Chapter 40: The Show Begins

Unlike the previous children who began their performances right away, Xiao Yao, holding his erhu, did not rush to start after stepping onto the stage. Instead, he bowed to the audience first and spoke into the microphone: "Hello, grandpas, grandmas, uncles, and aunts. My name is Bayi, and today I am going to play the erhu for you. The piece is called *Flowing Waves*. I didn't know how to play the erhu before; I only learned it this afternoon from Grandpa Hua Junyi here in the village. Please forgive me if I don't play well. Oh, wait, don't forgive me—please forgive Grandpa Hua for teaching me poorly."

Xiao Yao's playful closing remark instantly electrified the scene. Several old men sitting around Hua Junyi, who was also present in the audience, directly slapped Hua Junyi on the shoulder and said, "Old Hua, is the kid up there really the student you just taught today?"

Xiao Yao sat down on the prepared stool, rested the erhu on his leg, and the audience gradually quieted down.

To Hua Junyi's ears, the rendition of *Flowing Waves* could only be considered competent and standard, but considering Xiao Yao's age and the amount of time he had practiced, it was already a remarkably good performance.

Since even Hua Junyi thought it was very good, the villagers in the audience naturally gave him plenty of face by cheering loudly. Amidst this chorus of applause, the guest performances, the entire schedule for the second day, and the second shooting trip all came to a successful conclusion. What remained was for the fathers to remove their makeup and return their costumes, take their children back to their respective accommodations to sleep, and head back home early the next morning.

Because Xiao Yao had accepted the erhu from Hua Junyi, Xiao Siqi, acting as a sensible parent, took Xiao Yao to visit Hua Junyi's home specially after the evening performance to express his gratitude. This also formally acknowledged that Xiao Yao had gained yet another teacher.

Another season of filming had concluded. Xiao Siqi and his son Xiao Yao once again enjoyed a half-month period of leisure. And right on this weekend, the show began airing on Xiangnan Satellite TV.

Thanks to the success of the first two seasons, the program had already cultivated a loyal fan base. There was no need to worry about the show's popularity; the crucial factor was whether its content could captivate the viewers and continuously maintain public interest.

One week before the broadcast, Xiangnan Satellite TV had gradually released introductions for the five families participating in this season. The children naturally had no prior fame, so everyone's attention was focused on the fathers' identities, their status, and the children's physical appearances. Before the show started, the father who attracted the most attention was Zhou Lixing. After all, the other four fathers were from the entertainment industry, which audiences saw frequently, whereas sports stars participating in reality shows were generally quite rare and novel. Among the other four fathers, Xiao Siqi received the least attention; compared to actors, singers had far fewer opportunities to appear on television, so a relatively lower recognition was normal. Among the children, Xiao Yao also sparked the least interest. Of the five kids, Sun Tingting was the only girl, and her well-behaved and gentle demeanor was very endearing. Zhao Rui was the oldest, looked the fittest, and had a cool persona that was very appealing. Zhou Zhihao was the youngest, and his slightly plump figure paired with adorable, cute expressions made him very lovable. Lin Qisan, as the sole mixed-race child, captured countless fans the moment his handsome face appeared. By comparison, Xiao Yao, whose external traits were not top-tier among the children, looked rather ordinary. While his figure was well-proportioned, he lacked the sturdy build of Zhao Rui; and though his face was quite handsome, he could not rival the striking beauty of the mixed-race little heartthrob Lin Qisan. As for competing with Zhou Zhihao in cuteness? In his profile, he completely lacked the cute and goofy attribute.

Yet, a family where neither the father nor the child was initially favored rapidly became a heavily discussed trending topic right after the first episode aired. Of course, those who had participated in the filming and witnessed Xiao Yao's performance all felt this was entirely deserved.

In the opening secret room segment of the show, the director had edited the footage of Xiao Siqi and his son. Since they were the last group of guests to arrive at the secret room, their entry was broadcast last in sequence. After they entered the secret room and Xiao Siqi lay down on the sofa, the program directly cut to the scenes of other families staying in their respective secret rooms. Perhaps to save face for the production team, all the scenes where Xiao Yao reminded Xiao Siqi right upon entering that the door was locked, that there were hidden cameras in the room, and that a key was concealed somewhere, were edited out. When the broadcast cut to their secret room, it directly showed Xiao Siqi pulling back a decorative painting, discovering a camera, and making a funny face at it.

This arrangement led the vast majority of viewers in front of their televisions to believe that Xiao Siqi was the one who first discovered the hidden cameras in the room and realized they were locked in a secret room. It diminished Xiao Yao's contribution while elevating Xiao Siqi's image of intelligence. Xiao Siqi was somewhat displeased with this editing, but Xiao Yao was indifferent. His purpose in joining the show was to boost Xiao Siqi's popularity anyway, so the production team's editing actually fulfilled his wish. Besides, there were many things he did later on that the production team couldn't possibly edit out, so he might as well let Xiao Siqi take all the credit here.

"Damn, this Xiao Siqi is amazing. He's practically Sherlock Holmes." By the time the TV program reached this point, people online had already started posting comments.

The scenes on television cycled through the five families once more. When it switched back to Xiao Siqi and his son's room, compared to the mundane chatter between fathers and children in other households, Xiao Siqi's very first sentence stunned the audience once again. Because the cut went straight to Xiao Siqi asking Xiao Yao, "Shall we look for the key or just kick the door open?"

"Wow, this Xiao Siqi is so cool and so manly! If he had really kicked the door open, would the production team have cried?" New comments immediately popped up online.

Unfortunately, Xiao Yao rejected Xiao Siqi's request to kick the door down under the pretext of maintaining their image, suggesting instead that they search for the key, leaving the viewers who were anticipating Xiao Siqi's heroic door-kicking pose utterly disappointed.

"What a pity. Kicking the door open would have been so cool—we missed it."

"Totally. If I were Bayi, I'd tell my dad to kick the door down. How cool is that? Who cares about image? But then again, this kid is quite sensible."

Next, Xiao Siqi's special skill of finding the key purely by listening to sound gave those viewers who regretted missing the door-kicking scene another wave of small excitement.

"Is this for real? Can anyone really be that awesome? Knowing where the key is hidden in which guitar just by listening to the sound? Wasn't this deliberately staged with the production team tipping him off beforehand?"

"I can responsibly tell the person above that this should be real. A friend of mine is a professional piano tuner, and he once found a fallen screw from the corner of a piano just by listening to the instrument's sound. Guitars are smaller than pianos, and keys are larger than screws. Since Xiao Siqi is a professional musician, I think it's real."

The program continued. After Xiao Siqi and his son went outside, they conveniently helped Zhao Tao and his son get out of their secret room as well. Observing the slightly irritable behavior of Zhao Tao, the production team smoothly let the other three groups of guests out of their secret rooms as well, and all five groups headed by vehicle toward the shooting location for this episode.

In the first segment, Xiao Siqi successfully captured the audience's attention, leaving a very solid impression of high intelligence in their minds.

随后在互相介绍之后没收孩子们的零食和玩具的环节，肖遥的表现让肖思齐的形象更进一步提升了。首先是肖遥是五个孩子里面唯一没有带任何零食和玩具的，这让大家对肖思齐的家庭教育纷纷赞叹。然后就是赵瑞对肖遥背的小乐器的质疑，逼着肖遥现场演奏了一段。这里倒是没有人质疑这一段的真假，毕竟是现场演奏，节目组不至于如此没品的搞后期配音，而且还有其余四个爸爸在场，中间还有现场的一些环境声音，想作假也做不了。

As a creative musician, Xiao Siqi's son Xiao Yao played a musical piece—specifically Xiao Siqi's biggest hit song, *The Most Beautiful*. Naturally, this was taught by Xiao Siqi, and this segment once again successfully helped Xiao Siqi win over a multitude of fans.

However, during the subsequent puzzle competition, Xiao Yao giving up their house, and even their later efforts to tidy up the dilapidated house, forced the viewers to waver in their previous judgments.

During the puzzle assembly, all the other fathers stood by and helped out. Although they weren't allowed to touch the pieces, their mouths were exceptionally busy. Meanwhile, Xiao Siqi didn't even look at his son's puzzle; he looked utterly relaxed and simply enjoyed watching the other fathers stress out and panic. Xiao Yao, on the other hand, entirely on his own, discovered the picture on the bottom of the box lid and completed the entire puzzle process by himself.

The later house assignment was even more bizarre. Although there was no spoken dialogue, the camera faithfully recorded the expressions and wordless exchanges between the father and son: Xiao Siqi shook his head, while Xiao Yao nodded. It was obvious that the house-swapping idea was entirely Xiao Yao's own, and Xiao Siqi actually seemed quite reluctant. In the end, it was Xiao Yao who insisted on going to swap houses.

If what happened before was merely eccentric, then facing the dilapidated house that was too painful for viewers to bear, Xiao Siqi was utterly at his wit's end on television—and yet, it turned out to be Xiao Yao directing Xiao Siqi to work and clean up the house. The tasks Xiao Siqi performed were purely physical labor requiring brute force, whereas skilled carpentry work like nailing wooden boards was actually done by this five-and-a-half-year-old child.

By the time the show reached this point, many astonished voices had already appeared online. The most representative comment was the following: "This show, *Where Are We Going, Dad?*, is supposed to be about fathers taking their kids on a reality show. But with Xiao Siqi and his son, it's obviously the child Bayi leading his dad Xiao Siqi around on the show. Poor Bayi."

"You can tell that although Xiao Siqi is an absolute powerhouse in his musical profession and has a very high IQ, his ability to take care of himself in daily life must be a huge problem. Didn't you see him smash his hand with the hammer when he was nailing the window? That was a real smash—his fingers turned purple; that wasn't makeup. As the old saying goes, children of poor families take charge early. Although Xiao Siqi's family isn't poor, having ended up with a dad like this, Bayi has no choice but to be formidable. Otherwise, how could this family even survive?" There were also analytical experts online.

"While that's true, and the analysis above makes some sense, this Xiao Bayi is just too incredible! Never mind celebrity children; how many kids from ordinary poor families can do carpentry at age five? Nailing boards to patch a hole is one thing, but look—he can even fix tables and chairs. Are you sure his dad is a singer and not a carpenter? Yet clearly, he can play the instrument too."

"Didn't you hear him tell the director that he learned it from the prop master when he was hanging around the crew with his grandfather? It's not strange at all for a prop master to know carpentry, right? Not only does the kid have a good dad, but he also has a good grandfather. I checked—his grandfather is the famous performing artist Xiao Chengjun, a real veteran actor."

"Tsk~ His grandfather is an actor, not a carpenter. How many children visiting the set go and learn carpentry from the prop master? He's just a freak of nature."

"Who says he's a genius? I'd call him a monster."