Chapter 38: The Performance

"Uh..." Chen Yang was left speechless by Xiao Yao's words. He turned his head to look at Xiao Siqi.

Xiao Siqi spread his hands and laughed, "Don't look at me. If he doesn't want to do something, I won't force him."

"Well, alright then. That's a real pity." Chen Yang gave up with a sigh of regret.

Off to the side, Lin Shaohua and Zhou Lixing had overheard the entire exchange. Lin Shaohua shook his head and said, "Although we all feel your son is a monster, I didn't expect him to be this monstrous. My apologies for using the word 'monster,' but I truly have no other term to describe him; 'genius' simply doesn't carry enough weight."

"Haha," Xiao Siqi laughed, completely unbothered. What Lin Shaohua did not know was that as early as the first room in the first segment of the first episode, he had already called his own son a monster.

Chen Yang was a man who knew how to let things go; since Xiao Yao had clearly indicated he did not want to join the basketball school, he did not press the issue, turning instead to talk to the other fathers about different topics. Realizing the matter was settled, Xiao Yao went back to play in the mud with the other children. He intended to try and see if he could craft a cup, a bowl, or some other vessel out of the clay. Zhou Lixing had said that as long as the shape was decent, the owner of the pottery workshop would help fire it.

When dinner was ready, the eleven of them gathered in a large circle. With the adults laughing and the children playing, everyone had a very pleasant dinner.

After finishing, Chen Yang bid them farewell and left. The five families returned to their respective accommodations early to rest and recharge for the next day's filming.

The following morning, the production team thoughtfully prepared breakfast for everyone. The fathers were not only relieved that they didn't have to scramble for food, but also somewhat worried; the fact that the production team was providing breakfast likely meant the morning's tasks wouldn't be easy, which was why they wanted everyone to be well-fed.

As expected, the morning consisted of a single competition event, but this competition included five distinct stages. The first stage required the children to wear their fathers' shoes and run fifty meters to reach them, then help their fathers put the shoes on properly, with the fathers not allowed to assist. The second stage was "sock bowling," where fathers had to knock down ten beverage bottles in one go using a sock. The third stage involved the fathers running while carrying their child and a large winter melon at the same time. The fourth stage was a "sedan chair" relay, where the child sat in a sedan chair carried by their father and a local villager to a designated spot. The fifth stage took place in the village pond, where the fathers had to ride wooden tubs to a floating platform in the middle of the pond to retrieve ingredients for wrapping zongzi (sticky rice dumplings).

Of the five stages, only the first allowed Xiao Yao to show his skills; in the other four, he was either background or a prop.

In the first stage of helping their fathers with their shoes, Xiao Yao took the lead. He was the fastest to get Xiao Siqi's shoes on, and then he was pulled along by Xiao Siqi as they ran to the next location. However, they were overtaken by Zhao Tao and his son at the second stage, as Xiao Siqi took three tries to knock down the bottles, while Zhao Tao succeeded on his first attempt.

The third stage, running while holding a winter melon and a child, was a nightmare for Xiao Siqi. With a melon in one arm and his child in the other, Xiao Siqi could barely take a few steps before having to stop and adjust the weight. In this stage, Zhou Lixing overtook him.

During the fourth stage, the sedan chair relay, Sun Zhihao surged from behind, catching up and passing Xiao Siqi just before the finish line.

The fifth stage, wrapping zongzi on the floating platform, began with all five fathers starting at the same time. According to the order in which they finished the previous four stages, they chose their rowing tools. The first-place finisher, Zhao Tao, chose a spatula; second-place Zhou Lixing chose a frying spoon; third-place Sun Zhihao chose a soup ladle; fourth-place Xiao Siqi ended up with a colander; and the fifth-place finisher, Lin Shaohua, was left in the miserable position of having only a small spoon.

A wooden tub could hold one adult, and buoyancy was not an issue, but the balance required to maneuver it was not simple. Two of the five men fell into the water on the way to the floating platform, and things weren't much easier once they arrived. The platform was a round, tub-like structure over a meter high, covered in zongzi-wrapping materials. The fathers couldn't climb up, so they had to stand precariously in their tubs, leaning their upper bodies onto the platform, trying to wrap the zongzi while maintaining their balance. The difficulty was significant, to say the least.

The first four stages took the fathers about half an hour to complete, but the final stage took nearly an hour. In this stage, the "dexterous" Sun Zhihao successfully took first place, while Xiao Siqi, having dropped one position in every single stage, managed to fall from first place in the opening event to last place by the end.

Xiao Yao was speechless regarding these results. The only consolation was that there was no penalty for this competition. Everyone’s lunch consisted of the zongzi the fathers had wrapped during the fifth stage. After the competition concluded, they took their zongzi back to prepare lunch, marking the end of the morning's activities. Chen Lei notified everyone to go home for lunch and rest until three o'clock, when they would gather at the village's Jude Hall for the afternoon's activities.

Xiao Siqi and his son returned to their lodging and were faced with the dilemma of six strangely shaped zongzi. Fortunately, their host appeared as a savior. The show's rules stated they had to eat the zongzi they wrapped, but it didn't say they had to cook them themselves. The host kindly helped Xiao Siqi steam the six zongzi. No matter how they looked, they were at least enough to fill their stomachs.

At three in the afternoon, everyone arrived at the Jude Hall, where Xiao Yao and Lin Qisan had found Chen Yang the previous day. Because of the filming, there were no other people there at this time, making it a stark contrast to the bustle of the day before.

"The fathers' task," Chen Lei announced directly, "is to work together to prepare a performance for the villagers tonight. There are no restrictions on the theme or content. The requirement is that the five of you must handle everything, from directing to acting to stage management. This includes the costumes; you must prepare those yourselves as well."

"We have to prepare the costumes too?" Sun Zhihao exclaimed. He was a professional actor and had also worked as a director and screenwriter, so putting together a play wasn't too difficult—three of the five were professional actors, and he was confident in staging a play—but the costumes were a bit of a challenge. Their own clothes were only suitable for modern urban dramas, which wouldn't be appropriate for the villagers.

"Uncle Sun, the village has an opera troupe; we can borrow costumes from them," Xiao Yao raised his hand and said. "I saw people here performing opera yesterday."

"OK, we'll go find the opera troupe to borrow some." Sun Zhihao felt relieved. He looked at Xiao Yao and asked Chen Lei, "Is it just us five performing? Do the children need to participate?"

"The children are not participating in your performance; they have a separate task," Chen Lei said with a smile. "The children's task is also to perform, but there are no specific requirements for the format of their acts. They can do individual programs or perform in groups. They should just do whatever they are best at."

"Dad, what should I perform?" The children all turned to their fathers for help.

Early education was highly valued these days, and because of their families' resources, many celebrity children were multi-talented from a young age. However, in a place like this, conditions were extremely limited. For example, Sun Tingting’s best talent was piano, but there was no piano in the village for her to play.

"Let me think," Zhao Tao said, offering suggestions to his son first. "Skateboarding? No. Horseback riding? That's not a stage performance, and there are no horses here. How about martial arts? Can you go on stage and perform a routine?"

"Ba Yi, are you performing martial arts too?" Zhao Rui's first reaction was to ask Xiao Yao.

Seeing Xiao Yao shake his head with a smile, Zhao Rui nodded in agreement.

"Alright, then you go practice for a while. Don't forget your moves when you get on stage. Dad won't be able to help you this afternoon," Zhao Tao instructed.

"Ba Yi, it seems like you didn't bring your ukulele this time, but since your dad is a singer, you should be pretty good at singing, too," Sun Zhihao said. "Duo'er only knows how to play the piano, and there isn't one here. Why don't you and Duo'er sing a song together? How about a children's duet?"

Xiao Yao continued to shake his head; he intended to perform solo.

Zhou Lixing and Lin Shaohua were in a bind. Zhou Zhihao was young, and the only thing he could show off was boxing, but there was no ring, and boxing was a contact sport—he couldn't perform it alone. Lin Qisan's situation was even worse; he didn't even know how to box, and he wasn't skilled at singing or dancing.

"Do Qisan and Haohao have enough clothes with them? Why don't you two perform a fashion show?" Xiao Yao suggested. "For the people in the village, watching children do a fashion show should be quite novel." After all, they were both celebrity children; even if they didn't have professional walks, they could at least carry the attitude.

"What about you?" Xiao Siqi asked with concern.

"Don't worry about me. I have plenty of talents, so putting together a program is simple. If all else fails, I'll go up there and do some calligraphy. But that's my backup plan. Let me see if there's anything else I can perform," Xiao Yao said confidently.

"Alright," Chen Lei clapped his hands. "Everyone has their plans, right? Fathers can give the children ideas, but you cannot help them rehearse. Now, fathers, go prepare your programs, and children, go prepare yours. Everyone, head off separately."

The fathers reluctantly went to find the village opera troupe to borrow costumes and rehearse, while the children also went their separate ways to prepare their acts. Xiao Yao thought for a moment and then walked toward one of the village houses.

Whenever Xiao Siqi and Xiao Yao acted separately, Chen Min usually chose to follow Xiao Yao.

"Ba Yi, where are you going?" Chen Min asked.

"To find a master and learn a craft," Xiao Yao replied with a smile.

"Learn a craft?" Chen Min asked curiously. "Is it for the performance tonight? Are you planning to learn it on the spot? Will you have enough time?"

"We'll see," Xiao Yao said nonchalantly. "If there isn't enough time, I'll just bring a table up and do some calligraphy. I've got a backup act anyway."

As part of the filming crew for Xiao Siqi and his son, Chen Min had seen the calligraphy Xiao Yao had written at the art supply shop; it would be perfectly fine as a performance. He was just curious what Xiao Yao intended to learn on the fly.