CH 49

The first thing that came to Li Chengsi's mind when he heard the word "backdoor" was the President Yu who visited the little monk during the filming of "Infinite Challenge" and revealed that they were neighbors and good friends with each other.

He asked cautiously, "Are you talking about Mr. Yu?"

Lian Qing nodded heavily, "Yes, he invited me to participate in the program."

Li Chengsi couldn't help but laugh and shake his head, "He's really good to you. But you can't use the word 'back door' carelessly, others might misunderstand."

Lian Qing didn't understand, "Misunderstand what?"

"People might think you're involved in some hidden rules or being kept by someone," Li Chengsi explained.

"Huh?" Could anyone really think that? Lian Qing was surprised. As a young and able-bodied man, did he need to be kept by someone else?

Seeing his expression, Li Chengsi knew that Lian Qing didn't realize this aspect. So he kindly patted Lian Qing's shoulder and said seriously, "Little Monk, I've been in this industry for many years and I've seen it all! If you say something like that to someone else, they might think that way. As a result, all your future achievements might be attributed to Mr. Yu, and people might think that he spent money to help you achieve them."

"By then, all your efforts won't be recognized, and many people will think that your achievements are not based on your own abilities. Do you understand what I mean?"

Lian Qing looked at him blankly for a while before nodding, "I understand."

"So, what are you going to do in the future? Ideally, you should keep a distance from Mr. Yu to avoid the possibility of being talked about by others," Li Chengsi suggested.

Lian Qing scratched his nose and said, "Actually, I think it would be great if my big brother could help me take a shortcut. If he keeps being my backdoor and helps me, I can earn my ideal savings earlier..."

Then he would retire and buy a house and a car. He would pick up and drop off his little shidi from school every day, and take him out to play when school was out. When his little shidi graduates from college, he would return to Sanlian Temple and continue to be a monk... Oh, before that, he had to eat all the delicious meat products in the world first!

Think about it, life is quite beautiful. Unfortunately, his older brother couldn't always let him cling to his thigh, and he didn't want to keep bothering him.

"I still think it feels good to have connections. As long as others don't say it in front of me, I won't be influenced."

Li Chengsi: "..." How should he respond to this?

He sighed helplessly and looked down at the lbaby monk next to Lian Qing. Seeing the little guy puffing his chest out and having the same little pride as Lian Qing, Li Chengsi couldn't help but ask, "Xiao Shidi, do you know what having a backdoor means?"

The baby monk shook his head. "I don't know."

"Then what are you proud of?"

"I'm proud of whatever my shixiong is proud of." The little guy answered seriously. He didn't understand what having a backdoor meant, but since his shixiong could be proud of it, it must be a good thing.

"Hey, you little guy, you're quite smart." Li Chengsi patted his little bald head and said to Lian Qing, "They will put a microphone on you later. Don't talk nonsense or you'll attract trouble."

"Okay, thank you, Brother Li." Lian Qing replied with a smile. He knew that Brother Li was looking out for him. Speaking of which, he got along well with the older brothers from "Infinite Challenge." They all treated him as a half-grown child and occasionally gave him some advice or shared their experiences in the WeChat group. Some of these seniors' words or experiences were quite useful to Lian Qing.

Brother Li pulled him and the little shidi to chat with his daughter Lele. Occasionally, other adults and children would join in, and everyone would chat and laugh together. At least on the surface, they were getting along harmoniously.

These pairs of father and son/daughter included Li Chengsi and his four-year-old daughter Lele, veteran singer Chen Yi and his son Cheng Zhi, and a relatively young actor Wu Xiangling, who brought his twin children, a daughter named Tuantuan and a son named Yuanyuan.

All the children only called each other by their nicknames, and their ages were between four and five years old. All the fathers were over thirty. Li Chengsi and Chen Yi were even at an age where they could be Lian Qing's father. Therefore, everyone couldn't help treating Lian Qing as a half-grown child.

After chatting for a while, Fang Yang came back with a small speaker in his hand and said to everyone, "As usual, kids, hand over your favorite things first."

All the kids groaned, and Lele even tried to bargain with Fang Yang, but to no avail.

In the end, with the help of their fathers, all the children handed over the things they had hidden in their suitcases. Only Lian Qing stood still in confusion, looking dazed with his innocent face. Meanwhile, his little shidi held onto his thigh tightly and did not move.

This situation seemed a bit strange, so Fang Yang walked over and asked the baby monk, "Xiao Shidi, everyone has handed over the things they like. How about you?"

"No!" Lian Sang shook his head and firmly held onto his shixiong’s thigh.

Fang Yang patiently asked, "Why not? Everyone else has handed over their favorite things. Even if you really like something, you still need to follow the rules and hand it over. We'll give it back to you after the program ends."

The baby monk glared at Fang Yang and said stubbornly, "I won't give it up!"

Fang Yang looked at Lian Qing and said, "Little Monk, can you persuade your shidi?"

Lian Qing hadn't figured out what the program group wanted them to hand over, but he still looked down and turned to his shidi.

The little guy saw his shixiong looking at him and immediately puffed up his face and said in a soft, pitiful voice, "I don't want to hand over my shixiong!" His favorite thing was his senior brother! How could he hand him over?

These words immediately melted Lian Qing's heart, and he immediately hugged his little shidi and gave him a big kiss on his bald head.

"Muah~"

After the kiss, he coaxed, "Be good, they didn't ask you to hand over your shixiong."

Lian Sang didn't understand and asked, "But weren't we supposed to hand over our favorite things? I like my shixiong the most..."

Lian Qing realized he had misspoken, but it was too late. The other fathers and Fang Yang chuckled, and Lian Qing had to pretend he didn't notice and continue to tell his little shidi, "Your shixiong is a person, not a thing. You don't have to hand him over."

"Really?"

"Really, Shixiong swears!"

The little one breathed a sigh of relief and said in a childish voice, "You scared me."

Fang Yang held back a laugh and said, "Sorry, Xiao Shidi, I didn't make myself clear. What I meant was that besides daily necessities and clothes, everything else in your luggage needs to be handed over, including snacks and toys."

For children, their favorite things are snacks and toys. The show requests that guests and children hand them over every episode, but every time the children come over, knowing that they will be confiscated, they still sneakily bring these things. Therefore, Fang Yang directly told them to hand over their favorite things in these two episodes, and the children understood immediately.

He forgot that it was the first time for Xiao Sang to participate in the show, and he naturally misunderstood. But what he didn't expect was that when the little one heard the words "favorite thing," he thought of his shixiong. It can be seen that the relationship between these two brothers is not much worse than that of a father and son.

The baby monk waved his hand with a commanding air and said, "Except for Shixiong, everything can be taken away."

Lian Qing quickly pulled his little hand back and said, "No, there are some snacks in there. Let's take them out and eat them first."

"Shixiong, eating snacks will cause tooth decay!" Especially since he couldn't eat many of his shixiong's favorite snacks, he was too young.

"But your little pudding is in there too!"

"What? Shixiong, why did you put my little pudding in there? Take it out, let's eat it..."

As the two brothers talked, they dug out the snacks from the suitcase and shared them with the dads and children. This scene made everyone laugh, it really was a pair of brothers!

After eating the snacks, someone came over to collect their phones and said they would return them before bedtime, and then collect them again the next morning.

This time, no one had any objections, and the phones were collected quickly. Then Fang Yang led them to a flat area and said, "Now, we're going to let our babies and dads complete our first task. The first one to finish will have the priority to choose the house."

The first task of this type of program usually doesn't have much difficulty, just having a few adults do twenty push-ups while the child counts beside them. If they count wrong, they start over until they get it right. The first to finish can choose the house first.

Before the task began, Fang Yang asked Xiao Sang, "Do you know how to count pairs?" The other children had all gone to kindergarten, but this one hadn't reached that age yet, so Fang Yang was a bit worried that this game would turn into a black hole.

Lian Sang confidently nodded and said, "I know, shixiong taught me!"

Fang Yang was skeptical, but returned to his original position and shouted to start.

To his surprise, Lian Qing did the push-ups at an extremely fast speed, and Xiao Sang counted beside him, keeping up with the speed and making no mistakes. It was just that their efficiency was too high, and the other children around them were influenced and made mistakes or stopped counting, to the point where they accidentally tripped up their own dads.

While the other fathers were in *deep water and fire, the culprits, the Lian brothers, had already come to Fang Yang and started choosing their house.

"水深火热" (shuǐ shēn huǒ rè) is a Chinese idiom that means being in a very difficult or dangerous situation. It literally translates to "deep water and hot fire."

In front of them were quite a few photos, all of which only captured a corner of the house. Even though Lian Qing allowed Lian Sang to choose directly, the little one looked around and picked up the most inconspicuous one, saying, "This one, it has a flower on it."

Lian Qing took a glance at the photo, a small pink flower growing in between the green moss on the bricks, feeling a bit helpless. After all, it was chosen by his own child, and even if it seemed inferior to the other houses on the surface, he could only accept it.

Following the directions of the signposts, they quickly arrived at the house they chose. To their surprise, this house was much better than they imagined - spacious and bright, clean and tidy. The bed in the room was an antique wooden bed, which looked quite large.

Much better than expected! Lian Qing put his things away, chatted with his shidi, and then took the child back to the previous gathering place.

Fang Yang had been waiting there all along, and there were still quite a few elderly people sitting behind him. When all the guests had arrived, Fang Yang took the microphone and said, "Next, your task is to sing for these elders to listen to. Each of them has a vote, which will be cast after everyone has performed. The quality of your lunch depends on the number of votes you get! The highest number of votes will get three meat dishes and one vegetarian dish. The second-place will get two meat dishes and one vegetarian dish; the third-place will get one meat dish and one vegetarian dish, while the last-place will only get one vegetarian dish!"

Lian Sang tugged at his senior brother's clothes and blinked his big eyes pitifully, "Shixiong, don't let us be last. I want to eat meat."

Almost on the verge of tears, but definitely not touched, Lian Qing said with a helpless expression, "I want to eat too..." but he couldn't sing! This round of the game was just there to defeat him!

"What should we do? We won't have any meat to eat..." Lian Sang's eyes were almost red. He followed his shixiong to eat chicken rice on the road during the day, and had hot pot at night, which made him deeply obsessed with meat. If he couldn't eat meat today, he would cry.

Lian Qing patted his little bald head, his brain quickly spinning.

Little stars? No, Lele is already yelling to sing that with Brother Li. National anthem and the like wouldn't do, it couldn't be sung casually. He didn't know any pop music, but he knew some old songs, but he couldn't remember the lyrics. Then...what else?

Sing, sing...

Lian Qing's eyes lit up, he clapped his hands together, "I've got it!" Looking down at his shidi, "We won't sing songs, we'll chant sutras!"

Lian Sang's black grape-like eyes immediately filled with admiration, "Shixiong, you're so smart!"

Lian Qing proudly raised his chin, they couldn't sing, but they could chant sutras!

TN: On another episode of the little monk being musically challenged. At least this time he has a tiny monk to keep him company.