After listening to Director Liu’s explanation of the scene, all departments began to prepare, and the actors began to change into their costumes.

Lin Cheng’s appearance was the same as when he was in the Film and Television City.

When it came to Lin Momo, the costume team had her change into a western-style dress. Then the makeup artist changed Lin Momo’s hairstyle from long hair to a short, chin-length style with some delicate curls at the ends—all according to the historical image of ‘Lin Haiying’. After some simple facial modification through make-up, Lin Momo’s appearance was completed.

“It’s really similar.” People from the costume and makeup team looked at Lin Momo’s current outfit, and then looked at the old historical photo of ‘Lin Haiying’ put on the makeup mirror, and they couldn’t help but sigh.

Although she was a year older, Lin Momo’s size was not much different from how Lin Haiying was at that time, and her facial features were also similar to Lin Haiying. In addition, she has gained some weight recently and now has some flesh on her face, which made her more similar to Lin Haiying in the photo.

When Lin Momo came out of the dressing room and walked into the filming site, this new look of hers immediately attracted the attention of many people at the scene.

“This dress suits Momo very well,” a young woman at the scene said.

The staff next to her also nodded and agreed, “Yes, and she is so cute.”

“Fortunately, Director Liu did not let Momo play a little beggar or a lost child. That would be a pity.”

“Yes, she looks very good like this.”

… …

Lin Cheng also took out his mobile phone and took several photos of Lin Momo in a row.

After obtaining the consent of the crew, Lin Cheng selected a photo of Lin Momo’s back and posted it in their topic area.

After a lot of likes, reposts, and occasional sharing, Lin Cheng’s account has become the number one fan in this topic area.

As soon as the photo was posted, it quickly attracted many fans to like and comment.

[Is this Momo?]

[Wow, it’s actually a fresh photo of Momo!]

[It doesn’t look like an ordinary photo. Where is this taken?]

Someone asked this question, and a bunch of replies appeared below.

[Looking at the surrounding environment, it feels like a film crew?]

[It seems to be true.]

[Ah, I remember that during the episode of [Living with Dad] at the Film and Television City, Lin Cheng joined the [Against the Grain] crew. At that time, a few scenes were filmed. Weren’t there still a few scenes left to be filmed later? This should be the [Against the Grain] crew!]

[It was said before that Momo would be assigned a role. It seems to be true!]

[Where is this? The surrounding scenes look like that era. Is it in Film and Television City?]

[It was reported before that the shooting sets of the [Against the Grain] crew were restored almost one to one. This scene looks too real.]

At this time, netizens still didn’t know that the shooting sets of these scenes were completely real. They just thought it was still in a lot in the Film and Television City, and they couldn’t help but exclaim:

[I also feel that this scene is really awesome.]

[It seems that the crew spent a lot of money.]

… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

[I still want to see Momo’s on-site photos.] 

[Please give me more photos of Momo.]

[Momo! Momo!] 

[Are there other photos of Momo? Post a few more.]

Seeing that many people @ him, Lin Cheng picked another photo taken closer and posted it, and attached a simple text description. In this photo, Lin Momo’s face was still not visible, but the details of Lin Momo’s dress could be seen from the photo.

[That western-style dress! So cute.]

[It should be said that it is a mix and match, haha.]

Although Lin Momo’s outer costume was a western-style dress, she wore a red, floral-patterned, cotton clothing under the dress. Although it was basically blocked by the overcoat, the red was still conspicuous.

‘Lin Haiying’ liked to wear this kind of cotton clothing —because the children outside and the children of the helpers who played with her at home all wore it.

[Haha, this mix and match is too funny.]

[It’s still cute.]

[This kind of mix and match style, probably only Momo can wear it.]

… …

[But since you are in the motherland, why don’t you just wear your own country’s clothes? Why do you have to wear a western dress outside it?] Someone raised a question.

Soon someone answered this question below:

[It’s not that she didn’t want to wear it, but that she couldn’t wear it.]

[This is easy to understand. At that time, Lin An’nan secretly prepared and transported supplies to the front line under the pretext of doing business, which was actually very dangerous. In order to avoid the investigation of the enemy country and not be searched and looted by the enemy army or other forces, he had to rely on the protection of Country Y on the surface and maintain his identity as a foreign businessman.]

[I see.]

…

The other actors also finished changing their clothes one after another. The actress who played the role of Lin An’nan’s wife also changed into a dress similar to that of Lin Momo. Looking at it this way, the two of them do look like they’re together.

The actress came over and greeted Lin Momo cordially and sat down and talked to her.

The two of them would play mother and daughter in the scenes. During the process of filming the fragments of family life, the two of them had a lot of shots that needed to be taken together. The actress wanted to use this little time before filming to cultivate feelings with Lin Momo.

“When the director says start, you can call me ‘Mom’. Your older brother Yanglin will call me that, too.

“Although the background of what we will be filming is era of war, you are actually all well protected, so don’t be too nervous when the filming starts, just act like you are at home with your family…”

The actress explained to Lin Momo the details and precautions to be observed for filming, as well as the proper positioning for some scenes, and the emotions that should be expressed, and many other things, in a simple and easy-to-understand way.

What she didn’t expect was that Lin Momo not only listened carefully but also took out a small notebook from her bag to diligently write down everything she said.

Although the actress has not watched the livestream of [Living with Dad], she knew Lin Momo because the Lin father and daughter team has became quite popular recently.

After getting to know her, she finally understood why so many people like Lin Momo on the internet—such an obedient and serious child was indeed very likable.

… …

The on-site shooting was ready, and all the actors were in place.

The first scene was a picture of the Lin family eating at the dining table.

Before filming, the actress gave Lin Momo an encouraging and comforting look, indicating that she should not be nervous.

It was not until the filming officially started that the actress realized that her worries were actually a bit superfluous.

Perhaps because she was used to recording the [Living with Dad] program, Lin Momo did not at all suffer from stage fright when surrounded by the filming equipment and crew members, and her expression and behavior were also self-assured.

The ‘family of four’ sat at the dining table and ate. Most of the time they did not communicate verbally, but Lin Cheng and the actress occasionally completed a line in the script.

The conversation between the two was basically about the current situation and whether they were going to move away. Perhaps because they were concerned about the children’s presence, when talking about the topic of this film, the ‘couple’ did not have much dialogue.

There were not many lines, and most of the scene depended on the actors themselves.

The actress played the role of wife and mother, taking care of her husband and two children while eating.

As for Lin Momo and the young actor beside her, they only needed to concentrate on eating. The only thing they needed to pay attention to was that the director instructed them not to be too skilled in using chopsticks¹.

At this time, Lin Momo stood up and picked up a piece of pork ribs and put it in the actress’s bowl.

The food on the table was real.

She had eaten this pork rib in the crew’s lunch before when she was in the Film and Television City, and it was very delicious.

Lin Momo wanted to thank the actress for teaching her how to act earlier.

Such a scene was not required in the script, but it did not feel abrupt in such an environment.

Therefore, watching Lin Momo’s ‘improvisational performance’, Director Liu only smiled and nodded, and did not stop filming.

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

---

T/N: About Momo’s mix and match clothing. The setting was during the Republic of China era. The Qing dynasty has fallen and Western influence was on the rise—this included fashion. 

布衣 or buyi means ‘cotton clothing’. Rich people would usually wear fabrics like silk, so much so that in the literary sense buyi has come to mean ‘the common people’. So the children of helpers and those from outside the wealthy Lin Mansion would be wearing buyi.

This pic doesn’t represent a specific era since I just got it off a modern sales website. It’s the fabric that’s important.

OTOH, Baidu tells me that this is what 小洋装 or ‘small foreign dress’ looks like:

If you’re enjoying my translations, do consider buying me ko-fi and get access to advance chapters as reward. Thank you for your support! ☺️
Chapter 95.2 — Filming
Chapter 96.1 — Not That Simple
Chapter 96.2 — Not That Simple
Chapter 96.3 — Not That Simple
Chapter 97.1 — ‘Unexpected Harvest’
Chapter 97.2 — ‘Unexpected Harvest’

FOOTNOTE:

1. I’m not sure why this is, Lin Haiying is already 8 years old and her brother is even older than her. They should already be proficient in chopsticks, right? Maybe it’s because the family was originally not from China? Lin Cheng was an expatriate who moved back home to help fight the war. ↩︎