That night they moved into Room Four. Although the facilities were far inferior to their home, the brother and sister still found it novel for now. Wen Zhiling was completely focused on playing with the little yellow dog, neither crying nor making a fuss.

So Wen Liang temporarily enjoyed some peace.

After settling in the room, they went outside to have dinner with the other three families.

Wen Zhiling brought the little yellow dog along to dinner. The sister’s delicate nature was evident in all aspects—she was also picky and didn’t like to eat. At home, the nanny could never get her to eat, and they had to rely on Wen Liang.

This father-daughter pair was each other’s nemesis. Wen Liang found her crying and noise-making annoying, while Wen Zhiling was afraid of Wen Liang’s sternness, so she would listen to him on small matters.

That evening, everyone ate locally prepared dinner. It was drizzling outside, so the production team set up a canopy with long wooden tables where everyone sat in a row.

Wen Zhijing was very independent and could now eat without anyone looking after him.

Wen Liang held Wen Zhiling on his lap, picked some vegetables into her bowl with his chopsticks, mixed them well, and fed her spoonful by spoonful.

“Feed her more slowly,” Chen Die couldn’t help saying while wiping the rice grains from the corner of the sister’s mouth.

When the audience saw this scene—

Hahahahahaha Wen “Emotionless Feeding Machine” Liang.

Our sister is struggling to eat! She hasn’t even finished chewing before the second spoonful comes!

Ahhhhh they’re too cute! Who wants to have a child with me?

The person above, forget about it. Look at their parents’ looks. Better give up that idea early.

…

Wen Liang finished feeding her in just over ten minutes, finally free, and put the sister down to play with the dog.

The adults sat around chatting. Wen Liang didn’t enjoy excessive socializing; he didn’t say much at the table, only occasionally answering questions.

After chatting for a while, Chen Die realized that the brother wasn’t at the table either. She turned her head to look around and found that he had somehow gone to the other side, where he was now talking to Li Cong’s daughter.

Li Cong’s daughter was also very pretty, wearing a princess dress with white long socks and black leather shoes.

Chen Die nudged Wen Liang with her elbow, nodding toward Wen Zhijing’s direction not far away.

Wen Liang looked over as well.

Wen Zhijing pointed to Wen Zhiling behind him and said to the little girl in front of him: “Do you want to play with the dog?”

The little girl perhaps was afraid of animals and shook her head.

The brother asked again: “After dinner, do you want to come to my house to play? It’s very close, just down that way.”

The little girl answered very honestly: “Your house is the worst one.”

“Oh, because my sister wanted to buy a dog, we spent all our grape-selling money, so we can only stay in that house now,” Wen Zhijing said, unbothered. After a pause, he sighed again, “But my sister’s temper, she might cry again when we go to sleep tonight, and then my dad will get angry.”

The little girl blinked, slid down from the wooden chair, and cautiously glanced toward Wen Liang, looking somewhat intimidated: “Your dad gets angry? My dad never gets angry. What will you do?”

“It’s okay, my mom is there. She can make my dad not angry.”

“Why?”

Wen Zhijing shrugged his shoulders as if it were obvious: “My dad is just like that. If it were my mom who wanted to buy a dog today, my dad definitely wouldn’t stop her and would directly let me and my sister stay in Room Four.”

Chen Die: “…”

Wen Liang: “…”

Perhaps noticing their gaze, Wen Zhijing and the little girl began whispering in each other’s ears, so close that one couldn’t hear what they were saying.

It was their first meeting, yet Wen Zhijing had already learned to initiate conversation. Who knows who he learned it from?

The two little kids whispered back and forth, and later, who knows what was said, Wen Zhijing suddenly lowered his head and kissed the little girl’s hand.

Chen Die: “…”

What the hell?

If this continues, she would start to doubt whether the brother was really Wen Liang’s biological son. He was way too smooth.

Wen Liang directly got up and went to grab him back.

The brother, in front of his first crush, was once again carried away by his father, which was very humiliating and made him unhappy.

It would be too embarrassing to discipline the son in front of so many people. Chen Die blocked Wen Liang and bent down in front of Wen Zhijing, educating him for a good while that he shouldn’t casually kiss girls in the future.

After finishing the lecture, Chen Die joked with Wen Liang: “How is our brother’s personality not like yours at all?”

He chuckled softly, his laughter gentle in the evening breeze. Looking at Wen Zhijing who had slipped away to play again, he said quietly: “It’s good that he’s not like me.”

Meanwhile, the sister looked like an otherworldly little fairy, wholeheartedly focused on playing with the dog.

After dinner, they returned to their lodging. Chen Die covered all the cameras in the room with clothes and took a shower.

The production team had prepared two rooms for them, separated only by a screen. The brother and sister had long been accustomed to sleeping in separate rooms from their parents. Chen Die had made the padding softer for them, so there was no crying or fussing.

They slept until daybreak.

There were no curtains here, so when dawn broke, sunlight shone in. Chen Die squinted, forcing her eyes open slightly, and called out to the brother and sister.

No one answered.

Wen Liang beside her moved, putting his arm around Chen Die’s waist, saying hoarsely: “They’ve already gone out to play. Don’t worry, people are following them with cameras, they’ll be well taken care of.”

“How can you be so at ease?” Chen Die gave him a pinch.

She was worried, but as soon as she sat up, she saw through the window the siblings squatting on the muddy ground outside. The brother had somehow gotten a sausage and was feeding the dog.

Chen Die sat like this for a while, looking out the window.

The gentle morning sunlight of summer poured down. The siblings sat shoulder to shoulder, who knows what they had been doing earlier—their sleeves had mud stains on them, while the little yellow dog sat in front of the two little kids, wagging its tail frantically.

Dust particles floated in the air, inescapable in the sunlight.

Chen Die looked on and laughed.

Hearing her, Wen Liang also laughed lazily, pulling her back to bed with his arm around her waist: “What are you laughing at?”

“I see the brother and sister playing with the dog together.”

Since the cameras were still covered, Chen Die snuggled back into Wen Liang’s arms, nestling in his embrace. “This place is quite similar to my childhood life, except the people around me are all different now.”

“Let them be,” Wen Liang pressed a kiss to the corner of Chen Die’s mouth. “Let’s sleep a bit more.”

“You’re treating this as a vacation?”

“What else?”

Chen Die gently poked his closed eyelid with her index finger. Only then did Wen Liang open his eyes again, a very shallow crease on his eyelid from the pressure.

He stared at Chen Die for a while, and somehow, he suddenly felt restless. His hand went under the blanket and pinched her thigh, then he lowered his head to gently bite her ear: “If we’re not sleeping, let’s do something else.”

“…”

Chen Die immediately pushed him and kept retreating, but she was already sleeping against the wall and soon had nowhere to retreat. She couldn’t bear it: “Wen Liang, can you behave like a normal person?”

Wen Liang was fully awake now, lying on his side, supporting his head with one hand. His other hand had caught her ankle when Chen Die had kicked him earlier. He smiled casually, with a hint of scholarly debauchery and charm.

“You wouldn’t say that if we were doing it.”

“…”

Outside, the siblings were playing, with two filming crew members. Although the cameras in the room had been turned off, the dark lenses were still there.

Chen Die’s face and ears turned red at his suggestive words.

“Have some decency!” Chen Die covered his mouth.

Wen Liang finally released her ankle, only to move closer, kissing her lips and coaxing in a low voice: “Come on.”

“…”

Come on, my ass! Chen Die screamed inwardly.

“While no one’s here.”

“…”

“Let’s do it secretly.”

“…?”

Chen Die looked at his calm and composed face, unable to gauge whether Wen Liang would be so bold as to have sex in this shabby wooden cabin that could almost be considered outdoors. After all, Wen Liang seemed to have no boundaries.

“W-wait,” Chen Die firmly pressed her hands against his chest.

Wen Liang ignored her, easily pinning her hands back, and pecked her lips again. In the mingling of their breaths, every action was magnified to detail.

Chen Die almost instantly stiffened.

This… beast.

Only when she whimpered did Wen Liang finally stop, leaning on her shoulder and laughing uncontrollably.

He had been teasing her deliberately.

Wanting to see how long she could endure.

Heat radiated from Chen Die’s face. Just as she was about to curse at him, she suddenly felt that life like this was good.

Wen Liang was laughing, the siblings were playing.

But before she could say anything, with Wen Liang still leaning on her shoulder laughing, suddenly there was a commotion outside. Then the brother and sister ran in, calling “Xiao Huang,” the dog’s name.

After Xiao Huang ran into the room, it directly jumped onto the bed.

Wen Liang didn’t like animals, especially ones that shed hair, and immediately stopped laughing and frowned.

The camera crew, seeing that the two were awake and properly dressed, also followed into the room to film.

“Wen Zhiling,” Wen Liang commanded, “take the dog outside.”

There was nothing strange about this, but when the show aired and viewers saw it, it seemed to become something else.

Ahhhhhhhh how can you be so harsh to our Lingbao! Wen Liang, you have no heart!

By the way, did Lingbao interrupt something that made Wen Liang so angry?

The person above spotted the blind spot!

Why is Die’s face so red?!! Where’s the production team, let me see what happened before this!!!

No! When Jingbao and Lingbao entered the room, Wen Liang was still hugging Die and smiling, how come as soon as he faced the two little treasures, his face turned stern? If you keep being so ungrateful for your blessings, I’ll form a team to steal the children!!!

…

The next few days of filming went smoothly.

The brother and sister made many friends on the show and seemed to adapt to the environment, without much crying or fussing.

However, after several episodes aired, Wen Liang’s “strict father” image became deeply ingrained in people’s minds. Compared to the other family fathers who were all very gentle, the contrast became increasingly obvious.

Almost every time an episode aired, a related topic would trend on social media.

When setting off for the third episode’s filming, the production team arranged a new task.

The children needed to learn baking together. Although they were all between three and five years old and might not fully understand instructions or make presentable baked goods,

Chen Die prepared a set of little chef’s clothes for both of them, tying small aprons—pink for the sister, blue for the brother—and repeatedly emphasized safety issues before letting them follow the staff into the baking room.

Parents could watch through the glass from outside, while professional bakers inside taught the children how to make desserts.

First was kneading dough.

The children’s hands were small, so naturally the dough they kneaded was small too. The sister didn’t quite understand the teacher’s instructions and was somewhat shy, constantly watching her brother and following his steps.

As for adding specific fruits and cream to these desserts, that was left to their creativity.

The brother squeezed some cream on top, though it was crooked and looked quite unappetizing.

The sister, who loved sweets, directly covered hers with chocolate chips.

Soon, all the creatively finished desserts were placed in the oven.

After being taken out, they were distributed to each child, and the little ones ran out of the baking room to show off their creations.

Wen Zhiling had made a sweet treat about the size of her palm. It had accidentally broken in the middle, and with the chocolate chips, it somewhat resembled a donut.

However, she ran too fast, tripped, and the donut rolled on the ground, with chocolate chips scattered everywhere. It was no longer edible.

Wen Zhiling’s mouth turned downward, and she knelt on the ground, about to cry.

Wen Liang and Chen Die immediately got up to go to her: “Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself?”

Lingbao sniffled and replied: “Cookie… gone.”

The brother put the cookie in his hand into his sister’s palm: “Then I’ll give you mine.”

Chen Die stroked Wen Zhijing’s head. The sister, looking at the much prettier cookie now in her palm, softly said “Thank you, brother,” finally holding back her tears.

Then she extended her hand, placing the cookie in front of Wen Liang: “Daddy eat.”

The cookie had a lot of cream on it and didn’t look good. More importantly, it was covered with a thick layer of icing sugar. The brother had poured too much, making the top layer of the cookie completely white.

Wen Liang didn’t eat such things.

Just as Chen Die was about to intervene, Wen Liang had already smiled and eaten the cookie from the sister’s hand.

Wen Zhiling blinked her eyes and asked: “Is it tasty?”

Wen Liang was quite the mood killer. He scratched her chin and said: “This wasn’t made by you, it was made by your brother.”

Later, when the children went back into the baking room for the next task, Chen Die stood beside Wen Liang and after a moment of silence asked: “Why did you eat it just now?”

“If I didn’t, she would cry again,” Wen Liang said matter-of-factly.

Chen Die even suspected that he might not have noticed the icing sugar on the cookie.

Wen Liang clicked his tongue, frowning and complaining: “Do you have water? It’s too damn sweet.”

“…”

Although the father-son and father-daughter relationships were always tumultuous, alternating between quarrels and moments of parental affection and filial piety, this had become the norm. But keeping these three people together 24 hours a day during the show’s filming was bound to cause problems.

At the end of the fifth episode, the production team called each child to a separate room for questions.

The original intention was to create a scenario where parents and children would love each other more through this show and better understand each other’s love, meant to be an emotional segment.

But they never expected to encounter such a major setback.

Led by Wen Zhiling, supported by Wen Zhijing, they started with “Daddy is very fierce,” progressed to tearfully complaining that “through this show, I discovered that Daddy doesn’t love me at all,” and finally escalated to the point where Wen Zhiling couldn’t stop crying.

Her little face was flushed, her eyes drooping, crying as pitifully as possible.

Yet it was extremely funny to watch.

The cause of this incident was simply that half an hour earlier, Wen Liang had scolded them for not eating properly.

Everyone could see from the details in the show that Wen Liang loved these two little treasures, but he probably didn’t know how to express it and was accustomed to having a harsh mouth but a soft heart, becoming the sternest father among the four families.

Viewers found this amusing and playfully initiated an online campaign “Please Ask Wen Liang to Take Good Care of Jingbao and Lingbao.”

However, to mend the father-daughter and father-son relationships, Chen Die still secretly talked to the brother and sister about this.

At the time, they had just been scolded and spoke from emotion. Now they had completely forgotten that they had accused their father in front of the entire nation. They were somewhat confused when Chen Die brought it up.

“Daddy loves our brother and sister very much.”

“You know, Daddy never ate desserts like that before, but because you made it, Daddy ate it without even blinking.”

Toward the end, Chen Die wasn’t sure if Wen Zhijing and Wen Zhiling could understand, as it seemed more like she was talking to herself.

“When Daddy was your age, his life wasn’t good. Sometimes he doesn’t know how to interact with you, but he loves you very much, and you’ll understand when you grow up.”

“So you must also love Daddy very much.”

Chen Die didn’t say the last sentence out loud, only in her heart—because there were too few people who truly loved Daddy.

In the children’s memories, Wen Liang mostly scolded them for various things, and when Chen Die couldn’t handle them, Wen Liang would step in.

But what they didn’t know was that on the afternoon they were born, Wen Liang had buried his head in her palm, trying his best to hide, but she could still hear his suppressed crying.

Wen Liang had been lonely all the way.

His mother, in her pain, left him, and he left home early to live alone.

At 22, Chen Die appeared to accompany him.

At 30, Wen Zhijing and Wen Zhiling appeared to accompany him as well.

He was not good with words and was too shy to express himself. Perhaps only he knew how deeply and passionately he loved these three people who had appeared in his life.

Chen Die couldn’t fully know, but she could glimpse it from his tears that day.