Back at last

The morning sunlight gradually grew stronger. They were all sweating to some degree, but none of them stopped to rest. Even the children kept following along behind them.

"Yuyu, make sure you tell me if you feel unwell. We can take a break," Shen Zeyu said.

"I'm fine, Daddy. I can keep going," Lu Yu answered. This was his first time earning money.

As time passed, they finally handed out all the flyers and collected their wages from the owner.

Without even time to complain, they immediately headed to the market to buy groceries. They now had around seven hundred yuan, enough to buy quite a lot.

They didn't know how many people would come, so they bought as many vegetables as they could: bean sprouts, tofu, napa cabbage, celery, potatoes, and more.

For the meat dishes, they bought chicken, fish, lean pork, pork belly, and other ingredients.

Once they finally had everything, they carried bags of groceries back to the car.

"Ah, we're finally done," Ge Qing sighed, leaning back against his seat.

The other three nodded wearily. The children had already fallen asleep leaning against one another. Handing out flyers and buying groceries had left them utterly exhausted.

After returning to the courtyard house and carrying the sleeping children into their rooms, they started preparing the meal.

As they worked, some of the elderly villagers began arriving and gathering in small groups to chat. That was how things worked in the countryside. Whenever a household hosted a big event, older people with nothing else to do would come early to liven up the place.

Since guests had arrived, Chen Ran was sent out to chat with them while the others kept working in the kitchen. Fortunately, their experience the previous evening made things go much more smoothly today.

The children had woken up too and were playing with the village children, including the little boy who had played with Tiantian yesterday.

Finally, at one in the afternoon, all the dishes were ready.

They carried out plate after plate. Since many of the guests were elderly, most of the dishes were light and mild.

There was no rule in the village about keeping silent while eating or going to bed, so the tables were filled with the elderly villagers' chatter.

"It's been so long since things were this lively," one of them said. With the young people away working, only the elderly and children remained. The village really hadn't been this lively in a long time.

The bustle seemed to last only a little while. After the meal, many of the elderly guests went home, and the courtyard gradually quieted down. Only the four families they had helped remained; the production team had specifically asked them to stay.

While Shen Zeyu and the others cleared the tables, the villagers chatted nearby. The sun was at its fiercest, making it impossible to work outside, so they talked about farm work.

When Shen Zeyu and the others came out, they spotted some people approaching in the distance. Putting that together with what they knew, they had a pretty good idea of what the production team was planning. The villagers gathered in conversation, however, remained completely unaware.

Only when cries of "Dad!" and "Mom!" rang out behind them did the villagers seem to realize what was happening. They stopped talking and slowly turned around. At the sight before them, their tears began flowing uncontrollably. It had been so long since they had seen their loved ones.

The elderly woman's son and daughter-in-law, the middle-aged man's wife, the elderly man's son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter, and the woman's son had all returned. They stood before their families, gazing at them with tear-filled eyes.

The elderly woman walked over and looked at her son and daughter-in-law. "What brings you home?" Meanwhile, the little boy flung himself into his mother's arms and said through tears, "Mom, I missed you so much."

His mother held him tightly and kissed him. "I missed you too."

Beside them, the middle-aged man and his wife were already embracing. The elderly man was beaming too, holding his grandson and proudly telling him that he had learned to use a phone and could call him from now on.

The woman had already hugged her son and burst into tears. Since his job transfer, she hadn't seen him in a long time. Although he wanted her to move in with him, she had wanted to wait until he was settled at work.

Now able to be someone his mother could lean on, her son comforted the woman who had spent her whole life working hard for him. His job was stable now, and he could bring her over to enjoy a comfortable life.

Watching the scene, Shen Zeyu and the others were deeply moved. They hadn't expected the production team to arrange something like this. Now, all their earlier exhaustion seemed to vanish. For a scene like this, anything they had done was worth it.

Zi Yiting was the most deeply moved of all. Thank goodness I've already realized how important it is to be there for them, she thought.

Even though the children didn't yet understand the significance of it all, they were happy that the villagers had been reunited with their loved ones. Lu Yu even whispered to Shen Zeyu, "Daddy, I'll never leave you and Dad."

Shen Zeyu smiled tenderly. "Then you'd better keep your promise."

Lu Yu nodded, promising that he would.

A warm, loving atmosphere continued to envelop the gathering. Once the villagers had calmed down, they thanked Shen Zeyu, the others, and the production team. Without the team's help, they didn't know when they would have been able to see their loved ones again.

The production team had gone to considerable lengths to bring everyone back. Fortunately, their efforts had been worthwhile.

{"Ahhh, the production team really knows what they're doing. They've wrung every last tear out of me."}

{"I miss my mom and dad too. I didn't go home last year, so I'm definitely going back this weekend."}

{"This really is so meaningful."}

After the villagers took their loved ones home, Ge Qing sprang forward. "Director, how could you not tell us about something like this beforehand?"

The director laughed. "It makes no difference. All right, this week's filming ends here."

Looking earnestly into the camera, the director said, "I hope everyone can be a little more patient when teaching their parents how to do things. I also hope you'll go home more often when you have time, visit your elderly family members, and spend time with your children. They're surely waiting for you to come home too."

That was the purpose of this episode: to encourage those living away from home to return whenever they had time and spend more time with their children and parents, rather than letting them lose touch with the times.

"The first episode of Season One of Go, Little Ones! has officially come to an end." Once the director finished speaking, the livestream ended, and the crew applauded, celebrating the end of two days of following the cast around with cameras.

Shen Zeyu and the others were happy too. They had finally finished filming this episode. Afterward, they took out the gifts they had prepared and visited the four villagers' homes to deliver them.

They had bought these gifts with the money left over. They had originally intended them as a surprise, but the villagers had already received the greatest surprise of all. Still, these gifts were their way of thanking them.

The villagers were rather incredulous when they received the gifts. They had never imagined that these big stars would give them presents.

Before the villagers could thank them, they hurried back to the courtyard house. Zi Yiting and Ge Qing had other engagements, so they left as soon as they returned.

Lu Yu called after Ge Zhou and Tiantian as they walked away, "Bye, Zhouzhou! Bye, Tiantian!"

The two waved at Lu Yu.

When Shen Zeyu came out, he discovered that Chen Ran had left too. Chen Ran had received a sudden phone call and, with no time to tell Shen Zeyu himself, had asked the production team to pass on the message.

Shen Zeyu was about to take Lu Yu home in the production team's car when he noticed a tall man in a black trench coat slowly approaching them from the distance.

"It's Dad!" Lu Yu called out loudly.

Shen Zeyu took a closer look. It really was Lu Cizhou. He had come to take them home.