Delicate Beauty in the Palm : Chapter 80 - Parenting Variety Show (Part 3)
Chapter 80: Parenting Variety Show (Part 3)
That night, they moved into Room No. 4. Although the amenities were far worse than what they had at home, the brother and sister still found the new experience fresh and interesting. Wen Zhiling was especially absorbed in playing with her little yellow puppy, showing no signs of crying or fussing.
Wen Liang finally got some peace and quiet.
After settling in, the four families went out to eat dinner together.
Wen Zhiling brought the puppy along to the meal. She was delicate in every sense of the word—picky, and a poor eater. At home, even the nanny struggled to feed her, often needing Wen Liang to step in.
These two were basically each other’s nemeses: Wen Liang disliked her crying and fussiness, and Wen Zhiling was afraid of his sternness—so she would actually listen to him on small matters.
That evening, the local dinner was served while it lightly rained outside. The production crew had set up a canopy over a long wooden table, with everyone seated in a row.
Wen Zhijing was quite independent by now—he could eat by himself without needing help.
Wen Liang sat Wen Zhiling on his lap, scooped a few spoonfuls of vegetables into her bowl, mixed it up, and began feeding her one spoonful at a time.
“Slow down a bit,” Chen Die couldn’t help but say, watching his rushed movements while reaching over to wipe the rice from the corner of Wen Zhiling’s mouth.
And what did the viewers see?
[Hahahahahahaha Wen ‘emotionless feeding machine’ Liang.]
[Our little sister is really struggling to eat! She hasn’t even finished chewing before the next spoon’s already coming!]
[Aaaaah she’s too cute! Someone have a baby with me!!]
[The commenter above—don’t even think about it. Just look at the parents’ looks. Best give up now.]
……
Wen Liang finished feeding in about ten minutes, finally liberated. He set his daughter down to go play with the dog.
The adults sat around chatting. Wen Liang didn’t enjoy socializing too much and was generally quiet at the table, only occasionally responding when directly asked something.
After a while, Chen Die realized the big brother wasn’t at the table either. She looked around and spotted him off to the side, talking to Li Cong’s daughter.
Li Cong’s daughter was also very pretty, dressed in a princess-style dress, white stockings, and black leather shoes.
Chen Die nudged Wen Liang with her elbow and gestured toward Wen Zhijing’s direction.
Wen Liang followed her gaze.
Wen Zhijing pointed behind him at Wen Zhiling and said to the little girl, “Do you want to play with the dog?”
The little girl shook her head, perhaps afraid of animals.
The big brother then asked, “After dinner, do you want to come to my house? It’s really close—just down that way.”
The little girl answered sincerely, “Your house is the worst one.”
“Oh,” Wen Zhijing said matter-of-factly, “because my little sister wanted to buy the dog, we used up all the money we made selling grapes, so we had to live in that house.” He paused and sighed, “But my little sister has a bad temper. She’ll probably cry again when it’s time to sleep, and then my dad will get mad.”
The little girl blinked, slid off the bench, and looked cautiously in Wen Liang’s direction, clearly a bit intimidated. “Your dad gets mad? My dad never gets mad. What do you do then?”
“It’s fine, my mom’s there. She can stop my dad from getting mad.”
“Why?”
Wen Zhijing shrugged, like it was obvious. “That’s just how my dad is. If it were my mom who wanted to buy the dog, he wouldn’t stop her either—he’d just let my little sister and me stay in Room No. 4.”
Chen Die: “……”
Wen Liang: “……”
Perhaps noticing their gazes, Wen Zhijing and the little girl began whispering to each other. They were so close that it was impossible to hear what they were saying.
It was clearly their first time meeting, yet Wen Zhijing had already learned how to initiate conversation. Who taught him that?
The two kids kept whispering back and forth, and suddenly, Wen Zhijing leaned down and kissed the back of the little girl’s hand.
Chen Die: “……”
What? The hell?
If this continues, she’s going to start wondering whether this child is really Wen Liang’s biological son. How is he this smooth?!
Wen Liang immediately stood up and carried the boy back.
Having just experienced a budding romantic moment, getting hauled away by his dad in front of everyone was hugely embarrassing for Wen Zhijing. He looked quite unhappy.
Scolding the kid in front of everyone would be too much, so Chen Die blocked Wen Liang and bent down to gently explain to Wen Zhijing that he shouldn’t kiss girls without permission.
After the lecture, Chen Die teased Wen Liang: “How is it that the big brother’s personality is nothing like yours?”
He let out a soft chuckle. The sound was gentle in the evening breeze. Watching Wen Zhijing sneak off to play again, he said in a low voice, “It’s a good thing he’s not like me.”
Meanwhile, the little sister looked like a miniature fairy from heaven, entirely focused on playing with the dog.
After dinner, they returned to their lodging. Chen Die covered all the room’s cameras with clothes and took a bath.
The show had arranged two rooms for them, separated only by a folding screen. The kids had long since gotten used to sleeping in a separate room from their parents, and with Chen Die laying down soft bedding for them, there were no tears or fuss that night.
Sleeping until morning.
There were no curtains here, so once it was light, sunlight streamed right in. Chen Die squinted and struggled to open her eyes a bit, calling out for ‘big brother’ and ‘little sister’.
No one answered.
But beside her, Wen Liang stirred, reached out his arm to wrap around Chen Die’s waist, and said hoarsely, “They’ve already gone out to play. Don’t worry, there are people with cameras following them. They’ll be taken care of.”
“How can you be so relaxed?” Chen Die pinched him.
She couldn’t be as carefree, but just as she sat up, she looked out the window and saw the siblings crouched near the edge of the muddy ground outside. The big brother had somehow gotten a sausage and was feeding it to a dog.
Chen Die just sat there for a while, watching out the window.
The warm summer morning light bathed everything. The siblings sat shoulder to shoulder. Who knew what they had been up to earlier — their sleeves were speckled with mud. In front of the two little rascals sat the yellow dog, wagging its tail furiously.
Dust floated through the air, impossible to hide from under the sunlight.
Chen Die looked and chuckled.
Wen Liang heard her and laughed lazily too. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her back into bed. “What are you laughing at?”
“I saw the kids playing with the dog.”
Since the cameras were still off, Chen Die snuggled against Wen Liang and returned his hug, nestling into his arms. “Actually, this place reminds me a lot of when I was little. Only the people around me are different now.”
“Let them be.” Wen Liang kissed the corner of her mouth. “Let’s sleep a little longer.”
“Are you really treating this like a vacation?”
“What else?”
Chen Die gently poked at his closed eyelids with her finger. Only then did Wen Liang reopen his eyes — a faint crease marked the skin where her finger had pressed.
He looked at Chen Die for a moment. Who knows why, but suddenly a mischievous itch arose in him. His hand slipped under the covers and pinched the inside of her thigh. He lowered his head and lightly bit her ear. “If you’re not going to sleep… let’s do something else.”
“......”
Chen Die instantly began pushing him away, retreating as far as she could. But she was already sleeping against the wall, so there was nowhere else to go. She was exasperated. “Wen Liang, can you act like a normal person?!”
Wen Liang was fully awake by now, lying on his side, propping his head up with one hand. The other had grabbed her ankle when she had kicked at him earlier. He smiled carelessly, with a kind of refined scoundrel charm.
“If we actually did it, you wouldn’t be saying that.”
“......”
Outside, the siblings were still playing, and two camera crew members were with them. The camera in their room had been turned off, but the lens was still there, black and watching.
Chen Die was thoroughly embarrassed by Wen Liang’s suggestive remarks.
“Have some shame!” she muttered, covering his mouth.
Wen Liang finally let go of her ankle, but moved in a little closer and kissed her lips, coaxing softly, “Come on.”
“......”
Come on your ass! Chen Die screamed inwardly.
“No one’s around.”
“......”
“We’ll do it secretly.”
“......?”
Chen Die looked at his calm and confident expression and couldn’t quite tell whether Wen Liang would actually be bold enough to go through with it here, in this rundown little wooden cabin in the middle of nowhere. Knowing him, he probably had no limits.
“W-Wait a minute.” Chen Die pressed her hands hard against his chest.
Wen Liang ignored her, easily twisting her arms behind her back, and planted another kiss at the corner of her lips. Their breaths mingled, every little movement becoming magnified.
Chen Die instantly froze.
This beast.
It wasn’t until she whimpered that Wen Liang finally stopped, leaning against her shoulder, laughing uncontrollably.
He had done it on purpose.
Just to see how long she could hold out.
Chen Die’s face was burning. She was just about to scold him when, all of a sudden, she thought: life like this was really quite nice.
Wen Liang was laughing. The siblings were playing.
But before she could say anything, Wen Liang was still chuckling against her shoulder when there was a commotion outside, and the kids came running in, shouting ‘Xiao Huang’ — the dog.
Xiao Huang ran into the room and jumped straight onto the bed.
Wen Liang didn’t like animals, especially ones that shed. He immediately stopped laughing and frowned.
The camera crew, seeing that the two were awake and properly dressed, followed them into the room to continue filming.
“Wen Zhikling,” Wen Liang commanded, “take the dog out.”
This in itself wasn’t all that unusual, but once aired on the show, it took on a completely different meaning in the eyes of the audience.
[Aaaaahhh how can you be so mean to our Baby Ling! Wen Liang, you have no heart!]
[Did Baby Ling walk in on something she shouldn’t have? Is that why Mr. Wen is so angry?]
[The person above spotted the blind spot!!]
[Why is Sister Die’s face so red!! Production crew, let me see what happened before this!!!]
[No way! When Baby Jing and Baby Ling entered the room, Wen Liang was still smiling while holding Sister Die—how did he instantly turn stone-faced the moment the little ones showed up?! If he keeps being so blind to his blessings, I’m really going to form a team to steal these kids!!]
……
The next few days of filming went smoothly.
The siblings made quite a few friends on the show and were fairly used to the environment—there weren’t many tantrums or meltdowns.
However, after a few episodes aired, Wen Liang’s ‘strict dad’ image became increasingly established in viewers’ minds, especially when contrasted with the other fathers, who were all extremely gentle. The difference made it even more striking.
Almost every time an episode aired, some related tag would trend on the hot search.
By the time they were off to film episode three, the production team introduced a new task.
The kids had to learn to bake together. Although they were all between three and five years old and might not even fully understand spoken instructions, and certainly couldn’t bake anything that resembled proper pastries, it was more about the fun.
Chen Die had prepared little chef outfits for the siblings, complete with aprons—pink for the sister and blue for the brother. She repeatedly reminded them about safety before letting them head into the kitchen.
Parents could watch from outside through a glass window, while professional bakers inside taught the kids how to make desserts.
First was kneading dough.
Since the kids had small hands, their dough portions were small too. The little sister couldn’t fully understand the teacher and was also a bit shy, so she kept watching her big brother and copying his every move.
As for the toppings—fruits, cream, and so on—that part was left up to the children’s creativity.
The big brother squeezed out some whipped cream, though it came out crooked and messy, not exactly appetizing.
The little sister, who loved sweets, covered hers completely in chocolate chips.
Once all the creative decorating was done, the pastries were placed in the oven.
After baking, each child received their own creation, and they came running out of the kitchen proudly showing off their hard work.
Wen Zhiling had made a palm-sized pastry, but it accidentally tore in the middle. With all the chocolate chips, it looked a bit like a donut.
Unfortunately, she ran too fast, tripped, and her ‘donut’ rolled across the ground. The chocolate chips scattered everywhere—it was now inedible.
She pouted, and her lips started to quiver. Kneeling on the floor, she looked ready to burst into tears.
Wen Liang and Chen Die rushed over. “Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself?”
Baby Ling sobbed, “My cookie… it’s gone.”
Her big brother quietly put his cookie in her hand. “You can have mine.”
Chen Die patted Wen Zhijing on the head. The sister looked at the much prettier cookie now in her hand and softly said, “Thank you, big brother,” finally holding back her tears.
Then she held the cookie out in front of Wen Liang. “Daddy, eat.”
The cookie had a ton of whipped cream and didn’t look good. Worse, it was covered in a thick layer of powdered sugar— Wen Zhijing had poured way too much on top, turning the entire surface white.
Wen Liang doesn’t eat that kind of thing.
Just as Chen Die was about to stop him, Wen Liang smiled and ate the cookie from his daughter’s hand.
Wen Zhiling blinked and asked, “Is it yummy?”
Wen Liang, ever the buzzkill, scratched her chin and replied, “You didn’t even make it. Your big brother did.”
Later, when the kids went back into the kitchen for their next task, Chen Die stood next to Wen Liang and quietly asked, “Why’d you eat it earlier?”
“If I didn’t, she’d cry again,” Wen Liang said matter-of-factly.
Chen Die suspected he hadn’t even noticed the pile of powdered sugar on the cookie.
Wen Liang clicked his tongue, frowned, and muttered, “Got any water? That thing was gross.”
“......”
Even though the family was always bickering and fussing, with moments of affection and conflict interspersed, it had become their norm. But with the three of them being stuck together 24/7 during filming, issues were bound to arise.
By the end of episode five, the production crew brought each kid into a private room for a Q&A segment.
The idea was to highlight how, through the show, parents and children had grown closer and understood each other’s love more deeply—a touching, emotional wrap-up.
No one expected it to turn into a disaster.
Starting with Wen Zhiling and backed by Wen Zhijing, the children began with ‘Daddy is too strict’ and escalated into teary complaints like ‘I realized through this show that Daddy doesn’t love me at all,’ eventually reaching full-blown sobbing that Wen Zhiling couldn’t stop.
Her little face was flushed red, her eyes droopy and teary—it was a heart-wrenching sight.
Yet somehow, it was still ridiculously funny to watch.
All of this drama stemmed from one thing: half an hour earlier, Wen Liang had scolded the siblings for not eating properly.
In truth, viewers could clearly see from all the little moments that Wen Liang deeply cared for the two kids. He just didn’t know how to show it, and was used to being sharp-tongued but soft-hearted—ending up as the ‘strictest dad’ among the four families.
Viewers just found the whole situation funny and playfully started an online campaign called “Please let Wen Liang love Baby Jing and Baby Ling properly.”
However, later on, Chen Die—wanting to help mend the father-daughter and father-son relationship—secretly sat the siblings down to talk about what had happened.
At the time of the incident, the two kids had been scolded and reacted emotionally; by now, they’d completely forgotten they had publicly accused their dad on national television. They were a bit confused when Chen Die brought it up.
“Daddy actually really loves both of you—your brother and sister.”
“Did you know? Daddy used to never eat sweets like that. But because it was made by you two, he didn’t even blink before eating it.”
As she went on, Chen Die wasn’t even sure if Wen Zhijing and Wen Zhilin could fully understand what she was saying. It felt more like she was saying it for herself.
“When your dad was your age, life wasn’t easy for him. Sometimes he doesn’t know how to interact with you the right way. But he definitely, absolutely loves you. You’ll understand when you grow up.”
“And that’s why you should love your daddy well too.”
That last line, Chen Die didn’t say out loud—she only said it in her heart: because there are too few people in this world who truly love him.
To the siblings, most of their memories of Wen Liang involve being scolded for something. When Chen Die couldn’t handle them, it was always Wen Liang who stepped in.
But what they didn’t know was that on the afternoon they were born, Wen Liang had buried his face in Chen Die’s hands, trying hard to hide it—yet she could still hear the muffled sound of his sobs.
Wen Liang had walked a lonely road.
His mother, tormented by her own pain, abandoned him. He left home at an early age to live on his own.
At 22, Chen Die appeared to accompany him.
At 30, Wen Zhijing and Wen Zhiling came along to join him too.
He wasn’t good with words, too shy to express himself. Perhaps only he truly knew how deeply he loved—and cherished—these three people who had entered his life.
Chen Die could never know for sure, but in that moment, through his tears, she caught a fleeting glimpse of it.
----------
If you like my translation, please support me by buying me a coffee:
0 comments: