Yu Yaoyao blew a kiss facing the camera. “Honey, I am coming to get you!” she exclaimed and called a cab. She carried Little Bun, got inside and left.
Director Zhao, still scrolling through the comments, trembled with rage. He looked at the screen, at a smiling Yu Yaoyao and then at Shen Yichong. “YOU! This is cheating!” he yelled. Shen Yichong calmly raised an eyebrow and leaned back on the seat in the car. “The rule didn’t specify that we couldn’t pass notes,” he said, “Besides, I upheld my promise. I didn’t talk or interact with her when I went to the washroom. Other than that, I don’t remember you saying anything much.”
Director Zhao cursed. “That’s because there was neither pen nor paper given to you,” he said in annoyance, “How did you manage it?”
“I asked the flight attendant for one,” Shen Yichong said, calmly.
Director Zhao took a deep breath and fell back on the seat. He rubbed the bridge of his nose. The entire crew had been played by this couple. She had known that they were on the plane and stood back to watch them fret and run.
“We will change the spot,” Zhao Yu decided immediately, “The Binjiang Park you chose is obsolete.”
Shen Yichong was tearing the false beard from his jaw. He glanced at Zhao Yu. “Director, don’t fret so much. I didn’t disclose the location directly. I just left her with three words. There are at least four locations that match these words out of the eighteen iconic attractions,” he said, “I only narrowed it down for her without revealing everything.”
Director Zhao studied the map. He picked a pen and marked the map. ‘Meat, Hands-on, Flowers’ indeed matched four places: Self-service chocolate bar in River Valley Garden; A self-service barbecue in Binjiang Park; Buffet and Barbecue on Xingmei Avenue; and Flowers in the seafood market area near the Golden Coastline.
Among all these, Binjiang Park seemed like an unlikely choice that Yu Yaoyao would make. Director Zhao looked a little better. “That wasn’t so bad then.”
The show allocated 48 hours because they had expected the participants to miss their husbands every time. If Yu Yaoyao found Shen Yichong within 8 hours, it would be very embarrassing for the show.
“Hey, don’t tear your beard off.” Director Zhao, finally relieved, noticed Shen Yichong taking off his disguise.
“Director Zhao, do you think this disguise… is still useful?” asked Shen Yichong.
Director Zhao stared. The disguise was useless. Sigh. Yu Yaoyao had already caught them at it. Everyone watching this live laughed.
Director Zhao said, “I have told the staff to increase the difficulty in later stages. You are smart, Mr. Shen. But your wife is even smarter. We need something more difficult for this game.”
He had mixed feelings for this family. Of course, their antics had made his filming immensely aggravating, adding to the stress. But he was amused as well. The family had made the show very challenging and entertaining. Their popularity had skyrocketed even on weekdays. The platform and the show had never seen such traffic before.
Director Zhao wondered why people had viewed Yu Yaoyao as useless before. Every topic in the top-ten Weibo search featured her. Her extraordinary acting skills in the Excellent Diamond ad, her funny incident of the heat pack, and now her wit and street-smarts in ‘Wife and I’.
It wasn’t just Director Zhao who pondered on this, Yu Xinjie couldn’t believe Yu Yaoyao’s popularity. Yu yaoyao, the same big-breasted bitch who only had her looks and cried at the smallest problems in her life, thought Yu Xinjie. How the hell did this happen?
Yu Xinjie had no clue at all. She studied abroad and came back during the holidays. She had maintained contact with Yu Yaoyao but was unaware of her sudden rise to fame. Had this woman kept her in the dark? It must be it, thought Yu Xinjie.
She was confused seeing Shen Yichong. Her brother-in-law who had always hated her sister now seemed to hold her in his arms, talk to her softly, even blocked the reporters from pestering her.
A call interrupted her thoughts. She smiled when she saw the name of the caller. “Brother Chen Jiao! Yea, I was just watching my sister’s broadcast…”
She was always happy when Chen Jiao called. It made her day better. “Yes, it seems both my sister and brother-in-law have changed a lot. I was wondering why.”
“Well, I don’t know many couples so I can’t really say,” said Chen Jiao, “But maybe like your parents, they have grown to love each other. They have been together for five years, after all.”