Serve as Contrast Team in a ‘Dad with Baby’ Show

As night falls, a food street next to the main road in City C gradually becomes lively with young men, women, and gangster-types sitting on small tables by the roadside, drinking alcohol and eating skewers.

About a dozen young children wander back and forth between tables and customers with QR codes hanging on their chests.1

Lin Momo is also one of them.

The difference is that there is no QR code sign on her chest.

‘Gululu’.

An empty beer can is kicked towards Lin Momo’s feet.

“Hey! Beggar, go away.”

“It’s smelly and dirty, I’ve lost my appetite.”

“I’m talking about you! Didn’t you hear me?”

A half sausage is thrown at Lin Momo’s feet this time.

The young woman who threw the sausage says impatiently, “Okay, I gave you food too, now go to another table.”

Lin Momo doesn’t move.

At this time, a beer can flies towards Lin Momo, and with a ‘ping’, it hits her on the head directly.

The remaining beer in the can runs down Lin Momo’s forehead and into her eyes, causing burning pain.

Lin Momo doesn’t say anything. She raises her hand, rubs her eyes with her sleeve and wipes off the beer on her face, but she stays by the table of several yellow-haired youths, unwilling to leave.

The yellow-haired youths are now angry.

“F*ck, are you an idiot? Do you understand when I tell you to scram?” 

“Get out! Get out!”

The empty beer cans are thrown at Lin Momo.

From time to time, some people would laugh and curse jokingly.

When they have thrown away all the empty beer cans and are about to pick up the glass wine bottle next to it and throw it at Lin Momo, the two young women on the table try to persuade them to calm down, and those thugs give up.

Seeing that it’s almost done, Lin Momo squats on the ground and picks up all the empty beer cans scattered around her. She puts them into the woven bag behind her.

After picking them up, Lin Momo bows to those yellow-haired youths, says ‘thank you’, then turns and runs away.

The thin figure with the big woven bag on her back quickly disappear into the night.

……

On the way back, Lin Momo sells the scraps behind her and buys two buns.

“Are your grandma’s legs still not healed?” the owner of the bun shop asks with concern.

“Not yet,” Lin Momo shakes her head.

Lin Momo has no father and no mother; she grew up with her grandmother. The two usually rely on subsidies from the neighborhood committee and sell scraps for a living.

Grandma is not really her grandma.

Lin Momo was abandoned by her biological parents and thrown in a nearby flea market. The grandmother picked her up when she was picking up scraps.

Last month, grandma broke her leg and has not yet recovered. The job of picking and selling scraps fell to Lin Momo alone.

……

Returning home, Lin Momo walks down the dim, narrow corridor of the old building. Just as she is about to open the door, the commotion inside the room alerts her.

“This old fool still dares to lie to me. Don’t think I haven’t heard of it. During the first two months of the holiday, the community gave out relief money! Where did you hide it? Tell me! If you don’t tell me, don’t blame me for being rude!”

It’s Zhang Xiaoqiang’s voice.

Lin Momo carefully withdraws her hand from the doorknob, runs downstairs and hides the 10 yuan she earned from the sale of scrap materials before running back up.

When Lin Momo opens the door, the room is in a mess: grandma has fallen to the ground, and Zhang Xiaoqiang is towering in front of her.

Zhang Xiaoqiang is Liu Cuifang’s own son. He doesn’t have a serious job and he spends his days in dubious places. When he has no money, he comes back to harass Liu Cuifang for it.

…….

Inside the room, Liu Cuifang sees Lin Momo come back and quickly waves her hand to signal her to leave.

Unfortunately, Zhang Xiaoqiang has already spotted Lin Momo at the door.

“Even if you want to run, can you still run away?” Zhang Xiaoqiang sneers. “This old thing is so nervous—you gave the money to this little bastard, didn’t you?” As soon as he finishes speaking, Zhang Xiaoqiang steps forward and drags Lin Momo inside the house, rummaging through the little girl’s clothes regardless of her struggles.

After a thorough search, nothing is found except for half a yuan.

Unreconciled, Zhang Xiaoqiang pulls the woven bag behind Lin Momo to see what’s in it.

Still nothing inside.

“What about the rest of the money? Where is it hidden?!”

“No, that’s all there is,” Lin Momo says, pointing to the half yuan in Zhang Xiaoqiang’s hand.

“Sh*t! How could there be only this?!”

Lin Momo shakes her head and says nothing.

Liu Cuifang laments from the side, “I usually only have a little money every month, and the relief money for the holidays is only 50. I broke my leg before and spent money on medical treatment and medicine. How can I still have money now?”  

Zhang Xiaoqiang seems to believe this; he spits and curses, “Why would you still have the nerve to spend money on medical treatment, you old fool! You’d be better off dying cleanly.”

Zhang Xiaoqiang is in a foul mood now that he wasn’t able to get any of the money that he came here for. When he glances at Lin Momo, Zhang Xiaoqiang thinks of something. He narrows his eyes, suddenly having an idea.

Seeing Zhang Xiaoqiang approaching Lin Momo with a strange expression, Liu Cuifang becomes nervous, and a bad premonition strikes her heart. “Zhang Xiaoqiang, what are you going to do?”

“Not doing anything. I just suddenly thought of a good thing.” Zhang Xiaoqiang smiles, the twist of his lips is vicious. 

Zhang Xiaoqiang walks up to Lin Momo, bends down, and smiles—his movements are full of purpose and his expression despicable. “I hadn’t paid attention before, but this little bastard is growing more and more juicy.

“How about it, go out with Older Brother Qiang, and I will take you to eat delicious food and drink spicy drinks.” 

While talking, Zhang Xiaoqiang raises his hand and suddenly slaps Lin Momo’s face.

“You dare!” Liu Cuifang struggles to crawl over and grabs Zhang Xiaoqiang’s leg. “Zhang Xiaoqiang, you villain, if you dare to do anything to her, I’ll become a ghost and I won’t let you go!”

“Senile woman, I won’t tell you how much money you’ve wasted by keeping this little bitch by your side. But now is the time for her to repay our family. Don’t stop me.”

Zhang Xiaoqiang kicks Liu Cuifang away and he tries to drag Lin Momo away.

At this moment, a conversation can be heard in the corridor outside the house.

“Auntie.”

“Who is your auntie!”

“Big sister.”

“Who is your big sister!”

“Little big sister, does Liu Cuifang live here?”

“Are you looking for Aunt Liu?”

“Yes.”

“There, go on. The third room in the middle—the one that’s creating a racket right now.”

“Thank you.” 

……

Zhang Xiaoqiang stops when he hears someone looking for Liu Cuifang, a vigilant look on his face.

Liu Cuifang doesn’t know many people, and the only ones who would come here to look for her are people from the neighborhood committee or the police.

If it’s the police, he would be in trouble.

Hearing footsteps approaching, Zhang Xiaoqiang reluctantly throws Lin Momo away.

“I’ll come back in two days. If you can’t get money by then, don’t blame me for being rude!” Having said his harsh words, Zhang Xiaoqiang snatches the buns from Lin Momo’s hand and turns to leave.

When he passes the people in the corridor, Zhang Xiaoqiang lowers his head and quickens his pace.

……

On the other side, Chen Yu sees the room with its door wide open.

Taking a closer look, the whole house has only one room, which is indeed very small. The lights in the room are dim, and there is the musty smell of an old house. At this time, the house seems to have been ransacked, exhibiting disrepair and chaos.

Inside the house is a grandmother and a child. The old one has just been helped up and settled on an old door panel that seems to have been converted to a bed, and the young one is cleaning up the debris of furniture and broken dishes on the floor.

Chen Yu looks at the girl carefully.

Although the girl’s hair is messy and covers half of her face, and the other half of her face is red and swollen from a beating, it can be vaguely seen that the girl’s facial features are really similar to their Brother Cheng.

Chen Yu’s eyes light up, and he knocks on the open door. “Excuse me, is this Liu Cuifang’s home?”

I am Liu Cuifang, comrade. Are you from the neighborhood committee or the police station?”

“Neither,” Chen Yu walks in and hands over his business card. But thinking that Liu Cuifang might be illiterate, he explains further, “I am the manager of Starstone Entertainment Company. My surname is Chen, and here is my card.” 

“What do you need from here” Liu Cuifang looks at Chen Yu puzzled.

“It’s like this: Orange Channel and iWO Video have jointly created a reality show. Our company is looking for a child to participate with our artist partner. I’m here today to represent the company in sending an invitation to your granddaughter…”

After explaining the purpose of coming, Chen Yu takes out an agreement from the document bag. “This is a draft agreement. If you can’t understand it, I can tell you directly.” 

Lin Momo shakes her head, takes the agreement from the other party, and reads the contents out loud to Liu Cuifang.

……

This is a reality show called “Living with Dad”. The program has a total of eight episodes, shown once a week. It mainly shows the daily life of celebrity dads according to the different family backgrounds that they will draw each week. The program team will arrange occupations for the father and send father and child to the residence allocated to them. The fathers each earn money to support their child through the temporary occupation they have drawn.

What Lin Momo has to do under the agreement is to form a ‘father-daughter team’ with the star named ‘Lin Cheng’ and participate in the recording of the reality show. During the process, she must keep the content of the program and the content of this agreement confidential.

If all goes well, she will be paid 20,000 yuan after the filming is completed.

 

Footnotes

They weren’t selling kids! The kids are helping out the food stalls; they have QR codes on their chests so that the customers can scan it and pay for food ordered.