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

“Are dad and baby nervous?” Before Lin Cheng drew lots, the director asked them.

Lin Momo nodded. She was nervous but also a bit curious about the unknown life of the week ahead.

With wide, unblinking eyes, Lin Momo watched Lin Cheng put his hand inside the lottery box, and her whole body tensed up.

… …

This kid was still too naive. 

Off to the side, Lin Cheng caught a glimpse of Lin Momo—who seemed to be tense with every cell in her little body—and sighed inwardly.

As expected, Lin Cheng only found one card inside the box.

Obviously, the so-called ‘lottery’ was just a script for the program. The other groups of stars and their agents have likely already selected the best ‘family background’ to showcase their own teams, and the one in the box was what was leftover.

Lin Cheng took out the card expressionlessly, and opened it under Lin Momo’s expectant eyes.

There were 6 pieces of information on the card:

[Home address]: Building 3, Huayuan Road, Huayang District, Substation District (an old-fashioned residential building built in the last century, with a building area of ​​36 square meters, one bedroom and one living room, public bathroom and kitchen on the first floor).

[Dad’s Occupation]: Canned LPG deliveryman.

[Family income]: 45,000 yuan.

[Means of transportation]: Bus.

[Financial status]: The family deposit is 60,000 yuan (regular, unusable); debts due to a previous accident is 3,000 yuan, and the monthly repayments are 500 yuan; social security payment is about 400 yuan per month; rent is 1,500 yuan per month; the total family monthly hard expenditure is 2,400 yuan (converted to 600 yuan/week).

[Disposable funds this week]: 200 yuan.

——

“What did Dad get?” the director asked curiously.

“LPG delivery man.” Lin Momo replied.

Lin Cheng turned the card over and showed it to the camera and the director.

The director smiled and said to the ‘father and daughter’, “So Dad is going to become a canned liquefied petroleum gas delivery man, delivering LPG for cooking to every household!” 

After a pause, the she directly moved on. “Alright, I will now briefly explain to you in more detail about the information on the card.” 

“The ‘disposable funds’ is equivalent to your living expenses for the next week. According to the card you have drawn, this is 200 yuan in total. You can budget and spend this as you see fit. As for the hard expenses, Dad needs to hand over 600 yuan to the program team after a week of work. This is also your first week’s task.” 

“Is Teacher Lin confident enough to complete the task?”

“We’ll do our best,” Lin Cheng replied.

……

After they finished recording this section and turned off all the video equipment, the director took out another sheaf of paper marked ‘Explanation’ and handed it to Lin Cheng. 

“The recording time of the program will be the day after tomorrow morning. At that time, the vehicle of the program group will directly send the father and child to the residence marked on the card. This should have been mentioned in the contract you signed before.” 

“But in addition to the broadcast of regular program episodes, the production format has somewhat been adjusted—there will now be a livestreaming of your ‘life’ all week.”

The edited episodes will be broadcast online at 12:00 noon every Sunday after a week of recording.

In addition, the program team also opened a VIP livestream channel on the iWO video app, which provides 24-hour live streaming of the lives of fathers and children in the program through VIP user interactive on-demand1.

“In order to ensure the authenticity of the entire recording process and the genuineness of the experience, once the recording starts, it will not be paused in the middle. During the process, the director team will not provide you with any advice or help. All decisions are up to you—unless under special circumstances or it’s an emergency. Otherwise all other problems will need to be resolved by you.” 

“If there’s no problem with the terms, please sign this supplementary contract.”

The director handed a supplementary contract to Lin Cheng.

After receiving the agreement, Lin Cheng quickly read it, and after confirming that it was correct, he signed his signature at the end.

——

After the director and her team left, Chen Yu’s face completely collapsed.

“The program team is too much!” Chen Yu cursed in dissatisfaction.

Whether it was the ‘sensitive’ question during the interview portion, or the adjustment of the broadcast format from edited episodes to include 24-hour livestreaming, none of these were mentioned in the agreement they had previously signed.

This was obviously with the intention of using Lin Cheng as a stepping stone and sacrificial lamb of the show!

Compared to Chen Yu’s agitation, Lin Cheng seemed much calmer—as if he had expected all this

“Otherwise, why do you think such a cheap and good thing will land on my doorstep?” Lin Cheng retorted.

Hearing this, Chen Yu was silent: it seems that this is indeed the truth.

——

Different from the concerned adults, Lin Momo, who was packing up, seemed to be in a particularly good mood.

She was squatting before her open suitcase, and when Lin Cheng and Chen Yu approached, they could hear her happily chirping to herself but couldn’t hear the exact words clearly. 

“What are you so happy about?” Lin Cheng asked casually.

Lin Momo stopped and looked up at Lin Cheng, “Oh, it’s nothing.” Then Lin Momo smiled at Lin Cheng again and said, “I just think you’re really lucky, Dad.”

Hearing Lin Momo’s words from the heart:

Lin Cheng: “…”

Chen Yu: “?!”

It seems Lin Momo was the only one in the world who thought that Lin Cheng was lucky to have such a ‘family background’.

Turns out that I—like Lin Momo—was too naive. My mind was going ‘how will they deal with the permutations of 5 teams drawing lots when the teams are not together and, obviously, one team cannot draw what another team has already picked…’

Footnotes

It’s a paid subscription platform providing ‘livestreaming’ but also ‘on-demand’ viewing—which is like Netflix where things are pre-recorded and you can pause or replay. I’m not familiar with this platform—or if it even exists in real life—but the netizens in the story do watch recorded replays of the livestream during the weekend breaks.