In the Years When I Was a Father

Chapter 68: Movie Star Dad (6)

The next morning, the five families gathered in the restaurant. After finishing breakfast, they saw the team leader walking toward them, carrying a lottery box in his arms.

Qi Rui’s eyes lit up when he saw it, waiting eagerly for the team leader to speak.

“Good morning, everyone. Today, we will arrive at Baicao Village. Before we get there, the production team has specially prepared a lottery box for you. Inside are five different styles of rural courtyards. Which type of house you will stay in depends on your luck when you draw.”

As soon as the team leader finished speaking, Xu Mingyan couldn’t help but ask, “Leader, there aren’t any really rundown houses, right?”

The team leader just smiled without answering.

Seeing his reaction, the kids instantly had a bad feeling.

Zhang Yu gave a wry smile and complained, “Looks like it won’t be very comfortable.”

Yu Fei also nodded in agreement, “You really can’t expect too much from them!”

Qi Rui also grew a little worried. Thinking about the dilapidated houses he had seen in previous reality shows, he immediately had the urge to turn around and go home. He glanced back at the “Stinky Guy” and, seeing him look calm and composed, Qi Rui pouted and secretly prayed they wouldn’t end up with the worst one.

The adults were still relatively calm. Once the team leader signaled that they could start drawing, they let their children go forward to try their luck. After getting to know each other, the kids had learned a little about one another. Showing good manners, the boys all let the two girls in the group go first.

Xu Mingyan, who had a bold and straightforward personality, stepped up and said, “I’ll go first!”

She strode directly to the lottery box, reached in, and decisively picked one.

The others who hadn’t drawn yet gathered around curiously. When the card was opened, it revealed a photo of a farmhouse courtyard.

“Wow, this place looks pretty good!” Yu Fei said, leaning in for a look.

“Yeah, I agree. It’s probably one of the better ones,” Zhao Shuo said after examining it carefully.

Xu Mingyan looked at the photo: it was a single-story house, with whitewashed exterior walls. Overall, it looked clean and tidy, and the house didn’t seem too bad. She happily returned to Xu Congwen’s side.

Next to draw was Yu Fei. She was incredibly nervous, afraid of picking the worst one. When she approached the lottery box, she tried to peek inside, but it was too dark inside, and the cards were folded, making it impossible to see.

Yu Fei nervously prayed to every deity she could think of before finally making her choice.

“I don’t dare to look!”

Zhang Yu, who was quite familiar with Yu Fei, saw this and directly took the card from her hand to open it.

“This one’s not bad.”

Hearing that, Yu Fei finally relaxed. She looked at the photo: compared to Xu Mingyan’s house, hers looked a bit more worn out from the outside, but it also had a courtyard with vegetables growing in it. After a quick comparison, it didn’t seem much worse than Xu Mingyan’s.

Next up was Zhao Shuo. After drawing his card, he didn’t open it but instead motioned for Qi Rui to go and draw his.

Qi Rui had been waiting for a while and was a little envious of the rooms the two girls had drawn. Thinking there were only two options left, he knew it would soon be clear whether his luck was good or bad.

Once all three boys had drawn their cards, they decided to open them together.

“Why am I the unluckiest one?!”

After looking at each other’s photos, Zhao Shuo couldn’t bear the blow and wailed.

Hearing his son’s complaint, Zhao Jingyi also lost his composure. He walked over, took a glance, then patted Zhao Shuo on the shoulder and said, “I really shouldn’t have had any hope for your luck.”

In Zhao Shuo’s hand was a photo of a low, shabby house. In contrast, Qi Rui’s house, with its spacious layout and small garden, and Zhang Yu’s two-story building looked far more luxurious. The difference between his rundown hut and their countryside villas was stark.

From the appearance alone, Zhang Yu’s and Qi Rui’s houses were the best, Xu Mingyan’s and Yu Fei’s were decent, and Zhao Shuo’s was clearly the worst.

Although Zhao Shuo was disappointed for a moment, he didn’t dwell on it and returned to the group to wait for the leader to announce the next part of the journey.

On the way to Baicao Village, Qi Rui brightened up. Since he wouldn’t have to live in the worst house, he finally had the mood to enjoy the scenery along the way.

Just like the team leader had said, the place was full of beautiful mountains and clear waters, with fresh air. However, the mountain road was winding and twisting, which sparked Qi Rui’s curiosity.

“Dad, this road is way too twisty! There’s a curve after every short stretch. Ordinary drivers probably wouldn’t dare drive here!”

Qi Sheng, who had been resting with his eyes closed, opened them upon hearing this and looked outside. Sure enough, as his son said, after a short distance, there was another sharp turn. Seeing his son so excited, he said, “If you like it, I’ll take you to a few more places in the future. In Sichuan Province’s Meishan, the roads are even more winding than this.”

“Really? How twisty must that be?” Qi Rui asked, full of curiosity. Although Meishan was quite famous in the country, when he was little, he had lived with his grandparents. During holidays, they would take him around to play, but they were always careful not to take him too far into the mountains, worried he couldn’t handle the rough roads.

As he grew older, his grandparents’ health declined, and with his parents not around, he had no friends particularly interested in mountain adventures. So he had never seen even steeper or twistier mountain roads.

Upon arriving at Baicao Village, the team leader instructed them to find their accommodations themselves.

“There’s only a photo, no address at all. How are we supposed to find it?”

Qi Rui opened his card and stared at the lonely photo, feeling a headache coming on.

Qi Sheng, looking at their three large suitcases, started assigning tasks. “Take the photo and look around. If you really can’t find it, ask the villagers nearby. I’ll stay here and guard the luggage.”

Qi Rui glanced at the three large lumps on the ground and realized it would be too troublesome to drag the suitcases around. He nodded in agreement.

The other families seemed to have the same idea, so the five fathers stayed behind to watch the luggage while the five teenagers set off to find their places.

“Hey, this is pretty good. From now on, whenever there’s a task, we can just let the kids handle it while we cheer from the sidelines!”

Zhao Jingyi, seeing the kids running off, shamelessly sat on a suitcase and started making suggestions.

Zhang Yunzhi nodded in agreement, and Qi Sheng also thought the idea wasn’t bad.

Unfortunately, the other two fathers didn’t say anything — understandably so, since they had daughters. When it came to hard or tiring tasks, they were reluctant to let their little darlings suffer.

Seeing this, the three fathers burst into laughter, clearly enjoying a bit of schadenfreude.

Qi Rui was the first to find his place. The house he picked wasn’t far from the village entrance. Seeing that the house matched the photo almost perfectly, he ran over excitedly.

“This should be it, right?” He carefully compared it with the photo and asked Zhao Shuo, a bit uncertain, since there wasn’t anyone nearby he could ask for confirmation.

Zhao Shuo took the photo, examined it carefully, and nodded. “Yeah, it should be. Let’s go in and have a look.”

The door swung open with a push, immediately reassuring the two boys. They entered the courtyard and went into the main hall, where they indeed spotted cameras installed.

Qi Rui first inspected the furnishings inside. Seeing the clean and tidy setup, his last bit of worry disappeared.

“Alright, this must be it. Let’s go find your house now!”

Zhao Shuo looked enviously at the furnishings inside the house and sighed, “I hope the inside of my place looks like this too…”

Qi Rui thought of Zhao Shuo’s dilapidated-looking house and comforted him, “Maybe the production team is just playing tricks. The one that looks worst from the outside might actually be the best inside.”

Zhao Shuo gave Qi Rui a hopeless look, his face full of despair.

Seeing him like this, Qi Rui pulled him along and they left the courtyard.

Unfortunately, after circling around for a while, they still couldn’t find Zhao Shuo’s house.

“Oh no, don’t tell me it’s hidden away in some remote corner!” Qi Rui exclaimed.

By now, the other three had already found their accommodations — only Zhao Shuo’s was still nowhere to be found.

The two girls couldn’t help wanting to bribe the cameramen for some information, but they just smiled and stayed silent.

“Could it be up in the mountains?” someone guessed.

“No way!”

Zhao Shuo wailed — did that mean he would have to climb a mountain every time he left the house during this period?

With no other choice, the five of them headed up the mountain. They came across a hard dirt path leading upward. Seeing that even the road wasn’t properly paved, Zhao Shuo’s face immediately drooped even more.

The group trudged up the rough path, exhausted, and before long, they caught sight through the branches of a hidden house — Zhao Shuo’s room.

“We finally found it! Oh my god, it really is up on the mountain!”

At this moment, Zhao Shuo had completely lost the desire to explore. He let out a desolate sigh — how could his luck be this terrible?

Xu Mingyan, however, was very curious about his room. She took the lead and pushed the door open. After seeing the inside, she couldn’t help exclaiming, “The production team really pulled a prank here!”

“What? What’s wrong?”

Zhao Shuo stopped wallowing in despair and, just as he had decided to bravely face his tragic fate, hearing Xu Mingyan’s exclamation made his heart race again.

Qi Rui hurriedly reassured him, “Come quickly! Your place is definitely the best one!”

Hearing this, Zhao Shuo rushed inside — only to find brand-new furniture and appliances everywhere. Overjoyed, he looked around even more carefully and even discovered bacon, sausages, drinks, and fruit neatly stocked in the refrigerator in the kitchen!

Zhao Shuo’s eyes widened in delight. Yu Fei, who had followed him in, couldn’t help feeling envious, “They even stocked up so much food! We didn’t have anything at all in ours!”

“No way?”

Qi Rui hadn’t looked closely after finding his own place earlier, so he really hadn’t noticed the food situation. Hearing this now, he felt a bit worried.

Zhang Yu glanced around, then walked out to the yard. Looking down towards the village at the foot of the mountain, he couldn’t help but marvel, “The view from up here is amazing.”

Hearing that, the others followed him outside.

At last, Zhao Shuo couldn’t hold back a laugh, “Haha! Heaven hasn’t abandoned me after all!”

Realizing it was getting late, the five hurried back to the village entrance.

Meanwhile, the five fathers were sitting leisurely in the shade, chatting relaxedly. In contrast, the five teenagers were exhausted, parched, and starving after walking for so long — instantly making them feel unfairly treated.

Seeing the boys’ expressions, the fathers grew a little guilty and quickly dispersed to comfort their kids.

“Here, have some water first.” Qi Sheng attentively handed a bottle of mineral water to his son.

“Dad, we checked earlier,” Qi Rui said after gulping down half a bottle of water and finally catching his breath. “Other than Zhao Shuo’s place, which has meat and veggies stocked up, only Yu Fei’s courtyard has some vegetables growing. The rest of us don’t have any food at all.”

Qi Sheng frowned. Did they have to complete tasks even just to eat? But it was already almost noon — what tasks could they possibly do now?

Sure enough, once all five families had settled their luggage, a staff member came over to inform them to gather.

They arrived at a courtyard that turned out to be where some of the staff were staying.

Seeing two full tables laden with freshly cooked, delicious dishes, the teenagers were both shocked and thrilled.

“Wow! Looks like I wronged the production team — they are pretty considerate after all!”

The boys excitedly circled around the tables, just as the team leader walked out with a big smile.

“Good afternoon, everyone. All the food here was specially made by a renowned local chef hired by the production team. You can each choose a few dishes to take back and eat. Feel free to pick what you like.”

Qi Sheng raised an eyebrow — choose a few dishes to take back? That meant they could pick whatever they wanted and however much? Somehow, it didn’t seem that simple.

Thinking back to what his son had said — that only Zhao Shuo’s house had food, and apart from Yu Fei’s homegrown vegetables, the other three had nothing — it was clear there must be a catch.

The other adults also more or less sensed that things weren’t so straightforward. Unfortunately, the hungry teenagers had no time to think about it.

“Dad, what would you like to eat? We’ll pick a few dishes,” Qi Rui asked.

Qi Sheng’s frown slowly eased. Seeing the kid was really hungry, he didn’t lay his suspicions bare. Instead, he said, “Just pick what you want to eat, but only enough for the two of us. Don’t waste food.”

Qi Rui didn’t think much of it. He figured his dad was just trying to maintain the virtue of frugality in front of the cameras. He headed over and began circling the meat dishes.

Zhao Shuo, equally excited, also rushed in. The two girls were just as thrilled, completely forgetting to moderate their portions. Only Zhang Yu sensed something was off, but seeing his father stay silent, he too joined the dish-picking frenzy.

Luckily, the kids were aware they were on camera. Even if someone usually tended to be extravagant, this time they each only picked two or three dishes — enough to eat but not overly excessive. Still, the dishes they picked were all hearty meat dishes. Qi Rui even chose a spicy grilled fish!

Qi Sheng instinctively rubbed his nose. He had a strong feeling this meal wasn’t going to be eaten so easily.

After selecting their dishes and packing them into the containers provided by the production team, the team leader, still smiling, came over to interview the five fathers.

“Mr. Qi, do you have anything to say about the dishes Xiao Rui picked?”

Qi Sheng immediately spotted the hidden malice behind the team leader’s smile and cooperated by saying, “Are you sure you haven’t planned some extra twists for this segment?”

The team leader laughed brightly. “Mr. Qi is indeed sharp! You’ll find out this afternoon.”

Then he went to interview Zhang Yunzhi. Besides Qi Rui picking a big dish, Zhang Yu had chosen three hefty dishes as well. It couldn’t be helped — teenage boys eat a lot, especially during growth spurts. Zhang Yu’s huge appetite meant he could definitely finish three portions.

Zhang Yunzhi felt a headache coming but kept a calm face, saying, “Being able to eat a full meal is good enough.”

At this point, the teenagers finally realized they had fallen into a trap and were a little stunned. Did this mean they would have to pay a price for these dishes?

Feeling uneasy, Zhang Yu raised his hand and asked, “Uncle Liu, can we choose again?”

Team leader Liu Jun shook his head, “Once chosen, no take-backs!”

The five teenagers immediately howled in despair, feeling deeply that they had walked right into the production team’s trap.

Qi Sheng stepped forward, took his son’s packed food container, and comforted him with a smile, “Don’t worry about what comes next — at least enjoy a good meal first.”

Qi Rui glanced at the food box, then at his companions, and felt that his dad was right. Might as well eat well first before worrying about anything else!