Part 2 of Chapter 52
Please Like Her 03 – Shang Lu cries even louder than the children
If one didn’t know that Shang Lu and Lin Yanyan were crying with the children, one would have thought that something huge had happened.
The surrounding children were all dumbfounded.
A few children who were originally crying stopped crying because their cries were not as loud as Shang Lu and Lin Yanyan’s, and they saw that everyone’s attention was drawn to the two of them, so they all stopped crying and felt bored.
Everyone looked at Shang Lu and Lin Yanyan, and for a moment, they became the center of this world.
One slightly older girl couldn’t stand it anymore and scolded another girl who was crying because she lost her candy : “Hey, don’t be so unreasonable. We agreed to bet the candies, don’t be a sore loser.”
Another boy also educated the first crying boy : “Yeah, I chipped in five packs of spicy snacks. What did I say? You only put in two packs. What’s there to cry about? Isn’t that embarrassing?”
These children spontaneously comforted each other, and one of them even took out a lollipop from his pocket, handed it to Shang Lu, who was still crying vigorously, and whispered, “Sister, don’t cry. I’ll give you the last one.”
[Hahaha, why do I feel like this child wanted to say, “Sister, don’t cry. I’m scared.”]
[The kids are actually consoling Shang Lu? It’s like they’re being forced to grow up quickly, hahaha.]
[Kids : I’m carrying responsibilities that I shouldn’t have at this age.]
[The ‘Contemporary Young People’s Education Philosophy Award’ given to : ‘Defeating Evil with Evil’]
Shang Lu looked at the children in front of her and felt that her goal had been achieved. She was about to wipe away her tears and announce the end of the performance.
However, the next moment, Lin Yanyan suddenly cried even louder, “I want it too! Why only give it to Lulu and not me? Did I cry badly? Wuwuwu…”
The children : “…”
But these children really didn’t have any more hidden candy. It was the program team that couldn’t bear it and took out their own money to buy Lin Yanyan a few lollipops, and only then was she satisfied.
Shang Lu had already stopped crying long ago and passed a tissue to Lin Yanyan.
Lin Yanyan wiped away her tears, then took out some powder from her pocket and touched up her own face, and patted Shang Lu’s face as well.
In short, they won decisively in the end.
Ye Lu watched from the side and, for the first time in his life, regretted not being an actor because he couldn’t join them and felt lonely.
Song Zeqian is rarely complimenting Lin Yanyan : “Your acting has improved, and you cried pretty well when you got into character.”
Lin Yanyan instantly widened her eyes and instinctively put on a smile, then switched to a haughty expression a second later: “You’re saying that? Of course, I’ve improved!”
This segment finally came to an end.
Everyone got back in the cars and returned to the original location where the recording was supposed to start.
[Is today’s recording just starting now? I’m feeling a bit dazed.]
[With all their distractions, it feels like it’s been going on for a while.]
[They’re only starting now, and I’m already tired from laughing, hahaha.]
[Program team, give it your best. If the behind-the-scenes footage of Shang Lu and Lin Yanyan competing with the kids isn’t good, I’ll look down on you!]
[The pressure is back on the program team!]
…
The staff began to introduce the village to them.
There were two villages here, an upper village and a lower village. They had entered the upper village, where the residents were relatively better off, with at least enough to eat. Most of the children, like the ones they had seen, even had some pocket money to buy snacks at the local store.
But their actual filming location for today was in the lower village, where conditions were relatively worse. Most parents there were working away from home, leaving the elderly to take care of their grandchildren. Life was more challenging for them.
They were about to walk to the lower village, but before they could set off, everyone had to hand over their luggage.
Except for essential clothing, each person could only keep three items they considered necessary for daily life, and everything else had to be handed over to the production team.
Lin Yanyan exclaimed, “Three items? Are you kidding me? My three suitcases can’t even hold that.”
However, after a cold refusal from the program team, she reluctantly began to select her items.
Lin Yanyan picked up a makeup bag and asked, “Can this count as one?”
The production team replied, “We count individual items inside.”
In the end, Lin Yanyan could only leave behind her eyeliner, lipstick, and a Polaroid camera.
Her reason was that this was her first time visiting the countryside, so she wanted to take many pictures to commemorate the experience.
The others were also busy choosing their items.
Song Zeqian took a camera out of his suitcase.
Shang Lu glanced at it and reminded, “We don’t need more cameras here.”
The cameramen : “!”
Song Zeqian: “!”
Makes sense.
So in the end, Song Zeqian just took a memory card and picked two other items.
Soon, everyone had made their selections as well.
After the inspection by the staff, everyone’s suitcases were considerably emptied.
Except for Lin Yanyan, because even her clothes could fill up an entire suitcase.
Everyone carried their luggage and followed the program team’s staff, setting out on the road to the next village.
The mountain road was rugged, and it became more desolate as they walked.
Over an hour passed, and they were still on the road.
Everyone was starting to feel tired. Even Ye Lu, who had initially seemed the most energetic and had led the group, began to yawn and gradually fell to second-to-last in the queue. Then, he tripped over a stone and ended up kneeling on the ground.
Shang Lu, who was walking at the back of the group, leisurely approached and extended a hand to him.
Ye Lu was somewhat surprised that Shang Lu had taken the initiative to help him. He gratefully took her hand.
Shang Lu exerted some effort to lift Ye Lu from the ground, then looked at the camera with a serious expression and said, “If one day, my dreams are damped by rain and storms, would you be willing to lend me a hand1?”
Someone in the barrage immediately picked up Shang Lu’s words.
[If one day, I’m unable to move forward, would you be willing to spend a warm afternoon with me2?]
[Hahaha, welcome everyone to watch <X-Change>!]
[How much longer do they have to walk? I’m tired even just watching them.]
[Lulu, in <X-Change>, they usually don’t have to walk this far, hahaha]
Lin Yanyan complained, “Is the distance between these two villages really this far?”
“Well, not really,” a staff member replied. “We deliberately took a longer route.”
Everyone : “???”
[We’re in the eighth episode, and the production team has started messing with us, right?]
[There’s a shorter route, but they deliberately took the longer one, and they’re even admitting it. Are they crazy, hahaha?]
Song Zeqian found it absurd, but he said, “At least you’re honest.”
The staff wiped sweat from their foreheads and looked at Shang Lu, saying, “We didn’t want to tell the truth, but Teacher Shang is just too observant.”
Even though they had deliberately arranged things, it was still unavoidable to pass through the same place again. At that time, Shang Lu asked the staff about it. After they brushed her off with the excuse that ‘all rural roads look the same,’ she turned to Lin Yanyan and asked for an eyeliner pencil.
And now, Shang Lu had already drawn a small map on the back of her hand with Lin Yanyan’s eyeliner pencil!
With this cue from the staff, the others finally started to pay attention to Shang Lu, who was at the back of the group.
Shang Lu just waved her hand, keeping her abilities low-key.
[Hahaha, I knew Shang Lu had been observing all along. She had spotted the issue a long time ago.]
[I also feel like these roads all look the same. If it were me, I would have been brushed off.]
[Shang Lu : I have a brain, do you guys?]
Because of this, the guests collectively protested, and finally, after ten minutes, they arrived at the house they were supposed to stay in.
It was a short, old house that seemed like it hadn’t been inhabited for many years, as if it would collapse with a strong gust of wind.
After the production team assured them that the house only looked a bit shabby but was still safe, everyone carried their luggage inside.
Inside, it wasn’t much better. The living room had almost no furniture, just a table and a few stools, making it look empty. The other rooms were the same, with nothing except for beds.
But the only advantage was that it was relatively clean, probably cleaned in advance.
The program team only gave them ten minutes to allocate rooms for a brief rest.
There are only three rooms here, each with one, two, and three beds.
They gave the single room to Jiang Jing, and Shang Lu and Lin Yanyan shared a double room, while the remaining boys stayed in the triple room.
- a line written by Mango TV (kinda like Netflix in China) on their Weibo to promote their broadcast of the fourteenth season of the variety show titled <X-Change>. It’s about teenagers from the city and the countryside swapping lives for about a week, and its main objective is to let these teenagers who has some problems (like the teenagers from the city are internet addicts, or the teenagers from the countryside has no hope for the future) to undergo some mental changes for the better. ↩︎
- continuation of Shang Lu’s line ↩︎