat…

“Good job! Keep going!” Wei Maomao said to Wen Dongyu and quickened her pace to leave.

As the saying goes, sharpening your axe will not delay your job of cutting wood, but was she really sharpening her axe now… Wei Maomao tightened her chubby hand on the coin purse.

Perhaps because she was a bit distracted, Wei Maomao didn’t pay attention to where she was going and tripped, falling face-first into the dirt. When she got up, she was completely covered in dirt… Such luck, Wei Maomao patted the dirt off casually, her muddy paws making her little dress even dirtier.

Just as Wei Maomao had made a mess of herself and was about to question her own suspicions, another deep hole appeared before her.

Cheng Rongrong wasn’t here either…

Wei Maomao looked around, Cheng Rongrong was still digging diligently in the distance, in an area she hadn’t been to.

This was truly interesting.

Perhaps due to children’s tendency to stick to what they know, after going around, she found that everyone was basically still digging where they had initially rushed to, at most, they had just expanded their area a bit.

And these two large holes weren’t close together, and they were quite far from where Cheng Rongrong was now.

Of course, she couldn’t rule out the possibility that some children just liked to move around… Wei Maomao restrained her thoughts and squatted down, starting to dig in the second hole.

After digging for a while, her mud-caked paw stopped.

Just then, Wang Zhizhi’s voice came from afar.

“I found it!”

Wang Zhizhi’s joyful and excited voice broke the stiffness that had just settled over Wei Maomao.

Wei Maomao turned around and saw Wang Zhizhi not far away, holding a small wooden box, his face full of joy.

Yang Ning and Wei Maomao arrived at Wang Zhizhi’s side almost simultaneously. The former announced that Wang Zhizhi had found a mystery treasure and also announced that half an hour had passed. As for the latter…

Wei Maomao, who had run over, squatted on the ground and started digging in the hole where Wang Zhizhi had just found the treasure.

As expected…

Before Yang Ning and Wang Zhizhi could ask anything, Wei Maomao decisively stood up, two small, hard objects clenched in her chubby hand. She tightened her grip, seemingly not feeling the pain from the objects pressing into her palm, and ran towards Cheng Tingyan.

“Yan Yan…” Wei Maomao ran to Cheng Tingyan, who was still digging diligently, and reached out to pull her, but seeing the black mud on her hand, she awkwardly stopped her hand in mid-air.

“Why are you so muddy? Don’t you have a shovel?” Cheng Tingyan looked at the little chubby bunny, who was now trying to rub the mud off her hands, with amusement and surprise, and said softly, “Shall I take you to wash up?”

“No, no, no.” Wei Maomao refused repeatedly, then, disregarding her image, beckoned Cheng Tingyan over and whispered, “Come dig here, come with me.”

With that, Wei Maomao led her a few meters towards the edge of the field, near the ribbons.

“Dig here!” Wei Maomao pointed at the ground, then, without waiting for Cheng Tingyan to speak, she ran to get her shovel and dug a few times.

Cheng Tingyan: ???

“Okay, you continue digging.” Wei Maomao, having used up her remaining energy, sat down on the ground, panting.

Cheng Tingyan was confused by the little chubby bunny, but this spot was still flat, looking like it hadn’t been dug before, there should be Baby Coins here, right? It was all the same where she dug…

But Cheng Tingyan didn’t expect that after digging for a while, following the shallow hole the little chubby bunny had made, her shovel hit something hard.

“This is…” Cheng Tingyan looked at the brown object in surprise.

“Wow, Yan Yan, you found a treasure!” Wei Maomao urged. “Dig it out quickly and see what it is!”

Cheng Tingyan felt a bit dazed, she didn’t know if her surprise was because she had found a treasure, or because… she had found it in the spot Wei Maomao had told her to dig.

But before she could think too much, her hands instinctively followed the little chubby bunny’s instructions, clearing the dirt around the wooden box, leaving only the box itself in the hole.

“You dug this up.” Cheng Tingyan bent down, picked up the box, and handed it to Wei Maomao.

Wei Maomao, sitting on the ground without any grace, twisted her body away. “Yan Yan dug it up.”

“You chose the spot, you dug the first few shovels, so you dug it up.” Cheng Tingyan looked at the little chubby bunny lying on the ground with amusement. “The ground is dirty, get up, I’ll dust you off.”

“Yan Yan dug it up!” Wei Maomao stood up, hiding her hands behind her back and refusing to take the box, then whispered, “Aren’t you going to ask me why I chose this spot?”

“Why?” Cheng Tingyan had gotten over her initial surprise, now that she thought about it, it was probably because rabbits dig holes, it was the little chubby bunny’s luck.

“Because I discovered the secret to finding treasures.” Wei Maomao grinned mischievously, then turned her head and saw that Yang Ning seemed to have noticed they had found the box and was walking towards them, she quickly said to Cheng Tingyan, “Yan Yan, digging is too tiring. Let’s stop digging, okay?”

Such a sudden jump in topic?

Cheng Tingyan almost couldn’t keep up with Wei Maomao’s train of thought and replied instinctively, “You rest, I’ll dig some more, do you want me to take you to wash your hands?”

As she spoke, Cheng Tingyan looked at the muddy dress behind Wei Maomao, unable to bear it any longer, she reached out and patted the little dirty bunny.

Wei Maomao, who was formulating a sentence, was caught off guard and patted on the butt twice by Cheng Tingyan, she jumped up in shock.

“You, you, you…” Wei Maomao covered her butt, shocked and embarrassed.

Cheng Tingyan looked innocent, not understanding what was wrong.

She was just a six-year-old! And she was just a three-year-old fool!

Wei Maomao told herself fiercely in her heart.

“Your hands are all red from digging, I saw it! You’re not allowed to dig anymore, wait for me here!” Maybe because she was startled, Wei Maomao was now like a paper tiger putting on a brave face, with a childish domineering air.

It was… strangely cute…

Cheng Tingyan couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m not…”

But she was cut off by a “fierce” glare from the little chubby bunny.

“Yan Yan dug it up!” Wei Maomao announced loudly to Yang Ning, who had walked over.

After Yang Ning made the announcement and left, Wei Maomao was ready to start her plan. But after thinking about it, she decided to take Cheng Tingyan with her, to prevent her from hurting her hands again.

“Yan Yan, are you happy that you dug up a treasure?” Wei Maomao asked as she pulled her along. “Now that we found one, let’s go rest.”

“Mmm, happy.” Cheng Tingyan nodded, then added, “I only dug up five Baby Coins, I still want to…”

“No, you don’t.” Wei Maomao hummed. “It’s so tiring, I don’t want to dig anymore, you shouldn’t dig anymore either.”

“Popcorn…” Cheng Tingyan still wanted to argue.

But before they could say anything more, Wei Maomao had already found her first target.

“Wang Zhizhi, do you want to find more mystery treasures?” Wei Maomao pulled Cheng Tingyan to a stop beside Wang Zhizhi, who was digging furiously.

Wang Zhizhi, wiping his sweat, with three streaks of dirt on his face: ???

“I’ll tell you how to dig up mystery treasures. You dig, and when you find a treasure, you share half with me and Yan Yan, okay?” Wei Maomao asked seriously.

“I can dig them up myself.” Wang Zhizhi pointed at Yang Ning in the distance. “I already dug one up myself, why should I share with you?”

“You dug for a long time and found one. I’ll tell you, and you’ll find one every time you dig.” Wei Maomao emphasized. “Time is running out.”

“…” Wang Zhizhi looked at this smallest, chubbiest, and strangest little sister and didn’t say anything.

“Oh, then I’ll go find someone else.” Wei Maomao pulled Cheng Tingyan and turned to leave.

“Alright, if you’re not lying to me, I’ll share half with you.” Wang Zhizhi was still young, he didn’t know what playing hard to get was and immediately called out to them.

“Look at this, when you see this in the ground, dig downwards.” Wei Maomao opened her palm, showing Wang Zhizhi the three small pieces of broken red brick in her hand. One was picked up from Cheng Rongrong’s second treasure spot, one from where Wang Zhizhi had found his treasure, and the last one, naturally, from where Cheng Tingyan had just dug up the treasure.

“Just this?” Wang Zhizhi looked unconvinced.

“Mmm.” Wei Maomao nodded. “We have a deal, right?”

Wang Zhizhi: “…”

In the end, he didn’t even know how he came to believe her and even made a pinky promise. By the time he realized it, he was already on the way to search for broken red bricks.