Chapter 563: Countryside Life.

After the hearty banter, the four fathers began to cook on their respective stoves. Leo was the last to start because his store took some time to dry. In the meantime, he prepared his ingredients and thanks to Matthew Cottons, all of them had a good amount of spices and local vegetables.

Leo used the recipe book that Lily brought over and prepared three dishes enough to feed everyone. The children all ate with relish and Maya was practically drooling. Nova had cooked grilled meat stripes and vegetables but he had a service background so food was only for survival.

Louis was the same and the worst among them was Matthew Cottons, who was on the verge of an emotional breakdown after he ruined his dish twice. Hayden, his son, had such a disappointed expression on his face that the audience were thrown into a fit of laughter.

Thankfully, Leo came to their rescue and generously shared the food with all of them. The people ate with smiles and the lady from the direction team came back again. She said, "Gentlemen, your task is concluded to be a success. But the judgement about the victor is still pending. So, we would ask the children to step forward and cast their votes."

Lily took the lead, she placed a slip with Leo’s name in the bowl. Maya was alongside her, followed by Damon and Hayden. They all noted for Leo, it was unanimous and none of the children even bothered to save face for their fathers. Maya tried to say a few nice things about Nova, but that was also something out of consideration of his effort in carrying the big slab.

Louis joked, "I knew that my son would be easy to persuade with a good snack but Leo’s cooking proved it to be true. Our children are all selling us for food."

Lily remarked, "Uncles, you don’t realize it but a child only cares about. Good food and lots of love. Unlike, you all who chase money and status. Can you eat a yuan?"

As soon as the remark was made the people laughed. Louis had become the comedian of the group but with results out the young lady from the direction team said, "With that the Mister Cardinal is the winner. They will get the right to choose the room they would stay in first for the night. But don’t worry, it’s just for this weekend. Next weekend, with a new task, you can change fate."

Leo thanked the lady and then they all sat down for a bit longer before Lily was told, "Love, go and select the room."

The little girl nodded and took the task with great enthusiasm and twined to look at Maya and asked, want to come along with me?"

Then everyone saw the two little girls walking away as they approached the rooms. Nova asked, "Leo, how can you trust Lily so much, after all, she is just a child, no?"

Lieo smiled and replied with a calm tone, "Well, we have given her a lot of freedom and decision making liberty because we realized that children also have a way to understand this world. If we keep holding them back all the time in the name of inexperience and immaturity then they would not grow.

A green house plant cannot brave a tropical storm, and they won’t be able to take coots if they are spoon-feed all the time. So, I guess that this much is still fine."

The four men exchanged gazes and shortly after Lily came back with Maya and she said, "Baba, it is done."

Leo smiled and said, "Alright. Let’s go and see the cave of the goblin princess."

The little girl giggled and then the young man held her hand and went inside to see the room. After a few minutes, Leo found that the room was very simple, and without minding anything, he was about to unpack the luggage and bring out a change of clothes, when Lily asked, "Are you not going to ask me why I chose this room?"

Leo shook his head and replied, "If you chose this room, then I am sure you have a reason. You can tell me the reason if you want to."

Lily nodded and sat down on the side of the bed and spoke while swinging her legs, "So, the people here designed these rooms with the four teams in mind, so this room is very minimal. Maya told me that it is just like her father’s room. There is another room which is filled with soft toys, and I could see that she liked them a lot, so I told her to take that room and I took this one. The other two rooms are filled with toys as well, but they are all kinda boyish so I left it for Hayden and Damon."

The young man smiled and replied, "I knew that my little goblin is very thoughtful."

He scooped her up in his arms and then kissed her cheeks before giving her tickle therapy. The duo then changed into their sleepwear clothing and went to bed.

The audience were going crazy about things that Lily just said and almost everything went viral.

...

The next morning when Leo and Lily woke up first, and when they came out, they were ready to go out for a run but they saw Nova was also awake. Lily greeted him with a smile and asked, "Uncle, is Maya still sleeping?"

Nova smiled and replied, "Yes, she is a heavy sleeper, plus yesterday she was a bit too tired so I thought, it would be nice if I could give her some more time to sleep."

Lily nodded and said, "That is good."

After that Leo nodded to the man and the two of them left the courtyard. They ran around the town and saw many people getting ready for their respective work. Many old people were setting up stalls, as they chatted and greeted each other.

Lily and Leo also greeted everyone and talked happily with the rest of the people. The people who had joined the stream early in the morning were surprised to see the two of them skipping and moving about the town. The people realized that all this time when they have watched the show, they never noticed how good the town was and how they have missed such things all this while.

After an hour, Lily and Leo reached back to the courtyard and they found that the people were slowly waking up. The two of them cleaned up and joined the rest of the people in the open area for breakfast, thankfully the production team was thoughtful about this.

With the meal finished, they spotted Isedol coming back to greet them all with a smile. She had not visited the courtyard since the moment she dropped them at the entrance of the town, and after greeting everyone the young lady said, "So, I hope you all had a good time here."

The children nodded, and Isedol continued, "The next task is a little special. But before the task, I would like you all to know the reward behind it."

Isedol took a pause and said, "The winner will be saved from the elimination next round."

The people were surprised and Isedol said, "This season is a competition-like thing, but we still hope that you can maintain a harmonious relationship with each other."

Maya asked, "Big sister, can you tell us what the task is?"

Isedol smiled and replied, "You all should be going to the Town Hall and the old Town Head will take you all to the paddy fields. Your task would be to help around the farms and the fields."

Louis had come from the countryside so he knew how to handle farm work. Nova was in the forces so he could adapt, the people were only confused about how the Cardinal and the Cotton family would handle this.

The families were all ready and they found their way to the Town Hall where the old man was waiting for them. Hyphon Tower smiled genially and said, "Alright guys, hop on."

He was pointing at the trolley hooked to a tractor. The kids were curious and anxious but the elders didn’t show much of a shock. They helped the children get up and then got on one by one, as Hyphon Tower took the driver seat and the tractor moved to the outskirts of the town closer to the canal on the north side.

The ride was smooth and it looked scenic, but as they moved away from the towns, they spotted fields with people who stood in water that was as high as their calves and they were planting the crops in the field.

Lily was peeking over the small wall of the trolley cart and asked, "Baba, what are they doing?"

Leo smiled and replied, "They are planting crops, rice to be exact."

Lily asked, "Do we have to plant it as well?"

The young man shrugged and replied, "Who knows, may be we do or maybe we have another interesting task."

Lily smiled and said, "I want to do it all."

Leo chuckled and shook his head as they continued moving towards the first stop of the transit.