Two figures, one big and one small, appeared. The moment Chu Yi'an saw the cameraman behind them, he knew this was the non-celebrity guest.
Everyone on the beach looked over at once. Under several pairs of curious eyes, Gu Wancheng paused, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly.
[They nearly gave Chengcheng social anxiety.]
"Hello, everyone. I'm Gu Wancheng, and this is my son." Gu Wancheng gave them a small smile and introduced himself.
"Good morning, uncles and aunties. My name is Chaochao." Suddenly shy, Chaochao hid behind Gu Wancheng's legs and poked his head out to greet them politely.
Jian Yue leaned his head over. He loved teasing shy children. "Chaochao, you should call me big brother. Do I look that old? Hmm?"
Gu Wancheng gave him a sympathetic glance. Chaochao was definitely going to leave this man speechless in a moment.
Sure enough, Chaochao dropped a bomb the moment he opened his mouth. "Why? Uncle, do you want to be my big brother? Then are you planning to be Father and Daddy's oldest son?"
[Wait, you can interpret it that way?]
[Look at Jian Yue's face. You won't see that again in eight hundred years.]
[Does he have to be that funny?]
Jian Yue stared at him in shock. Since when had he wanted to become their family's oldest son?
Gu Wancheng: See? He'd said so.
Everyone turned in unison toward Chaochao's daddy. What was with his kid?
Gu Wancheng said, "...Chaochao, you can't say that. Call him Brother Jian, and that one Brother Chu."
Then he pointed at Jiang Yu. "And this one is Brother Jiang."
Chaochao blinked and opened his mouth, just about to ask a question, only for Gu Wancheng to foresee it and cover his mouth.
"Whatever questions you have, greet them first." After saying that, he narrowed his eyes at him. Chaochao immediately had a bad feeling. His keen sixth sense told him to skip the question and obediently greet everyone.
Jian Yue didn't want to talk for the moment and nodded heavily. Chu Yi'an responded with a smile.
To keep Chaochao from continuing the earlier topic, Gu Wancheng hurriedly sent him off to play with Xiaolin and the others.
Zhao Chengyu eased the atmosphere. "Good morning, Wancheng. Just call me Brother Zhao. Come to me if you need anything."
Gu Wancheng nodded but didn't take it seriously. After all, it was just politeness.
Looking at Jian Yue, who was still immersed in shock, Gu Wancheng asked, "Are you all right?"
Jian Yue came back to his senses. "Not really. Your kid is really something."
Gu Wancheng smiled awkwardly at his words.
Xu Xiashi quietly observed him. Although he wasn't the girl she'd hoped for, a handsome guy wasn't bad either. Easy on the eyes. Overall, he was fine, as long as he wasn't the sort to stir up trouble.
Looking at his approachable air, her sixth sense told her Gu Wancheng wasn't that sort of person and was someone she could get to know. After all, her sixth sense had always been accurate.
As Gu Wancheng chatted with them intermittently, he suddenly felt an uncomfortable gaze and looked toward its source.
Jiang Yu was looking at him, his gaze not exactly friendly. Gu Wancheng flashed him a brilliant smile.
Jiang Yu's eyes darkened. Certain that Gu Wancheng would get in his way, he suppressed the malicious thoughts rising in his heart and returned a smile.
The others didn't notice the undercurrents between them.
"Gather round, gather round."
Everyone turned to see Chen Liqing standing there with a megaphone. It kept repeating those words while he wore a beaming smile.
A little boy stood beside him-the final child guest, Su Anchen.
Seeing them look over, Chen Liqing pressed a finger lightly against the switch and shut off the endlessly noisy megaphone.
He gently said to Xiaoxiao, "Xiaoxiao, could you introduce yourself?"
Xiaoxiao looked at this strange uncle and calmly introduced himself without any expression on his face.
"Hello, everyone. My name is Su Anchen, my nickname is Xiaoxiao, and I'm four years old."
After hearing the call to gather, the children ran over to their respective adults and stood obediently beside them, watching Xiaoxiao introduce himself.
"All right, that big brother will be looking after you. Go stand beside him."
Xiaoxiao glanced at Jiang Yu, who was smiling gently at him, then looked away and silently walked over.
[Ah, does Xiaoxiao have a poker face? head-scratching.jpg]
[I keep feeling like Xiaoxiao doesn't like talking.]
[Maybe he's shy.]
Once Xiaoxiao had gone over and taken his place, Chen Liqing stood in front of them, surveying them through narrowed eyes while inwardly ranting. Fuck, I picked the wrong spot. This sun is blinding.
Yet Chen Liqing, suffering for the sake of his pride, stubbornly refused to move.
Chaochao tugged at Gu Wancheng and lowered his voice. "What's this grandpa doing?"
The corner of Gu Wancheng's mouth twitched. "Call him Uncle Director."
"Why? Don't uncles have hair?"
"Because Uncle Director is still young. You need to go to bed early, or you'll go bald too."
Bald!!
The children were so frightened that they clutched their heads. Help, they didn't want to go bald.
Chen Liqing, whose hair had thinned from staying up late and overworking his brain: "..."
With his sharp hearing, Chen Liqing's face darkened. Why were the others uncles and big brothers, while he was a grandpa? Just because he had less hair? Was having less hair his fault?
Standing beside Chaochao, Zhao Chengyu nearly laughed aloud. Looking at Chen Liqing's dark expression, he sneaked a glance at the top of his head and coughed lightly. "Director Chen, hurry up and tell us where we're going."
Jian Yue outright laughed and muttered, "Still so fond of throwing your weight around as director." His every move was just like a dean of discipline's, and so was his hairstyle, while they were the students being lectured. What, had he wanted to be a dean of discipline before?
Hah. Chen Liqing glared at the troublemaker Jian Yue, then suddenly chuckled.
A chill instantly ran down everyone's backs, and a bad feeling arose. The children hid behind the adults. This strange uncle was so scary.
Strange Uncle Chen Liqing wiped the expression off his face, picked up his megaphone, and put on a serious air. "Our first trip will be a half-month island tour."
[Wow, an island! Can they go beachcombing at low tide?]
[There's a beach, so probably.]
"We'll take fishing boats over in a bit."
Chu Yi'an raised his hand. "I have a question."
"Go ahead."
"Why are we taking fishing boats, and where are they?"
Chen Liqing: "..." This brat. Could he say it was because they were too poor? Cruise ships and helicopters were so expensive.
He chose to ignore the first question and answer the second.
"Behind you."
Everyone looked behind them, huge question marks appearing over their heads as they looked back and forth between Chen Liqing and the fishing boats.
Six small fishing boats were moored by the shore. They exuded an air of decay, telling people they had weathered wind and rain. A sea breeze happened to blow past, rocking the boats a few times.
Everyone stared, dumbfounded: ...
The fishing boats really were tiny, with room for three people at most. Apart from the person steering, each boat had just enough room for one family.
[Um... well...]
[Where did the production team dig up these antiques?]
[Do these boats really still work?]
Xu Xiashi recovered and gave him a look. "You really went to a lot of trouble, even managing to find these antiques."
Without blushing or missing a beat, Chen Liqing took it as praise. "No trouble at all, no trouble at all."
Xu Xiashi gave a dry laugh. This "dog" actually had the nerve to accept it.
The corner of Jian Yue's eye twitched. "With how stingy you are, watch out for someone throwing a sack over your head when you're out at night."
But the moment he finished speaking, he found several pairs of big, doll-like eyes staring straight at him. His figure was reflected in those pure, innocent eyes, and he instantly felt terribly guilty.
Jian Yue: "..."
Usually so glib, he couldn't get a word out and looked to the others for help.
Gu Wancheng sighed and spoke up to distract the children, earning a look of boundless gratitude.
Chen Liqing immediately said, "All right, since no one has any objections, let's set off."
Everyone: Huh?