On the other side, the Lin dad and daughter have arrived in City A.

As soon as Lin Cheng and Lin Momo got off the plane, the cameraman who was tasked to accompany them for the week began following them.

Seeing the Lin dad and daughter appear in the livestream, the audience who had been waiting in the livestream channel for quite a long time now suddenly became very excited.

[Ah ah ah, they’re here! They’re here!]

[The wait is over, they’re finally here!]

[It’s only been a day since I saw the good girl goose¹, and I already miss her a little.]

[Me too.]

… …

[Why does it feel like Momo is very happy?]

[Yes, I don’t see any tension or sadness on her face at all.]

[This was not the way I expected this episode to open.]

[This is not the style of a person about to beg for food]…

Everyone found that Lin Momo was half-skipping as she followed Lin Cheng out of the airport arrivals hall, muttering about something.

[Could it be that Lin Momo still doesn’t know what backgroud their family got this week?]

[wtf, it’s really possible!]

[Dear child, you must be so happy because you don’t know any better.]

[Hahaha, could it be that Lin Cheng didn’t know how to tell her and hadn’t told Momo about their family going bankrupt and now becoming beggars?]

… …

Everyone speculated like so but Lin Momo really didn’t know what kind of life they were about to start this week.

Time was tight this weekend, and Lin Cheng had been busy dealing with other matters. He indeed forgot to tell Lin Momo the result of Saturday night’s draw.

As for Lin Momo being so happy right now, it was entirely because she could work with her dad to earn money again. As for what job she would be doing, it didn’t matter to Lin Momo.

Lin Cheng and Lin Momo went outside the airport and got into the work vehicle arranged by the program team.

The car drove out of the airport and drove through the urbanized section of the city towards the older communities.

Lin Momo sat in the car, leaning on the window the whole way and looking at the road outside.

“The roads here are more complicated than the roads back there,” Lin Momo muttered to Lin Cheng, having come to this conclusion after a long time of watching out the window.

As if she didn’t need Lin Cheng’s reply, Lin Momo continued to stare out of the car window after speaking, writing down as many street signs and bus platform names she could see on the roadside. She also took note of the routes they had taken, and the wet markets and shopping malls they passed.

Suddenly thinking of something, Lin Momo turned to look at Lin Cheng and asked, “Dad, where will our family live this time?”

Hearing Lin Momo’s question, Lin Cheng’s face visibly stiffened.

“Xiangyang Street, behind Chaoyang Community,” Lin Cheng answered truthfully.

“Xiangyang Street? That’s this road right here!” Lin Momo said, pointing to the street sign outside. It really did say ‘Xiangyang Street’.

“‘Behind’ Chaoyang Community? Does it mean that the community we will live in is behind Chaoyang Community? Why doesn’t it have its own community name?” Lin Momo asked confusedly at the word ‘behind’.

“There is no community,” Lin Cheng said.

“What does that mean?” Lin Momo asked.

“It’s a temporary shantytown,” Lin Cheng replied.

Hearing Lin Cheng’s answer, Lin Momo immediately thought of that area next to one of the scrap recycling stations where she sometimes sold materials. It had a bunch of temporary shelters built with flimsy boards.

But this also made her more confused—after all, no matter what kind of work they did before, they always had a place to live.

“What work are we going to do this week?” Lin Momo asked. Suddenly there was an ominous premonition in her heart.

“There is no job,” Lin Cheng replied.

Lin Momo was stunned, “Ah?”

“The occupation we drew this time is ‘unemployed’,” Lin Cheng explained.

“Ah……”

Lin Momo lowered her head. “So there is no job…”

But after a moment, Lin Momo suddenly raised her head again, looked at Lin Cheng expectantly, and asked, “Then, does this mean we can do whatever we want to do this week?!”

“Dad, this way we can do the jobs we want to do!” Such as selling steamed buns or opening a small restaurant… she really liked doing those very much.

… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

Lin Momo’s excited appearance also caught the eyes of everyone in the livestream channel.

[What an optimistic Xiao Momo.]

[Looking at it from another direction, isn’t that the truth tho?]

[I like Momo’s optimism.]

[However, Momo probably doesn’t know that their family only has 37.5 yuan this week.]

[When she finds out, I think Momo will really have a headache.]

……

In the car, faced with Lin Momo’s question, Lin Cheng nodded and said, “It can be understood that way.”

However, the reality was probably not that optimistic—the prototype of this [Family Background] was ‘blind migration’. Without relevant documents and no fixed residence, it may be difficult for him to find a formal job.

Lin Cheng did not tell Lin Momo this yet.

… …

In the barrage area of the livestream channel, everyone has started brainstorming to help Lin Cheng and Lin Momo think about how to survive for a week with only 37 yuan and 5 jiao:

[This 37.5 yuan is really amazing, it’s not even enough for basic life.]

[Anyway, it’s only enough for one day.]

[Buy a cup of milk tea. Milk tea is high in calories. Ask the store for double sugar and double milk. I hope you can survive the week.]

[How about buying some goods to sell?] Someone suggested seriously.

[You need to pay the stall fee, otherwise you will be evicted if you just set up a stall casually. And what kind of goods can be purchased at 37.5?]

[Get some cell phone screen protectors and sell them on the overpass.]

[There is no market for screen protectors right now…]

[How about buying a bowl and going to the overpass to beg for food…[dog head]]

After some research, everyone finally came up with an optimal solution:

[I think the best plan is to buy 6 bottles of water and 14 packs of crispy noodles for 37.5, and then lie down in their wooden house for a week doing nothing to save energy and work hard to get through the week.]

[That makes sense. I would do the same thing if it were me, to save energy and travel expenses.]

[I can’t think of anything better than this.]

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

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T/N: The ‘blind migration’ here is the literal translation of 盲流 or ‘mang liu’. It’s a modern PRC phenomenon where people from the rural areas ‘blindly’ migrate to the urban areas seeking better life prospects, abandoning their rural household registration.

When you read those 60’s, 70’s, or 80’s era c-novels, you’d see the characters trying to move from the rural villages to the cities. The household registration system divides families into ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ dwellers, with each category getting different rights and benefits (urban registrations could get pension and housing subsidy, for example). You can read up on the political and societal implications yourself (including how minority ethnic groups were contained within their ancestral land) but the net effect was a caste system and marked inequality between groups. The rules have been relaxed recently and in 2014, the dual category has been abolished.

As for Lin Cheng’s Family Background this week, as a ‘blind migrant‘ he doesn’t have a household registration for the city where they are now and he cannot get a residency permit. He cannot have a permanent dwelling or apply for a reputable job. If they had to live this life indefinitely, even Lin Momo’s schooling would be affected.

Lin Momo’s life with her grandmother is already considered poor, but they both had local, non-rural household registration so they have a house, grandma had a pension, could go to the hospital for her injured leg, people from the community center would do house visits and give them fruits, and Lin Momo could go to school. Lin Momo, as a foundling, was originally unregistered, but her grandma was able to avail of late registration process for her.

FOOTNOTE:

1. This is a cutesy way of calling someone ‘daughter’ on the internet. 女鹅 literally translates to ‘female goose’ and it kinda sounds similar to 女儿 which means ‘daughter’. ↩︎