Chapter Eighteen: The Dilapidated House

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Among the houses, only House No. 5 was located at the edge of the entire village, while the other four houses were all near the village center. So after receiving their lunch from the ancestral hall, Xiao Siqi and his son parted ways with the other families.

Along the way, Xiao Yao was in relatively good spirits. Although walking on the bumpy dirt paths through the fields was somewhat tiring, it was still much easier than the pure mountain trails he had hiked many times in his previous life as Li Hao when camping in the mountains. Moreover, Li Hao’s grandmother had lived in the countryside, and he had spent a considerable amount of time there as a child, so he was quite fond of such an environment. In contrast, Xiao Siqi was somewhat less accustomed. Having grown up in Yanjing, a large city, and never having been to the countryside, Xiao Siqi walked cautiously, stepping gingerly on the dirt road, often needing Xiao Yao to stop and wait for him.

After more than ten minutes, the father and son finally arrived at their residence. The other four houses were rooms borrowed from local villagers, essentially sharing living space with local families, but only Xiao Siqi and his son’s House No. 5 was unoccupied, appearing abandoned.

Although abandoned, the house’s sturdiness was undeniable. Even though the walls were riddled with holes and drafts blew through, there was absolutely no danger of collapse. Naturally, the production team would never let them live in a dangerous house.

They first took a thorough look inside and out. The bedroom was relatively better, having been tidied up in advance by the production team. The bedding on the large wooden double bed was new. Although the bed looked quite old, it seemed sturdy enough. On the outer wooden wall of the bedroom, two fist-sized holes had appeared due to wood rot. The only window had two shutters; one was half fallen, hanging loosely on the frame, but the glass panes were all intact. The ceiling was decent, without holes, so there was no worry about leaks when it rained.

The living room was in worse shape. The ceiling had holes, and the floor was cluttered with various debris, uneven and pitted.

The kitchen was quite unique. There was no stove or hearth—only a pit dug into the ground with some extinguished charcoal ashes inside. Around it were thick logs, blackened from smoke. Nearby was a large rectangular wooden table nailed together, on which the production team had placed oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, cutting boards, knives, and other kitchen utensils. In one corner stood a large water jar full of fresh water, apparently enough for the father and son’s two-day needs with some to spare.

What worried Xiao Siqi most was the toilet. It was just a large dirt pit covered by two wooden planks with a gap in the middle, surrounded by wooden boards on all sides. One side served as a door, and there was nothing overhead—completely open to the sky.

After the inspection, Xiao Siqi’s face turned green as he quietly asked Xiao Yao, “Can we back out? Can we go and switch houses?”

Xiao Yao rolled his eyes and bluntly said, “Eat first. After we finish, let’s tidy up quickly. It’s still livable. It’s only two days, just endure it.”

Then Xiao Yao, feeling somewhat dissatisfied himself, slowly approached the cameraman who was filming them continuously and pointed at the camera, saying, “Wu Zhankui, you’re too much! You actually found a place like this?”

The entire crew burst into laughter. In the previous two seasons, some guests had complained about poor conditions, but mostly it was the fathers complaining or directing their children to scold Wu Zhankui. Of course, these were mostly in jest, and the production team didn’t mind airing them. Wu Zhankui had earned a reputation as the villain in everyone’s eyes. Unexpectedly, so soon after starting, Xiao Yao openly confronted Wu Zhankui. The crew had no qualms about faithfully recording it all. They just filmed, leaving the editing and decisions about what to broadcast to the post-production team.

Just then, Xiao Siqi, chewing on a corncob, suddenly stuck his head into the frame and nodded repeatedly, saying, “Exactly, I also strongly condemn Wu Zhankui!”

Father and son were standing by the house door finishing lunch, seemingly expressing their dissatisfaction with the dilapidated state of the house assigned by Wu Zhankui.

But after expressing their discontent, they still had to face this broken-down house.

“What now?” Xiao Siqi asked Xiao Yao.

“First, move all those things out of the living room. Clear it out. I can’t move the big stuff, so you move it out onto the open ground by the door. Let’s see what we can use,” Xiao Yao instructed.

Xiao Siqi went into the living room to start moving things. Xiao Yao rummaged through a pile of miscellaneous items stacked on the vacant space behind the house and found a broken bamboo basket. Dragging it to the doorway, he collected the corncobs and other trash left on the ground after lunch and put them in the basket. Looking up at the camera, he said, “Littering isn’t a good habit. You should clean up after eating.”

The crew, including Chen Min, were speechless—this variety show vibe was off the charts.

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Xiao Yao paid no attention to the rest and dragged the basket filled with trash to a corner of the open space in front of the house before turning back inside.

The crew followed immediately, but Xiao Yao did not help Xiao Siqi in the living room; instead, he entered a small storage room adjacent to the house. This separated the father and son, but there was only one camera. The cameraman quickly asked Chen Min, “Chen Jie, who should I film?”

Chen Min glanced at Xiao Siqi moving items out from the living room and decisively said, “Follow Bayi.”

After walking around, Xiao Yao had already figured things out. Most of the clutter in the living room was broken furniture and large pieces of wood, while the real tools were mostly in this small storage room. The house had long been without electricity. For filming purposes, the production team had temporarily installed wires and lights in the bedroom, kitchen, and living room. However, they did not expect Xiao Yao to enter this cluttered small room, which had no light. Fortunately, though windowless, the room had several holes in the ceiling, allowing sunlight to filter in so he could barely see inside. This room was probably the original owner’s tool shed, filled with hoes, shovels, pickaxes, and other farm tools. Yet these farming tools were not what Xiao Yao needed.

He rummaged through a pile of wooden boards and pulled out a wooden toolbox nailed together, inside which were scattered hammers, pliers, wrenches, screwdrivers, and a bunch of nails.

Xiao Yao placed the toolbox aside, selected a few thinner wooden boards from the woodpile, and carried them along with the toolbox straight to the bedroom.

Standing by the wooden wall with several holes, he put down the boards and toolbox, then picked up nails and a hammer.

Chen Min was startled to see Xiao Yao take up the hammer and called out, “Bayi, what are you doing? Put that down! You can’t just play with a hammer.”

“Play?” Xiao Yao looked up at Chen Min curiously. “I’m not playing.”

Hearing Chen Min’s shout, Xiao Siqi also came in and, seeing Xiao Yao holding the hammer, asked in confusion, “Bayi, what are you doing?”

“I’m going to patch up these holes in the wall. Otherwise, what if mice or something come in at night?” Xiao Yao replied.

“Patch the wall? Can you do that?” Xiao Siqi asked.

Xiao Yao nodded. “Just nail a piece of wood over the hole. It’s not difficult.”

“Oh,” Xiao Siqi nodded and turned to leave.

Chen Min, worried, grabbed Xiao Siqi’s arm and said, “You’re letting such a young kid nail wood? What if he hits his hand? Has he done this before?”

Xiao Siqi shrugged indifferently. “I don’t know if he has, but Bayi is more reliable than me. Usually, if he thinks he can do something, he can do it well. For example, with the pile of junk in the living room, if he thinks he can’t move something, he won’t try; he’ll ask me to move it. I’ve never nailed wood before either. If we both do this, I guarantee I’m more likely to hit my hand than Bayi.” Saying so, Xiao Siqi went back out to continue his work.

What a peculiar pair of father and son! Chen Min sighed and then pointed to Liu Shanxing, saying to Xiao Yao, “Bayi, how about Uncle Liu helps you nail it? Normally, our crew can’t interfere or assist guests so openly, but I’m really worried you might hurt your hand.”

“No, I can do it,” Xiao Yao said, continuing his work. He picked up a board and lightly hammered two nails into two corners, just enough to make the nails stand upright on the board without going through. Then, holding the board with his left hand over the hole, he used the hammer in his right hand to drive the nails through the board into the wooden wall. After the board was fixed to the wall, he hammered in two more nails to secure the other corners.

Watching Xiao Yao’s skilled movements, Chen Min finally relaxed but her curiosity was piqued. She asked, “Bayi, you know carpentry too? Who taught you?”

“I learned from a prop master on a film crew,” Xiao Yao casually replied, picking up a second board. “I can even make a stool out of wood.”

“A film crew? You’ve acted before?” Chen Min was surprised. Was Xiao Yao a child actor? It wasn’t in his profile.

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“No, but my grandfather is an actor. When he filmed, I went to the set to play. Watching the prop master making props was fun, so I pestered him to teach me for a while,” Xiao Yao explained.

“Oh, Xiao Siqi’s father, Xiao Chengru, is a very famous veteran actor—that’s how it is,” Chen Min suddenly understood but was still somewhat surprised.

By the time Xiao Siqi finished clearing the junk from the living room and entered the bedroom, Xiao Yao had already patched the holes in the walls. The holes were not very high, so at nearly 1.2 meters tall, Xiao Yao could manage them easily. But the half-hanging broken window was out of his reach.

“The holes are all patched, but what about the window?” Xiao Siqi knew Xiao Yao couldn’t reach the window and that he would have to handle it himself. But he had no idea how; he had to see what Xiao Yao thought.

Xiao Yao examined the window. It was half fallen because the pivot connecting the window to the frame was missing. Such a window part was unlikely to be found in this house, and even if they had one, neither he nor Xiao Siqi could install it.

“This window can’t be fixed. Just lift the fallen part and push it back into the frame. To prevent the other window from pulling it down again when opened, nail a wooden strip to secure this broken shutter to the wall, fixing it in place,” Xiao Yao advised.

“Okay.” Xiao Siqi pushed the window up, picked up a wooden strip from the ground, and grabbed the hammer.

“Be careful with your hand!”

“Ah!”

Before Xiao Yao could finish his warning, Xiao Siqi let out a scream—he had indeed hit his own finger with the hammer.

Chen Min felt as if a thousand alpacas had stampeded through her heart. Xiao Siqi, were you determined to prove your earlier point? Indeed, you were more likely to hurt yourself than Xiao Yao.

Fortunately, Xiao Siqi hadn’t used much force; it only hurt briefly with no injury. In the end, he managed to nail the window shut.

With the bedroom done, Xiao Yao carried the toolbox to the open space in front of the house and began picking through the pile of broken furniture. He finally selected a table and four small stools to make a set. However, the furniture was either missing legs or had legs broken short. Fortunately, there was plenty of wood nearby, so Xiao Yao picked three logs about the thickness of three fingers, sawed them into sections, and nailed them onto the chosen table and stools to repair the legs.

“It looks terrible,” Xiao Yao shook his head, looking at his handiwork and muttering, “But there’s no other way. We’ll just have to make do.”

The table and stools were indeed unsightly, with legs of uneven shapes and thicknesses. Some stool legs were even made by nailing two sticks together. The set was uneven on the floor, but the table, while wobbly, wouldn’t topple, and the stools, though shaky, were safe enough to sit on with care.

The bedroom and kitchen had been cleaned by the production team beforehand. There was no need to sweep the earthen floor of the living room. They just brushed away the cobwebs on the walls, dusted the beams, and moved the refurbished table and stools inside and wiped them down. The Xiao family father and son washed up, changed into clean clothes, and collapsed exhausted onto the bed.