[Xiaoxi is really brilliant!]
[You can write classical poetry and do maths with ease, Xiaoxi, you’re just like the perfect child everyone else is compared to!]
[Smart, a top student, attentive, thoughtful and quick on the uptake. Seriously, does our Xiaoxi have any flaws?]
[So far, it seems… I really haven’t spotted any!]
[Mainly, Xiaoxi has a lovely personality too, and gets on really well with everyone.]
[Isn’t that brilliant? That’s absolutely marvelous! He’s practically the group’s darling!]
[Hahahaha, Nan Nan’s still holding onto Xiaoxi’s hand!]
“Very good, very good! You’re certainly perceptive~” The voice from earlier rang out again. “Since you’re so perceptive, I’ll let you in on a little secret~”
“Is it the password to the lock?” Tao Tao asked excitedly.
“Hahaha, there’s no password at all. This chest is full of stones, there aren’t any treasures in it. The real treasure is further ahead.”
“Huh?” Zhang Ning exclaimed in surprise.
“Carry on walking, and you’ll see a shovel. I’ve buried the treasure chest underground. Whether you find it or not depends on your luck~”
Having said that, the voice fell silent.
“So what’s in this box isn’t treasure, it’s stones.” Yang Shu concluded. “We’ll have to keep going forward to find the real treasure chest.”
“Let’s go, then,” Tao Tao said boldly.
Zhang Ning once again led everyone forward.
Ye Qingxi followed them, shining his flashlight ahead and keeping a constant watch on his surroundings, afraid of missing the shovel or any other scattered ‘treasures’,
They hadn’t gone far when he spotted the spade the production team had left there.
“The shovel,” he quickly said.
Zhang Ning looked in the direction of his flashlight and exclaimed with surprise, “It’s really there!”
He quickly ran over and picked up the shovel.
But the very next second, Zhang Ning felt a bit confused. “He only said that the treasure chest is buried underground. This place is so big, how are we supposed to find it?”
“It should be somewhere near shovel,” said Ye Qingxi. “Everyone, have a good look around and see if there’s anywhere that looks as though something’s been buried there.”
“Alright,” the others chimed in unison.
However, He Lei scratched her head, wondering how she could tell if a spot looked as though something had been buried there?
Finding treasure really is difficult~
What seemed like a daunting task for the four-and-a-half-year-old He Lei was no challenge at all for Ye Qingxi.
He was well aware that all this had been arranged by the production team, and since they knew they were just children, they wouldn’t make it too difficult for them. Where the shovel is, the treasure chest would definitely be nearby.
Even if in the worst case, they really couldn’t find it, there would definitely be a clue.
In the end, they would definitely return carrying the treasure.
So Ye Qingxi kept his head down, using the shovel as the center point and a two-metre radius, searching meticulously, inch by inch.
Huo Zinan followed him, silently looking—though he felt he couldn’t see anything. But sing Ye Qingxi was looking, he decided to look too.
Zhang Ning searched everywhere but couldn’t find any signs of hidden treasure, so he simply took the shovel and started digging here and there.
“This feels a bit difficult for them.” Zhang Ye sighed.
“There should be other clues, right?” said Tao Rui. “We’ve come this far, we can’t let the children return empty-handed.”
Mu Shaowu nodded.
The programme director watched and asked the crew in charge of the voices in the cave to get ready, and the mic would be set in three minutes.
—He had long since realized that this group of children wouldn’t be able to find it, and had already made his own plans.
After all, guiding them to the location of the real chest is the second challenge. Finding the chest is the final challenge.
Such a big hole, and them being so small, how could they possibly find where the box was buried? Impossible!
Absolutely impossible!
The director was smiling when he suddenly heard Ye Qingxi call out: “Zhang Ning-ge, come and dig here.”
The director glanced at the spot he was pointing at, and instantly: ! ! !
No way!
How did he spot that? !
This can’t be!
Zhang Ning, hearing Ye Qingxi call out to him, grabbed the shovel and ran over.
The others gathered round as well.
Tao Tao was puzzled. “Xiaoxi, why are we digging here?”
It didn’t look like a place where treasure would be buried.
“Because the soil here is wet,” Ye Qingxi explained. “The soil everywhere else is dry, but this spot is different, so I think something might be buried here.”
Director: ……
“And it’s summer now,” added Ye Qingxi. “Everything dries out quickly, so the fact that this spot is still wet and hasn’t dried out yet suggests it didn’t get wet a long time ago, but only just got wet. Maybe it got wet when the treasure was buried and it hasn’t had time to dry yet.”
Tao Tao suddenly understood: “Xiaoxi, you’re right!”
Director: .…….
No, kid, do you really have to be this smart!
The director was completely troubled.
These were markers deliberately left by the production team, each with its own distinctive characteristics, but not easily spotted.
In fact, because it was summer and the ground dried out too quickly during the day, they had specifically wet this patch of ground after sunset, before the babies arrived, to ensure it would still be wet when they reached it.
But now Ye Qingxi had guessed their intentions so easily…
This was completely unreasonable!
Seeing this, the member of staff in charge of the voice over for the cave hesitantly asked, “Director Wang, should I keep my microphone on for now?”
Director Wang: …
“Why would you? He’s already found it, does he still need our clues?!”
Staff:…. So, is he off work for the day?
The director simply couldn’t understand.
“Are kids these days really that clever?” he asked his assistant standing beside him.
The assistant was equally baffled. “They are quite clever, but I’ve never seen one this sharp.”
Mainly, he’s very logical and his thinking is very structured, that’s quite rare for a child.
After listening to Ye Qingxi, Zhang Ning also felt that he was right.
He quickly swung his shovel and began digging.
As he dug, the shovel suddenly seemed to hit something, making a ‘thunk’ noise.
Zhang Ning: ! ! !
“There’s something here!” Zhang Ning said happily. “Xiaoxi, you’re brilliant! You’re just too smart.”
Tao Tao looked at him eagerly, wanting his mind even more.
Seeing this, the viewers in the livestream chat exclaimed in surprise: [No way, is it really down here?!]
[Wow! Xiaoxi, you’re something else!]
[Xiaoxi’s really does have an impressive mind!]
[Actually, when he was analyzing it just now, I thought his reasoning made quite a lot of sense.]
[Mainly because there aren’t any special markings in this cave, that couldn’t be right. They can’t very well be expected to dig all over the place, right? So the soil in that spot is different from the rest, which actually serves as a distinctive marker.]
[But this doesn’t feel like something someone of Xiaoxi’s age would think of!]
[I have a reasonable suspicion that this must be another challenge as well. Otherwise, they’d have got the treasure after only two challenges. Isn’t it usually three challenges?]
[It can’t be four challenges, so that would mean Xiaoxi has…]
[Just wiped out the programme’s third challenge in one go?]
[Hahahaha, our Xiaoxi isn’t that bold, is he!]
However, as soon as Zhang Ning swung his shovel, the treasure chest was slowly revealed.
The children: !!!
Livestream viewers: !!!
Dads in the monitoring room: !!!
“Xiaoxi really was right.” Zhang Ye said in shock.
“Xiaoxi is so smart.” Yang Jin said in admiration.
Tao Rui looked at Mu Shaowu beside him. “If Tao Tao had even a fraction of Xiaoxi’s insight, I can’t even imagine how happy a father I’d be.”
Mu Shaowu hadn’t expected things to turn out this way either.
But then again, his son is a genius!
Therefore Mu Shaowu accepted all these compliments without hesitation.
Not only did he accept them, but he also bluntly declared, “That’s just how Xiaoxi is—he’s incredibly smart. You guys don’t know it, but he’s full of clever tricks. I have no idea what’s going on in that little brain of his. Sometimes even I, his father, can’t keep up with him.”
[Hahahaha, someone’s tail is wagging again!
[Mu Shaowu: When it comes to talking about my son, I’m a pro!]
[Mu Shaowu really is something—the moment someone praises his son, he lights up with joy!]
[Strongly recommend that anyone who wants to chat with Mu Shaowu but doesn’t know how to start should just praise his son directly. No need to go through the motions; as long as you compliment him, Mu Shaowu will start smiling.]
[Now who can say our Mu Shaowu isn’t naturally cheerful?]
Just then, the production team posted an official update on Weibo.
《Look, Daddy!》: 【The treasure hunt was originally supposed to have three rounds, but as you can see, the third round is gone [face palm].】
Netizens who hadn’t had a chance to watch the livestream asked in confusion: 【Why?】
Those who had watched the livestream burst out laughing: 【Because Xiaoxi wiped it out!】
【Huh?】 The netizens who hadn’t watched the livestream were puzzled.
A viewer who had watched the livestream replied: 【Hahaha, just watch it and you’ll see—baby Xiaoxi is just too clever!】
Someone in the livestream comments section quickly reported: [Breaking news! The production team posted on Weibo. There were indeed supposed to be three challenges. The final round was supposed to be finding the box. Just like the first two rounds, where staff would make speak up to test them, then give them a hint about where the box was buried. But now, it’s gone (laughing crying face)]
[Hahahaha, so that’s really what happened!]
[This is killing me. I knew they wouldn’t just let them dig around randomly all over the cave, they were definitely going to give them a hint.]
[Production team: I will remember you, Ye Qingxi! I will remember you for a lifetime!]
[Xiaoxi is so smart, shouldn’t you remember him for a lifetime? I’ll definitely remember him!]
[Baby Ye Qingxi, truly a challenge for the helpless production team~]
Ye Qingxi, who had the production team stumped, was now reaching out at that moment, ready to work with his friends to lift the box.
They counted “one, two, three,” pulled together with all their might, grabbed the handles on the box, and lifted it onto the ground.
It was a wooden box, not very large, with a lock on it. However, if you looked close, you’d notice the lock wasn’t closed and could be easily removed.
Ye Qingxi took off the lock and pulled the chest open. Curious, everyone peeked over and saw that the chest was filled with many things.
“It’s the same bear that we saw before,” Zhang Ning said.
“Same with the slingshot.” Ye Qingxi said.
“And there’s a toy gun!” Tao Tao said happily.
He Lei stared intently at a Barbie doll inside, unable to take her eyes off of it.
Huo Zinan, meanwhile, looked at the firetruck next to the Barbie doll.
“Then let’s divide up the items, everyone.” Zhang Ning suggested.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
“Xiaoxi, you found the treasure chest, so you can pick first.” Zhang Ning spoke up first, as the oldest among them and the one who had led the way the entire journey.
After saying that, he asked the others beside him, “What do you think?”
“Okay.” Everyone agreed together. Without Ye Qingxi, they wouldn’t have been able to find this box, and naturally there would be no treasure, so nobody had any objections.
Ye Qingxi:…
Ye Qingxi didn’t really have anything he wanted.
In his heart, he was long past the age of playing with things like this. On top of that, everyone in the Mu family thought he was only five years old, and the toys they’d bought for him could fill his bedroom, a room he’d barely lived in for a single day since it was renovated, so Ye Qingxi certainly wasn’t short on toys.
But he didn’t want to dampen everyone’s spirits, so he thought for a moment and pulled the slingshot out of the box.
“I’ll take this,” he said.
The viewers in the livestream were a bit surprised: [He doesn’t even want the gun?]
[Or the fire truck.]
[Just a slingshot? That’s such an ordinary slingshot.]
[Is Xiaoxi doing this on purpose? Picking something that nobody would normally choose, so the things everyone actually likes stay in the box.]
[Wuwuwuwu, why is my little treasure so well behaved!]
[If it were anyone else, I wouldn’t be so sure, but with Xiaoxi, it’s definitely possible.]
[Xiaoxi is really… so considerate!]
[He’s so young, yet he’s so kind! It makes my heart ache!]
[Our Xiaoxi really is such a caring baby!]
[Everyone else: Nothing in this world is perfect! Me: Xiaoxi is!]
[I really hope our little one only meets good people in the future! Otherwise, with his personality, he’s bound to get taken advantage of.]
[He will, he will—he definitely will!]
Zhang Ning was a little surprised to see him pick up the slingshot.
“Is this all you want?” he asked.
Ye Qingxi nodded.
Zhang Ning: ……
Zhang Ning thought he really was being modest.
“All right, then,” Zhang Ning said. “Who else wants this teddy bear? There are two of them in total.”
Yang Shu hurriedly raised her hand, and Tao Tao raised his as well.
Zhang Ning then handed out the two toys, one by one.
Next came the gun, the fire truck, and the panda LEGO set buried under the toys.
He Lei wanted the Barbie doll, so the little rabbit diamond bracelet was naturally given to Yang Shu.
Yang Shu sincerely thanked her, and to Ye Qingxi who had found the bracelet, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Ye Qingxi said with a smile.
Once they’d divided up everything inside the treasure chest and the items they’d picked up earlier, everyone moved away from their current location and continued onward.
By the time they emerged from the cave, it was already dark out.
Ye Qingxi looked up and saw a sky full of stars.
“It’s so beautiful,” he couldn’t help but sigh.
The others followed his lead and looked up as well.
“We couldn’t see this many stars back at my house,” Zhang Ning said.
“We couldn’t see them at my house either,” Tao Tao agreed.
“Then I’ll shoot a few big ones down for everyone, and we’ll each take one home!”
As Zhang Ning spoke, he pulled out the pebbles he’d been keeping in his pocket and flung it toward the night sky.
He provided his own sound effects: “Pow! Whoosh!” which nearly made Ye Qingxi burst out laughing.
He looked at Zhang Ning, then at the others standing beside him, and finally gazed up at the star-studded night sky.
Although they were filming a show, and although before coming here, his only thought had been to stop He Yao from gaining fans—and ideally help Mu Shaowu gain fans instead…
But now that he was actually here, spending time with these kids around him, Ye Qingxi felt as if he was, in fact, quite happy after all.
They were all still young and innocent; despite their various personalities, they were all very pure-hearted children.
They would all come close to him and hold his hand.
It felt as if he had made some new friends.
Author’s note:
Director: Xiaoxi, next time, save your sharp mind, okay? It’s a shame to waste such a clever brain here.
Mu Shaowu: Say it again, I’ll record it for his grandfather.
Director: !! Xiaoxi, you’re amazing! You’re really smart! If my Dad had a grandson like you, I wouldn’t dare imagine how happy he would be!
Mu Feng: ……
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