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

Chapter 164 The Intangible Cultural Heritage Girl [First Update!]

It's still the same lakeside of Shengzhong Lake.

The sun was beginning to set, and it was already afternoon.

The clouds in the sky gradually gathered, piling up little by little, layer upon layer, and the weather became quite gloomy, looking like it was about to rain.

Li Younan didn't bring out much. He cleaned and packed away the cooking utensils, then glanced at Liu Yu, who was still struggling with Shengzhong Lake, and kindly went over to ask him, "How much longer? We still need to get to the city."

Unexpectedly, Liu Yu didn't even look up, and said calmly, "I'm really into fishing today, so I plan to fish a little longer. I'll stay here for the night. Leave your tent here, and you can leave."

Li Younan's facial muscles twitched slightly. He glanced at the lake and said with some reluctance, "If you really can't do it, try fishing from the shore over there. Maybe it's not a problem with your skill level, but rather that your position isn't conducive to your performance."

At this point, Li Younan could only come up with these lame excuses to comfort Liu Yu, but to his surprise, Liu Yu looked thoughtful and then nodded, "That makes some sense." He looked at Li Younan, "You've been lucky today, perhaps I should listen to you."

Li Younan sighed slightly—this kid really can't tell the situation clearly; the hardest thing for a person is indeed to recognize himself.

Seeing that Liu Yu was determined to catch fish here today, Li Younan didn't bother to persuade him anymore.

Although the kid hadn't eaten anything since noon, it didn't stop him from looking energetic right now.

Like I said, adults won't die from missing a meal or getting caught in the rain.

Li Younan left the tent with him and then ignored him.

After exchanging contact information with He Gang, they decided to leave.

He Gang was determined to fish here. He had brought enough equipment to cope with the downpour, and it was only April, so it wasn't going to rain heavily.

He told Li Younan, "Don't worry, I'll take good care of your buddy."

Li Younan shrugged: "Don't worry about him, let him fend for himself."

He Gang asked with some curiosity, "You're definitely not a fishing newbie, are you?"

Li Younan pointed to his face and said, "Brother, do you recognize me?"

He Gang looked somewhat puzzled: "Should I know you?"

Li Younan smiled.

Sure enough, even though you have more than 300 million followers, there are really not many people who can recognize you when you walk down the street.

Therefore, there is still a big difference between internet celebrities and real stars – a national star will definitely be recognized when walking on the street, while even an internet celebrity with tens of millions of followers will probably not be noticed by many people when walking on the street.

Li Younan certainly doesn't pursue fame, but to truly become famous, one must appear on television.

After parting ways with Liu Yu and the others, Li Younan drove directly to Nanchong.

The college student who asked Li Younan out was originally from Nanbu, but Li Younan planned to stay in Nanchong. Without thinking twice, the college student said he could go to Nanchong to see him.

On the bus, Li Younan was naturally thinking about the college student who had asked him out.

Judging from the text sent by the other party, in general, they are the kind of college students who have just graduated, have not been too harshly punished by reality, and are full of hope and passion for life.

To put it bluntly, it's a bit out of touch with reality; to put it nicely, it hasn't become realistic yet, and it still holds onto what can be called a dream.

They occupy a relatively high position and are idealistic. Of course, these are just conclusions drawn from conversations; whether they are truly like that can only be judged after meeting them in person.

Li Younan was well aware that in this increasingly materialistic society, many intangible cultural heritages were disappearing.

Before this, he actually felt some regret about the matter, but he didn't have a strong enough urge to do something about it.

Ultimately, this is a thankless and arduous task.

Many intangible cultural heritages cannot be saved by the reputation of one or two people. Their elimination is, in a sense, in line with the times—because there are other better alternatives, and they have lost their original practical value.

Take woven bamboo baskets, for example. They are time-consuming and labor-intensive to make, and more expensive than similar products from the plastics industry. Of course, ordinary people would choose industrial products. If they can't be sold, fewer and fewer people will make them.

However, Li Younan was indeed influenced by that college student.

The other person's persistent, even somewhat silly, attitude piqued his curiosity.

He wanted to see what kind of person was doing this.

When Li Younan found the old teahouse at the end of the alley according to the address, the girl was already sitting by the window.

Hearing footsteps, the girl jumped up, the chair legs scraping softly on the ground.

Before Li Younan could speak, she hurriedly steadied the chair, her hand brushing against the enamel mug on the corner of the table. The water inside sloshed, spilling two drops onto the faded tablecloth—she quickly wiped them off with her fingertips. As Li Younan approached, he could see that the girl was wearing a shirt with frayed cuffs and the collar buttoned tightly.

She was clutching a notebook with curled edges. The cover had the words "Intangible Cultural Heritage Research" written on it in black ink. The word "Research" was traced twice, and the ink was blurred, probably because she had written it too forcefully.

After Li Younan sat down, she leaned forward and took out some documents from her canvas bag. As she did so, she pulled out a plastic bag containing steamed buns. She paused for a moment, then hurriedly stuffed the bag back in, her ears turning slightly red.

Upon noticing this, Li Younan was stunned for a moment.

Only then did the girl introduce herself: "I, I am Lu Shihua, hello Teacher Li."

Li Younan nodded: "I didn't explain in much detail on WeChat, so let me just give you a brief overview..."

Having probably never communicated with a big streamer like Li Younan before, the girl stammered and stumbled, momentarily bewildered, seemingly unsure where to begin, her face turning bright red to her ears.

Li Younan smiled and reassured him, "Don't be nervous, just tell me about your experience first..."

Lu Shihua kept her head down, still not daring to look at Li Younan, and said softly, "When I was teaching in a rural area, I met an old man who was an inheritor of intangible cultural heritage. When my teaching ended, the old man passed away, and the intangible cultural heritage he had was lost. I felt very sad, and I thought about whether I could do something for them after graduating from university."

She then started searching through materials and said, "After graduating from university, I spent some time organizing a few intangible cultural heritages that I knew were on the verge of being lost. Take a look."

When she handed over the documents, Li Younan noticed that there were ink stains on her fingertips and faint mud marks embedded in her fingernails.

"This is what I compiled after traveling to three counties. It includes records of the craftsmanship of veteran artisans and their difficulties." The girl's voice was not loud, but she leaned forward and stared at the pages in Li Younan's hand, afraid of missing a single glance from him.

Li Younan turned to a certain page, and the girl's fingertip suddenly stopped on the words "smiling dolls," her fingertip gently tracing the paper: "Grandpa Wang is the last inheritor of the smiling doll craft; he's over 70 years old. He says that if no one asks about it anymore, this craft will be buried in the ground, and he says he's sorry to his ancestors..."

At this point, she raised her head and said with some heartache, "But the Japanese really liked this skill, and they even went to Grandpa Wang's place to learn it, only to be chased away by him."

Hearing this, Li Younan frowned slightly and asked, "What do you want me to do?"

"I'd like to ask you to help me appeal..." She pushed the documents towards Li Younan again, her palms sweaty, the edges of the documents crumpled from being squeezed.

Li Younan remained silent for a while.

Such silence made Lu Shihua uneasy. Her nose tingled slightly as she recalled the heartbreaking scenes she had witnessed. She said, "There are quite a few people doing this. The more we learn, the more heartbroken we become. There are many intangible cultural heritages that we ourselves do not value, but neighboring Japan and South Korea are vying for them. For example, this smiling doll. Many people think it is Japanese, but in fact, it is our country's original."

“In Japan, these smiley face dolls are very expensive, and the artisans who make them are highly respected. But in our country, because it’s not profitable, Grandpa Wang is the last inheritor of this craft.”

"For example, the kimchi that Koreans eat is also from Sichuan... but now they have applied for UNESCO World Heritage status."

Li Younan suddenly spoke up, interrupting Lu Shihua, saying, "Promoting something is actually very easy to do, but is promotion useful? The biggest problem is still the lack of a successor, right? We need to find something to do, right?"

Lu Shihua was taken aback for a moment. She hadn't expected Li Younan to see things so deeply. She nodded and said, "Only by promoting it will we attract people to learn it."

Li Younan didn't agree immediately. He carefully read through Lu Shihua's information, then slowly breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Where is this Grandpa Wang you mentioned? Well, it's getting late today, so let's go visit him in person tomorrow, or whenever you think is more convenient."

The girl was stunned for a moment before slowly realizing what Li Younan meant. Suddenly she smiled, took out a small clay figure tied with a red string from her canvas bag. The clay was uneven in color, and the ears were shaped a little crooked. "I learned to make this from Grandma Li. It's not worth much, but I wanted to thank you."

After settling the matter, Li Younan and Lu Shihua temporarily separated.

At this point, he sent all the videos he had taken during the day to JK Long.

Because his unlucky older brother is still fishing at Shengzhong Lake right now, and judging by the look of it, he's probably going to be welding there for the next couple of days.

Since there probably wasn't much time to help with the dubbing, Li Younan had JK Long edit it out in another format.

This time, the video footage is extremely rich, including the classic shot of two fish with one arrow, as well as a video of Li Younan catching seven or eight fish in a row using his superb fishing skills.

For JK Long, these materials were easy to edit, and she said there was no problem. She also asked Li Younan to keep an eye on her brother and not let him get lost.

Li Younan quickly assured her, "Don't worry, with me here, your brother won't go hungry or cold."

JK Long said somewhat embarrassedly, "That's not what I meant... then thank you for your trouble."

Li Younan verbally agreed with JK Long, then put down her phone, took a hot shower, and comfortably lay down on the bed to sleep.

At that moment, it started raining heavily outside.

The rain that falls between April and May isn't as pure as spring rain; it's still quite intense.

Li Younan had a somewhat amusing thought: what if Liu Yu's tent leaked? That would be quite embarrassing.

Thinking about this, Li Younan felt even sleepier.

(End of this chapter)