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

Chapter 140 Springtime [6 words]

For the next few days, Li Younan went to Liu Yu's place every day.

There was nothing to do in the past, and Li Younan's purpose in going there was not really to do anything for that guy. It was just that JK Long had asked her to do this, so she went there to check in and take a picture with Liu Yu to confirm that her brother was indeed fine.

When doing this, Li Younan and Liu Yu showed a strange tacit understanding.

Every day when Li Younan arrived, Liu Yu would have prepared fruit, casually point to something and say, "Have some apples," and then adjust herself into a natural and comfortable pose for Li Younan to take pictures.

After finishing this task, Li Younan didn't linger and left quickly.

Only occasionally would Liu Yu ask if the photo was good or not, and if not, to take another one.

After taking the photos, they would sometimes agree on a time for Li Younan to send them to JK Long, so as to avoid any mishaps when they were communicating with each other.

Afterwards, Li Younan didn't disturb Liu Yu's rest and said goodbye directly. Liu Yu didn't try to stop him, and there was no longer a scene like the first time they met where they talked for so long.

Li Younan found it somewhat amusing, but more than that, he felt a sense of感慨 (gǎnkǎi, a complex emotion encompassing feelings, reflection, and a touch of melancholy).

Without a doubt, Liu Yu is an extremely outstanding young man, having founded a fairly successful advertising company at a young age.

What is truly remarkable is that, after achieving such success, he did not become preoccupied with indulging in pleasure, but instead devoted all his attention to his younger sister.

Li Younan has seen many people with similar incomes to Liu Yu who spend more time enjoying themselves.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with that, but it only highlights the precious quality of Liu Yu, who puts his family first.

Li Younan had some appreciation for Liu Yu, but how the other party viewed him was somewhat ambiguous.

Li Younan could sense that Liu Yu was scrutinizing and observing him.

Occasionally, during a chat, they might inadvertently convey a sense of "you're pretty good."

There's nothing inherently wrong with such an evaluation, but it comes across as the tone of a more accomplished person critiquing a younger person.

This detail roughly shows that Liu Yu placed himself in a higher position.

Of course, Li Younan found the other party's mentality somewhat amusing, but he didn't think the other party was arrogant.

After all, from the other party's perspective, from a broad, secular point of view, the achievements they have made are indeed more easily accepted by the public as excellent.

But Li Younan was naturally not bothered by such gazes.

After Li Younan left, Liu Yu adjusted herself into a more comfortable position, but she looked somewhat disheveled.

This injury was naturally not as easy as he appeared.

In addition to the most obvious leg fracture, he also had two broken ribs and multiple bruises on his body.

I didn't feel anything when I was in the car accident, but a week later, my whole body ached, as if I had been beaten up with a baseball bat.

People who are frequently involved in car accidents can deeply relate to this experience.

The nursing care at this hospital is quite good, but it will still take some time for the injury to heal properly.

The original plan was for her to go back home with a cast on a few days later to continue recuperating, but with Li Younan's help over the past two days, her emotions have gradually stabilized, so there's no need to rush.

Liu Li also disagreed with him going home so early, so let him stay for a while longer.

Liu Yu didn't say anything to thank Li Younan for his efforts over the past few times, but she had gained a clearer understanding of his character.

Liu Li would also ask him on the phone, "What kind of person is Li Younan?"

After a moment's thought, Liu Yu offered a relatively objective assessment: "He's pretty much the same as what you saw in the video. I'm just talking about his appearance... As for the rest, he's quite composed and speaks calmly and without arrogance, which is similar to me."

Hearing this evaluation, Liu Li was somewhat disappointed: "Ah? So, like my brother, it's not interesting at all..."

Liu Yu didn't mind her sister's childishness. Instead, she took the opportunity to lecture her: "The most important thing for a person is to have upright character and be honest, and then to have a kind heart. This applies to making friends and everything else..."

“You’ve been somewhat disconnected from society since junior high school. For you, having not had such a long period of contact with someone for so long means that everything else is secondary; character is the most important thing.”

In fact, JK Long has met other people online. She often leaves her mark on forums and video comment sections, and occasionally communicates with others.

People always need to interact with the outside world, and the internet is a great thing, even providing opportunities for people like JK Long.

For a long time, Liu Yu knew that her younger sister had never had any deeper communication with any of the online friends.

Even now, her sister only has two people in her WeChat contacts—herself and Li Younan.

Liu Yu continued, "I'm glad you took this step, but naturally I'm also worried. I'm worried that you might encounter someone with bad intentions. But fortunately, Li Younan proved himself to be an upright person little by little, which is why I feel at ease letting the two of you continue to cooperate in this way."

"Brother, are you alright? Does your leg still hurt today?" Liu Li finally managed to interject while Liu Yu was speaking.

Liu Yu frowned: "Don't interrupt, I haven't finished speaking yet."

"Brother, I want to eat McDonald's tomorrow. Maybe we shouldn't let Auntie cook for us?"

"Change the subject?"

"elder brother……"

Liu Yu finally sighed somewhat helplessly: "Okay, I'll talk to Aunt Zhao tomorrow."

We have a nanny at home.

After all, even without this accident, Liu Yu couldn't stay at home forever to take care of Liu Li's daily life, so hiring a nanny was necessary.

Fortunately, Liu Li did not have a particularly strong reaction to the idea of ​​hiring a nanny for the family; she simply maintained a state of minimizing contact with outsiders.

Aunt Zhao would prepare the meals every day and then leave, after which Liu Li would open the room and come out to eat.

Liu Yu has a monitoring app installed on her phone, allowing her to check the home security cameras anytime.

It was lunchtime, and the auntie finished cooking and left. Liu Li opened the door to her room, sat down to eat, and waved to the camera to reassure Liu Yu.

Liu Li then asked, "By the way, brother, he still doesn't know I'm a girl, right?"

Liu Yu calmly replied, "I don't know."

Liu Li said, "That's good..."

Liu Yu added, "But I told him what you look like."

Liu Li's expression turned somewhat strange: "Can you explain it clearly?"

Liu Yu said, "No, I told him you're ugly, only 1.5 meters tall and weigh 150 pounds."

Liu Li was stunned, her lips twitching slightly: "Huh? What are you doing!"

Liu Yu said nonchalantly, "It was just a joke."

Liu Li said with some helplessness, "You're really something... But what was his reaction?"

Liu Yu's expression was somewhat amusing: "He was stunned for a moment, and then he actually had a somewhat matter-of-fact expression on his face."

"Uh?"

Liu Yu's tone became serious: "Of course, you can send him photos anytime and tell him what you really look like... I originally thought he would question it, and then I would explain it to him, but he just stopped talking, so I didn't bother to explain anymore."

Liu Li smiled and said, "No need, brother. I don't even know if I should see him."

She sighed softly, "With an illness like mine, I'll probably be trapped in this room for the rest of my life. What difference does it make whether they know what I look like or not!"

Liu Yu said earnestly, "Your illness will definitely get better, don't think so much."

Liu Li smiled and said, "If I really get better, I'll treat Li Younan to a meal and scare him in front of everyone. He'll probably be shocked when he sees me, hahaha..."

Liu Yu laughed too: "So you have to work hard to get better and have confidence."

"Ok!"

……

After some time, Liu Yu was finally discharged from the hospital.

In fact, Li Younan no longer needed to go to the hospital to check in before he was discharged.

The main purpose of doing this was to put Liu Li at ease, and she did indeed manage to adjust on her own later.

However, this incident did frighten the little girl.

Li Younan naturally didn't believe Liu Yu's description of Liu Li as a chubby little girl.

Even if Liu Li isn't an absolute beauty, she's unlikely to look like that.

On the one hand, Li Younan firmly believes that the probability of genetic mutation is relatively small, and there's no reason why a sister with a brother like Liu Yu would be ugly; on the other hand, it's just a gut feeling.

The intuition I gleaned from each of Liu Yu's conversations with me.

However, Li Younan wasn't bothered by this matter. He didn't care what Liu Li looked like. Right now, his relationship with Liu Li was just that of collaborators. Because of her special condition, she didn't have contact with outsiders, so knowing what she looked like was completely unimportant... Maintaining this relationship of online communication without interfering with each other offline was fine enough.

The weather grew increasingly cold, and after some time, the Spring Festival finally arrived.

This year's Spring Festival was a particularly meaningful one for Li Younan.

This is his first Spring Festival after resigning, and also his first Spring Festival after leaving Shanghai, so he can focus all his energy on spending time with his family.

The eve of the Lunar New Year was very simple, spent only by Li Younan and his mother.

According to local custom, New Year's Eve is a time for family reunions. A family of three reunites with another family of three, and a family of four reunites with another family of four.

Dinner on New Year's Eve was also very simple: soup was made, and the mother and son made dumplings together.

Dumplings, a homophone for "transfer of money" in Chinese, are a long-standing family tradition for Li Younan and his family to eat dumplings on New Year's Eve.

This year, naturally, Li Younan took over the housework.

After finishing the dumplings, Li Younan didn't rush to clean up; instead, he watched TV with his mother.

Although the Spring Festival Gala has been quite unwatchable in recent years, the sound of it on TV still evokes a sense of warmth.

While watching TV, my mom asked out of the blue, "Son, don't you get bored watching TV with me?"

It's normal to have such doubts, after all, the generation gap between parents and children is becoming more and more obvious these days. Let alone sitting down and having a calm chat, it's quite rare to even feel patient with each other's words.

Li Younan is currently grabbing red envelopes in the family group chat. Lu Xiaolan generously sent out several red envelopes, and Li Younan always got the biggest one.

At this moment, Lu Xiaolan shouted in the group: "Oh dear, cousin, you've grabbed so much, it's your turn to post!"

Li Younan put down her phone and said to her mother, "How could that be? Mom, I think chatting with you is quite interesting. You can continue telling me the story of your colleague who is thirty-eight years old and still unmarried. I really enjoy listening to it."

My mom snorted: "Don't make fun of others. In a few years, you'll be almost thirty. Once you're over thirty, time flies by like turning the pages of a book. Before you know it, you'll be thirty-eight or thirty-nine."

"Mom, are you worried that I won't be able to find a girlfriend?"

"Of course not, let's continue talking about that colleague, hey..."

As I get older, I can't stay up late anymore. My mom couldn't even stay awake until the dumpling-making segment on TV started; her eyelids were already drooping.

After she went to bed early, Li Younan couldn't fall asleep.

He sat on the sofa and silently watched the Spring Festival Gala.

A few firecrackers and pops went off outside, followed by a period of noise.

Because of the recent policies banning fireworks, we can no longer see the spectacular sight of fireworks filling the sky like we did when we were children.

Li Younan walked to the window. Downstairs in the apartment complex, a chubby man was setting off small fireworks with his child, while a woman next to them was filming them.

The little boy pointed and ran, but after a few steps, he fell to the ground with a "thud." Instead of helping their fallen son up immediately, the man and woman walked over to him, laughing and joking together, making a heart shape with their arms, while taking a picture of their shadows to cover the wailing little boy.

Seeing this, Li Younan couldn't help but laugh, and as he laughed, his eyes became slightly moist.

Seriously, it's Chinese New Year, and I'm showing myself this kind of stuff.

That's a bit sentimental, but whatever, I guess I'll just be sentimental since nobody sees it.

……

After the 30th, the New Year becomes more lively, with people visiting each other's homes, exchanging New Year's greetings, and eating reunion dinners. In this respect, Li Younan's family is no different from most families.

During this time, Li Younan received a gift from Jing Chaoyi.

This girl has recently come up with a new idea: she's become fascinated with tea art—not the art of brewing tea, but the intangible cultural heritage of the entire process from planting to processing tea leaves.

She gave Li Younan a package of tea cakes she had made herself, and then said that she would like to invite Li Younan to come and visit after spring.

Besides Jing Chaoyi, Lan Yiyi also sent a message.

In fact, Lan Yiyi had been sending him messages all along, constantly reporting on Xiao Shengjiang's condition.

It's visibly that the little ginger has grown taller and stronger.

Lan Yiyi said, "But he's also become naughty, and I, as his mother, am finding it hard to control him."

Li Younan said with a laugh, "So you've become his mother? Then who's his father?"

Lan Yiyi said nonchalantly, "Don't focus on these details. Girls like to use these kinds of phrases, you know? It's just a way of saying things. When are you coming to see Xiao Shengjiang?"

Li Younan said, "Didn't you say you wanted me to come to the Naadam festival in the summer? I'll come a little earlier then."

After the Spring Festival, life gradually returned to its original track, and Li Younan began to prepare for his next mountain climbing trip.

Li Younan could understand Zhu Qingyue's somewhat foolish choices.

This girl had a lot of unrealistic, artistic dreams in her head, so Li Younan wasn't surprised at all that she would make this choice.

You can't understand the thinking of artsy girls with normal logic. They are the kind of people who would go all out for an atmosphere, a belief, or a feeling.

For Li Younan, even if such a misfortune befell someone as close as his aunt, after a period of sadness, he would gradually take the matter in stride.

But in Zhu Qingyue's eyes, this matter has a different meaning.

Even when the outside world thought she was foolish and unrealistic, she persisted and remained unmoved.

But there's no need to be so nervous about this... The best way to cure a pretentious, artsy person is to let reality beat them up. If that doesn't work, beat them up a few more times.

Li Younan knew very well that this trip would be fruitless, and he could say with almost certainty that Zhu Qingyue would not be able to hold on until the end and would most likely obediently return halfway.

Li Younan even thought that the first step should be to find the teammates her aunt had worked with. Perhaps this step could shut down Zhu Qingyue and cause her journey to end before it even began.

Even if Zhu Qingyue did find the teammates her aunt had worked with and determined a general direction and destination, it wouldn't matter if I accompanied her, since we were going to go mountain climbing anyway.

This was originally Li Younan's first time mountain climbing, so he only had the mindset of learning and experiencing the journey. The stronger one's abilities, the more one should have a sense of awe.

Therefore, distance is not important; as long as you do it, it is meaningful.

While preparing his mountaineering equipment, Li Younan filmed a video and briefly told his fans about his upcoming plans. He didn't go into too much detail, only mentioning that he was going to Mount Gongga.

April arrived in the blink of an eye, and Zhu Qingyue sent a message saying that they had agreed to meet in Chengdu... He needed to go see his aunt's teammate first.

Li Younan drove there directly.

……

Zhu Qingyue looks even more beautiful than when we last met.

She cut her hair short, saying it would be easier to manage, and then looked at Li Younan and laughed: "You seem to have gotten a little darker."

Li Younan shrugged: "The sun is shining brightly outside."

Once in the car, Zhu Qingyue gave Li Younan an address, and Li Younan drove there.

Looking at the road ahead, Zhu Qingyue said somewhat embarrassedly, "I was a bit impulsive before, but I've thought about it seriously recently, and I can't be so idealistic."

Li Younan turned her head with amusement: "What, have you given up?"

Zhu Qingyue shook her head, her gaze hardening: "No, I've just changed my goal. Now I'm thinking that I definitely won't find my aunt's belongings... or her body. My idea for this trip is simply to walk the paths my aunt walked. I'm not as capable as my aunt, so I'll go as far as I can. If I can't go on, we'll turn back."

She turned to look at Li Younan, "I will try my best not to be a burden to you! And I will definitely not be a problem for you!"

Li Younan blinked and said with a hint of amusement, "It's not that serious."

Li Younan's expression turned serious again: "So tell me about your aunt's teammate."

Zhu Qingyue nodded, then sighed and said, "I only found out when I was looking at my aunt's emails."

“My aunt’s teammate is a very famous mountaineer in Kawauchi, but the incident last time was a big blow to him, and he hasn’t gone mountaineering for a long time.”

“I searched for his information online. Besides being a mountaineer, he is also a three-time champion of the CD City rock climbing competition. But online forums say that he has a bad temper. I invited him to visit his home, and I didn’t feel that there was anything wrong with his temper.”

Li Younan nodded, noted down the information, then turned to Zhu Qingyue and asked, "Are you mentally prepared?"

Zhu Qingyue paused for a moment: "Uh, it's done..."

Li Younan shook his head and said, "What I mean is to be prepared to gain nothing."

Zhu Qingyue asked in confusion, "Why?"

Li Younan didn't explain, but just drove silently. After a while, he slowly said, "Psychological trauma is... quite complicated."

Zhu Qingyue: "Huh?"

(End of this chapter)