Chapter 43

Not until the sun set behind the mountains did the daddy's finally take off their boots and wait by the stream to wash the mud off their hands. Other than the sweat and slightly reddened skin from being in the sun, they looked no different than when they had left home.

Especially Lin Yan, who was the only daddy who didn't find the protective clothing cumbersome and planted rice seedlings.

Ji Mochen, Lin Yan and Fan Hongru were supposed to have finished first, but seeing that the two older brothers were struggling a bit, they stayed to help out, which led to the scene of the five daddies coming back together.

"We finally completed the task. I wonder how the kids did with their mission," said Fan Hongru as he wiped the water from his face, extremely worried about his little devil at home.

"Pfft, what's there to worry about? They just played some games. You really expect the kids to have gotten any ingredients?" Ji Mochen said indifferently. He only cared if his daughter had fun playing.

"You're right."

...

"Daddy!"

The daddies had just gotten close to the village chief's house when they heard a joyful call. Looking back, it was Fan Jin, who couldn't sit still as usual.

And with his shout, all the kids in the yard instantly poured out, each running towards their own daddy - except...

"Ruochu! Daddy's back!"

After waiting a while without seeing his daughter, Ji Mochen consciously walked into the yard.

Just as he reached the gate, he saw five half-person-tall small tables set up in the middle of the yard. Each table was covered with a red cloth, and had a small basket and other ingredients on top.

"Hm? Where's my girl?"

Ji Mochen looked around but still didn't see his daughter. "Did she go back?" he wondered.

That wouldn't be like the program team's style.

"I'm here!"

Suddenly, a fair little hand stretched out from above the basket on the leftmost table. Ji Mochen hurried over to find his well-behaved daughter sitting on a stool.

The little one had one hand propping up the table while the other reached up with effort, her small face flushed from exertion.

Only then did Ji Mochen realize why his daughter hadn't come out - the chair was too tall for her short legs to easily get down from. "My good girl." Ji Mochen quickly went up and immediately picked up his daughter. "Are you tired? Did you have fun playing today--"

"Wahhh...Daddy, I have poop on me!"

Before Ji Mochen could get a response about his daughter's well-being, he was shocked by Lin Xindi's earth-shatteringly loud cries.

"Huh?"

On the other side, Lin Yan was also surprised. His hand holding his son relaxed a bit, naturally placing him on the ground, and he turned to ask the program team, "Did he poop his pants?"

This would be terrible. Would the other kids at preschool laugh at him in the future?

Everyone: ...

"No, it's duck poop," Geng Zhenzhen next to them explained.

"Uncle, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to." Fan Jin immediately came up. "I wanted to help my brother complete the task, but I accidentally..."

"Brother Fan Jin was learning from Sister Ruochu how to sweep, but he used too much force and swept the duck poop up into the air, and it all landed on Brother Xindi's head..." Mao Ziqing softly explained to her dad.

Sweep?

Duck poop?

What was going on?

After some explaining by the director's team, the daddies finally understood what had happened.

"Pfft, I thought it was something big. It's no big deal, when we get home daddy will wash you up nice and clean," Lin Yan comforted, and went on to praise, "Our Xindi also went to complete the sweeping task today, hmm?"

"Mm!" Attention successfully diverted, Lin Xindi nodded heavily.

Although he was extremely disgusted at first, with encouragement from the staff and help from the other kids, he had also gone to sweep.

But he had just started when Fan Jin fiercely swept up the duck poop like a gale force wind, and it all landed on Xindi's head...he cried terribly.

"Did any get on you?" Ji Mochen lowered his head to sniff his daughter's hair, extremely worried. "Daddy said you didn't have to do the task, just play."

No joke, nothing was more important than his daughter.

Ji Ruochu shook her head. She had reacted quickly - as soon as Fan Jin lifted his hand she had run away, even pulling Geng Zhenzhen and Mao Ziqing with her.

It was just that Lin Xindi was more miserable. He had just overcome difficulties to be independent, and got a face and body full of poop...tsk tsk, too miserable.

"That's good then." Ji Mochen patted her little head, his eyes glancing around. "But why do you have so many ingredients on your table?"

Wow, there were a total of five tables, and his daughter's was piled the highest.

The basket held two chicken eggs, two duck eggs, next to it was a bunch of bok choy, and next to the bok choy was a slab of pork and chicken, plus two carrots - very abundant ingredients.

"Brothers and sisters gave them to me." Ji Ruochu grinned and asked back, "What did Daddy get?" Ji Mochen: ...had an ominous feeling.

"We have to wait for the program team uncles and aunties to announce that, but Daddy was the first to complete the task!" The old dad forcibly maintained his dignity.

"Wow, you're so great!"

【Hahaha, she's just humoring him right? She's obviously just humoring him right?】

【Goodness, she just barely stopped herself from showing her skepticism on her face.】

【So what did the program team prepare for the daddies? Can't wait to find out!】

"Congratulations to the daddies and babies for over completing today's tasks!"

Village Chief Xu Chuan's voice rang out, and the five family members consciously stood in front of their own small tables.

"Next, we will reveal what ingredients the daddies earned from their labor today."

At this, the children's eyes widened as they looked towards the long table behind the village chief, where each plate on the table was covered by a bowl.

Of course, except Ji Ruochu, since she already had all the ingredient types, even giving some back, otherwise she would have had more.

"The first to complete today's rice planting task iiiiis...Ruochu's daddy!"

"Ahhh!"

The kids clapped very cooperatively, while Ji Ruochu casually clapped a couple times.

"Now, Ruochu's daddy can choose three ingredients from all the options."

After he finished speaking, the staff came up and uncovered all the lids. The aroma instantly drifted over - the cooked dishes were roast duck, braised pork trotters, steamed fish, fermented black bean stewed pork ribs, shrimp dumplings, and the raw ingredients were soybeans, noodles, rice, and millet.

After discussing, the father-daughter pair took soybeans, roast duck, and shrimp dumplings.

Lin Yan and Fan Hongru could each take two dishes. By the time it got to Geng Ming and Mao Zhu, there was only rice and millet left on the table, since there were still a lot of staples left over from yesterday, mainly a lack of side dishes.

Although Mao Ziqing and Geng Zhenzhen were a little disappointed, they obediently told their dads it was fine, they still had ingredients.

Luckily earlier Ruochu had suggested everyone take different ingredients, then exchange some with each other.

Therefore, after the last two got their task rewards and gave some to Ji Ruochu, they each exchanged a bit.

【Hmm...actually I want to say, since Ruochu already has so many ingredients, they don't need to take the reward, they can't eat it all anyway, just taking the soybeans is fine.】

【I disagree. They won fair and square, why not take it?】

【Right, not only was Ji Mochen the first to finish the task, he also helped the other two daddies work.】

【We can't force morals here, it's all by ability. Who knows, Ji's family might end up last in the future. 】

...