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

Chapter 146 Under the Same Tent (Part 1) [First Update!]

As night deepened, the wind on the Gexi Grassland softened, and the newly pitched tents, exuding the scent of canvas, nestled on the soft meadow, seemed to be immersed in a quiet dream.

Zhu Qingyue put on her headphones. She was still awake. She pulled back the tent flap and silently looked up at the sky.

From this vantage point, you can see the starry sky.

When I looked up, the stars had already filled the sky. They didn't appear all at once, but rather like scattered silver fragments, slowly spreading across the black velvet.

The grass in April, carrying a hint of damp earth, mingled with the evening breeze and brushed against my cheek.

Li Younan was not asleep either. Zhu Qingyue glanced at Li Younan's tent, where the light was still on.

Right now, Li Younan is further planning the route he will take tomorrow, repeatedly checking some information on the map.

Tomorrow, part of the route will be a normal crossing route, and because many people have traveled this route, it is relatively safe.

But their campsite for tomorrow night will gradually deviate from the loop.

It's not that no one goes there at all, but as a route for climbing several peaks of Gongga Mountain, very few people go there, not enough to form a path as described by Lu Xun.

Zhu Qingyue certainly knew what Li Younan was doing at that moment.

She hugged her knees with both hands, silently listening to the rustling sound of paper maps coming from Li Younan's tent.

The sparse sounds were particularly noticeable in the quiet atmosphere.

She gazed silently at the sky; the stars seemed both very close and very far away.

After a while, Zhu Qingyue heard Li Younan, who had probably finished his work, starting to make the bed. She asked, "Are you done?"

Li Younan replied, "Oh, not really busy."

Zhu Qingyue hugged her knees tightly and said, "Can you talk to me for a while? I miss my aunt a little."

Li Younan gave a soft "hmm".

Zhu Qingyue felt like crying right now, and she didn't know why, since she hadn't felt this sad during the day.

She looked up at the stars and said, "Li Younan, look! The stars in the sky are so bright!"

Li Younan's voice came from inside the tent, and the tent was opened a crack.

Zhu Qingyue said, "Look at those stars. They don't blink, they just shine, one by one, scattered across the sky. When they form a whole patch, they look like a river, flowing slowly. I think Auntie has probably become one of them. Do you think that's possible, Li Younan?"

Li Younan gave a soft "hmm".

Zhu Qingyue chuckled again: "Actually, this is quite good. If Auntie turned into a star, I wouldn't have to worry about her anymore. It's just that she can't speak either, because stars don't have mouths. Auntie has the sharpest tongue; last time she even mocked me for going to a place that wasn't cool at all, unlike her..."

Li Younan fell silent.

It was very quiet all around, with only Zhu Qingyue's own breathing and the occasional faint cry of a beast in the distance, which was quickly swallowed up by the grass. The rest was still silence.

"Li Younan, thank you, thank you so much."

She lay on the sleeping mat, without a pillow, just gazing at the stars. The soft starlight fell on her eyelids, warm and comforting. She felt as if she had become a part of this grassland, with the grass, the wind, and her aunt in the sky, just there, without saying a word.

……

Among the equipment Li Younan brought this time was a piece that would leave most hikers speechless: a carbon fiber hunting bow.

But this equipment is certainly not for hunting.

There are actually two reasons. One is to guard against possible attacks by wild animals.

In the raw, untamed wilderness, one could be attacked by wild animals at any time.

In this high-altitude region, there are many aggressive wild animals, such as wolves and bears.

Under most circumstances, these wild animals should not be harmed.

In theory, the only wild animal in China that can be shot without any scruples is the rat.

Even wild boars, which have now been removed from the list of protected species, still require a hunting license at the county level or above in many areas to be legally hunted.

To be honest, this was a little regrettable for Li Younan. He had excellent archery skills, but he couldn't legally hunt wild game.

In addition, he also possesses the skill of identifying animals.

He knows perfectly well which parts of an animal have delicious meat and which parts are inedible or harmful to health.

Didn't the skill description say that animals are mainly divided into two parts: the edible part and the inedible part?

If I want to really enjoy it, it seems I'll have to find an opportunity when I go abroad in the future.

When he went to sleep at night, he would keep the bow and arrows within easy reach, just in case.

The next day, when Li Younan got up, Zhu Qingyue was still huddled in the tent.

He boiled water in a high-altitude stove. Although the water did not reach the boiling point of 100°C, it was basically free of germs and could be drunk directly.

The water was poured into two thermos flasks that the two of them carried with them.

This thermos has a very large capacity, capable of holding more than a liter of water, and it keeps water very hot.

After finishing this task, Zhu Qingyue slowly got up. Her hair was a little messy. She sneezed, then rubbed her eyes and tidied her hair with her hands.

To be fair, Zhu Qingyue is indeed naturally beautiful. Even in such an environment, without the means to wear makeup, she is still very beautiful and charming, with flawless fair skin.

Breakfast was much simpler, and Li Younan handed over some compressed biscuits.

The two ate compressed biscuits with hot water and quickly filled their stomachs.

Li Younan looked ahead at the road and said, "The difficulty will increase today, so be prepared."

Zhu Qingyue nodded.

They planned to arrive at Shangri-Wuqie camp before noon.

Today's journey was noticeably more difficult than yesterday's, but fortunately, Zhu Qingyue has gradually begun to adapt to the high-altitude climate.

My head doesn't feel as bad as it did yesterday.

After rounding the last scree slope, the Shangriwuqie campsite came into view.

The campsite was small, with only three black tents belonging to herders. The canvas was stretched a bit by the wind, and the corners were weighed down with fist-sized stones, which were still covered with unmelted snow.

Not far from the tent was a fire pit, from which smoke rose straight up, only to be choked into wisps by the wind. A herdsman in a dark blue coat squatted by the fire pit, holding a dry twig in his hand and poking it into the fire.

The ground was made of frozen and thawed mud and gravel, which crunched underfoot.

This is a rest stop for people traveling the western route of Gongga.

Moving forward, they cross the Riwuqie Pass; moving backward, they reach Moxigou. There are no other campsites along this stretch of road. Originally, Li Younan and his group planned to camp here, since there were people living here.

However, the plans have now changed.

All the conditions needed for setting up camp are met here. You can ask the herders for a cup of hot water, and if you're lucky, you can buy some tsampa or dried meat. Just set up camp on flat ground not far from the herders' tents, away from the wind.

On an April afternoon, the camp was nearly deserted. When Li Younan and his companion arrived, besides the old herdsmen guarding the tents, there were only two porters from Kangding, squatting on a rock smoking pipes with bulging horse sacks at their feet.

Zhu Qingyue rested to the side, while Li Younan chatted briefly with the two porters.

They said this was a good number of people; it had snowed a couple of days ago, and even the porters had to make fewer trips.

In previous years, it would be good to have seven or eight hikers a day at this time, most of them lightly equipped. Those who hike the whole route with heavy packs would have to wait for the snow to melt more before there would be more hikers.

The ground was compacted by footsteps, mixed with gravel and shards of ice that hadn't completely melted, making it easy to slip if you walked too fast.

Zhu Qingyue breathed on her hands to cool them down and looked at Li Younan. She saw him holding a compressed biscuit and chatting with a herdsman. He offered the biscuit to the herdsman, who happily said no.

Li Younan smiled and said, "It's alright, take it, grandpa."

The other person laughed loudly: "I'm only 40 years old, and you're calling me grandpa..."

Li Younan was stunned for a moment, because the other person clearly looked to be in his fifties or sixties, with rough and dark skin.

High altitudes can indeed be extremely harmful to people.

This is definitely not a place you can stay for long.

The other person said in broken Chinese, "You people actually look a bit like fools to us. People age quickly on the plateau. What's the point of you coming here to walk?" He added, "A few days ago, a few people went up there, saying they wanted to climb mountains. One of our brothers took them up."

For a moment, Li Younan didn't know what to say.

From the perspective of the local indigenous people, what these backpackers doing seems to be meaningless.

But Li Younan doesn't think so.

Seeing their lives is one of the greatest meanings.

Without this kind of walking, forever trapped in the concrete jungle of the city, busy with the nine-to-five life, you would never know that there are so many people on this land living lives completely different from your own.

Knowing these things made Li Younan feel complete.

They then continued their journey.

However, something unexpected happened.

Zhu Qingyue has caught a cold.

(End of this chapter)