The community space in Chaoyang Community and the shanty town that grew on the idle land behind it were originally separated by a cement wall.

But over time, most of the wall had collapsed and it now had several large, artificially-made holes with only a few planks nailed across the middle at intervals.

Through these large holes in the cement wall, you can see the mess on the other side.

“That’s it,” the aunt who brought Lin Cheng and Lin Momo inside pointed towards the direction ahead.

“This area was originally part of our community. There were already about five or six three- and four-story houses built. They were built ahead and supposedly there were plans for more. They were basically brick-and-tile houses. But then some people came and said they were not up to building code standards. So they were demolished, and as a result, the developer lost money and ran away, and the place has been idle since,” the aunt explained.

After that, the aunt complained, more to herself than anything, “But what kind of development can we do if we don’t have the ability? As a result, this area has been left like this…”

“Is this really the place you are looking for?” The aunt looked at the unfamiliar but neatly dressed father and daughter in front of her. She didn’t quite believe that this was the place they were looking for, so she asked again to make sure.

“This is it, thank you,” Lin Cheng nodded and thanked the other party.

The aunt nodded and muttered to herself before turning around and leaving, “You better double check to make sure you didn’t make a mistake…”

After the aunt left, Lin Cheng led Lin Momo through gaps in the planks and walked into the shanty town.

“Watch your feet so you don’t stumble,” Lin Cheng warned.

Because the houses had been demolished before, there was rubble on the ground and this area was not flat.

“Okay,” Lin Momo responded obediently, but her eyes still curiously darted around, looking at the unfamiliar environment in front of her.

… …

This idle land was not large, less than 10,000 square meters. Since no one took care of it after the houses were demolished, many residents living in Chaoyang Community came in and used the remaining adobe bricks to build their own little structures on the empty land. Several small sheds just two to three meters high were built haphazardly on the site, mostly for storage of their personal sundries.  Some were also used to raise chickens or to house dogs.

Among these adobe structures, there were also many sheds built with plastic sheets or wooden boards picked up from the discard pile of some construction sites. Most of these were occupied by blind migrants.¹

The appearance of Lin Cheng and Lin Momo attracted the attention of many people, and they remembered that some people had come here before to inform them that a program was to be recorded here.

But since most of the people living here were unlikely to pay attention to variety shows or celebrity affairs, no one paid much attention to the arrival of Lin Cheng and Lin Momo. They just glanced at them for a while, then withdrew their gazes and continued to do what they were doing, minding their own business.

Lin Cheng and Lin Momo walked carefully among these shacks. They had already walked through most of the shanty town before they finally found a wooden ‘house’ with a small banner of the [Living with Dad] program.

This wooden ‘house’ was made up of many dilapidated cabinets and broken door panels that were somehow assembled together to create a shelter. The sizes and styles of the cabinets were not at all uniform. Some planks were nailed between the cabinets as connections, but they didn’t fit well.

Looking at the front of the house, almost the entire length had old doors that looked like they have been dismantled from elsewhere.

… …

[Damn it, the living conditions are so bad.]

[This is such a dilapidated house!]

[To be precise, this can’t be called a dilapidated ‘house’.] Because it can’t even be called a house.

[It’s too awful……]

[How on earth did the program team even find such a crazy place??]

[How will Lin Cheng and Momo live in a place like this?]

… …

While the audience was talking a lot, Lin Momo had already tried the door panels one by one.

Finally, when she tried the third to last ‘door’, Lin Momo was able to push the door open a little.

“Dad! I found it, our house’s door is here!” Lin Momo said to Lin Cheng in surprise.

… …

[Momo has automatically made this place her home…]

[Poor baby.]

[I can’t bear to watch it.]

… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

After hearing Lin Momo’s words, Lin Cheng walked over, took Lin Momo’s hand and brought her around to stand behind him, then pushed open the door.

The smell of mold and decay that hit his nose made Lin Cheng frown.

The father and daughter looked inside.

It was now getting dark at this time. With the help of the weak street lights from the nearby Chaoyang Community and the lights from several camera equipment installed in the house, Lin Cheng and Lin Momo could just barely see what was inside.

The whole ‘house’ was not big, the space enclosed by the cabinets and door panels was only about five or six square meters.

On the surrounding ‘walls’, the gaps between the cabinets were simply pasted over with old newspapers and posters. Only the gaps near the roof were left open—it seemed to be for the purpose of allowing light to pass through so there would be illumination inside.

As for the ‘roof’, it was only a few discarded wooden planks that was then covered with several pieces of tarpaulins of different sizes. There were also discarded advertising fabrics picked up from unknown places, and there were a few pieces of woven cloth so old that the colors were already undistinguishable. These tarpaulins and fabrics were held down with a few bricks and barely affixed to the roof.

There were also three or four broken umbrellas hanging upside down under the roof, which seemed to be used to temporarily catch water when the house leaked on rainy days.

The furniture inside the house were apparently discarded furniture picked up here and there from the neighborhood.

In the innermost part of the ‘house’ was a broken bed with two layers of old mattresses, surrounded by a few wooden rods, and on the wooden rods hung a tattered net to block mosquitoes.

Next to it were three chairs of different styles and two old tables, one large and one small.

There was a coal-burning stove made of iron and cement, some cardboard boxes, two thermos bottles, two plastic basins of unknown quality, and some random sundries…

The whole house looked not only dirty, but also very messy.

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

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T/N: But… what do the residents do during winter? 😭

In case it wasn’t clear, the wood used to built the ‘house’ came from dismantled cabinets and doors, that’s why there were multiple ‘doors’ — they were actually part of the ‘walls’ and don’t open.

As a less stressful note, this is the 3rd chapter titled ‘Livelihood Issues’—the other 2 being LPG delivery man and acting as an ‘Extra’. In short, the 3 most problematic livelihoods where they had no money. Or maybe this is a stressful note after all 😭

FOOTNOTE:

1. They’re not literally blind. They ‘blindly’ left their rural homes and flowed into the urban areas, and now they have no residency permits and cannot obtain housing, get good jobs, or avail of any government services like school or hospitalization. ↩︎