Chapter 121: Where Are We Going, Dad?

Yunhai Media’s headquarters occupied an entire skyscraper. As the company’s largest department, the Film and Television Department was several times the size of the Music Division. While the Music Division only occupied floors 6 through 20, the Film and Television Department spanned a full 50 floors. It was, for all intents and purposes, the core of the company. Before his reputation collapsed, Wang Mo had been under the jurisdiction of the Film and Television Department, so he was intimately familiar with the layout.

Soon, the elevator brought them to the 68th floor. Upon stepping out, Wang Mo encountered many former acquaintances. Everyone who saw him wore an expression of profound surprise, and some of the artists began to whisper among themselves.

"Isn't that Wang Mo?"
"Oh, goodness, I almost forgot his name until you mentioned it."
"I heard he was shelved by the company. Why is he here today?"
"Right, I heard that too—they banished him to the Music Division."
"Sigh, he used to be a top-tier celebrity."
"I haven't seen him in months; I barely recognized him."
"Me neither. Half a year ago, he was the hottest star in the country. Now, he's just a face in the crowd."
"How times change..."

As more people recognized him, their expressions grew increasingly colorful. Because of non-disclosure agreements, only those in the Composition and Vocal departments knew of Wang Mo’s identity as "Wu Yan." The regular staff and artists throughout Yunhai Media remained unaware of what he had been doing over the past month. In their minds, Wang Mo had simply vanished from their lives after his scandal. No one expected him to suddenly reappear in the Film and Television Department today.

Amidst the astonished gazes of the crowd, Liu Zhengwen led Wang Mo to a meeting room. A man in his forties walked toward them, saw Liu, and smiled. "You're here?"

"Yes." Liu pointed to Wang Mo and said earnestly, "I’ve brought him, but please don't make things difficult for him during the meeting. Xiao Wang is the crown jewel of our Music Division. If you dare to give him a hard time, our entire division will fight you to the end."

"Come on, Director Liu, don't you trust me?" The man replied quickly. "Rest assured, we’re just having him sit in to see if he has any constructive input. If he doesn't, that’s fine; we won't pressure him. The moment the meeting ends, I will send him straight back to your department."

Liu Zhengwen nodded with satisfaction. "That’s more like it... Xiao Wang, this is Manager Yang Hua from the Variety Show Department."

Yang Hua looked at Wang Mo and smiled. "No need for introductions, Director Liu. Xiao Wang and I are already old acquaintances."

Wang Mo nodded. "Hello, Manager Yang." He did indeed know Yang Hua well; back when he was a top star, he had participated in numerous variety shows across various television stations, and every time, he had to coordinate with Yang Hua. They had become quite familiar over time. However, the atmosphere of this reunion felt vastly different.

After Liu Zhengwen left, Yang Hua led Wang Mo into the meeting room. Looking around, Wang Mo felt a sense of suffocation: the room was filled entirely with high-level executives, the lowest rank being a department head.

Present were:
Tang Tao, the General Manager of the Variety Show Department;
Ding Jian, the Executive Producer of Variety Shows;
Deng Zhiyong, the Associate Executive Producer;
Fan Yuan, the Chief Planner;
Hu Hongyi, the Editor-in-Chief.

Even when Wang Mo was at his peak, he would have had to treat these people with the utmost deference. Seeing him enter, Tang Tao, who was chairing the meeting, swept his gaze over and broke into a brilliant smile. "Xiao Wang is here! Quickly, Manager Yang, have him sit. It was my suggestion to call you in today. Honestly, before that new lactic acid drink campaign went viral, I didn't even know we had talent like you in the company. Your integrated marketing plan was truly creative; many of our colleagues have been full of praise for it. We’ve hit a snag in the planning of a new variety show, and we were hoping you might offer some insights."

Wang Mo quickly responded, "Director Tang, you are too kind. The success of that campaign was primarily due to their operations team; I only offered a few minor suggestions."

Tang Tao smiled. "No matter. Just listen in for now, and if you have any thoughts, feel free to speak up."

With that, he resumed the meeting. Wang Mo sat quietly, listening to the highest-level meeting he had ever attended in his life. About ten minutes later, by piecing together the documents on the table and the content of the discussion, he finally grasped the nature of the meeting and the problem the company was facing.

To provide context: Yunhai Media’s Variety Show Department focused on researching formats and pitching various programs to domestic television stations. In reality, whether in China or abroad, television stations rarely created shows from scratch, as it was too time-consuming and labor-intensive. Most stations purchased copyrights from entertainment companies or outsourced the production. This year alone, Yunhai Media had already sold five shows to various major networks.

Currently, Mango TV had commissioned them to produce an outdoor reality show. Mango TV had set four requirements:
First, the show must reflect familial relationships to resonate with the modern internet era, where such bonds are growing increasingly distant.
Second, it should ideally involve parents and children participating together.
Third, it must have a high degree of authenticity.
Fourth, it needs to be both heartwarming and intellectually stimulating.

Following these requirements, the company had spent over a month designing a show titled *Youth and Maturity: A Collision of Two Generations*. The core concept involved parents taking their young adult children to experience various life challenges—such as rice planting or tree planting in the countryside—while the children would take their parents to experience new things, like surfing or skiing. Through these different experiences, the show aimed to highlight the differences in values and life perspectives, creating a "collision" of thoughts and actions between the two generations.

The concept seemed sound. It had the right values, heartwarming visuals, and intense conflict. It had all the necessary elements. However, after deep analysis, the executives—including Tang Tao—felt that while it seemed creative, it was ultimately trapped in cliché. Outdoor reality shows featuring parents and children were already abundant; this show was merely blending two existing formats. Tang Tao insisted that they needed a true breakthrough to avoid mediocrity.

"How do we change it?"
"Should we increase the difficulty of the challenges?"
"No, that’s too dangerous."
"What if we separate the parents and children to run two parallel storylines?"
"The theme is family bonds; separating them contradicts the core. No!"

Many suggestions were proposed and promptly shot down. Today, Tang Tao had convened the meeting again to address this. The prevailing consensus was to focus on making the games more interesting to boost watchability. As Executive Producer Ding Jian put it, "The formats for outdoor reality shows have been picked clean. We don't fear tropes as long as we can play with the game mechanics in a fresh way."

Many agreed, but Tang Tao remained dissatisfied. "Creativity in variety shows is inexhaustible. Just because we haven't thought of it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Changing game mechanics is merely treating the symptoms, not the disease."

Mid-sentence, Tang Tao noticed Wang Mo listening intently. He pondered for a moment and said, "Xiao Wang, do you have any thoughts?"

Wang Mo hesitated for a moment before standing up. "Director Tang, if we can't think of a better creative hook and simply changing the games isn't enough, why not start with the guests?"

Tang Tao looked puzzled. "Start with the guests? What do you mean?"

Wang Mo explained, "Mango TV has defined the core: a family-themed outdoor reality show. The guests are limited to families. As you mentioned, shows where parents take their adult children to experience life, or vice versa, are already saturated. So, I thought, since the existing formats are stale, let's make the guests themselves unique."

"Oh?" Tang Tao raised an eyebrow. "Go on."

Wang Mo continued, "In all current similar shows, the 'young' participants are around 20 years old, or at least older than 15. So, let’s be bold and lower the age of the children. This would create a fundamental distinction from every other show."

Tang Tao asked, "Lower the age? To what?"

Wang Mo spoke with confidence: "Lower it to 4 to 7 years old. Children at this age are at their most adorable, and their innocent, childish remarks are beloved by audiences. Then, we can have the fathers take these young children on outdoor challenges. I believe it will create a completely different kind of brilliance. I would call such a show *Where Are We Going, Dad?*"

In the meeting room, everyone listened intently. But as he spoke, their expressions shifted from curiosity to disbelief. When Wang Mo finished, they looked at each other, and finally—

"Hahahaha!"
"Hahaha, Xiao Wang, you're a riot."
"Oh, please, putting a four-year-old on a reality show? Are you serious?"
"Young people really do have boundless imaginations."
"Xiao Wang, you aren't married and don't have kids; you have no idea what a toddler is like."
"Hahaha, that's truly humorous."

Even Tang Tao couldn't help but chuckle. "Xiao Wang, your idea is, well... truly unique."

In the entire room, only Wang Mo did not laugh. He was not surprised by their reaction, as even in his previous life, few people had understood the potential of this show until it finally aired.