Chapter 9: Coming to Nitpick

Had he misread?

He stared at the screen for a full minute before confirming the title was correct.

His fingers trembling, he clicked in. It was an edit of his mother’s livestream footage.

She seemed to have fallen, her body smeared with some mud, but even so, her features remained as gentle as ever.

“I have a son, a few months older than you, who can’t leave the hospital due to illness. He also wants to climb trees and pick fruits, but unfortunately can’t…”

A thunderous boom echoed in his mind, as if fireworks had exploded, shattering his consciousness.

Only shocked thoughts remained!

***

The next day.

In a small village at the foot of Yanshan Mountain.

Today was the final stage of recording for the fourth episode of “National Parents”.

As usual, the village chief would tally each group’s task points, convert them proportionally, and let the cute kids use the money to buy gifts.

Tang Tang and Yan Yueqing’s group, unsurprisingly, had the fewest points, exchanging only for 200 yuan. Still, it was more than enough to buy some ordinary gifts.

The driver dropped off the six groups of guests at T City’s department store.

To maintain the mystery of the gifts, there was no livestreaming while shopping. The guests were completely in charge of the children’s activities.

Yan Yueqing, leading Tang Tang, watched Qin Youran walking at the front and suddenly thought – this stage without livestreaming might not just be to prevent spoilers!

Qin Youran was the female lead in the book. Besides her sweet and cute appearance, she also had a quick and clever mind.

Every time she took the kids to buy gifts, she would use the opportunity when no cameras were rolling to buy gifts for the crew at her own expense.

As the saying goes, “A favor breeds obligation^[1]Chinese phrase: “A favor breeds obligation” (恩威并施) Literal translation: “Kindness and authority applied together” Meaning in context: This phrase suggests that by offering gifts (a … Continue reading.” Once the staff received gifts, they would try their best to perfect her image in later recordings.

Later, Li Manman also discovered this clever trick and followed suit.

After that, a strange trend started in the crew –

The kids’ group bought gifts for their little friends, while the guest group bought things for the staff at their own expense.

Everyone was trying to outdo each other!

Not livestreaming was probably to avoid capturing this phenomenon, which might cause the netizens who had praised Qin Youran for being “thoughtful and kind, even considerate to the staff” to turn on her?

“This teddy bear is for Little Zhen, the dragonfly hairpin for Huanhuan, glasses frames for Brother Haohao…” Tang Tang was very organized, quickly selecting gifts and double-checking to make sure nothing was missed.

Yan Yueqing stood quietly to the side, not disturbing the little princess’s task.

But someone couldn’t bear to see her idle and spoke with a cold sneer: “Yueqing, bringing Tang Tang to this kind of budget store is a bit ridiculous, isn’t it?”

Li Manman, leading the little girl Huanhuan from her group, had walked in.

She still had some sense, first letting Huanhuan go play with Tang Tang before lowering her voice: “If it weren’t for you dragging down the points, would Tang Tang be so poor as to come to a place like this to pick gifts?”

“What’s wrong with this place? It’s quite nice.”

Li Manman sneered coldly: “It’s fine for choosing children’s gifts, but what about you? Four episodes in, and you haven’t prepared a single gift for the staff? Well! How can one expect someone as shameless as you to understand social graces?”

Her tone was extremely hostile!

Yan Yueqing raised an eyebrow. Was this person looking for trouble?

“Are you saying that buying gifts means understanding social graces?”

Li Manman glanced at her with disgust: “There’s no point talking to someone like you. Taking the show’s character fee and suddenly turning against it for publicity! Yan Yueqing, is there still any professional ethics in your dictionary?”

“Character fee?” Yan Yueqing said calmly, “If money’s been paid, that’s called a character fee. If no money’s been paid, that’s called making empty promises!”