This actor has something

Chapter 440 The Little Princess and the Abacus Master

"Daqi, when are you coming back to Beijing? I'm in a hurry. I'm just waiting for you to come back so I can start preparing for the celebration banquet. You've taken the director and assistant director away, and with you, the lead actor, not here, I can't hold a celebration banquet even if I wanted to. If you ask me, why bother with variety shows? Just make a movie instead."

On the other end of the phone, Han Shanping's tone was full of complaints. The ups and downs and the return to the top had obviously not made Han Shanping more stable. On the contrary, he seemed to have bipolar disorder.

The old Han used to always smile with composure, no matter what. But now it's different. He gets angry at the slightest provocation, either laughing heartily like a monkey or cursing his subordinates with a sullen face. It seems that Han Shanping, who knows he's finally made it through, is starting to return to his true self.

He Daqi sighed. He had sighed more than usual today. He replied perfunctorily, "Chairman Han, Painted Skin hasn't finished yet. It's not necessary to hold a celebration banquet so early, is it? Don't forget you applied for an extension for Painted Skin. Even if it's held at the end of October, it won't be too late. Let's leave it at that for now. I'm really busy. Let's talk again when I have time. I'll hang up now."

Without giving Han Shanping time to react, she hung up the phone.

Looking at the two little ones staring at him expectantly, He Daqi felt quite melancholy.

"Dad, I don't want to sleep in this shabby house. I want to go home. It's all my brother's fault. He can't even play rock-paper-scissors properly and got last place. Now we have to live in this shabby house." The little girl was full of resentment, her pout so wide you could hang an oil lamp on her lips.

He Daqi wasn't in a hurry to comfort her; instead, he turned his head to look at another little darling.

My precious son gave me a bright smile. Even though he came in last place, he now seemed like he had just won the top prize.

"I let you lose a couple more times, but I didn't let you lose everything!" He Daqi said with a wry smile, patting his precious son's head.

"But you clearly told me to be more lenient and not to win against the other kids, so that we could film peacefully and properly. I finally managed to lose all of them."

Huanhuan feels very wronged because she didn't do anything wrong, and even did a great job, but now she doesn't get any praise.

"Alright, alright, it's all Dad's fault."

He Daqi couldn't help but sigh again.

Everything seemed fine at first, and things went smoothly, but when it came time to officially take the stage, a whole host of problems were discovered.

This variety show is meant to bring my two children into the public eye. If it's well-produced and gets high ratings, then my two children can openly be by my side and Vivian Chow's side in the future, instead of hiding them anymore.

Now the trouble is that He Daqi can't explain what a persona is to his two four-year-old children. Although his two kids are much smarter than other children their age because they took some health-enhancing pills, they are still children no matter how smart they are.

He Daqi couldn't imagine the audience's reaction after the variety show aired.

In less than a day of filming, the female editors had already given their two mischievous kids personas.

A spoiled and willful little princess, and her cunning older brother.

Holy crap! They're all villains!
He Daqi was thinking of just pausing the variety show. If it continued like this, even if he had Lu Yang edit it in a predictable way, he wouldn't be able to completely hide the temperaments of his two kids.

Moreover, now it's impossible not to film, not to mention the breach of contract fees for the other guests, the TV station is also in a difficult position to handle.

The rights to this lousy variety show have already been sold, and for a pretty high price. Four TV stations jointly bought the broadcasting rights. No matter how powerful He Daqi is, he can't afford to offend four satellite TV stations at the same time.

When they announced the creation of a variety show and the guest lineup, it immediately attracted a bunch of satellite TV stations to discuss cooperation. There were so many that four of them were quick-witted and directly joined forces to offer a high price to buy the rights. He Daqi was so happy at the time, but now he regrets it so much.

It's all Vivian Chow's fault!

If she hadn't spoiled her child, would she be in such a shameful situation now?
He Daqi was clever and quick-witted, and soon discovered the origin of all the bad things.

Yes! It's all Vivian Chow's fault!

With the culprit identified, He Daqi felt somewhat at ease, and his mood improved considerably.

He waved to signal the photographers to get ready to start, then chuckled and knelt down to comfort the little princess.

"Lele, didn't you promise your parents that you would do a good job filming and listen to your dad when you came here? Dad knows you're the best. Let's clean the room together and you won't sleep separately tonight. You can sleep with Dad."

"Really?" The little girl's eyes sparkled.

Upon seeing He Daqi nod with a smile, the little girl's expression immediately changed. She stopped giving He Daqi the cold shoulder, grabbed his hands and shook them, whimpering that she wanted to sleep next to him.

The other son was equally eager, subtly hinting to He Daqi that he was being exceptionally well-behaved today, obediently listening to He Daqi's words, and that he wanted to sleep close to He Daqi as well.

"Okay, okay, either way is fine. Dad will sleep in the middle, and you can each sleep on the left and right sides."

He Daqi smiled and got up, nodded to the cameraman, and seeing that he had started filming, he picked up a broom and dustpan and led the child into the house.

As soon as he entered the door, he cursed under his breath. Lu Yang was really something else. Even though the variety show script included a scene of cleaning the room, did they really have to make the guests sweep dust?

How did Lu Yang find this mud house? It looks like a dilapidated building, with windows covered with newspaper and no glass at all. This house would be perfect for Zhang Yimou, who was sent to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution, so he could reminisce about his youthful days.

Thinking of this, He Daqi looked speechlessly at his precious son, who was just as honest as Lu Yang. He had casually told him to win less, but his son had interpreted it as not winning at all.

"Huanhuan and Lele, come on, you two work together to clean up all the trash on the ground. Dad will clean up this earthen bed first."

He Daqi handed the tools in his hands to the two little ones. The older brother took the broom and the younger sister took the dustpan. He then taught them how to use them, and the two little ones excitedly started working.

Soon He Daqi strolled out the door. Don't ask why; just ask a primary school student who can't sweep to sweep the floor and you'll know.

After all, they are his own children. He Daqi would never cheat these two. Feeling that the photographer had taken enough footage, He Daqi quickly went inside and dragged his two precious darlings out.

The two little ones were quite excited, even coughing from the choking, but they were still happy to show off and let their dad know they were good children.

However, their bright little faces didn't last long before they fell apart, because He Daqi waved and called his bodyguards over. They came in and splashed water and wiped the tables. The seven or eight of them cleaned up very quickly, and all that was missing was to add another layer of putty to the mud walls.

Ugh! I got tricked by Dad again!
Huanhuan glared angrily at He Daqi.

……

……

He Daqi yawned and stretched. He hadn't slept well at all last night.

It was still a case of not considering things thoroughly enough. I've never lived in an earthen house before, but I'll learn my lesson after living in one.

Nothing much happens during the day, but things get a bit complicated at night.

The dim light, the drafty door, and the newspapers stuck to the window frame swaying back and forth in the wind made He Daqi feel uneasy. He didn't dare turn off the lights all night and didn't even know what time he went to sleep.

The art style is folk-themed; all that's missing is a woman in red knocking on the door to borrow something.

Thankfully, he had promised the two little ones that they would sleep together. Otherwise, if He Daqi had to sleep alone, he couldn't imagine whether he could have lasted even half an hour. He would probably have ended up carrying the bus back to the city overnight.

"This morning's task was for the children to borrow food from the villagers. They could borrow whatever the villagers were eating. From now on, our program will not provide any food; the children will have to get it themselves."

A group of listless guests stood languidly together, each with their own child in front of them. The village chief, who was now acting as the host, was loudly assigning tasks. The village chief was a young man who had been assigned to help alleviate poverty. Young people are quick-witted, and when Lu Yang first approached him, he was the most enthusiastic to agree.

"If any of you children have any questions, you can come and ask me, and I'll explain them to you in detail," Lu Yang said after the village chief finished speaking.

Upon hearing this, the group of children immediately surrounded Lu Yang and began chattering away, asking questions.

He Daqi yawned again, and seeing that there was nothing else to do, he nudged He Bing with his elbow: "Uncle, you didn't sleep well last night either? Little Charlie won every battle yesterday, didn't he arrange the best house for you?"

"Don't even mention it. Your younger brother is a light sleeper and has never slept on a kang (a heated brick bed). Yesterday, he made me tell him stories until midnight. In the end, he did fall asleep, but I was so energetic telling stories that I only dozed off for a little while in the early hours of the morning."

He Bing sounded dejected, his eyelids drooping, almost as much as Zhang Yimou next to him. If he weren't still in the background of the camera, he probably would have already gone to find a place to smoke.

Seeing that his uncle wasn't very talkative, He Daqi glanced around at the others and realized that they all looked like they hadn't eaten for three days, clearly indicating that none of them had slept well.

What He Daqi couldn't understand the most was Wang Feng. The old guy was yawning now, and the key point was that his leather jacket and pants were a bit too conspicuous. Everyone else was wearing t-shirts and felt hot. What was he planning to do with such an outfit? Was he cold because he had a cold?

The most impressive thing was that Wang Feng was standing next to Wu Mengda. Uncle Da was wearing a white sleeveless vest, shorts, and flip-flops, and he had somehow gotten hold of a large palm-leaf fan in his hand, which was a stark contrast to Wang Feng.

The palm-leaf fan swayed back and forth, and the more it swayed, the closer Wang Feng got to Uncle Da. No matter how He Daqi looked at it, he felt that Wang Feng was using the wind to cool off and taking advantage of Uncle Da's free breeze.

Sigh... these days, even getting a drink of the northwest wind requires borrowing a hand?
He Daqi sighed inwardly and secretly moved two steps to stand on the other side of Uncle Da. Sure enough, this palm-leaf fan was really useful. We should respect the wisdom of the ancients.

"Qizai, and this too... Ah Feng, right? Aren't you two hot?"

"It's alright, not too hot."

He Daqi responded cheerfully, and Wang Feng nodded in agreement.

"Can you move away from me if you're not hot? I'm so hot!" Uncle Da is only good-natured because of his age; otherwise, he would definitely have made a point of talking to these two idiots beside him. The northwest wind isn't something you can just keep going on and on.

Fortunately, the awkward atmosphere came and went quickly. Just two seconds after Uncle Da finished speaking, before He Daqi could even respond, the kids happily ran back.

Huanhuan and Lele were quite puzzled as to why their father had moved, but they didn't ask too many questions. They ran up to He Daqi and started chattering away.

He Daqi wrote the script for this variety show, so how could he not know the rules? He just listened to his two kids explain it to him with a smile because they seemed to be having a good time.

"So, we should go door to door and ask? If we find someone willing to give us food, then we should eat whatever they eat, right?"

"Yes!" X2
"Okay, let's go."

Seeing He Daqi nod, they jumped around happily. Children also have a competitive spirit. No one knows how Lu Yang persuaded them, but they were all very anxious and dragged their fathers to rush into the village, afraid that they would be too slow in begging for food.

Poor old Zhang and Uncle Da are almost sixty years old, but they were being dragged along by their sons like nimble woes. Zhang Yimou was a little better off, after all, he had done this kind of thing when he was young. It was just begging for food from fellow villagers, so he knew the ropes well!

Wu Mengda was in a difficult situation. His Mandarin wasn't very standard, and the problem was that his fellow villagers' Mandarin was even worse than his. After gesturing for a long time, they couldn't understand each other. In the end, the old lady probably saw that Uncle Da was a little too excited, so she shakily took out two yuan, patted Uncle Da's hand, and acted as if she understood everything.

The female editor and photographer following Uncle Da almost burst out laughing. In the end, they had to ask the village chief to step in and return the two yuan to the old lady. The old lady was quite old, and Uncle Da was afraid that if they went back and forth being polite, the old lady might be pushed to the ground again, which would be a disaster. He would have gained another mother while filming a variety show.

While the other guests were being dragged along by their own kids, He Daqi lazily pulled his two little rascals back, telling them not to run too fast.

"Dad, hurry up! The other kids have already run to several houses!"

"That's it!"

He Daqi was too lazy to explain, nor could he explain, since the cameras were on and the variety show had a script, and it had been arranged in advance which five families in the village would provide breakfast.

He Daqi simply didn't know which five companies Lu Yang had specifically contacted, but that wasn't a problem for him. He was the referee, and he made the rules.

At this moment, He Daqi was wandering around, looking for something. They had already passed several houses, and the two children couldn't wait to drag He Daqi inside, but He Daqi pulled them back.

Finally, He Daqi's eyes lit up; he had found his ideal target.

The village is full of duck farmers, so it's really not easy to find a chicken farmer. He Daqi had heard chickens crowing at dawn, and he had been thinking about it ever since.

"Hello, grandpas and grandmas, have you eaten yet?"

He Daqi's fluent local dialect greatly surprised the photographers and editors who were filming him.

"You're the people who came to film the show, right? The village chief told us, young man, what kind of help do you need?"

"Oh my, these two children are so adorable! You asked if we've had breakfast? No, we haven't. I'll make some right now, you can eat with us. Come on, call her Auntie."

Clearly, the older generation has different priorities.

"Turn off the camera first, I need to talk to the elderly folks about something."

He Daqi turned and waved to the cameraman, then took out a red bill and walked towards the middle-aged woman who was happily pinching her two children, saying:
"Auntie, I think it would be great if you had stewed chicken for breakfast today."

(End of this chapter)