Chapter 185

J Province TV Station was practically sick with regret!

Wei Sheng had actually guessed it right!

After the shows Retracing the Path of Poverty Alleviation and The Wage Earners became hits, major video platforms and TV stations rushed to copy the formula. After all, which province doesn’t have a few poverty alleviation stories these days? Even the most economically developed regions may not have impoverished counties, but they do have touching stories about helping their assigned partner counties.

So, over the past year, websites and TV stations across the country rolled out their own poverty-themed programs. These shows had strong regional appeal, and local audiences naturally preferred watching stories from their own area. As a result, Retracing the Path of Poverty Alleviation and The Wage Earners lost a huge chunk of their viewership, and their ad revenue plummeted.

Compared to the year’s breakout variety show Housewives Leaving Home, the gap was even more glaring. Competing head-to-head? Please, they weren’t even on the same leaderboard anymore.

Squeezed out of the trending charts, Retracing the Path of Poverty Alleviation and The Wage Earners wrapped up their third seasons with a whimper rather than a bang, and quietly faded away.

Meanwhile, not only had Housewives Leaving Home become the year’s cultural phenomenon, even its spin-off variety show Dads Without Moms was blowing up in popularity.

Wei Sheng truly lived up to his reputation as the infamously shameless genius of the variety show world. When Guagua Video invited him to help plan the show, he egged them on: if you’re going to do it, why not go all out?

Just letting dads experience life without their wives wasn’t enough.

They needed to let some of these overgrown mama’s boys experience what it’s like to live without their mothers too!

Think about it—how many men these days outsource their filial piety¹ under the guise of marriage? When they’re single, they don’t think twice about how hard their mothers work. But the moment they get married, suddenly they’re all about how tough Mom has had it.

Then they guilt-trip their wives into being filial daughters-in-law. After all, if the wife is doing it, it’s as good as the husband doing it himself. He doesn’t have to lift a finger, yet still gets praised as a “model son.” What a deal!

At the same time, he plays the part of the poor man caught between mother and wife, pushing his wife to the front lines, making her do postpartum care and raise the kids with his mom, as if the child was somehow born by his wife and his mother together, and he had nothing to do with it.

In the end, the mother becomes the evil mother-in-law, the wife becomes the unfilial daughter-in-law, and he alone comes out looking like the good guy.

How is that acceptable?

If both the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law are the villains, then why not kick them both out of the house?

From now on, let the dads handle everything—cooking, cleaning, shopping, childcare. What’s that? You still have to go to work? Well, didn’t your wife also have to work before? And she managed to balance career and home just fine. You’re a grown man, physically stronger and more resilient than a woman—how can you say you “can’t do it”?

So come on, brothers, believe in yourselves. You’ve got this!

But reality proved that the brothers were all a bit cowardly. By the time Housewives Leaving Home was halfway through airing, nine women had signed up as guests. But of their nine husbands, only one agreed to participate in the spin-off. And even that guy only said yes because he wanted to become a social media influencer.

In the end, Guagua Video had to resort to the power of money to get the rest of the men on board.

No moms, no wives, no nannies—just spend one day at home alone with the kid, and you’d get fifty thousand yuan in appearance fees. What average working-class man wouldn’t be tempted?

Fifty thousand in a day—even if the internet roasts you, who cares?

Although a few wealthier men still turned the offer down, the show eventually gathered enough participants. And sure enough, the moment it aired, it became a nationwide sensation.

The director at Guagua Video had a real knack for dark humor.

Before the show even started, he made sure the male guests suffered a round of public humiliation.

In a short pre-show interview, when asked by the host, the men confidently declared:

“What’s so hard about taking care of a kid? Why the constant whining about back pain?”

“It’s just cooking and childcare. Why does she always need my mom to help? She’s just being dramatic!”

“Our place isn’t even a hundred square meters. It’s tiny. Housework doesn’t need to be done every day. Every time we argue, she brings it up like it’s some huge burden! I want to see for myself—what’s so hard about mopping the floor and wiping a table?”

What they didn’t know was how brutal editing could be.

The moment the actual show aired, right after their bold declarations, the footage cut to their first day alone at home—with the living room, kitchen, and bathroom looking like they’d been hit by a bomb, their kids screaming for mommy, and them frantically trying and failing to reach their wives or mothers on the phone.

The audience: Hahahahahaha!

The dads: ……

That slap in the face came fast and hard.

When their moms and wives were home, they could just shout to find things. But now, under the show’s rules, they weren’t allowed to call any female family members. So after tearing through every drawer and cabinet and still not finding toilet paper or detergent, they had no choice but to take the kid to the supermarket.

On the way, the kid said he was thirsty. The dad panicked and pulled over—only to realize he forgot to bring a water bottle. Then the kid said he needed to pee. The dad frantically pulled up the map to find the nearest public restroom, totally forgetting how his wife always made the kid go before they left the house.

At the supermarket, he bought household essentials, some meat and vegetables, his favorite beer and soda, milk and snacks for the kid. At checkout—what? How much is this cart of stuff? Seven hundred and fifty yuan? Are you robbing me?

He snatched the receipt and double-checked. He nearly spat blood—it was accurate!

When did things get so expensive?

No wonder his wife blew up at him when he sent her a 200-yuan red envelope for their kid’s birthday and told her to buy a cake, two new outfits, and some toys and snacks. He thought she was overreacting.

Now, looking at the toy egg his child clutched tightly—just a plain little thing—he nearly fainted when he saw it cost ten yuan.

What kind of magical egg is this? Ten yuan? That’s enough to buy a whole kilo of real eggs!

Wait! He flipped over the receipt, eyes wide, and questioned the cashier, “Are these golden eggs or something? Ten eggs for 29.9 yuan?”

The cashier looked just as exasperated. “Sir, these are premium ‘Anxin Eggs’—raw eggs that are certified safe to eat. Naturally, they cost more than ordinary eggs. They’re extremely nutritious and very healthy, especially suitable for children. You can rest assured.”

Rest assured? More like heartbroken!

Three yuan per egg? What’s going on with prices these days?

And the same kind of scene was playing out in other households too.

Some dads thought housework and childcare would be a breeze, only to break down within half a day. Their first instinct was to call their moms or wives, but the crew reminded them—no asking for help from any female family members during filming. Of course, they could call their dads if they wanted. The crew wouldn’t interfere with that.

One dad thought about it, then decisively tossed his phone aside.

Forget it! His dad was even lazier than he was. And the old man liked to drink. If he got drunk, the son would end up taking care of him too. Better not. For fifty thousand a day, he’d tough it out…

By the second day—

Screw it! Fifty thousand a day isn’t worth it!

The dad in charge of tutoring the kid’s homework was the first to crack.

“You tell me, what’s 52 minus 17?”

“Forty-two?”

“How is it forty-two? Can you subtract 7 from 2? No! So what do you do? You borrow 1 from the 5, right?”

“What if the 5 doesn’t want to lend it?” the kid asked timidly.

“He has to lend it!” the dad shouted, on the verge of losing it.

“No way! Last time you were on a business trip and didn’t answer your phone, Mom didn’t have money to pay the electric bill. She asked Grandma, but Grandma said she had no obligation to lend money to Mom and told her to ask her own mother!”

The dad: “……”

Good grief! At this point, even the viewers were clenching their fists in anger.

Unsurprisingly, the dads who were floundering with housework and childcare got absolutely roasted online.

They were famous now—infamous, really.

Especially the one who’d scoffed, “What’s so hard about doing a bit of housework?” His apartment wasn’t even 100 square meters. When he bought it, he thought he was getting a great deal—a top-floor unit with a free attic. The deed said 56 square meters, but with the attic, it was over 90.

He’d been so smug about getting such a bargain—paying for 50-odd square meters but getting over 90 in usable space.

But the one who truly suffered was his wife. Every day, their child would climb up and down the stairs, leaving toys scattered everywhere. The man tried to follow behind, cleaning up for half a day before completely giving up. In less than two days, their once tidy and cozy home had turned into a disaster zone.

And yet, the man still had the nerve to complain about back pain, saying he needed to pause filming and go to the hospital for a scan.

Still, not all dads were completely hopeless.

Take Liu Shuai, the husband of female guest Lin Xin, for example—he actually won over quite a few viewers.

At first, Liu Shuai also thought his wife’s daily routine—getting off work, picking up the kid, grocery shopping, cooking, and childcare—was no big deal. He figured he could handle it just fine. But on the very first day, schoolwork and house chores gave him a brutal reality check.

God help him! Their kid was only in third grade, but those math problems at the end of the homework? Even he, a college graduate, couldn’t solve them. And cooking? Their son was supposed to be easy to please. When asked what he wanted to eat, the kid had said, “Anything.” So Liu Shuai bought what he liked.

He picked up half a pound of pig head meat, two tomatoes for a tomato-egg soup, and planned to stir-fry some lettuce with oyster sauce. The pig head meat could be sliced and dipped in sauce—quick, easy, and foolproof.

But come dinnertime, their son took one look at the table, saw none of his favorite dishes, and burst into tears. Through sobs, he wailed that he wanted cola chicken wings, sweet and sour ribs, and braised prawns.

“Then why didn’t you say so when I asked you after school?” Liu Shuai’s forehead veins were about to pop.

“But I always eat those! Mom knows that! Why don’t you, Dad?”

Yeah, why didn’t he know? They sat at the same dinner table every night, yet he had never noticed what his son actually liked to eat…

That night, after their son fell asleep, Liu Shuai collapsed onto the couch, utterly exhausted. After a full evening of chaos, he didn’t even want to lift a finger.

And yet, in that moment, images of his wife’s constant busyness suddenly filled his mind.

What would she normally be doing at this hour?

Right—she’d be double-checking their son’s backpack to make sure no books or homework were left behind, so the teacher wouldn’t call the next day asking them to bring it in.

Then she’d wash and disinfect his water bottle, check his shoes for dirt or damage, and switch them out if needed so they wouldn’t be scrambling the next morning and miss the bus.

After all that, she’d clean the house, wash up, and finally toss everyone’s dirty laundry into the washing machine…

He remembered how he used to see her spinning around like a top, constantly in motion. He’d even tell her to take a break, that some things could wait until tomorrow. Now, Liu Shuai felt like he’d been slapped—twice—right across the face.

If only, back then, he hadn’t just paid lip service. If he’d gotten off the couch, put down his phone, and lent a hand, maybe his wife wouldn’t have become so disheartened. Maybe she wouldn’t have ended up joining a show about “running away from home.”

In that moment, Liu Shuai missed his wife terribly.

He had so much he wanted to say to her. He wanted to tell her he finally understood where he went wrong, how hard things had been for her all these years. He even stood up to his own mother for the first time when she called to complain that her daughter-in-law had abandoned her husband and child to go play on some reality show.

“Mom, remember last year when my company had a retreat? I was worried Xin Xin would be overwhelmed taking care of the kid alone, so I asked you to help out for a few days. What did you say then?”

“Isn’t she just going out for a few days? What’s so hard about looking after a kid by yourself?”

“So if Xin Xin can handle it alone, why is it such a problem when it’s my turn?”

Liu’s mom: “…”

A few days later, when Lin Xin returned home after finishing the show, she braced herself for a house that looked like a landfill and a sink full of unwashed dishes.

But when she opened the door, she was stunned.

The play area that used to take up a corner of the living room was gone. In its place stood a large desk with three lamps installed on top.

The windows, furniture, and tiled floors all sparkled. Vases that had been empty for ages now held fresh flowers—her favorites. The moment their son saw her, he squealed with joy and ran toward her, only to screech to a halt halfway and dash off to grab his backpack.

“Mom! Look, look! I got an A in Chinese, an A in math, and a B in English on this month’s chapter tests!”

Overjoyed, Lin Xin scooped him up in a hug. The next second, Liu Shuai appeared with a huge bouquet of flowers and wrapped her in a warm embrace.

“Welcome home, honey.”

Lin Xin’s eyes grew misty. She almost instinctively scolded him for wasting money, but then she thought of the peaceful days she’d just spent in Yuan Stream Township. In that moment, she decided to follow her heart.

So what if he bought a couple of bouquets? It wasn’t like she’d never bought flowers before. Before they got married, she used to join group buys with local flower lovers. Her monthly flower budget never exceeded 300 yuan. Honestly, with today’s prices, 300 yuan isn’t even enough for a single trip to the supermarket. Saving that money wouldn’t change much, but a few fresh blooms could lift her mood for an entire month. How was that wasteful?

But what Liu Shuai said next still caught her completely off guard.

“Honey, I’m sorry. I was wrong before. From now on, the housework is my job. You just give the orders. This is our home, and both of us should be working for it.”

“Oh, and I picked up a part-time gig. We’ll have an extra 2,000 yuan coming in every month. I’ve got it all planned out—every Saturday, you take our son to his extracurricular class, and I’ll schedule a cleaning service to tidy up the house. If we stay on top of things during the week, we won’t need to do a deep clean on Sundays. I’ll take you and our son out to have some fun!”

Lin Xin rolled her eyes. “You wish! With our kid running around every day, when is this house not a mess?”

To her surprise, Liu Shuai grinned smugly. “You’re underestimating your son. He’s not the same little rascal anymore.”

He then explained the “Three Rules” he and their son had agreed on over the past few days.

Kids being messy and unruly is often the result of indulgent parenting. Back when Lin Xin did everything without complaint, Liu Shuai never felt the burden, so he didn’t step in.

But now that he’d experienced it firsthand, he finally understood just how much of a handful their son could be.

So he cracked down. No more snacks, no more fruit, no more toy money. They laid out clear zones for different activities: toys in the playroom, snacks and fruit only in the dining area, TV and homework in the living room. Any violations would cost him ten yuan each time.

At first, the little rascal didn’t care. But when he lost his beloved post-dinner fruit, he cried his eyes out. Liu Shuai ignored him. And when the kid dirtied the couch during his tantrum, he lost breakfast the next day and went to school hungry. That’s when life finally taught him a lesson.

Later, when the show did its annual follow-up with the families, the Liu family had already moved into a bigger home.

After Liu Shuai took on half the housework and helped with homework, and they hired a regular cleaning service, Lin Xin finally had more time to focus on her career. Thanks to her stellar performance, she was promoted to department manager by year’s end. Just her commission alone now brought in hundreds of thousands annually.

Liu Shuai’s part-time income of 2,000 yuan still went toward the cleaning service. But even though Lin Xin now earned significantly more, she didn’t relieve her husband of his responsibility to contribute to the household.

She had finally come to understand something important: in a marriage, both partners need to walk their own path. If a woman insists on shouldering everything a man should be doing, then sooner or later, the husband stops being a husband, and the wife stops being a wife.

They’re both part of the same household. Why shouldn’t the man do chores, care for the child, cook, and clean?

Either give your wife enough money to hire help, or roll up your sleeves and pitch in. If you can’t do either, then honestly—what good are you?

Who would’ve thought that a show that seemed like it was encouraging divorce would, during its annual follow-up, reveal that two-thirds of the families were actually happier than before?

Of course, a few couples did end up divorcing after failing to make changes. But most of the men who still cared about their wives and wanted to build a life together were working hard to change.

Just like Liu Shuai told his wife: if she kept spoiling their son and doing everything for him, he’d grow up to be just like his old man—completely clueless about housework.

So for the sake of their son’s future marriage, it was time for both of the men in the house—big and small—to take responsibility.

At first, viewers thought this “forced happy ending” was too fake. But then Guagua Video made a surprise announcement: they had signed contracts with several of the families who were trying to change.

They were launching a new series of wholesome “family IPs,” documenting real life through mid-length videos in a long-term reality show format.

You think we faked the happy endings?

Fine. Then there won’t be an ending. We’ll keep filming.

And wouldn’t you know it? After finishing Dads Without Moms, a lot of viewers ended up following the spin-off accounts for this “long-running” series too.

The funny thing is, the reason this spin-off account has remained so popular, with a steady stream of followers, is because many women who are either planning to get married or are newlyweds believe their husbands should learn from the men featured in these videos. Without hesitation, they’ve turned the account’s content into their personal “husband-training manual.”

Every night, these newlywed couples kick off their private time together by watching “The Daily Lives of Dads”!

This approach is far more effective than all those so-called “experts” nagging people to get married and have kids.

In just a year, the account’s follower count soared past ten million!

So really, it’s not that women don’t want to get married. They’ve just been burned too many times before and are now too scared to take the plunge. But if they actually met someone like the dads in those videos—men who work hard to support the family, share the housework, care for the elderly and the kids, and treat their wives with tenderness and respect—do you really think they wouldn’t drag their man straight to the marriage registry?

What’s even more baffling is that a lot of women who are staunchly against marriage have also followed the account. They even affectionately refer to the dads in the videos as their “internet husbands.”

Don’t want to get married but still want a taste of ordinary marital bliss? Easy. Just watch the videos every day and pretend that’s your own husband. No responsibilities, full emotional immersion. In other words, enjoy the perks for free—cough.

Neither Wei Sheng nor the Y Province TV Station ever expected that the biggest winner of the variety show they had carefully planned would end up being Guagua Video!

You think Wei Sheng could just let that slide?

No way! Time to get the female guests involved too!

(End of this chapter)

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Translator’s Notes

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1. filial piety: Filial piety (xiao) is a fundamental Confucian virtue in Chinese culture that stresses children’s respect, obedience, care, and devotion to their parents and elders throughout their lives. ↩