Chapter 76
A week after Mu Hua was kicked out of the villa by Qi An for being unreliable, Qi An's family officially received an invitation from Mu Hua's studio.
Qi An encountered the staff member delivering the invitation at the entrance and accepted it without hesitation.
Du Xiaoruo is baking cakes for the children in the kitchen. Lele is going to a research group in the afternoon, so she asked her mother to bake some small cakes for her classmates to take with her.
Qi An walked into the kitchen, hugged Du Xiaoruo from behind, kissed her earlobe, then leaned against the cabinet and opened the invitation.
While looking at the invitation, he couldn't help but complain, "This invitation design is really ugly. It's obviously the aesthetic of a stupid straight man."
Du Xiaoruo was stirring the cake batter when she raised her eyelids and glanced thoughtfully at Qi An's lower abdomen. She then pursed her lips and said teasingly,
"Aren't you straight too? I've verified that."
Qi An blushed and stammered, "There's a fundamental difference between a straight man and a stupid straight man." He lowered his head to continue reading the invitation, ready to relay information to Du Xiaoruo at any time.
"They say filming will start next week, and the variety show is called 'Cute Baby Rush,' does that mean the cute babies can rush forward and the parents can relax?"
Du Xiaoruo gave him a thumbs up, praising his excellent comprehension skills.
"Did they say who the other guests are?" Du Xiaoruo asked casually as she poured the cake batter into paper cups.
"Hmm..." Qi An quickly skimmed through the invitation. "It didn't say who the other guests were, it said they were mystery guests. This guy didn't just invite our family, did he? He doesn't seem to be very popular."
Du Xiaoruo carefully poured the cake batter to 80% full and analyzed,
"Xia Qing is currently attending a jewelry exhibition in Europe, so she probably can't come. Xiao Tong is studying abroad, and Fan Yue probably can't either. Ni An is a lifelong bachelor, and he doesn't have any children. I really can't think of anyone else among the people we know."
Qi An closed the invitation. "So they're people we don't know."
【Cute Baby Go Go Go】On the day of the live recording, as soon as the program team's live broadcast room was turned on, the traffic that flooded in was so large that the live broadcast room was stuck several times.
[My youth is back! The last time I watched Ha Zong's family live stream was when I was in high school, and now I'm almost graduating from college.]
[Mr. Ha is now the richest man in China, he must be very busy. Xiaoruo is also very low-key. I thought I would never see their family on a variety show in my lifetime.]
[If it weren't for Mu Hua, this live stream wouldn't have happened, right? Although they seem to be joking around on the surface, everyone knows that Mu Hua and Ha Zong are good friends.]
[The official guest list for "Cute Baby Rush" includes Jin Qi'an, Du Xiaoruo, and Jin Qiemo's family of three. Why isn't Lele included? Is Lele not good enough? It seems that once they have their own child and their position is secure, they start neglecting their stepson.]
[Exactly, naming his daughter "Qiemo" is probably taken from the poem "Willow branches a hundred feet long brush the silver pond, not deep green but only light yellow," which sounds very poetic. But Lele's formal name is "Jinyi," which shows how perfunctory it was, right?]
The fact that Lele didn't participate in the show was stirred up by keyboard warriors, and the hashtag #Du Xiaoruo Neglects Stepson, Rich Family Stepmother's Schemes Are Deep# rose to the top of the trending topics list thanks to the show's popularity.
Du Xiaoruo and the others had already boarded the plane and were completely unaware of this.
Lele learned about this from her classmates and checked the trending topics on her phone. Some comments were in favor of Du Xiaoruo, while others were jealous of her success and criticized Du Xiaoruo for being two-faced.
Seeing those words that insulted her mother, Lele's eyes welled up with tears; she was even more upset than if she had been insulted herself.
Unable to contact Qi An, Lele had to handle the matter himself, so he immediately asked a classmate to record a short video for him.
Lele stood in front of the camera, looking at it calmly. There was a youthful naiveté in her brows, but her eyes and brows shone with confidence and determination.
"Hello everyone, I am Jin Yi. You may be more familiar with my previous name, Lele."
"I am posting this video urgently today because I saw online that some people questioned my mother's neglect of me after my sister was born, and there were even a lot of vile insults."
"Here, as the person involved, I feel it's necessary to clarify something. First, my mother is very good to me, and I love her very much. In my heart, Du Xiaoruo is my biological mother. Second, regarding the name I mentioned in my essay, Jin Yi, some people say it's perfunctory, but it's a name I chose myself. As those who have watched 'Beibei Restaurant' know, my Chinese grades used to be very poor. I just wanted something convenient, so I chose this name. But my father said it's a good name because it's the smallest positive integer. My father hopes I can be a complete person, unaffected by external influences, so he approves of my choice of name. Throughout my growth, my parents have given me the utmost respect and support, and I am very grateful to have met them."
"Finally, regarding my absence from the recording of 'Cute Baby Go Go Go,' it's because I decided to participate in a school research project, which conflicted with my schedule, so I voluntarily gave up the recording. As I mentioned, my parents respect my decision, and I believe they foresaw the suspicions that my absence from the show might cause, but they still respect my decision."
“My mother came to our family when I was 9 years old. At that time, I called her ‘stepmother’. I remember my father told me, ‘Mom is Mom, don’t call her stepmother.’ I’m passing this on to you now. Du Xiaoruo is my mother, Jin Yi’s mother. Please don’t call her ‘stepmother’.”
After explaining things clearly and logically, Lele's gaze sharpened, somewhat resembling Qi An's decisive and ruthless demeanor. He solemnly announced...
"Jinchan Group's legal department will pursue any false statements about Ms. Du Xiaoruo that are published online, including any negative news about her."
After recording the video, in order to ensure that the video's influence and authority were sufficient to rival the top trending topic, Lele sent the video to Secretary Jin and asked him to publish the information on the official website of Jinchan Group.
Secretary Jin is still Qi An's secretary, but she has been transferred from Jinse to Jinchan, where she holds the same position as the vice president of Jinchan Group.
Logically speaking, the management of the official website is a trivial matter that should no longer fall under Secretary Kim's purview, but since it was Lele who asked him to do it, he still took charge of it personally.
After watching the video, Secretary Kim sent Lele a message, somewhat uncertainly.
Did you write this draft yourself?
The boss's handsome son, [No, I didn't write a script, this was completely improvised.]
Secretary Kim, [Thumbs up.jpg, Wow, you're amazing! Now you know what "impromptu" means? Your dad's seven-figure tutoring fees weren't wasted.]
The boss's handsome son, [kitten blushing.jpg]
As soon as Du Xiaoruo and her family of three got off the plane, they immediately got into the production crew's van, and the cameraman who was filming them turned on the live broadcast camera.
As the car entered the highway, Qi An took out his phone and saw a video link sent by Secretary Jin.
He clicked on it, watched the video, smiled slightly, and handed his phone to Du Xiaoruo.
Du Xiaoruo took the phone. The link was to the video posted on Jinchan's official website, in which Lele defended her mother. The video even included a seemingly legitimate tag to Jinchan's legal department, which responded immediately.
After the video was released, the marketing accounts that were stirring up trouble quietly removed the fabricated article. Some of the marketing accounts that forwarded it were afraid of getting into trouble and even deleted their accounts.
Qi An put his arm around Du Xiaoruo's waist, rested his chin on the top of her head, and looked utterly proud.
“Our son is amazing, he can protect his mother now.”
Du Xiaoruo turned off her phone, hiding her reddened nose in Qi An's embrace. Touched, her eyes welled with tears. To avoid losing her composure, she awkwardly joked,
"That's impressive. This time, they didn't say they would never forget my voice and smile."
In the live stream room,
[Hahaha, Xiaoruo, is it really okay for you to complain during such a heartwarming moment?]
Five years ago, Lele confessed her love for Qi An on the big screen, saying she would never forget her father's voice and smile, hahaha...
[Lele was pretty cool five years ago too. Fan Yue even publicly responded, saying that after Lele confessed to her dad, she also fixed a bug in the Xiyou management system, hahaha.]
To be honest, Lezai's Chinese language skills have really improved a lot now. The logic is clear and the expression is accurate throughout. If Jinchan's official website hadn't clarified, I would have thought someone else was writing this for Lezai.
[Hilarious! There are actually people trying to stir up trouble by saying Xiaoruo is neglecting Lele. I wonder if those keyboard warriors are feeling the sting of their faces right now?]
As the van drove along the national highway, the mountains on both sides of the road grew higher and higher, the trees became more and more lush, and the buildings gradually disappeared from the roadside, giving people the feeling of being in a deep mountain forest.
At first, Xiao Mo looked at the unfamiliar scenery with curiosity, but as the nanny van drove further and further away, an uneasy look gradually appeared on her face.
"Dad, you two aren't planning to sell me to some remote mountain village, are you? You always complain about me being a third wheel." Her little face showed genuine worry as she silently grabbed Qi An's sleeve.
Qi An gently stroked his daughter's fluffy head, his tone incredibly tender.
"No, Xiao Mo, don't worry. I heard that human traffickers buy children by weight these days. Why would your father do a losing business? I plan to fatten you up a bit before selling you."
Xiao Mo's already fair face turned even paler, and she pitifully begged Du Xiaoruo for help.
Du Xiaoruo glared at Qi An, grabbed his ear, and scolded him.
"How can you be so unreliable? We agreed not to tell her the truth. What if she refuses to eat when we get to the mountains? How is she supposed to gain weight?"
Xiao Mo paused for three seconds, then started pounding on the door with her little fists, yelling at the top of her lungs, "Police officer, save me!"
Having successfully tricked Xiao Mo, Du Xiaoruo and Qi An burst into laughter. They had already discussed it when Xiao Mo was born: once Lele grew up, he wouldn't be fun anymore, so they would have another little fool to play with.
[Haha, I feel so sorry for Momo for a second. Having such unreliable parents must be tough.]
[Xiao Ruo has probably been corrupted by Ha Zong; she's started bullying younger kids too.]
Time flew by as we played pranks on Xiao Mo, and soon we arrived at our destination: a century-old tea village, the very village where Mu Hua had spent half a year filming a documentary.
The ancient tea trees here are excellent, but the yield is scarce and insufficient to support the villagers' household expenses. Therefore, most of the young people have gone out to work, leaving only elderly people in the village.
It had just rained in the afternoon, and the tea mountain was shrouded in mist. In addition, the village was sparsely populated, making it feel very desolate.
When Qi An and his group arrived, guests from another family and Mu Hua and his group were also there.
Xiao Shu came with his father to "buy soy sauce" (a Chinese idiom for casually visiting a filming crew). They arrived at the mountain a day early. He wasn't interested in the filming crew's activities and was wandering around aimlessly when he saw Mr. Ha and his family. He quickly ran over and stood affectionately with them.
Seeing this, Mu Hua said sourly, "Welcome Mr. Ha and his family of four."
Qi Anting put his arm around Xiao Shu's shoulder and introduced the book to everyone with a smile.
“This is my second son, Jin Xiaoshu.”
The crew members all laughed. Mu Hua, unable to bear the husky's boastful antics, changed the subject with a hint of jealousy.
"We have two groups of guests for this recording. In addition to Mr. Ha, Xiaoruo, Xiaomo and that family of four, there is also Fan Lei, the newly crowned Best Actor at this year's film festival, and his wife and their two-year-old son Guanguan."
As Mu Hua introduced them, the guests who had been mysteriously hiding in the village committee activity room came out.
In the live stream room,
Wow, it's Fan Lei and Tang Tang's family! Tang Tang worked with Director Mu when he was still an actor, and she's been the full-line spokesperson for Jinse for the past few years. What a coincidence!
[Fan Lei won Best Actor this year, right? He's quite influential now. Director Mu still has a lot of face.]
Fan Lei and his wife greeted Qi An and the others, and then everyone stood in a row, waiting for Mu Hua to announce the mission.
Mu Hua cleared his throat and pointed to a small courtyard not far behind him.
"This beautiful little courtyard is where you will be staying on this trip. Before you officially check in, the production team has prepared welcome snacks for you."
Upon hearing that there were snacks, Xiao Mo's eyes widened in surprise as she watched as the staff brought out a large plate of sliced lemons.
Xiao Mo already had a tooth-aching image in her mind, and her mouth was drooling. She lifted her short legs, silently took a step back, and hid behind Du Xiaoruo.
Mu Hua wore a sly, mischievous smile.
"If you want to move into the room, you have to finish this plate of lemons first. Don't blame me, blame the audience, they're the ones who love watching this."
[Hahaha, yes, I love watching it! Hurry up and eat!]
[I'm just a spectator, I'm not taking the blame. I just happened to glance at things while you guys were causing trouble.]
"I'll go first." Fan Lei bravely stepped forward, picked up a lemon and put it in his mouth. The moment he bit down, his handsome features contorted and grimaced.
The other guests all gasped in admiration, respecting Fan Lei as a true man.
But Hanzi Lei could only eat one lemon before he couldn't take it anymore. He ran back to the group and sighed, "It's so sour!"
Xiao Mo frowned; just looking at Fan Lei's expression, she could feel the pain. She raised her hand and poked her father's thigh.
“Dad, all the other dads have eaten, we can’t be embarrassed, you should go too.”
The fire had already been built up to this point, and it seemed like it would be a disgrace for Qi An not to step forward. He mustered up his courage, stepped forward, picked up a lemon, and put it in his mouth. Perhaps the production team had deliberately chosen an extremely sour lemon, which was so sour that it made his skull light up.
While Qi An was eating the lemon, Xiao Mo watched nervously with a frown. Seeing that he had finished a piece of lemon, she clenched her fist and shouted.
"I'm not sour yet, have another piece."
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