Chapter 19: The Fallen Child Star (19) part 1

The first episode of the variety show was scheduled to be filmed over three days and two nights. Today was already the final day.

The live broadcast began promptly at 6:00 AM. Yao Rong was mopping the hallway. After finishing, she walked to Xu Weiheng’s door and knocked twice firmly: “Get up and go for your run. I’ll mop your room while you’re out.”

After a moment, Xu Weiheng’s sleepy voice replied, “I’m skipping the run today. Just leave the mop by the door; I’ll clean up after I wake up.”

More knocking followed. After about ten seconds of this standoff, Xu Weiheng finally gave in. He threw off his blanket and got out of bed.

When he opened the door, the first thing he saw wasn’t Yao Rong, but a camera lens pointed directly at him, filming relentlessly. Xu Weiheng froze, his drowsy mind instantly clearing. His gaze shifted to Yao Rong standing behind the cameraman, and he accused: “You actually teamed up with the production team!”

Yao Rong waved the mop in her hand, indicating her innocence: “I really just wanted to mop the floor.”

The cameraman had been too dedicated to his job. When she knocked, he had quickly shouldered his camera and rushed over.

Xu Weiheng looked down at his SpongeBob SquarePants pajamas, then touched his messy hair. Resigned, he sighed and reached for the mop: “Fine, I’ll do it later.”

He added somewhat plaintively: “I stayed up until 3 AM last night to finish ‘Light year’ in one go.”

He had a good reason for not being able to get up for his morning run. Last night, Yao Rong had told him that her second science fiction novel, ‘Light year’, had been finalized. As a devoted reader, Xu Weiheng naturally wanted to read it immediately. He got so engrossed that he ended up staying up all night to finish it.

[Hahahahaha, SpongeBob pajamas. Indeed, even Xu Weiheng’s pajamas are yellow. He’s truly a die-hard fan of yellow.]

Some viewers became interested in the novel Xu Weiheng mentioned: [Light year? What novel is this? I just searched but couldn’t find it.]

However, these objective comments were quickly drowned out by another wave of opinions.

[Help, these scenes with the mother-son duo are so boring!]

[I only tuned in because I saw them trending on hot searches, but this is ridiculous. How can this even trend? How much money did they spend?]

“Go change your clothes,” Yao Rong said, displaying the task card she had just received. “The production team has issued the task cards. We’ll set out after breakfast.”

After Xu Weiheng changed and finished breakfast, he and Yao Rong took a car to a nearby scenic spot in Ying County for a check-in.

The production team had set up a half-day tour route for the two. They needed to follow this route, completing tasks at each scenic spot. Only after finishing the task would they be considered to have successfully checked in at that location.

The tasks for all four groups of guests were similar. The group that completed all tasks in the shortest time would win a deluxe lunch provided by the production team. As for the other three groups, they would receive ingredients based on their ranking and have to cook their own lunch.

Upon hearing this, Xu Weiheng’s competitive spirit ignited: “We must aim for first place.”

Yao Rong teased him: “Haven’t you been enjoying cooking lately? I thought you’d want to take the ingredients back and cook yourself.”

Since Xu Weiheng had unlocked his cooking skills, he had been preparing all their meals for the past two days. He enjoyed it, so Yao Rong let him be. Mastering another life skill was certainly a good thing.

Xu Weiheng excitedly said: “Why not take advantage of what the show offers us?”

As they spoke, they arrived at the first check-in point. The segments set up by the production team included pure physical tasks, tests of the guests’ hands-on abilities, pictionary-style games to test tacit understanding, and even a game of ‘Radish Squat’.

Among these, the most challenging was the segment testing hands-on abilities. However, with Yao Rong present, this segment turned out to be the easiest to pass.

By the time they reached the fourth check-in point, the other three groups were still stuck at the second point. But this dominant performance, instead of winning praise, only intensified the criticism in the comment section.

[No team spirit, no wonder Xu Weiheng can’t make good friends in the industry]

[If all guests were like this mother-son pair, I suggest canceling the third season early to cut losses]

[Indeed, if all variety shows were played like this, the domestic entertainment industry’s variety shows would soon die out]

Not only were they criticizing ‘Dear Family’,but they were also dragging down the entire domestic variety show industry, as if Yao Rong and Xu Weiheng had committed some terrible crime that brought the whole industry down with them.

Xu Weiheng’s live stream had 1.02 million viewers, most of whom were casual viewers. They initially didn’t want to bother with these nonsensical comments, but the level of criticism kept escalating. Moreover, for the past two or three days, Xu Weiheng’s live stream had been filled with all sorts of chaos, which made some viewers who were quietly watching the stream feel very uncomfortable.

[I’m not anyone’s fan, but we all have keyboards. If you want to criticize harshly, why can’t I express my disapproval when I see fit?]

[I’m a fortune teller, who are you to judge?]

[Are some people blind? Saying Xu Weiheng has no team spirit? Where’s the team in this segment? All four groups are competitors. If Xu Weiheng has the ability, why should he give way to your useless idols?]

Ever since Yao Rong demonstrated her carving skills on the live stream, viewers no longer referred to her as “Xu Weiheng’s mom” or called her by name. Instead, they followed Xu Weiheng in addressing her as ‘Ms. Yao’.

[If you want to talk about teamwork in this segment, it’s between Xu Weiheng and Ms. Yao. I mean, they guessed 11 items in one minute during the pictionary game. Isn’t that good enough teamwork?]

Some perceptive viewers seemed to see through the situation:

[Is this a coordinated attack by a paid water army?]

[Let me tell you, being an internet water army must be easy money. Even without dirt on someone, you can still drag them down.]

But soon, those overly aggressive IDs jumped out again: [Are you sick? A village woman with only a high school education, I can criticize if I want to. Don’t label me as a water army.]

[That’s right, I’m not a paid commenter, nor am I anyone’s fan. Can’t a casual viewer express their dislike?]

The show’s staff immediately noticed the war of words in the live stream comments and hurried to inform the deputy director, asking if they should manage the comments, perhaps by deleting the more extreme ones.

But the deputy director refused. He said calmly: “Let the gods fight it out. We won’t interfere.”

If even the audience could see through this, how could he, an industry insider, not understand? As long as it didn’t affect the show’s ratings, these matters were of no concern to him. Why should he bother intervening unnecessarily?

The fourth challenge set by the production team wasn’t difficult: Xu Weiheng and Yao Rong needed to invite two parent-child pairs to jointly complete a ‘family radish squat’ game with six people.

After hearing the game rules, Yao Rong smiled at Xu Weiheng: “Want to handle the invitation task yourself?”

Throughout their journey, she had refrained from interfering in tasks Xu Weiheng could complete alone. Especially in communication-based segments like this, it was more suitable for training Xu Weiheng.

“No problem,” Xu Weiheng looked around and pointed to a swing set not far away. “Go sit there and wait for me.”

“Take the small fan too,” Xu Weiheng handed the fan to Yao Rong.

Yao Rong took the fan and sat on the swing, watching Xu Weiheng’s figure running in the sunlight.

The system, which had been quiet for a while, quietly appeared and informed Yao Rong about the situation in the live stream comments. Finally, the system also relayed the deputy director’s reaction to Yao Rong.

“I see,” Yao Rong said with a cold smile.

It was Sunday, now 10:30 AM. Although the sun hadn’t reached its most intense point, it was already quite hot.

Xu Weiheng walked along the street for a few minutes before entering a nearby residential area.

Unfortunately, at this hour, there weren’t many people out for a stroll. After finally finding a father and son, he learned that the young man was taking the elder to the hospital, so Xu Weiheng had to abandon his plan.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck him. He recalled seeing a sign for a children’s playground nearby while driving earlier.

Other places might be difficult to find people, but since it was the weekend, many parents would surely be taking their children to play at the playground. He would definitely be able to find suitable participants there.

The game ‘Carrot Squat’ tested reflexes and had no entry barriers, making it perfect to play with children of any age.

Xu Weiheng acted on his idea immediately, changing direction and rushing towards the children’s playground.

As soon as he entered, he attracted the attention of many parents, and even some of the playing children looked over curiously.

“Spaceship!”

“Daddy, it’s spaceship boy!”

Suddenly, a little girl in denim overalls not far away pointed at Xu Weiheng while calling out to her father in a soft, childish voice.

Xu Weiheng was momentarily confused before realizing she was talking about him.

He pressed his lips together and approached the little girl’s father, briefly explaining his intentions.

“I’ll ask my daughter Lele what she thinks.” The little girl’s father hesitated for a moment, then turned and waved to the little girl. “Lele, come here. Do you want to play a game with this big brother?”

The little girl’s round eyes rolled as she calculated: “Uncle, can you give me the spaceship? My mom and I watched your show, and we really, really like that spaceship.”

Un… Uncle?

Xu Weiheng’s expression nearly cracked.

He forced a smile and said, “Big brother can’t give it to you. It was given to big brother by big brother’s mother.”

In this short sentence, he heavily emphasized ‘big brother’ three times.

The little girl pouted and scuffed the ground with her toe. “Okay then, uncle.”

Xu Weiheng: “…”

This child looked so clever, yet her form of address wouldn’t budge.

She must be doing it on purpose.

She definitely must be doing it on purpose.

The little girl’s father was a bit embarrassed and tried to smooth things over: “Lele, you should call him big brother.”

The girl nodded at her father, then looked at Xu Weiheng with a serious face: “I accept your invitation.”

Xu Weiheng was amused by her, and the slight irritation in his heart instantly vanished.

Children always have a magical power to make someone frustrated with just one sentence, but also to make one’s heart melt with another.

“I need to invite one more child. You and your dad wait here for me.”

Xu Weiheng patted her hair, which was tied in pigtails. It was soft, no wonder Ms. Yao always liked to secretly ruffle his hair.

“No need!” The little girl was clearly a leader among children. She waved her chubby hand. “I’ll help you invite someone. You wait here.”

She ran back to the group of children, and in less than half a minute, she walked out with a boy who looked a bit dazed. The boy’s mother followed behind them.

“Thank you,” Xu Weiheng bent down and said to the little girl, “Your name is Lele, right? I’ll treat you both to lollipops later.”

With the task of inviting people successfully completed, Xu Weiheng led the way, bringing them to meet up with Yao Rong.

After walking for about five minutes, Xu Weiheng spotted Yao Rong.

She was holding onto a swing with one hand, waving to Xu Weiheng.

Just as Xu Weiheng was about to greet her, little Lele from behind suddenly darted in front of him, jumPing’and calling out to Yao Rong: “Sister Yao!”

Xu Weiheng’s mouth twitched violently.

This little devil!

Calling him uncle, calling Ms. Yao sister, the generational hierarchy was all mixed up!

After the two groups met up, Lele kept circling around Yao Rong, speaking very sweetly. Later, during the game, Lele was the most enthusiastic participant.

When the production team announced the completion of the check-in, Lele was sweating from all the play.

Xu Weiheng kept his promise and ran to a nearby store to buy lollipops for the two children.

Yao Rong squatted down to chat with Lele.

Lele must have said something because Yao Rong was laughing while looking at Xu Weiheng.

Xu Weiheng keenly noticed Yao Rong’s gaze and instinctively felt that Lele must not have been saying anything good about him.

Yao Rong leaned close to Lele’s ear and whispered a few words.

Before being led away by her father, Lele waved at Xu Weiheng, gesturing for him to squat down.

Xu Weiheng was a bit confused and somewhat wary: “What are you going to do?”

Lele giggled, “Nothing, you’re too tall. Squat down, squat down.”

Xu Weiheng had to comply with her wishes and squatted down, thinking that Lele had just helped him a great deal, so even if she wanted to pinch his cheeks, he wouldn’t object.

But the fleeting warmth on his face left Xu Weiheng completely stunned.

— He thought the little girl would play a trick on him, but instead, the little girl had kissed him on the cheek.

As her mouth left, Lele’s hand wiped Xu Weiheng’s face, cleaning off the saliva she had left.

“Big brother, don’t be angry. Lele was just joking with you earlier.”

Lele stuffed a small note into Xu Weiheng’s hand, then ran away with her hands behind her back, not forgetting to add one more sentence.

“Even though you weren’t willing to give me the spaceship, I still like you very, very much! My dad says he’s taking me to visit the orphanage director next week. If you want to come play, remember to call my dad.”

Xu Weiheng straightened up and unfolded the small note Lele had stuffed into his hand. Sure enough, it had a string of phone numbers written on it, along with three crooked characters.

“Qin Wenlin”.

This should be Lele’s father’s name.

He raised his right hand and touched the side of his face where Lele had kissed him. After a while, the corners of his mouth slowly curved up, and his eyes, slanting up to his temples, softened along with it.

The falling sunlight fell on him gently like warm rays melting into his eyes.

[AWSL! This smile is really something!]

[Xu Weiheng’s smile is so pure, I wish I could soul-swap with little Qin Lele for a moment]

[Damn, you’re all envying Qin Lele’s good fortune, but I’m the only one marveling at how clever she is!]

[Both children were very close to Xu Weiheng. Are those who criticized Xu Weiheng for being unapproachable feeling embarrassed now? Children are much better at judging people than you adults]

After Qin Lele and her group had walked away, the assistant director stepped forward and announced Yao Rong and Xu Weiheng’s time: three hours and forty-two minutes.

Considering that most of the time was spent on the road, Yao Rong and Xu Weiheng were quite satisfied with this result.

“After the results of the other three groups come out, you can go enjoy a big meal,” the assistant director said, trying to liven up the atmosphere. He asked Xu Weiheng if there was anything he wanted to eat.

Xu Weiheng: “No.”

Assistant Director: “How can there be nothing? Doesn’t Weiheng have any favorite dishes?”

Xu Weiheng smiled.

“I like Ms. Yao’s pickled fish the most. Apart from that dish, I don’t have any particular favorites. But who doesn’t like delicious food? So I’m looking forward to the big meal the production team has prepared for us.”

Now, he could easily handle these interviews, saying things so perfectly that no one could find any fault.

The other three groups were still working on the fourth challenge, and even at their fastest, it would take at least another half hour. Of course, the production team wouldn’t let Yao Rong and Xu Weiheng just stand in the sun. They brought out large sun umbrellas for shade and served them watermelon juice to cool off.

Yao Rong squinted contentedly, using her hand to brush aside the sweaty hair on her forehead. She turned her head and asked Xu Weiheng, “What did Lele say to you just now?”

“She invited me to play at the orphanage next week.”

“Then she must really like you.”