Chapter 8
Lei Shen was the last to arrive at the restaurant. He mentioned the e-sports brand again to the camera, until the director gave him a wink, at which point he stopped talking and focused on the show.
Li Chi, holding the microphone, smiled and said, "All of you guests have gathered at just the right time today. To celebrate the official start of the first day of the show, this breakfast will be free of charge. Everyone, young and old, can enjoy their meal to their heart's content!"
"Uncle, breakfast is free! You should eat more!" Xiao Yu tugged at Yun Jingcheng's clothes, looking very cute as he earnestly worried that his father wasn't getting enough to eat.
The other younger children were already lost in the sight of the fancy little cake stands in the restaurant.
"I want strawberry flavor!"
"I want one too!"
"Auntie, I want the biggest one!"
With his youngest age and most agile physique, Jiang Mingzhe successfully carried two adorable French desserts and held them high in front of Leng Zhi, exclaiming, "Daddy, look! Such cute little cakes!"
Leng Zhi looked down and saw that the originally exquisitely designed French pastry had been crushed by Jiang Mingzhe's forceful grab, making it look like some kind of culinary disaster.
He picked one up from Jiang Mingzhe's hand and popped it into his mouth: "Kids shouldn't eat too many sweets, or they'll get cavities."
Jiang Mingzhe stared at his empty left palm, pouted, and muttered in a voice only he could hear, "Bad dad!"
Then, as if afraid that Leng Zhi would snatch his little cake again, he quickly stuffed the remaining one into his mouth, making his mouth bulge like a squirrel.
Leng Zhi was amused: "Oh, isn't this the Squirrel King?"
[Hahaha, Squirrel King, what an adorable nickname!]
Leng Zhi is bullying the child again.
[Xiao Mingzhe really looks like a squirrel. Oh well, just teasing him. It's a buffet, no one's going to steal it.]
Finally, "Squirrel King" was personally picked up by Leng Zhi and fed a very healthy breakfast.
As for the desserts carefully prepared by the production team, Jiang Mingzhe could only look on from afar and quench his thirst after taking that first bite.
Leng Zhi was very satisfied with this. He opened his phone's notes app and solemnly wrote down a note:
[1. Jiang Mingzhe's daily intake of sweets is controlled, and his three meals a day are balanced.]
This is the meeting material he prepared for the parenting report meeting that evening—upholding the noble principle of not lying, he decided to write down each point separately, so that he could report with a straight back and would not be exposed.
Soon, all five groups of guests finished breakfast, and Li Chi reappeared at the restaurant entrance.
He was pushing a small cart with several bundles of different colored interlocking play mats on it.
Li Chi cleared his throat, signaling everyone to focus their attention on him, and slowly began to say, "Today's game is divided into two sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Now, let's announce the game rules."
"The rules are simple: each group of guests takes fifteen play mats of one color. Then it's hide-and-seek. Guests can check the locations of other guests on their phones, but they can't be encountered by other guests. If two groups of guests encounter each other, one point will be deducted. Tonight, based on today's game scores, everyone will be ranked and will receive five, three, two, and one star respectively. The last place group will not receive any stars."
The guests' eyes lit up immediately.
The first place winner gets five stars!
Such a generous reward made the three-star one-night stay seem even more promising—Lei Shen, who had splurgeed last night, clenched his fists in secret, determined to do everything he could to get first place for the sake of his reputation.
Li Chi continued, "Of course, this game isn't just simple hide-and-seek. Everyone needs to hide their fifteen playmats well during the game. Make sure they're well hidden so no one finds them easily. Also, please note that you can only hide in public areas; it's not allowed in the guest room area. That's all the rules for our morning game. It will last for one and a half hours. Once everyone has drawn lots for their starting point and is in position, the game will officially begin."
Le Xinzhou asked, "What are the rules for the game this afternoon?"
"Right now, we can only tell you the rules for the morning games. The afternoon games will be officially announced after lunch break. In the meantime, feel free to guess whether the afternoon games are related to the morning games!"
Li Chi's tone was slightly playful at the end, but as soon as he said that, almost everyone could guess that the afternoon's games must be related to the crawling mat that had been hidden in the morning.
Le Xinzhou stroked his chin, pondering, "Should I retrieve the crawling mats as quickly as possible this afternoon? Or should I look for crawling mats from other teams? Should I hide them in an orderly fashion or haphazardly?"
Leng Zhi remained silent. Based on his recollection of the original text, Le Xinzhou's guess was actually half right.
In the afternoon, we'll be collecting the play mats that others have hidden.
Soon, a staff member brought over an opaque box: "Please draw your starting point."
Shaoqi took the lead and drew a lot first. When she unfolded it, she saw that it was for a restaurant.
She shrugged helplessly: "Then I'll stay put."
The other guests also drew their names in turn: Lei Shen was the parking lot, Yun Jingcheng was the swimming pool, and Le Xinzhou was the shopping street.
Leng Zhi drew the village entrance—a vast, open meadow with almost no place to hide his crawling mat.
Leng Zhi: "..." What bad luck.
Helplessly, he picked up a stack of yellow playmats, grabbed Jiang Mingzhe with his other hand, and headed towards the "birth point" he had drawn.
The guests were added to a WeChat group with location sharing enabled. Once all the little dots were in place, the host's voice came over the loudspeaker: "The game begins!"
Leng Zhi looked around and found it to be completely empty; not even a clump of bushes could be seen.
The play mat has a bright color and takes up a lot of space, so it stands out no matter where it is placed.
[Hahaha, this group must be the unluckiest, right?]
[I just checked the view from the other side; Lei Shen has already started using the parking lot's cars to hide his collection.]
[Yes! Sister Shaoqi also found two or three really tricky spots in the restaurant.]
[The entrance to this village is just pure grass; nothing else is provided.]
[I declare Ryouji the unluckiest star of the day!]
[He should probably change locations and find somewhere without any guests to hide away.]
Leng Zhi didn't leave immediately. He looked around again until he noticed an iron shovel leaning against the fence.
Wait, a shovel?
Jiang Mingzhe, who was standing to the side, only had a vague understanding of the game rules and knew that they had to play hide-and-seek. He tugged at Leng Zhi's clothes, trying to hide in a nearby house: "Hide-and-seek!"
Leng Zhi placed the playmat on the ground: "Don't move, let's hide our things first before we play hide-and-seek."
Jiang Mingzhe was puzzled: "But, but if we don't play hide-and-seek properly, we'll lose points if we're discovered!"
Leng Zhi had already brought the shovel and was holding it tightly in his hand: "Hide this well so you won't lose points. You'll definitely have to find someone else to hide it for the afternoon's mini-game."
He shoved the phone into Jiang Mingzhe's arms: "Now start walking back and forth on the grass, don't stop."
Upon hearing that it was a game, Jiang Mingzhe immediately obeyed, grabbed his phone, and started running wildly across the grass.
Leng Zhi then picked up a shovel and hammered it into the grass, digging a hole in the fence with each stroke.
Next, he counted five more crawling mats, filled the bottom of the pit, then skillfully filled it with soil, patted it flat, and covered it with turf.
He even stopped several times along the way, waving to Jiang Mingzhe, glancing at the positions of the other guests, and then beckoning Jiang Mingzhe to continue strolling.
The operation was so smooth and seamless that it was difficult to notice that a piece of the turf had been lifted unless one looked closely.
[Holy crap, what kind of move is this?]
[I've seen things hidden in toilets, under beds, and even in rooftops, but this is the first time I've seen something buried directly?]
[And it's really hard to spot!]
[He even knew that you couldn't put all the eggs in one cage, so he only buried five and left.]
[Does anyone else think his digging movements are very practiced? Isn't she advertised as a wealthy socialite? Why is she so skilled at it?!]
Leng Zhi opened his phone again—he didn't check the other people's locations, but directly opened the notes app and wrote another line:
[Lead children on outdoor adventures, learn to plant trees, and cultivate environmental awareness and a sense of closeness to nature from a young age.]
How can it not be considered planting trees outside the area? If you dig tree pits, rounding it up is fine too.
Speaking of Leng Zhi's skillful ability to dig pits, we have to thank his good teammates from his time with LSG.
I don't know who started this idea in the league, but it's about organizing all the teams to plant trees on Arbor Day to raise fans' environmental awareness.
Leng Zhi has always been a strong supporter of such charity events, so he immediately signed up all the team members and also promoted the event in advance.
As a result, these good teammates secretly ordered a late-night snack the night before the event, and they all suffered from food poisoning, requiring ambulances to take them to the hospital overnight.
It's important to know that all teams strictly manage their members' diets, and sneaking late-night snacks is a violation of team rules.
The next morning, the forum was full of posts laughing out loud, jokingly calling this tree-planting activity "planting dogwood everywhere but one less team".
Leng Zhi, young and impetuous, insisted on going to the tree-planting activity and planted enough trees for five people by himself.
That night, the forum post title became "Hahaha" and "Cold God, my Cold God".
Compared to the tree pits dug on Arbor Day that year, this small pit was effortless for Leng Zhi. After confirming the camouflage of the grass again, he opened WeChat and glanced at the locations of the other guests.
Just as it had just been shown, no one was moving toward the village entrance; they were all moving around inside and outside the nearby houses—except for Le Xinzhou's group.
Location data shows that Le Xinzhou remained motionless outside the shopping street.
He also sent a message in the group:
[Le Xinzhou: Help!]
It was followed by a string of questions.
[Yun Jingcheng: What's wrong with Brother Xinzhou? Does he need help?]
[Leishen: What's going on?]
[Shaoqi: Huh?]
Out of politeness, Leng Zhi also added a question mark.
[Cold treatment: ?]
He continued to observe the locations of the other guests, and only when the little red dot representing Lei Shen began to move to the other side of the map did he squeeze Jiang Mingzhe's little hand: "Come on, let's go to the pool."
Jiang Mingzhe blinked: "How do you hide things in the swimming pool?"
Leng Zhi strode forward: "I haven't decided yet, but I can copy other people's homework."
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