Upon hearing that even her granddaughter could sign up for "Project Hope," the old lady happily ran to help Jiang Cancan pack her luggage. Her eyesight was poor, and she couldn't do many things, but she had lived in this house all her life and was extremely familiar with every corner of the house. While her granddaughter was busy packing clothes (there weren't actually many pieces), the old lady busied herself digging out the peanuts, walnuts, dried sweet potatoes, and other things hidden in the house and packing them into plastic bags.
Their family doesn't have anything valuable, just these local specialties. I heard that kids these days like to give each other snacks, but they can't afford potato chips or sausages, so they can only give these.
Before leaving, Jiang Baichuan was still worried about the old man living alone with his granddaughter. He wanted to persuade the old man to take his granddaughter to school, even if it was just to sweep the school grounds.
However, Grandma Jiang refused.
"I still have two sheep and a dozen chickens at home, I can't leave!" The old lady was quite optimistic, and she even arranged a lot of work for herself. "I also need to cut some bamboo to keep them shaded. After selling these two sheep at the end of the year, I'll also need to hire someone to help repair the roof!"
Jiang Baichuan had no choice but to write down his phone number on several sheets and stick them in different places in the Jiang family home. Jiang Yueyue knew how to use a mobile phone, so if anything happened at home, she could borrow a phone from a neighbor to call him.
Chapter 51
"They just abandoned the elderly and children in the mountains like that, and nobody in your village went to sue that man for abandonment?" Wei Sheng was still indignant on the way back.
"Don't worry, bro, I got photos of Can Can's dad. Once the show airs, netizens will definitely dig them up. I'll pretend to be an insider, change my identity, and release these videos and photos! Hehe~" The cameraman sneered.
Reporting illegal activities is everyone's responsibility. Those who dare to mistreat the nation's future generations will face legal consequences! The cameraman stated that he was merely fulfilling his legal duty as a citizen and absolutely did not abuse his power for personal gain!
"Well done!" Wei Sheng gave a thumbs up, then thought for a moment, took out his phone, and transferred 1,000 yuan to his assistant, Xiao Bai.
The cameraman really wanted to buy a new iron pot for Jiang Cancan's family, so Wei Sheng asked Xiaobai to go with him and also buy some rice, flour, oil, instant noodles, sausages, and other things to deliver over.
"Don't buy anything too expensive, the more practical the better!"
"The old man's eyesight isn't good, and Jiang Yueyue is too young. Try to buy some instant noodles or something that's easy to cook. Oh, and buy some milk powder and apples too," Wei Sheng instructed Xiaobai.
"I'll drive, and carry two more bags of rice up!" The driver also decided to help.
After two trips, they had almost finished filming the footage. Since they had nothing to do in the afternoon, Jiang Baichuan asked Jiang Cancan to go with Wei Sheng and listen to what she needed to pay attention to when participating in the program. He personally went to the chicken coop, caught a big rooster, and asked Jiang Xiaoman to help kill it and cook a delicious meal for Jiang Cancan.
"Not bad, like cures like! Eat a fighting chicken to boost your combat power and try to fight your way to the finals!" Jiang Xiaoman teased him.
"Oh no! We won't make it to the finals!" Assistant Xiaobai ran back, clutching his phone, and shoved the screen at his boss, Wei Sheng, his face pale. "We just received a message from the production team that requires underage contestants to be accompanied by at least one parent and to have a leave slip from their school, the kind with a stamp!"
"What? Parents accompanying?"
"Yes, Jiang Cancan's grandma is almost blind, and her younger sister is even younger than her. How can she keep her company?"
Both of them were getting frustrated. Left with no other option, Wei Sheng had to bite the bullet and go to the kitchen where Jiang Baichuan was tending the fire. He explained the station's latest requirement to Jiang Baichuan.
"The station has no choice. In recent years, the Law on the Protection of Minors has been under too much scrutiny. It doesn't encourage teenagers to participate in talent shows in the first place. Our show was only able to pass the review by skirting the law and using the theme of singing patriotic songs... But now the production team insists that at least one parent must accompany the child. Does Jiang Cancan have any other relatives?"
Don't count on her father. Even if he does come, they're afraid he'll take the opportunity to sell Jiang Cancan for a good price.
“You’ve all seen her situation. Forget about her family, you can’t even find a single living person in the nearby mountains…” Jiang Baichuan said with difficulty.
"Wait, big star, does your production team have any special requirements regarding relatives? For example, do they have to be immediate family members?" Jiang Xiaoman suddenly asked.
"Let me look..." This time, Wei Sheng dared not make any more promises. He hurriedly asked his assistant, Xiao Bai, to find the supplementary conditions newly sent by the production team. He looked at this item carefully and finally breathed a sigh of relief. "It doesn't say that it must be an immediate family member."
Unexpectedly, the production team was quite thoughtful. They probably considered that if any contestant was an orphan or had other circumstances and did not have their parents to accompany them, other relatives or familiar elders would also be acceptable.
"That's settled then!" Jiang Xiaoman clapped her hands happily. "Anyway, I'm not busy in the second half of the year, so I might as well accompany Cancan on the trip. But I also have other things to do at home. I might have to come home to handle some things while Cancan is at school. Will your production team reimburse the parents' travel expenses and living expenses?"
"Brother, wait a minute! I'll call and ask right away!" Assistant Xiaobai was practically crying tears of joy. He wasn't crying for the production team, but purely for Jiang Cancan.
That was a close call! This girl almost missed the competition!
Xiao Bai went out to make a phone call and quickly ran back excitedly.
"It'll be reimbursed! I just asked the production manager, and they just thought of this issue too. They're urgently applying for travel expenses for the contestants' families. They secretly told me that it should be based on the actual number of days they participated in the recording, with a daily travel allowance of about five to eight hundred... Hehe! Our station isn't a top-tier station after all, so our budget is limited, very limited, haha~" As expected of an assistant to a "permanent artist," Xiao Bai still managed to save face for the station even at this point.
Their sense of collective honor is truly unmatched.
"That's enough, I'll go! I have several classmates from J province too," Jiang Xiaoman said, slapping her thigh.
"Okay~ then I'll trouble you to make a few trips back and forth. It would be best if you could make it to the finals, otherwise you won't be able to make many trips." Before the competition even started, Jiang Baichuan, the principal father, was already feeling conflicted. He was reluctant to let his child be away from home for so long, but he also wanted his child to make it all the way to the finals. He was quite conflicted.
"Wait a minute! Speaking of which, what's the relationship between Xiaoman and Cancan? Oh, right, you two both have the surname Jiang, are you really related?" Wei Sheng couldn't help but ask.
"Actually, we're not that close relatives. Otherwise, I would have known about Can Can's family situation a long time ago." Jiang Xiaoman scratched her head and said embarrassedly, "I heard it from my dad. He said that in the old days, our Jiang family lived in the valley above the river. It was a big village. Later, the country wanted to build a reservoir, so they called on the people to relocate. Our whole village was separated. You know how it is with relatives. If you don't keep in touch for two generations, you gradually have less and less contact with each other."
"But in terms of seniority, I should call Can Can 'little aunt,' hehe~ If this were back in the old days, she would have given me a red envelope during the Chinese New Year."
"Give out red envelopes? Dream on!" Jiang Baichuan glared at him.
"That's good~ Then I'll report your name." Wei Sheng secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
"Go ahead and report it! But you'll have to wait for me for half a day tomorrow. I need to go back and tell my dad how many days I'll be staying this time."
"It'll probably take a few more days, at least a week, for someone like Can Can, who was handpicked by our director..." Wei Sheng said, a smile involuntarily creeping onto his face, as if Jiang Can Can were his own daughter. That smug, proud air about her...tsk~
Jiang Xiaoman is going away for a week, and the two student teachers are the most heartbroken—they'll have to eat all sorts of boiled dishes cooked by Principal Jiang again. Next are the construction workers Jiang Youliang hired to build the house; of course, they don't know how terrible Jiang Youliang's cooking is yet. By the time they find out, Jiang Xiaoman will probably already be at J Province TV station…
Because he had to wait for Jiang Xiaoman, Wei Sheng finally got his wish and fed the pigs raised at the school. Jiang Cancan even took him there. His assistant, Xiaobai, threatened to kill himself if he was photographed doing something inappropriate while feeding the pigs.
“Actually, the pigsty at our school isn’t dirty at all. Everyone takes turns cleaning it every day. Sweeping the pigsty is much easier than carrying manure, so we all vie to do it.” Jiang Cancan led Wei Sheng to the pigsty like a thief. It wasn’t feeding time yet, but she went to the storage room and took out a few sweet potatoes that didn’t look very good. These were leftovers after Principal Dad sold all the sweet potatoes, and they were meant to be fed to the pigs.
"Can Can, why do I hear so many students in the village calling your Principal Jiang 'Dad'? Is this a local custom?" Wei Sheng asked Jiang Can Can while feeding the pigs.
He quite enjoyed chatting with the child. It wasn't that he was childish; it was mainly because Jiang Cancan possessed a maturity and composure completely out of character for her age. Perhaps it was because she had no one to rely on at home growing up, which forced her to grow up quickly at such a young age.
"No, it's because our parents are all working away from home, and many of our grandparents can't write. Sometimes the school sends out notices or test papers that require parents to sign, but we can't find any parents who can sign, so we take them to the principal to sign."
"Later everyone said that it didn't matter that Mom and Dad weren't home, since the principal was like a father to us, so we called him Principal Dad." Jiang Cancan's innocent tone revealed the helplessness and optimism of all left-behind children in the mountains.
Wei Sheng lay silently by the pigpen for a while before raising his hand to gently rub Jiang Cancan's dry hair and said softly, "It really doesn't matter. When we get to the TV station, just call me brother, and I'll see who dares to bully my sister!"
"No way! If she calls you brother, then I'll have to call you uncle?" Jiang Xiaoman returned at some point, carrying a large basket that was almost half a person's height on her back.
"Hmph~ So many people want to call me brother, but I don't even bother with them." Wei Sheng rolled his eyes and didn't insist any further.
He acted impulsively just now. But if you think about it carefully, if Jiang Cancan, a contestant, calls him "guest brother" as soon as they meet, people will inevitably think she's a nepotism hire, which is actually bad for her future development.
At that moment, Wei Sheng had no idea that the real nepotism beneficiary of the program had already arrived at the production team.
Jiang Xiaoman went home for a while. Telling his father didn't take much time, but packing took a lot of time. He brought his own change of clothes, equipment for recording videos, as well as local honey, his own mountain green tea, dried sweet potatoes, pickles, chili sauce, and other things.
"No, Xiaoman, our TV station has a canteen, it's two stories high. We'll give you temporary meal cards, and there are also boxed lunches provided by the crew when we're filming on location. There's no need to bring even the pickled vegetables, is there?"
"Sigh~ You big stars, always talking about dieting, of course you don't know how important side dishes are to us mere mortals." Jiang Xiaoman sighed, opening her travel bag and shoving all the bottles and jars she'd carried down the mountain into it until it almost burst. Then she zipped it up tightly, sighed, and patted the bulging bag.
"Based on my four years of university experience, eating out occasionally is indeed a rare treat, but after a while, I still miss the taste of home!"
"You brought pickled vegetables to college?" Wei Sheng looked at him in disbelief.
“How can bringing so little food be enough? I pickle it all myself!” Jiang Xiaoman said proudly. “I worked part-time in the school cafeteria during my freshman year. The cafeteria ladies all liked me and often shared the leftover vegetables from the kitchen with me. So I bought a few pickling jars and made pickles in my dorm.”
"Didn't your dorm manager throw away your kimchi jar?" Wei Sheng looked at him with a complicated expression.
“The dorm supervisor wouldn’t throw it away. He keeps asking me to buy kimchi, saying that his kimchi isn’t as good as mine.” Jiang Xiaoman raised her chin slightly and patted her travel bag. “Anyway, you absolutely mustn’t eat my kimchi, otherwise I’m afraid you’ll eat too much and gain weight. Your assistant Xiaobai will be furious with me.”
That's human nature. If Jiang Xiaoman hadn't reminded him, Wei Sheng would never have eaten kimchi, a dish meant to accompany rice. But after she mentioned it, Wei Sheng actually wanted to try it: "You're just bragging! You can't possibly make it better than Principal Jiang's?"
Chapter 52
"Mmm~ It smells so good! This wild mushroom sauce is so delicious, I'm so happy!"
In the dormitory, Jiang Xiaoman, with Jiang Cancan, and Wei Sheng, with his assistant Xiaobai, took advantage of the cameraman's absence today to secretly get steamed buns and braised pork from the cafeteria. Using the method Jiang Xiaoman taught them, they broke the steamed buns open, spread a layer of spicy sauce made from wild mushrooms, added a piece of braised pork, and finally added some pickled vegetables. The taste was absolutely amazing!
Jiang Baichuan's kimchi was already delicious enough, but his nephew's kimchi was even better! After eating and drinking his fill, Wei Sheng finally believed that Jiang Xiaoman could sell kimchi in the university dormitory. With this taste, even as the dormitory manager, he couldn't resist buying some!
"Brother, have you heard? It seems that TV Queen Ma Yuenan's daughter is also participating in the show this time." After finishing their meal, Assistant Xiaobai couldn't help but gossip.
Upon returning home, Xiao Bai was immediately struck by this terrible news, and her heart began to pound.
If it weren't for the halo of being the daughter of a TV Queen, he wouldn't be worried at all about Jiang Cancan being eliminated based on her individual abilities alone. But the problem is that their show starts voting from the audience after the auditions!
Jiang Cancan, an ordinary person who has never shown her face, how can she compete with the daughter of a TV Queen whose mother has tens of millions of fans? The other girl's fans can easily take first place by a wide margin with just one round of voting, okay?
"Best Actress? I remember this lady hasn't had a breakout role in almost ten years, right?" Wei Sheng sneered. "Besides, she has a Best Actress mother, and we have the director as our mentor."
"Come on! Can Can, I'll take you to see the director." Wiping his mouth, Wei Sheng stood up.
Director Chen Shu's eyes lit up when he saw Jiang Cancan. The child was even prettier in person than in the videos, with a cute round face, big eyes, and although her skin was slightly dark, it made her look exceptionally simple and natural. Most importantly—
"Our Cancan is truly blessed with natural talent! Your rendition of 'Daylily' was so beautiful! Listen to your uncle, sing this song for the preliminary round!"
Compared to the assistant Xiaobai's gloomy mood, the director was not worried at all that the actress's daughter would bring any so-called behind-the-scenes manipulation to the show.
Whether it's a shady deal or not, isn't that decided by the station? The Best Actress isn't even one of the station's cronies. On the contrary, it's Xiao Wei, who brought Jiang Cancan along. Don't be fooled by the online haters who mock him for relying on connections within the system to get resources from the TV station. In reality, they all wish their idols could enjoy the same benefits. He's the station's true cronies.
Besides, how can an excellent program be without the (entertainment industry drama that audiences love)?
As a director with a conscience, Chen Shu would not allow the screenwriter to intentionally design or unscrupulously edit such catfight scenes in the script. However, if they deliberately stumble upon them, then he, as the director, cannot be blamed.
No matter how many fans a TV Queen has, can they compare to the number of casual viewers? Can they compare to the combined fans of her rivals?
To put it bluntly, if the other party had been playing the game seriously, he wouldn't have maliciously edited the footage to cause trouble. But he immediately and blatantly revealed his "connected" status, calling paparazzi to shoot "behind-the-scenes" footage and releasing press releases, and even proactively contacting the station's leadership to arrange a dinner... This actress's behavior is simply too ugly. It's obvious that she wants her daughter to be the champion directly.
Chen Shu doesn't care if she dies! He has a daughter of his own, whom he cherishes dearly, and he can't stand the way this actress treats her own daughter like a cash cow. Sending her daughter, who's not even fourteen yet, to this kind of adult dinner party—who is she trying to disgust?
"Uncle Director, here, have this!" While the adults were socializing, Jiang Cancan opened her schoolbag at some point, took out several plastic bags with difficulty, and carefully handed them to Chen Shu.
"What is this?" Chen Shu asked curiously, bending down as she looked at the plastic bag, which had clearly been washed repeatedly with water.
"These are peanuts my grandma grew, and these are walnuts we picked up ourselves from the mountain, dried sweet potatoes we made ourselves, and this is wild honey. Grandma said she wanted to thank you for recommending me to participate in this competition." Jiang Cancan carefully repeated what her grandma had said.
"Haha~ What a good kid! Okay, I'll accept it then, I'll treat you to milk tea later!" Chen Shu reached out and took a few bags, carrying them all the way back to his office.
"Daddy!" A little girl in a princess dress rushed over and hugged Chen Shu's leg.
"Oh my sweet little girl~ Were you waiting long? Are you hungry?" Chen Shu put down her things and picked up her daughter with a smile on her face.
He and his wife married late, and they had their precious daughter when they were almost forty. They doted on her rotten. Today, his wife had a meeting, and the couple were worried about leaving their daughter at home with the nanny (after all, these days, there are many cases of nannies abusing children), so they simply brought their daughter to his workplace. Chen Shu is the chief director and has his own private office and assistant, so taking care of the child temporarily is no problem.
"I'm not hungry! Sister Qiqi bought me a strawberry cake."
"What's so great about strawberry cake? Daddy brought you some dried sweet potatoes." Chen Shu carried his daughter to the sofa and opened the bag of local specialties that Jiang Cancan had given him.
"Daddy~ This looks so dirty." The little girl moved around and quietly moved to the front of her favorite strawberry cake.
“Okay, you eat the cake, I’ll eat this.” Chen Shu opened the strawberry cake for her daughter, took a sweet potato chip and put it in her mouth, then started peeling peanuts.
The little girl had already picked up her spoon, but when she smelled her father peeling peanuts, her hand immediately stopped scooping out cake.
She'd never tried peanuts roasted in a large iron wok like this before; they smelled so good…
A moment later, the father and daughter snuggled together, happily sharing the roasted peanuts and dried sweet potatoes that Grandma Jiang had prepared. They couldn't eat the walnuts yet, as they didn't have the tools to crack them open. Feeling a bit thirsty after finishing the peanuts, Chen Shu noticed there was still honey in them, so he grabbed his and his daughter's cups and made two cups of honey water. He only added a tiny bit of honey to one cup, just enough for his daughter to taste. Otherwise, if she got cavities, wouldn't he, her own father, be the one heartbroken?