‘Xu Duo’ stumbled along from her hometown of Lishu Village all the way to the city. She experienced many difficulties along the way that were really too hard to imagine.

Today, Lin Momo’s first scene was the one right after ‘Xu Duo’ arrived in the city.

From secretly entering the city stowed away on a truck, to being discovered by the truck driver and kicked out of his truck, the dazed and confused ‘Xu Duo’ walked along the city streets filled with many people.

The food she brought with her when she left home had long been eaten, and she’s been so hungry for who knows how long.

When ‘Xu Duo’ passed by a roadside steamed bun stall, an adult at the table was coaxing a child who was having a tantrum. The child raised his hands and struggled, knocking over the steamed buns and soy milk on the table. A steamed bun rolled down from the table onto the ground, right in front of ‘Xu Duo’.

Lin Momo started acting from there.

Seeing the bun rolling down in front of her, Lin Momo squatted down, her woven bag still hanging behind her.

The script said that ‘Xu Duo’ picked up the bun and ate it.

However, Lin Momo did not pick up the bun immediately but hesitated.

Outside the venue, seeing Lin Momo not picking up the bun, the assistant director frowned. “Why isn’t she picking it up?”

“Is it because it’s dirty?” the assistant director guessed. 

Just when the assistant director was about to stop shooting and talk to Lin Momo about the scene, he was stopped by the director who said, “Wait a minute.” 

The filming continued. Lin Momo did not immediately pick up the fallen bun on the ground. Instead, she looked around nervously, a little defensively, and then carefully glanced in the direction of customers who dropped the bun and then to the owner of the bun stall, confirming that the bun in front of her was not wanted anymore. 

Only after such careful actions did she reach out her hand and quickly picked up the bun.

Lin Momo clutched the bun tightly in her hand, stood up, and looked again at the owner of the bun stall. The actor who played the stall owner seemed stunned for a moment, then came to his senses and quickly got into the scene, waving his hand in a ‘shooing’ motion to tell Lin Momo to leave. 

Lin Momo then moved to the side, opened her hand and looked at the bun in her palm. This steamed bun looked very dirty, but in fact, the dust on the ground and on the steamed bun were all replaced by colored sugar specially prepared by the crew, and so it was not dirty at all. 

However, since it was mentioned in the script, Lin Momo still pretended that the bun was dirty. She used her fingers to remove some of the ‘gravel’ that had sunk into the skin of the bun, and then blew on the dirty areas with skillful movements. Then she tore off the parts of bun skin where it could be seen had the most dust and debris. 

Finally, she patted the bun, rubbed her hands, took the bun and bit into it. 

The white sugar bean paste filling was really a bit delicious. Lin Momo eyebrows unconsciously bent in happiness. 

Then the director shouted ‘Cut!’, and the filming for this scene ended.

The scene lasted less than ten minutes, and it went on in one breath without any pause in between. 

As the director clapped his hands, many people on the set also clapped their hands in appreciation. 

“That was great! Let’s do another!” the director said, standing up. “There’s nothing to criticize at all about this scene.” 

The entire 8-and-a-half-minute shot, although there were no major conflict points or dramatic expressions, was too natural. Every movement and gaze were so reasonable that people instinctively integrated their emotions into it, completely treating Lin Momo as ‘Xu Duo’ herself.

At that moment, the director looked at Lin Momo with a hint of pleased surprise in his eyes and sighed inwardly, “This child’s acting skills are really too good.”

… …

Not only the director but also the audience in the livestream channel all had similar thoughts.

Under the coordination between the drama’s film crew and the production team of [Living with Dad], a portion of the scenes filmed will be blurred by the production team but there would still be a portion that was allowed to be livestreamed. This could be considered as part of promotion.

So, the scene filmed just now was also shown in the livestream channel frame by frame.

[Oh my God! The scene Momo acted just now looked too real! ] 

[I cried when I saw her eating the dirty steamed bun!] 

[This acting skill is incredible.]

[I feel like Momo with her acting skills, she can kill most of the popular actors in an instant. ]

[Isn’t Lin Cheng a singer? Why is Momo’s acting skills so good? Did she receive any special training?] 

[Maybe Momo is a genius in this area! Ha ha ha ]

… …

Whether on the set or in the livestream channel, everyone was sighing with emotion at Lin Momo’s incredible acting skills. 

Only Lin Cheng knew that this was not his daughter acting at all.

Lin Momo was able to do this scene so realistically not because of ‘acting’. She herself must have done this exact same thing before—probably more than once.

Others couldn’t know how Lin Cheng was feeling in his heart at this moment.

… …

Li Jianhong walked up to Lin Cheng and talked about Lin Momo with a smile on his face, “Xiao Momo’s acting skills are really good, many veteran actors won’t be able to do it so naturally…”

Lin Cheng did not respond to the old man’s words. “I hope to make one request,” he said instead.

Hearing this, Li Jianhong was surprised and asked, “What is it?”

“Don’t let her know the truth of what happened and the true ending of this story,” Lin Cheng said.

Lin Cheng had looked into the real events that inspired the story behind ‘Xu Duo’ in this drama. In the end, ‘Xu Duo’ did not find her parents and younger brother. She was sent to the local rescue agency by the police. Soon after, the 9-year-old little girl also died, suffering from the same water-contaminated illness contracted by her younger brother and many others in their village.

Serve as Contrast Team in a ‘Dad with Baby’ Show translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

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T/N: At this point, I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve cried while reading and translating this story. So much fluff and also so much heartache 😔

Anyway, *sniffles*. If you’re enjoying my translations, do consider buying me ko-fi. For a small tip, you can get access to a lot of advance chapters from all the stories I’m translating.