Chapter 10, Part 10: Pilot Episode.
S City villa district.
This is the largest affluent area in S City, a place teeming with powerful and wealthy individuals from all walks of life.
Zheng Xiaofeng's wife, Shen Lan, took his coat and habitually touched the pocket, finding two candies inside.
Shen Lan was quite surprised: "You bought the candy for Yueyue?"
Zheng Xiaofeng smiled, shook his head, and told Shen Lan about what happened yesterday: "That little guy named Yuyu is so clever and mischievous. If he could come to our house to play, maybe Yueyue would be a little better."
Shen Lan glanced back at her daughter, who was sitting alone on the sofa watching TV, and sighed softly, "Yueyue doesn't like going out, and she doesn't want to play with other children."
My daughter, Zheng Yue, has developmental delays, is somewhat timid and introverted, and stutters when she speaks. When she goes out to play, other children laugh at her and call her a little stutterer.
Over time, Zheng Yue stopped liking to go out.
Looking at her daughter's lonely and thin figure, Zheng Xiaofeng's eyes welled up with tears.
He picked up the two candies, knelt down in front of his daughter, and said with a smile, "Yueyue, Daddy's back. Daddy brought you some delicious food."
Zheng Yue's attention shifted to her father's face, and she gave Zheng Xiaofeng a soft hug: "Dad, Dad, you're back! Welcome back! You've worked so hard!"
"It's not hard work." Zheng Xiaofeng gave Zheng Yue a piece of candy. "This is a piece of candy that a little boy gave to his father. Let's each have one."
Although Zheng Yue has difficulty speaking, she knows that her father is a director and knows many people, and he always brings her small gifts when he goes home.
The father and daughter fed each other candy, and it tasted surprisingly good, with a rich milky aroma and a hint of fruit.
I just couldn't tell what kind of fruit it was made of.
Zheng Yue licked her lips with lingering satisfaction: "Daddy, the candy is so delicious."
"I... I want to eat more."
Zheng Xiaofeng also thought it was quite delicious; the candy was sweet but not cloying, perfect for someone like him who didn't like sweets.
I should have asked for two more.
"Yueyue, Daddy is gone too."
"Dad, buy it."
Zheng Xiaofeng's mind raced, and he smiled gently as he suggested, "This candy was made by that little fish girl herself. Why don't you go and talk to her about it, Yueyue?"
Zheng Yue fell silent. She pursed her lips and pondered for a while before timidly shaking her head.
No matter how much the couple encouraged her, the little girl refused to speak.
*
The pilot episode of the show is about to be recorded, and Li Zhi, who is still out of town and can't come back in time, instructed Xiao Lin to go to Yan Xingli to go over the details.
Although "My Little One" is unscripted and allows guests to improvise, it is still Yan Xingli's first time recording a lifestyle reality show.
Many celebrities with glamorous public personas have stumbled on reality shows, so Li Zhi had to plan ahead and instructed Xiao Lin to take her proposal to Yan Xingli.
Xiao Lin had the password to Yan Xingli's electronic lock. After sending him the message, Xiao Lin had already gone downstairs.
Xiaolin skillfully entered the password to open the door.
哢哒.
A dog's shadow darted out with lightning speed.
Xiaolin felt a gust of wind brush past his feet. He turned around in a daze and suddenly heard a scream.
"Holy crap."
Yan Xingli covered his head and screamed, "Are you hungry?!"
"Eleme, come back here!"
The sky has fallen, and the sugar daddy's kid has run away!
With his hair still wet, Yan Xingli was fuming. He shuffled out in his slippers and chased after her. Xiao Lin panicked and quickly grabbed a mask and hat, closed the door, and followed.
"Brother Xing! Mask and hat!"
In just a short while, Ele.me disappeared without a trace; not even a single dog hair could be found.
Yan Xingli was going crazy. That was a rich man's servant, the landlord's stupid son. If he lost Yan Shanyi, he would kill him.
"Ele.me!"
"Ele.me!!"
"Eleme, Eleme!"
Yan Shanyi and Xiao Lin shouted at the top of their lungs throughout the neighborhood.
Just then, a small electric scooter came up from behind, and a food delivery guy in a blue uniform said, "Huh? You're looking for me?"
Yan Xingli covered his face: "...No, no."
As if they had lost their child, the two Keyun searched back and forth in the neighborhood. Yan Xingli, due to his special status, could not go out casually, so the area outside the neighborhood was left to Xiaolin.
Even when he was being scolded the most, Yan Xingli didn't feel that he was having a hard time. He was really looking for Ele.me (a food delivery app) all over the neighborhood.
Having no other choice, Yan Xingli took the Ele.me toy downstairs, sniffed it around the stray cats he usually fed, and began a full-scale manhunt for the escaped dog.
That evening, a plaintive, aggrieved bark came from outside the door. When I opened the door, there was a dog with a bruised and swollen face squatting at the entrance, with a tattooed tabby dog and an adorable orange tabby dog sitting on either side of it.
French Bulldogs aren't exactly known for their intelligence, and now they've become even more withdrawn.
Upon entering, the girl, who had been waiting for a long time, pounced on Eleme and chased after it, hitting it repeatedly. The house was in chaos, with Eleme screaming in agony.
Although the kitten was angry, it didn't extend its claws. The kitten knew that its mother had spent a lot of dried fish to get this little playmate, and breaking it would be a waste of its mother's dried fish.
After all that commotion, Xiaolin forgot what he came here for.
I came happily, and went home in a daze.
I woke up suddenly in the middle of the night with a look of panic on my face, like a working man. I hadn't given Xing Ge the safety plan!
*
The day before the production crew came to install the cameras and film the pilot episode, I did a thorough cleaning of my house inside and out.
To make a good impression and highlight his love for life, Yan Xingli even went to the flower and bird market to buy several potted plants to decorate.
The agreed-upon time for the visit was 5 a.m., but looking back at previous episodes, it’s easy to see that the production team made a surprise visit at least an hour in advance.
So Yan Xingli quietly got up at three in the morning and spent every second in the bathroom working on things like reducing swelling, applying a face mask, and exercising.
After some effort, he achieved the effect he wanted.
Yan Xingli stroked his chin and gave himself a triumphant smile in the mirror.
At four o'clock in the morning, the doorbell rang.
Yan Xingli put down his tablet, hurriedly ruffled his hair, yawned, and pretended to be sleepy as he opened the door.
A dark, unseen camera was the first to be shoved in.
The man in the video looked like he hadn't woken up yet, his eyes clear but glazed over. He rubbed his eyes and stepped aside to make room for him.
"You've arrived quite early. Come in."
With flawless, egg-like skin, this typical strikingly handsome Chinese man has captured the attention of netizens.
The live stream chat was quiet for a moment, then flooded out again like a dense tide.
[Wow, even though it's a bit of a sloppy piece of work, it's undeniably beautiful...]
Are "dumb beauties" no longer in fashion, and "dumb handsome men" are now the new trend?
[As expected of a pretty face selected from thousands of auditions, her acting is terrible, but her looks are truly stunning.]
Yan Xingli casually brushed her hair aside, unaware that the photographer's mouth had suddenly gaped open.
"Please put on shoe covers."
"Please cooperate with the disinfection."
A tall, 1.8-meter-tall woman appeared silently behind Yan Xingli.
Yan Xingli was startled and turned around abruptly: "When did you get here?"
The transformation so early in the morning was terrifying!
"Just now."
Xiao Hua pulled a stack of blue shoe covers from her belly and handed them to the staff: "Please put them on."
The staff were used to it and didn't find it offensive; the pandemic in the past two years had instilled good hygiene habits in everyone.
The staff took turns taking the shoe covers and putting them on, then looked around and asked, "Teacher Yan, could you please tell me where the hand sanitizer is?"
Yan Xingli paused for a moment, then said, "Wait a moment, I'll go find it."
Little Flower slowly walked up to the man, took off her fisherman's hat and stuffed it into her stomach. Suddenly, she opened her mouth wide and sprayed out a fine mist of water.
It is colorless and odorless, unlike common alcohol-based disinfectant sprays.
"Disinfection complete, welcome."
"Next."
The staff member who got sprayed: oo
Viewers in the live stream who witnessed the entire event: ...
[That scared me to death! I thought it was going to eat someone—it was like the gaping maw of an abyss!]
Wow, is this a robot butler?!
As Yan Xingli moved around, the camera gradually zoomed out, revealing her broad shoulders, narrow waist, and long legs hidden under her loose pajamas.
The photographer followed Yan Xingli to the guest room to call the little guests, while other staff members were busy setting up cameras outside.
The moment the cameras were turned on, the entire process of the young lady committing the crime was recorded.
The kitten first lightly jumped onto the windowsill, licked its fur as if trying to conceal its presence, and then its eyes darted around. The dog sneakily stretched out its paw to touch the leaves, but then, without warning, its paw slipped and it pushed the potted plant down.
The cunning kitten pushed a little at a time, eventually succeeding in making everyone hear the clanging sound of the ceramic basin shattering into pieces.
After committing the crime, the evil Silver Finger didn't run away. It squatted at the crime scene for a while, looking innocent and dazed, before slowly jumping away.
Yan Xingli, who had just brought Yu Yu out, was caught in this scene: "..."
His brow twitched slightly: "A thousand pieces of gold!"
Little Flower excitedly scurried over: "Oh, look how powerful Little Princess's little paws are! This is the strength of an adult kitten, not to be underestimated."
"..."
Aren't you supposed to be an emotionless robot? Is this kind of fawning appropriate?
Yan Xingli: "Your strong little cat made a mess, you go and clean it up."
Without his command, Xiao Hua, who treated Yu Yu like a little princess, had already extended her tentacles. One tendril cleaned up the ceramic shards, while the other transformed into a vacuum cleaner to sweep the floor, preventing small shards from injuring Yu Yu's feet.
The little flower has long tendrils, and when it encounters a staff member blocking its way, it will gently tap their trouser leg: "Hello, please make way."
The staff member who was hit was slightly surprised and quickly moved aside.
All the ceramic shards went into Xiaohua's stomach.
The live stream chat immediately buzzed with comments: "[Do you have a link to the bot? I'm really interested!]"
This robot looks clumsy, but it's surprisingly agile.
While ordinary potted plants might be too much for a wealthy woman to handle, Yan Xingli simply placed them all in her bedroom and replaced the entire living room windowsill with cat grass. Cat grass helps cats expel hair and aids digestion, and it's lush, green, and looks beautiful.
There are five groups of guests participating in "My Little One". This show is not a traditional variety show about raising children. Yan Xingli's group is the youngest group.
Of the other four groups, three are adult mother-son or father-son pairs, and one is a teenager and his father.
With the release of the promotional posters the day before yesterday, the audience already knew the guest lineup. Apart from the highly controversial pair of Yan Xingli, the other four pairs also received considerable attention.
The pilot episode features a group of guests whose time is less than half an hour. Qi Youyu knows that she is accompanying her uncle to work and earn money, so she behaves exceptionally well. She gets up, dresses herself, brushes her teeth, washes her face, and tidies herself up neatly.
The grandfather and grandson were interviewed individually in separate rooms.
All the questions asked by the production team were kept secret beforehand. Based on the content of previous season's preview episodes, Yan Xingli speculated that they were probably some tacitly agreed-upon questions.
Yan Xingli collected the questions that might be raised and went over them with Yu Yu yesterday to make sure no one would suspect anything.
The program began with a standard self-introduction, but when the staff asked why she participated in the show, Qi Youyu's eyes lit up:
"I'm helping my uncle earn money. He's too poor; he has to support me, and he also has to take care of the cats and dogs."
It's no secret in the industry that Yan Xingli signed an unequal contract with her company. Although the large apartment she lives in now is nice, the location and facilities are not something an artist of her caliber would live in.
Those present could attest to this, while netizens who were unaware of the inside story made sarcastic remarks in the live chat, mocking Yan Xingli for using a child's voice to gain sympathy.
"Fish, your name is so cute, who named you that?"
"It was my grandma who named it because she really wanted to eat fish, but she couldn't."
"Is it because Grandma is too old to eat fish?"
“Not really, my grandma is only 120 years old,” Qi Youyu said, counting on her fingers. “My mom is even younger, she’s just 60.”
【？？】
[Hahahaha]
[For a three-year-old, this isn't lying; it's that they have no idea what they're saying and have absolutely no concept of age.]
The only female staff member present was in charge of interviewing Yu Yu. She asked gently, "Is that so? Does Yu Yu go to kindergarten?"
"Mmm." Qi Youyu said honestly, "My mom and dad are often not home, so I go to kindergarten."
"Does Fish like going to kindergarten?"
"Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't." The child frowned, looking bitter and resentful. "Kindergarten kids are too childish. They only want to play and don't like to study."
This means that the child loves learning, and the staff immediately asked Yu Yu if she could write her own name.
"I can."
The child, full of confidence, took the paper and pen handed to him by the staff and began to draw.
OO fish.
[Hahaha, that's what you call good writing!]
You know what, this circle is really well drawn.
The staff member stared at the two circles, seemingly wanting to say something but holding back.
The child blushed slightly, puffed out his little chest, and explained, "Because I'm still little, I can't write too many words now, it would tire my little hands. When I grow up, I can write a lot of words."
The other person then asked, "So what does Yu Yu do when she's home alone?"
"I enjoy inventing small toys."
"Can I show your little invention to your aunt?"
Qi Youyu stood with her hands behind her back and replied helplessly, "I didn't bring it, it's all at home."
Unfriendly comments immediately flooded the live stream chat.
What can a three-year-old invent... at most, fold a paper airplane.
[It's obvious this child loves to show off.]
I actually think it's quite realistic. Kids are just like that; they catch you off guard, they're so cute and innocent.
Her uncle had instructed her not to tell anyone that Xiaohua was her invention, nor to show Xiaoyuhao to everyone. Feeling guilty, Yuyu took out a handful of candy from her pocket.
"Sister, here's some candy I made myself."
"This is my little invention."
This saved the day. The staff were too kind to refuse, and considering that it wasn't an expensive gift and didn't violate any regulations, everyone accepted it.
The candy tasted different from anything they had ever eaten before; it was like a combination of milk candy and fruit candy, but they couldn't quite place which fruit it was.
In the other interview room, Yan Xingli appeared relaxed and casual, but in reality, he remained clear-headed and vigilant about every question, creating an atmosphere completely opposite to that in Yu Yu's interview room.
A note from the author:
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