After Transmigrating As The Mother Of The Pitiful Female Supporting Character in a Campus Novel - Chapter 41

After the commotion, Xia Shibai picked up Xia Yaozhou, whose eyes were closed in a sleepy daze. As she walked slowly toward the house next door, Qin Zhijin gently tugged on the hem of her clothes.

“Come over early tomorrow morning for breakfast. If we wake up too late, I’m afraid they’ll come up with some bad ideas.”

Xia Shibai lowered her voice and whispered, “Won’t it be too exhausting if it’s too early? Tomorrow is a long journey; I’m afraid you won’t be able to hold up if we wake up too early.”

“It’s fine. Can’t we just sleep on the plane and in the car later?” Qin Zhijin waved her hand. “Don’t worry; if something really happens, I wouldn’t even ask you.”

“Alright.”

Xia Shibai nodded and didn’t say much more, carrying Xia Yaozhou home to sleep.

The next day, when the program team came to knock on the door, there was no response. Everyone pushed one another, each pinning their hopes on the other person—after all, which corporate “social animal” would dare call the boss and wake them up to open the door? They truly didn’t want to lose their jobs.

In the end, everyone kept passing the buck without a result.

Instead, the team assigned to Qin Zhijin entered her house first. Not long after they went in, Xia Shibai walked out from next door wearing casual clothes, holding half a cucumber. She quietly stood on her tiptoes to peek at the other side; she stood there for quite a while, and no one noticed her.

Later, Xia Shibai couldn’t stand it anymore and shouted over: “How long are you guys planning to stand there?”

“We woke up quite early. It was too late last night, so I didn’t send a message in the group chat, and then I forgot when I woke up this morning.” Xia Shibai looked at the group of five or six people standing in a huddle, yet not one of them dared to make a phone call. Helplessly, she beckoned them to come over quickly.

Once they were settled, Xia Shibai took a bite of her cucumber without any pretension. “There are still fresh fruits and vegetables in the house; want a bite?”

“Mainly because we won’t be home for several days, and if no one eats them, they’ll spoil.”

Xia Shibai turned to go inside. Before long, Xia Yaozhou came running straight toward the camera crew carrying a woven bamboo basket that had been drained of water. The basket was filled with succulent fruits and vegetables. She worked hard to lift her hands and held it out to the older brothers and sisters: “Please eat!”

“Please, please, help us out.”

Xia Yaozhou pushed the vegetables and fruit further toward the immobile adults. Seeing they didn’t move, she directly stuffed the produce into their hands.

“Brother, eat! Sister, you eat too!”

“Everyone eat, eat whatever you want!”

Xia Yaozhou worked hard to distribute the vegetables to everyone, looking at the adults with expectant eyes, hoping they wouldn’t just hold the fruit in their hands but actually put it in their mouths to eat.

Truly, no one could resist little Xia Yaozhou’s pleading gaze. For a while, the only sounds that could be heard in the live stream room were the sounds of everyone eating fruits and vegetables.

For the items they couldn’t finish, Xia Yaozhou thoughtfully helped them pack them into food storage bags, planning to carry them to the car and place them on the seats for them to eat.

Once everything was done, Xia Yaozhou trotted over with her short legs, clutching the basket, and rushed to Qin Zhijin to fish for a compliment. She showed the empty basket to the two adults, turning it upside down to show the bottom. “See, it’s all empty! I told you, a small thing like ‘clearing the plate,’ just leave it to me!”

“Wonderful!” Qin Zhijin specifically set down the coconut water in her hand to clap for Xia Yaozhou. Only after the child was so happy she couldn’t tell north from south did she pull Xia Yaozhou over and bring her to a stool to continue eating breakfast.

Because of the buzz from the teaser and the “tacky” promotional video, combined with the fact that the production team’s previous variety show was a massive hit, a lot of viewers were attracted. Old fans went straight to Xingkong Pictures’ own streaming platform to watch the live broadcast; the homepage featured the live rooms for all four families.

The first batch of people who flooded in couldn’t help but post question marks on the public screen when they saw the scene before them.

“I want to know if it’s necessary for these two families to be separate? Watching this, I really suspect they are one family; they even gave them two camera angles.”

“LMAO, I came here because of the teaser, but I didn’t expect the main show to be this funny too… So the camera crew brothers and sisters are just trash recycling bins? Having to help you eat raw tomatoes and cucumbers early in the morning, really thank you.”

“But she really is so cute. If it were me, I feel like I wouldn’t be able to refuse either.”

“I woke up late; I want to know if this is the same family? This family can have four people go at once?”

“No, it’s two families, but they’re neighbors! Why equip two camera crews when neighbors join a show together? Remove one and just let them share! Heehee (doge).”

More and more people flooded into the live room, and the topics of discussion became more and more skewed, but the four people at the center of the discussion were unaware—and even if they were, they wouldn’t care.

They were currently discussing whether to sit separately later or merge together. They were ruthlessly interrupted by the program team: “This is a variety show based on family units.”

The implication was: Look at yourselves, do you look like one family?

If it weren’t for the fact that they were sitting at the dining table eating breakfast together early in the morning, they would be one family!

Left with no choice, the four of them could only categorize themselves according to the original plan. Because they didn’t know what bad ideas the program team was harboring, Xia Shibai and Qin Zhijin both felt they should wait until the two families were complete before acting together; they couldn’t act on their own.

The vigilance of the two adults opened the eyes of the audience in the live room. New fans didn’t understand at all: Is this variety show really that terrifying? Old fans, however, thought back to the first variety show produced by the same team, which tortured the guests so much that they wanted to hit the director during the wrap party; everyone said in their individual live streams that it was a fate worse than death.

“They came here after doing their homework.”

“It should be fine since they’re bringing children, right? There’s no way the directing team would target kids, right?”

“Hard to say, they aren’t even human, hhhh.”

Xia Shibai carried the suitcases and bags to the two cars respectively. When she returned to the car, Xia Yaozhou was already sitting in the child seat swinging her legs, holding the Insect Adventure manga she’s been into lately. Flipping through it, Xia Yaozhou looked up at the Xia Shibai who had just entered the car: “Mommy, what will happen to the mint in the garden if we aren’t here?”

“I asked the flower shop lady boss to come and help us maintain it. Don’t worry; someone will take good care of the flowers you’re growing in water in the garden.”

“Really? Will they die?” Xia Yaozhou issued a voice of doubt. “After all, Mommy said before that she would grow mint, and didn’t you end up asking the lady boss for help anyway?”

“…Then why are you questioning if the lady boss can take good care of the flowers in the garden?”

“It’s different! When the lady boss grew mint, she dug up the ones Mommy planted and replanted them. Mine isn’t like that. Maybe my flowers ‘recognize their master’; without my care, they might die!” Xia Yaozhou closed her book righteously and began to unbuckle her seatbelt, wanting to get out of the car. “So I should stay at home; I need to take good care of my flowers! After all, Mommy said that if you raise something, you should take on the corresponding responsibility!”

Xia Shibai didn’t react at first. Her daughter wasn’t exactly someone who liked planting flowers—she even felt heartache that growing flowers would waste her tin cans. While her heart ached, she still painfully let Gu Mingyi cut her cans.

Why did she suddenly start questioning the lady boss’s professional level? And worrying about her water-grown flowers?

Watching Xia Yaozhou’s movement as she unbuckled the seatbelt as if fleeing, Xia Shibai understood instantly. Where was the “taking responsibility” and “tending flowers”? This was clearly a case of cold feet and not wanting to go. She hurriedly reached out and held down Xia Yaozhou’s hand that was unbuckling the belt, signaling the driver to start the car quickly.

“Weren’t you happy and wanting to go play yesterday? Why don’t you want to go today?”

“Mommy, I’m in a hurry; I have to go help Ultraman fight monsters.” Xia Yaozhou seriously pushed away Xia Shibai’s hand, struggling like a “carp leaping” to run outside, but she was pinned to the safety seat by one of Xia Shibai’s hands and couldn’t move.

“Mommy!”

“Tsk, calling me ‘mother’ won’t help.”

Seeing Xia Yaozhou’s eyes shifting slightly, Xia Shibai knew she must be hiding a little scheme and wasn’t telling. If it were usual, she would have already started clamoring at her about these things.

The car started moving. There was no way for Xia Yaozhou to jump out, so she could only give up.

Only then did Xia Shibai slowly start questioning her. “Weren’t you quite happy before about going out to play with Xiao Yi? Why don’t you want to go again today?”

“I don’t want to leave home.” Xia Yaozhou pouted and looked at Xia Shibai aggrievedly, as if Xia Shibai were a bad person “kidnapping” her away from home.

“Didn’t I tell you then that we were going out to stay somewhere else? You didn’t say you didn’t want to go?” Xia Shibai was puzzled. “Didn’t you also have a lot of fun when we went to the campsite last time?”

And she even scammed the other kids out of their money at the camp.

It was best if Xia Shibai just remembered this herself; she couldn’t say it in front of the national audience, otherwise, the netizens would dig the incident up.

“It’s just… just that I don’t want to do tasks; it will make me look very stupid.” Xia Yaozhou puffed out her cheeks, then quickly deflated again. she started counting her “great achievements” in the neighborhood on her fingers. Talking it over, it amounted to: the ones who used their brains were Little Ball and Xiao Yi, the one who used their mouth was Little Fat, and the one who used their hands was her.

“Going on the show means doing tasks. When the time comes and I can’t do them, everyone will know I’m a little dummy!” Xia Yaozhou said: “If I’m a dummy, Mommy might not like me anymore…”

Hearing this, Xia Shibai froze slightly, then turned to look at Xia Yaozhou, reaching out to affectionately pat her daughter’s head.

Just as the audience in front of the live camera and the cameraman all thought Xia Shibai was going to comfort Little Yaozhou and give a speech on maternal love to prove her child wasn’t as bad as she thought—

Xia Shibai opened her mouth and said: “Baby, though you are foolish, you truly are cute. As your mom, I can… tolerate it.”

If you were neither cute nor foolish, I’m afraid your mom would have to work until she died and never be able to retire.

“Everyone has their own strengths; it’s okay to be a bit dim.” Xia Shibai affirmed: “Your mom has money.”

Audience: “…”

Program Team: “…”

Hearing this, Xia Yaozhou felt even more depressed. She refused to speak to Xia Shibai, crossing her arms to isolate herself from her mother.

The car was silent for a good while before Xia Yaozhou turned her head to look at Xia Shibai. She bared her teeth in anger and said fiercely: “I am not a dummy! I am super smart! I can even calculate the double-digit addition and subtraction that Little Fat can’t do! I’m not stupid!”

“Oh.” Xia Shibai gave a soft hum, glanced at the child, and said sincerely: “Since we can make a living with our face, let’s not torture those few brain cells, lest you go bald at a young age.”

“Hiss—“

She was even angrier now and wanted to get out of the car even more.

Xia Yaozhou didn’t want to get off the car herself anymore; she wanted to kick Xia Shibai out.

She wanted to switch groups; she didn’t want to be with her own mother!