By linking my account to the check-in system, I became a leisurely traveler.

Chapter 137 Half-Year Summary, A New Chapter Begins! [6 words!]

My mother, who has worked for over 20 years, has much more annual leave than most young people who have just started working.

I took 10 days of annual leave this time. In total, with the two weekends before and after, plus New Year's Day, I can have a vacation for more than half a month.

For working people, such a long period of time is already quite remarkable.

However, my mother didn't have a particularly strong desire to travel around before this.

Before Li Younan resigned, even when he wanted to go out, he would only go with one other person and a colleague, which was fine.

This winter in Anchuan County seems to be exceptionally cold. It has been several years since they have seen heavy snow covering the ground, but on the night before they set off, an unprecedented snowfall occurred that could accumulate to a great depth.

Those who didn't have time to add clothes inevitably suffered, because the temperature dropped so suddenly that many people didn't even realize it before suddenly going from the recent, even somewhat hot, weather to the dead of winter.

In Li Younan's high school classmates' group chat, many people are discussing whether or not to have a class reunion this year.

People with differing opinions also mentioned the cold weather, saying that the weather forecast indicated that due to a cold front, the cold weather would continue to worsen in the short term.

For the time being, the weather problem had nothing to do with Li Younan and his group.

At this moment, Li Younan, along with his mother and Lu Xiaolan, had already boarded a plane bound for Sanya.

Going to the warmest place when it's coldest is probably one of the pleasant aspects of travel.

……

Going to Sanya, Hainan, should not be called a trip, but a vacation.

A day later, Li Younan and his two companions checked into their uncle's guesthouse, becoming the first guests there.

The guesthouse hasn't officially opened yet. The rooms aren't finished being renovated, and the swimming pool downstairs is still being tiled. More importantly, many permits and licenses haven't been obtained yet, but it doesn't matter if you're just staying there yourself.

This uncle is Li Younan's mother's eldest brother; they are three siblings in total.

Li Younan's mother, Xiao Xue, is the second child, Lu Xiaolan's mother is the youngest, and their uncle's name is Xiao Lei, who is their eldest brother.

There are many Sichuanese people in Hainan, and many of them work in the catering industry.

Fresh seafood paired with flavorful Sichuan cuisine is a perfect match, and Sichuan restaurants in coastal areas generally do quite well.

My eldest uncle opened a restaurant in Sanya more than ten years ago and married a local woman, thus truly settling down in Hainan.

Unlike most people who return to their hometown in winter, my uncle only comes back once a year in the summer.

Li Younan's maternal grandparents passed away early, so his maternal uncle didn't have many relatives or friends back in their hometown. Instead, during the winter, Li Younan's mother and Lu Xiaolan's mother often took them to Hainan to visit his maternal uncle.

This year's situation is a bit special. On the one hand, Lu Xiaolan's mother was unable to get leave, and on the other hand, Lu Xiaolan's father and his family had a lot of things to do, so they did not come along.

My uncle's guesthouse was recently acquired by him.

The house originally belonged to his wife's family. His wife has two siblings. After some division of profits, the couple invested almost all the money they had earned over the past ten years into the guesthouse, which is now officially his asset.

My eldest uncle is nearly 50 years old now, and he has finally accumulated a decent amount of wealth compared to ordinary people.

If this guesthouse is renovated, it will have about a dozen rooms, each a suite with a kitchen and two bedrooms. It would be easy to earn several hundred thousand yuan a year.

Then I can focus on running a bed and breakfast business, which is much easier than running a restaurant.

However, it seems that my uncle has no intention of selling the Sichuan restaurant yet; his plan is to at least finish paying the rent he has prepaid for the past two years.

My uncle's guesthouse is close to the beach; you can get to the beach by going down from upstairs and crossing a platform.

Staying in the room, you can see the sea from the balcony, making it a great location and environment.

The only downside right now is that it can be a little noisy during the day because of the renovation.

However, this isn't a big problem right now. During the day, they can go for a stroll around the neighborhood, or set up a tent on the beach in front of the guesthouse and relax for an afternoon, or pay to swim in the pool at the hotel next door.

In short, a little noise during the day has little impact.

Although Sanya doesn't have a winter, it's still much cooler at this time of year than in summer.

Lying on the beach, doing nothing but chatting with family and sipping a fresh coconut – it couldn't be more pleasant.

That's how I spent my first day after arriving.

The water on this beach is very clean, but the current is strong, so swimming is prohibited. It is far from several famous bays, so there are not many tourists.

The seawater is a light blue.

The parasol was firmly planted in the sand, casting a slanted shadow over the three of them.

Li Younan's mother wore a long gauze dress, her eyes closed on a deck chair, her face covered by a straw hat. The scent of sunscreen wafted over by the sea breeze and then gently dissipated.

My cousin Lu Xiaolan was closer to the sea. She squatted down barefoot, holding a broken plastic shovel she'd picked up somewhere. She slowly dug a sandpit, burying her feet in it to compact the sand as she dug. Every now and then, she would look up and grin at Li Younan and her mother, looking like she'd never seen anything like it before.

But thinking about it, although I often go to Hainan, I don't remember ever playing in the sand so leisurely. I used to spend it at my uncle's house every time.

Li Younan leaned back in the folding chair, holding a green coconut in his hands. It was a bit heavy, and the last bite of coconut meat he sucked through the straw had a slightly sweet residue.

After a while, Lu Xiaolan got tired of playing and strolled back. She lay down under the parasol with them and also held a chilled coconut.

Under the sun and with the sea breeze blowing, a layer of fine salt slowly settled on Li Younan's skin.

They lay there, chatting idly.

At first, Lu Xiaolan excitedly shared her feelings about entering university. Li Younan would occasionally chime in, teasing Lu Xiaolan, such as whether any boys had pursued her, or whether she had joined the student council. He would say, "Back in my day, your cousin was always a popular figure at school..."

Later on, we forgot what we talked about.

The shadow of the umbrella moved silently across the sand, slowly creeping from her feet to her waist. Lu Xiaolan's coconut was empty; the straw made a hollow sound as she sucked until the last drop.

She sat up and dug her bare feet into the sand, watching the empty coconut shell roll halfway around in the sand.

……

To be honest, Sanya is not a great place for a travel experience.

It's not that the scenery here is bad, it's just because of the prices.

For the same travel experience, some beaches abroad may cost only one-tenth of what Sanya costs, which is quite a surprising price difference.

If you have money, you can have a very comfortable time here, but wealthy people can have an even more comfortable time on beaches abroad.

The booming tourism industry has little to do with the locals in Hainan. The money doesn't really go into their pockets; instead, it has indirectly increased their cost of living.

Fortunately, thanks to my uncle, the most expensive problem of accommodation was solved, ensuring a good vacation experience.

Their arrival did not disrupt Uncle's life rhythm; Uncle's life still revolved around Sichuan restaurants.

Apart from meeting them briefly when I took them to the guesthouse on the first day, my uncle and aunt were busy at the restaurant most of the time.

My mom suggested, "Let's cook a meal for the three of us and invite my uncle and aunt's family over for a meal and get together."

Li Younan and Lu Xiaolan naturally responded immediately.

It's worth mentioning that the son of the eldest aunt and uncle is only ten years old, even younger than Li Younan and Lu Xiaolan. He is usually taken care of by his maternal grandparents and is currently participating in a winter camp program. He won't be back for a few more days.

When he learned that Li Younan and his family were planning to cook for them, the eldest uncle unsurprisingly mocked his mother on the phone: "I'm not trying to be mean, Xiaoxue, but you guys are just making trouble out of nothing. What do I do? I own a restaurant. If you want to eat, why don't you just come to my restaurant? Or do you think my cooking skills have declined?"

My mom usually acts very gentle, but she's incredibly serious about things like this. She said, "Brother, I'm not discussing this with you, I'm just informing you. Come over tomorrow afternoon."

Li Younan's mother couldn't persuade his uncle, so he had no choice but to agree.

Once the matter was settled, the three of them immediately got to work.

Under the arrangement of Li Younan, the soon-to-be chef, everyone naturally divided the work: buying groceries, processing fresh seafood, washing and chopping vegetables, preparing seasonings, and so on.

Lu Xiaolan doesn't cook much at home, so she naturally appeared clumsy throughout the process.

But no matter how clumsy she was, Li Younan would praise her without reservation, saying things like, "Wow, this vegetable is washed so clean."

"Hmm, not bad, not bad at all. Not a single garlic clove is left unpeeled."

"You folded these houttuynia cordata roots one by one, didn't you? That's incredibly detailed!"

Under Li Younan's slightly exaggerated acting, Lu Xiaolan gradually loses herself and works extremely hard.

On the contrary, Mom, who originally planned to be the head chef, soon found herself with nothing to do and looked at the two of them with some amusement.

When Uncle and Aunt arrived that evening, they were surprised to see a table full of exquisite dishes. Uncle looked at Li Younan's mother and exclaimed in amazement, "You can cook so many dishes now?"

Then, without any hesitation, she brought up her mother's childhood embarrassing moments, "When you were in junior high school, you didn't cook some green beans properly and you got poisoned. You were vomiting and had diarrhea for three days, do you remember?"

Mom remained silent.

The eldest uncle then sat down, picked up his chopsticks, and took a bite of the braised pork and abalone dish. His eyes lit up, and the more he ate, the more surprised he became. He couldn't help but ask, "Did you really make this dish?"

My mom, being dishonest yet proud, asked, "How was it? Not bad, right?"

The uncle gave a strange smile: "This level of skill is enough to be the head chef in a big restaurant. You didn't order takeout, did you?" At this moment, Lu Xiaolan said indignantly: "My cousin made it all! My cousin made it all!"

The eldest uncle then looked at Li Younan with some surprise: "I was worried about your meals these past few days, but it seems I don't need to worry about you..."

The next few days quickly settled into the official vacation rhythm.

Every day, they pick out seafood and seasonal vegetables from the local market and cook for themselves. The uncle and his wife still don't really care about them and are busy with their own things.

The days unfolded loosely.

In late December in Sanya, the days seem to stretch out with the warm sea breeze.

The balcony door is always open.

There's no alarm clock to urge me on.

When I woke up, the sunlight had already filled half of the balcony.

My mom is always the first one up. Breakfast is whatever she likes—porridge or fried rice—just something simple. The dishes and chopsticks are piled up in the sink; she's not in a hurry to wash them.

When we go to the nearby farmers' market to buy groceries, we usually go together as a group of three.

When a family is together, they should be all together and complete.

Li Younan was the main person in charge, with his mother and Lu Xiaolan following behind. Sometimes they helped carry the bags, but most of the time they just looked around curiously.

Back home, the dishes were placed on the kitchen counter, and everyone found their own corner.

While her mother comfortably nestled on the sofa watching TV, Lu Xiaolan would go to the balcony alone, take out her phone and video chat with a classmate from high school or college, proudly showing off her leisurely daily life in Sanya. Or she would play mobile games for a while, and occasionally you could see her getting upset by her teammates' scolding, crying angrily, and continuing to start the next game while crying.

Li Younan hasn't filmed any videos recently, because in his opinion, there's not much to record about his daily life.

If I don't go out, I sometimes move a chair next to Lu Xiaolan and watch the slowly moving shadows of ships on the sea, or just daydream.

As noon approached, the kitchen became Li Younan's domain.

Smash garlic, chop ginger, heat up the oil, and the familiar sizzling sound, along with the aroma of ginger and garlic, rises up. Lu Xiaolan will stroll in, lean against the door frame, and ask, "Brother, do you want me to peel some scallions?" or help hand over a plate.

Occasionally, Mom would peek out and tell her son what delicious dishes she had found online, forward them to him, and then look at the dishes Li Younan always made, which never repeated themselves. They smelled so good that she would leave satisfied.

The food was served at a small dining table, and people sat around chatting.

Li Younan rarely goes out in the afternoon, but she has enrolled in a swimming course at a nearby swimming pool and has been going there to learn to swim without fail for the past few days.

It's worth mentioning that all three of them are non-swimmers, so a couple of days ago, when Li Younan brought home what he had learned at the swimming pool to digest, he lay on the ground and practiced the breaststroke over and over again.

Lu Xiaolan and her mother were both laughing at him. Lu Xiaolan retorted mercilessly, "Cousin, is this the swimming class you spent thousands of yuan on? Are you sure this isn't some kind of 'Toad Style' you're practicing?"

Li Younan didn't explain and continued his practice on his own.

A few days later, Li Younan actually learned to swim.

Although I'm not very skilled yet, and sometimes I still unlucky enough to swallow a couple of mouthfuls of water, I do know what swimming is all about now.

Later, when Li Younan took them swimming together, he could comfortably laugh at them for being unable to swim.

As the sun sets and the sea breeze begins to bring a chill, it's time to head back.

Days passed by without me paying attention to the calendar.

Sometimes the shrimp and crabs she bought were particularly plump and delicious. Lu Xiaolan once found a perfectly intact tiger clam. Another day, the clouds by the sea turned a magnificent orange-red in the evening. But most of the time, it was just the same routine: sleeping in late, buying groceries, daydreaming, cooking, and watching the sea.

After New Year's Day, Li Younan took a day to complete two daily check-in tasks.

Both are quite simple: one is to capture a sunrise over the sea, and the other is to experience diving.

The diving task was relatively troublesome, since Li Younan himself was not capable of diving independently. Under the guidance of the instructor, he clumsily experienced diving. The price was relatively expensive, and the experience was not very good. He was like a puppet being dragged around in the shallow sea. However, he finally completed the task.

The rewards for these two check-in tasks are [Mountain Climbing Skill +1] and [Pottery Making Skill +1], respectively.

[Mountaineering Skill LV.1: You have an instinctive ability to adapt to complex terrain and assess risks, and you possess amazing load-bearing capacity, making it effortless for you to climb mountains carrying tens of kilograms of equipment!]

[Level 1 Pottery Skill: When a skilled hand snatches a perfectly translucent piece of pottery from the leaping flames, its scalding perfection is the wilderness's acknowledgment of craftsmanship.]

These two skills are undoubtedly god-tier skills for living in the wild.

Mountaineering skills may seem like just one skill, but when combined with Li Younan's highland heritage skills, conquering most mountains on foot becomes an easy task.

The other skill, pottery making, is even more noteworthy.

In the process of humankind evolving from primitive humans into civilized society, besides fire and iron tools, a major milestone was the learning to fire pottery.

After acquiring this skill, Li Younan's mind was flooded with a lot of knowledge in this area, and the mark of the first level of this skill is... being able to find suitable materials in the wild and fire qualified pottery without any professional tools!

However, there is currently no opportunity to practice these two skills.

As the vacation days went by, everyone began to become more sensitive to time.

My mother's vacation was running out, and naturally, she began to feel a little sad.

Since Li Younan hasn't updated his videos recently, his fans have been urging him to update more.

Li Younan had no choice but to calm down and seriously consider his next steps.

Everything needs to be summarized.

Li Younan spent an entire night doing this.

Looking back on the past six months since resigning from his job in Shanghai, Li Younan still feels like he's in a dream.

In the past six months, I've transformed from a corporate slave stuck in the cutthroat world of office work into a travel blogger who can now boldly pursue freedom, living the life many corporate slaves dream of in just six months.

Looking back on the past six months, most of the places I've been haven't been very satisfying, and I'm still a long way from achieving my initial goals...

So far, the places I've visited are mostly industrialized tourist attractions. My dream of driving to more remote and western places hasn't been realized yet. I haven't seen the magnificent scenery hidden deep in the mountains and forests or inaccessible by road.

Of course, it wasn't that Li Younan himself was unwilling, but rather that the original plan for the previous six months was to acquire the skills that would allow him to go to those places by checking in.

At this moment, upon careful reflection, Li Younan was astonished to discover that he seemed to have initially acquired such an ability. As long as he didn't go to places that truly challenged the limits of human endurance, with the skills he had now mastered, he could experience it without any pressure and even quite leisurely.

Perhaps after the New Year and Spring Festival holidays, I can officially begin the second phase of my journey!
Of course, he hasn't visited most of the popular spots in cities and provinces yet, but Li Younan isn't in a hurry at all... Life is long.

To reach places that most travelers can't go, you either have to drive an off-road vehicle or hike. Li Younan had already experienced a basic off-road route before, and this time he planned to try hiking.

He took out his phone and excitedly told JK Long about it.

To Li Younan's surprise, JK Long did not reply to his message until the next day.

Even if he doesn't reply to messages on the same day, JK Long will always send him a message the next day.

Li Younan glanced at the screen and realized that it had been a week since she last chatted with JK Long. Since she hadn't needed to edit videos during this time, she hadn't been in much contact with JK Long.

Li Younan felt something was off, and a vague sense of foreboding rose in his heart.

But JK Dragon wasn't replying to messages, and he had no other way to contact the other party, so he could only wait patiently.

Fortunately, JK Dragon replied on the third day.

Li Younan asked him, "Were you busy the past two days?"

JK Dragon didn't elaborate, only vaguely saying, "Something came up..."

Li Younan's heart sank slightly, and he asked, "What... what's wrong?"

JK Long fell silent for a long time again, then suddenly asked a question out of the blue: "Li Younan, can I trust you?"

Li Younan frowned, thought for a moment, and replied, "We've been working together for so long, you should already know me."

"Can I ask you for a favor?"

Li Younan said without hesitation, "As long as it's something I can do, just ask."

"Take care of someone for me for a few days... but don't ask him too many questions about me..."

Upon seeing the request, Li Younan paused for a moment, then asked, "Is it in Chengdu?"

After receiving a positive reply, Li Younan looked at his original holiday schedule; there were still three days until his return trip.

But after hesitating for a moment, he confessed to his mother and Lu Xiaolan: "A friend of mine ran into some trouble and I need to go back ahead of time."

Mom and Lu Xiaolan agreed without any hesitation. In their opinion, they were already very satisfied with the holiday trip, and of course, Li Younan's matter was more important.

Li Younan said apologetically, "I'm really sorry, Mom."

My mother said somewhat unhappily, "What are you saying? Don't say such things between family members. Your uncle has been causing you a lot of trouble lately. Let's go say goodbye to him tonight, and we'll go back tomorrow."

The next day, their flight landed at Tianfu Airport on time.

(End of this chapter)