Chapter 29.1: — Safekeeping
Unlike the anxious little girl beside him and the nervous Old Master Lin watching the livestream, Lin Cheng was calm when he drew a card from the lottery box.
“What did you get?” asked the director.
Lin Cheng flipped the card over, glanced at it, and said, “The [Owner of a Small Restaurant] card.”
Hearing Lin Cheng’s words, the director secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
According to the original plan, [Construction Worker] was the [Family Background] prepared for Lin Cheng’s team, but just this morning, the chief director suddenly called and said: “Let Lin Cheng’s team be treated fairly. Properly draw lots.”
She didn’t know why the people above suddenly changed their minds—perhaps during the recording of the variety show the star suddenly became more popular, or suddenly became involved in a certain project, or suddenly garnered an increase in investment, and the program group now needed to adjust the treatment the star was getting. These things were not uncommon; they just needed to follow the instructions handed down to them.
“It seems that dad is lucky this time,” the director said with a big smile on her face, then added, “Please come and let the audience see the card, too.”
Lin Cheng showed the card to the camera.
Like before, there were six pieces of information recorded on this card.
[Home address]: Store No. 17, Liuming Street (the actual area of ??the store is 29.6 square meters. The previous owner built a one-story loft in the store for living space. The upper loft is 1.5 meters high, and the actual usable area is 7.2 square meters).
[Dad’s Occupation]: Owner of a small restaurant.
[Family annual income]: 60,000 to 120,000 yuan.
[Means of transportation]: A van, year 2003, can be used for transporting goods and daily travel.
[Financial status]: Family deposit of 100,000 yuan (of which 50,000 yuan is fixed term and cannot be used; 50,000 yuan has been handed over to the store landlord as a rent deposit and cannot be used);
— a loan of 30,000 yuan was incurred to open the store, with equal monthly repayments 1,200 yuan;
— shop rent of 6,800 yuan per month;
— fixed expenses such as auto insurance and annual inspection of 3,000 yuan/year.
The total monthly fixed expenditure of the family is 8,250 yuan (converted to 2,100 yuan/week).
[Disposable funds this week]: The working capital for operating a small restaurant is 8,000 yuan;
— other disposable funds is 1,000 yuan.
… …
In the livestream channel, seeing the information on Lin Cheng’s card, the comments barrage that had been quiet until now finally became lively again:
[The owner of a small restaurant? It feels okay. ]
[Haha, that’s right, he is a small boss after all.]
[Damn it, I was scared to death. I thought Lin Cheng was going to get some miserable ‘family background’ again.]
[Me too, I thought that Lin Cheng would get another job this week as a brick mover, janitor, vegetable seller, etc. This is okay. ]
[If this team really got another job that was hard, tiring, and low-income, I will absolutely wonder if there was something shady about this show.]
[That is true, it would be too fake if Lin Cheng and baby are the worst team every time.]
[Who said their team did not get the worst draw this time? Still, it’s okay. Better than previous weeks.]
… …
In front of the computer, watching the discussion in the comments area, Wang Xi turned to look at the two other people with her and asked, “Did our brother Cheng’s team still get the worst [Family Background] this time?”
Zhou Qi nodded, “It seems so.”
He had just clicked into the livestream channels of the four other teams to take a look at the lottery results: Bai Yulin was given the [Michelin Restaurant Chef’s Assistant]; Duan Bei the [Housing Sales Director]; Gao Yuankai the [Advertising Company Planner], and Zheng Chengye the [Sea World Commentator].
Compared with the occupations of the other teams, the [Family Background] drawn by Lin Cheng and Lin Momo were indeed not too good.
Hearing Zhou Qi’s report, Wang Xi couldn’t help nod, but then she suddenly said, “Oh! Wait…”, as if she had discovered something. “That doesn’t seem right…”
“What’s wrong?” Zhou Qi asked.
“It’s the occupations of the other teams. Don’t you think that they are not suitable for the stars who drew them?”
According to the usual program script, Bai Yulin would definitely be assigned to a more advanced occupation; Zheng Chengye would be assigned to a workplace occupation; Gao Yuankai to an occupation related to his ‘all-round’ character; while Duan Bei would be assigned to an occupation that was simple to operate, did not require too much technical content, and where it would be easy to interact with fans.
But this time, except for Bai Yulin’s occupation—which could be considered as ‘suitable’ to his abilities, the occupations of the other dads… seemed to be the real results of a lottery.
“Did the program team change their way of doing things? Why can’t I understand this new approach?” Wang Xi asked, her voicing rising in confusion.
Chen Yu also frowned; he also couldn’t figure out the purpose of this operation by the program team.
“Could it be that our Brother Cheng and his team are still caught in a trap?” Wang Xi muttered in a low voice.
Chen Yu: “…” If he were being honest, he thought so too. He felt certain that the program team would not be so kind to Lin Cheng.
Chen Yu could only complain silently in his mind.
… …
Different from the concerns of Chen Yu and the others, when Lin Momo saw the information on the [Family Background] card, she opened her mouth wide in surprise.
“Our family is so rich!” Lin Momo couldn’t help sighing. She had already felt so good to be the owner of the temporary steamed bun stall this week, she didn’t expect to directly become the owner of a small restaurant next week!
Not only do they have a store and a place to live, they even have a van!
Hearing Lin Momo’s emotion-filled outburst and seeing her satisfied face, Lin Cheng secretly smiled.
While their [Family Background] for next week may sound like they have a lot of money at their disposal, the expenses incurred in running a small restaurant were likely to be much larger than that.
As for the 2003 van, apart from the high annual inspection and maintenance costs, it was hard to say whether the engine can even be started or not.
Although Lin Cheng was a little surprised by the ‘kindness’ of the program group this time, he was not optimistic at all about their family’s situation next week.
The director team also chuckled when they heard Lin Momo’s words.
“It seems that the baby is very satisfied with the life that your team will experience next week?” the director said with a smile.
“Yes, satisfied!” Lin Momo nodded vigorously.
“Then, baby and dad, please go back for now. Rest up this weekend, and work hard again next week.”
“Okay!” Lin Momo said. And to the director team, she said, “Thank you.”
Because the father and daughter completed their tasks smoothly this week, there was no need to wait until nightfall like the first week.
Therefore, the team director immediately announced that ‘this week’s shooting is over!’
This chapter is updated by freew(e)bnovel.(c)om