Chapter 17

The Livestream audience was initially confused as the father-son duo vanished. It was only the Cub’s milky roar of protest and the sound of splashing water that made the viewers realize Ji Nuo was about to bathe the child.

The Danmaku flooded with protests:

[What’s there that we, your mamas, papas, uncles, aunties, older brothers, and sisters can’t see?!]

[Not to criticize, but Ji Nuo looks too sickly to be good at taking care of a child. I suggest mailing him over so I can personally bathe him.]

[The person in front, your abacus beads are hitting me in the face!!]

[Ji Nuo is definitely a bad guy, not leaving even a sliver of footage. I want to see the Cub splash around! Mamma mia!]

However, despite the Danmaku’s opposition, the father and son continued their bath hidden in the corner. But the proceedings didn’t seem to be going smoothly.

Unable to see anything, the Livestream audience could only listen intently, some even putting on noise-canceling headphones, like they were taking a listening comprehension test. They listened and simultaneously guessed the dialogue in the Danmaku.

Cub: “I’ll wash myself!”

Ji Nuo: “That won’t do. A kid’s strength is limited; you won’t get clean.”

Cub: “I’m not dirty! Don’t you dare take off my clothes!”

Ji Nuo: “Normally, it would be fine to let Ao’ao do it himself. But today, Ao’ao worked hard picking mushrooms on the mountain all day and sweated a lot…”

Cub: “You can’t force me! Back off! I’m gonna get mad! I mean it! No amount of tasty food you make will! Work!”

The splashing paused. After a moment of silence, Ji Nuo spoke with some difficulty: “This morning, conditions were limited. Uncle could only simply wipe Ao’ao…”

Before he finished, his mouth was covered, followed by the Cub’s exasperated voice: “You’re threatening me!!”

The Danmaku instantly sprouted a string of question marks:

[What happened this morning? What happened? I want to threaten the Cub too!!]

[Lol, how does bathing a child turn into such a dramatic saga?]

After a stalemate, the Cub said angrily: “Then you… close your eyes.”

The splashing resumed, and the Cub yelled: “You’re pouring it all over my face!”

A trace of helpless amusement colored Ji Nuo’s voice: “Sorry, Uncle can’t see with his eyes closed…”

Fifteen minutes later, Little Friend Lu Ao’ao, bundled in a white bath towel like a Russian nesting doll, reappeared in the bedroom’s camera view.

Perhaps because he was eating well and sleeping soundly with Ji Nuo every day, coupled with his skin being moisturized by the warm water, Lu Aotian’s originally dark, thin, and sunken face was now several shades fairer. His cheeks even had a slight hint of soft flesh.

The little dumpling’s features were already exceptionally striking to begin with. Now, his long, thick lashes were damp, framing a pair of large, sparkling gray-blue eyes. He looked even more like an exquisite doll displayed in a shop window.

The Mom Fans watching the Livestream were slaying one generation of “Ah Wei” after another in the blink of an eye:

[Awsl (Ah Wei is dead)!!! Who can withstand this level of cuteness!]

[Saw the Cub’s tiny feet during the day. They were milky white like Ji Nuo’s. I feel like if the Cub is properly nurtured, his skin could fully return to being fair.]

[Honestly, at first glance this Cub looks like Han Cheng, but on closer look, why do I feel he also resembles Ji Nuo? Gotta admit, scumbag Yong has some skill, finding a Cub this suitable…]

Ji Nuo quickly cleaned himself up. When he returned to the bedroom, the Cub was still wrapped in the bath towel, huffing with anger, and immediately glared at him upon sight.

—Hmph! Despicable human! To use his bedwetting against him!

How dare he!

Holding back a laugh, Ji Nuo unwrapped the little nesting doll, revealing a head dried to semi-dampness by the towel’s absorption. He sat on the edge of the bed, holding the child, and began blow-drying his hair.

Because he was still tightly swaddled in the bath towel, Lu Aotian could only let the other hold him. Initially, his anger intensified, but soon, his eyes drifted shut under the warm, gentle breeze.

It was a very strange experience for him. Feeling Ji Nuo’s soft fingertips passing through his hair, his whole body nestled in a warm, fragrant embrace. It was as if, in this instant, he truly had become a four-year-old child, and the other was a strong protector who could shelter him from wind and rain and provide everything needed for survival.

The feeling was foreign, strange, but not entirely unpleasant. Lu Aotian decided to forgive the other’s impertinence. Mmm… for the sake of tomorrow morning’s chicken soup hand-pulled noodles…

~

The father-son pair fell into a beautiful sleep here. The other three guest groups, however, each faced their own ordeals.

The Weng family of three went up the mountain to dig for truffles and were, without question, completely screwed over by the Production Team.

Truffles grow underground, requiring digging to a certain depth before they’re visible.

The two adults wielded pickaxes, while little Weng Tiantian assisted with a small wooden stick. But the trio dug until dusk and only found seven or eight truffles, all about two to three centimeters in diameter. Finally, the guide who took them up the mountain felt so embarrassed he voluntarily gave them two slightly larger truffles he’d unearthed during his demonstration.

The Weng family’s finds belonged to the lowest price tier. The seven or eight small ones combined were worth only twenty or thirty yuan. Adding the two slightly larger ones from the guide, they made a total of fifty-five yuan.

If they had chosen the cheapest forty-yuan-a-night bungalow, it might have been enough to pay off their debt. Unfortunately, they had drawn the best Western-style mansion the previous night. The Livestream audience, seeing the pitiful fifty-five yuan, flooded the Danmaku with comments about how the Production Team had perfectly illustrated the concept that “all gifts of fate are marked with a price in the dark.”

By the time the Weng family descended the mountain, they were utterly exhausted.

Although they wanted to minimize expenses, Ji Nuo and Ruirui’s family in the bungalow weren’t moving. They had no choice but to drag their luggage to the wealthy household’s courtyard house, costing sixty yuan a night.

As for Ruirui’s family, logically, since they were also picking mushrooms, their experience should have been similar to Ji Nuo and Kang Feier’s.

Unexpectedly, the guide hired by the Production Team was completely unreliable, misidentifying the mushrooms and causing the whole family of three to end up in the hospital. Fortunately, it wasn’t serious—just diarrhea. After receiving injections, they supported each other back home.

This wasn’t deliberate sabotage by the Production Team, but the consequences of misidentifying mushrooms could range from minor to severe. Naturally, the Production Team didn’t dare charge them the guide fee. Although the whole day was exhausting and the family suffered a lot, after selling their picked mushrooms to a middleman and paying back their debt, they only had just over thirty yuan left.

Initially, Ji Nuo had been criticized for not following the rules. After a day like this, seeing the miserable state of the other two families, even the Haters couldn’t bring themselves to nitpick anymore.

If everyone suffered together, it could be blamed on the guests’ lack of skill, laziness, or bad luck. However, the only one who hadn’t followed the Production Team’s plan, Ji Nuo, was eating like a king with his child, living comfortably.

Online, the tide shifted, with many voices praising Ji Nuo’s flexibility and adaptability. The majority of the criticism fell squarely on the Production Team and the Producer.

This was completely the opposite of what the Production Team had initially planned. They could only immediately adjust the subsequent arrangements to account for Ji Nuo as a variable.

As for Kang Feier’s family, they naturally had to continue getting credit from the Production Team that night.

Xu Chengyi was confident that with his business acumen, he could easily rake in profits the next day.

But even if he didn’t fear accumulating debt, the Production Team could only provide uncooked ingredients. And he was even less capable in the kitchen than Kang Feier, who could at least boil an egg.

Zhenzhen was obedient and easy to appease, happily eating boiled eggs with milk. But his son Xu Xiaolin, who had been raised by his grandparents, couldn’t endure such hardship. Upon learning dinner was just small bread rolls that he wouldn’t even glance at normally, the boy threw himself on the ground in a tantrum.

Kang Feier not only had her hands full, but when she scrolled through her phone and saw the replay of Ji Nuo’s dinner, tears and drool flowed in tandem.

~

The futon, baked by the sun all day, was soft and fluffy, carrying the lingering dry warmth of sunlight. It allowed Ji Nuo, exhausted from the long day, to fall asleep almost the instant he hit the bed.

When he woke the next day, he saw the message Xue Xiaoshan had sent him earlier: [Xiao Nuo, Brother Cheng arrives tomorrow evening. Sister Li wants you two to act more intimate. She’ll find an opportunity to arrange some CP (couple) clips.]

Xue Xiaoshan was originally sent by Xu Li as external support, worried that Ji Nuo, being young, wouldn’t be able to handle the child. Xue Xiaoshan had been staying in a town inn since the kid variety show started filming. Unexpectedly, Ji Nuo hadn’t needed him at all.

Lying on his stomach with the freshly bathed, wonderfully fragrant Cub nestled against him, Ji Nuo wasn’t fully awake yet. He was dazed for a moment before realizing that the “tomorrow evening” Xue Xiaoshan mentioned was actually tonight.