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

Chapter 182 The Interview Begins [First Update]

First, there's the contrast.

One of the main reasons why Li Younan's videos were so popular in the past was because of his "pretentiousness".

This is the biggest difference between Li Younan and other travel bloggers in the travel field.

Other travel bloggers, regardless of their main focus, all have the core selling point of seeking novelty, either by traveling in a special way or by traveling to special places.

For Li Younan, wherever he travels, whether it's the remote Gongga Mountain or the bustling Xiamen, those viral videos become his stage to showcase his skills.

However, although people liked the subtle air of sophistication he exuded in his videos, before that, Li Younan was at least outwardly quite low-key and did not openly boast about how awesome he was.

This time, he changed his usual low profile and publicly stated that living alone in the wilderness was just a longer wilderness trip. So, for Li Younan, it was not much different from him going to Gongga Mountain.

For most fans, the difficulty and significance of living alone in the wilderness and surviving in the wilderness are not really understood. So when Li Younan's video was first released, it was just a bunch of fans making fun of it and combining it with Li Younan's skills.

However, after the video went viral, some so-called professionals naturally noticed Li Younan's video, and different opinions naturally emerged.

Unlike the last time when Lao Xu exposed Li Younan's fraud, this time some of the initial harsh voices came from a professional perspective, analyzing the difficulty of living alone in the wilderness.

“When you wake up in the morning, you don’t wake up naturally, you wake up from the cold—the wind blowing across the lake in the early morning seeps through the gaps in the shelter, and even though you’re wrapped in two quick-drying clothes, the tips of your ears still feel numb.”

"The first thing you do when you get up isn't brush your teeth, but to reach for the water bag you hid under the rock last night. The water inside is frozen, and you have to hold the water bag in your arms for half an hour until the ice melts into half a bag of muddy water."

"In the time it takes for the water to melt, you take out your fishing hook and go to the lake. The lake water is so cold it hurts your hands, and you squat there for half an hour, but the float doesn't move at all."

"I looked up and saw a squirrel in a pine tree in the distance. I wanted to chase it and set a trap, but after taking two steps I stepped into a mud pit. My shoes were filled with cold lake mud, and I sank with every step."

"By the time you finish setting up the traps and return to the shelter, the fire will be almost out, and the melted water will only be enough for a couple of sips. Your stomach will still be empty."

"When the midday sun is a little stronger, you go up the hill to look for wild vegetables. Just as you recognize a few edible ones, you suddenly hear the rustling of branches behind you. When you turn around, you see a black bear staring at the wild vegetables in your hand from fifty meters away. You don't dare to breathe and slowly back away until you are behind a tree before you dare to catch your breath. When you turn around again, the wild vegetables have already been trampled by the bear."

"This afternoon, you wanted to reinforce the shelter. When you were chopping down trees, the axe handle slipped and you cut the back of your hand, leaving a bloody gash. Since you didn't have anything sterilized, you could only tear off some fabric from your clothes to wrap it up. The blood seeped out, and it was all sticky."

"We finally managed to cut two tree branches, but the sky started to darken and the wind on the lake picked up again. You have to hurry back, or the rain will come and the campfire will never be able to be lit again."

"At night you huddle in the shelter, munching on the two wild berries you were lucky enough to find that morning, listening to the wind outside."

"Suddenly you hear a noise from the other side of the trap. You grab a stick and go out to check. It turns out a rabbit has escaped, and the trap has been trampled and broken."

"You stand in the darkness, looking at the empty trap, and suddenly realize that you haven't said a word all day, not even daring to cough loudly—afraid that the bear in the distance will hear you."

"After lying down, you touched the back of your hand that was still bleeding, thinking about what to do if you still couldn't catch any fish tomorrow, where you could find wild vegetables after they were trampled by a bear, and whether you would freeze to death in the middle of the night if the fire went out tonight."

"The waves on the lake crashed against the rocks, one after another. You stared at the branches on the roof of the shelter until dawn before you could doze off for a while, then you were woken up by the cold and began to repeat the same day."

"Now, a blogger actually tells us that going to that place is like a tourist trip. Haha, I can only say that those who do not respect nature will eventually be punished by nature."

The text in this video, combined with the footage he previously captured of contestants in their miserable state while living alone in the wilderness, is extremely convincing.

Suddenly, many people who were not familiar with this reality show understood just how boastful Li Younan's video was.

Even some of Li Younan's staunchest fans couldn't help but feel a little worried.

His true die-hard fans, however, remained dismissive: "It's not that exaggerated. With Li Younan's abilities, it's unlikely."

After Li Younan's video was released, the most unhappy people were those contestants who had previously received a lot of praise.

They were well aware that, as true grassroots individuals, they were at a significant disadvantage when facing Li Younan as a competitor.

They were quite honest in the video, only showing their skills and strengths. When they narrated, their tone was also sincere and down-to-earth, mainly because they didn't want to leave a bad impression on the production team.

But unexpectedly, Li Younan did the opposite, which attracted a lot of attention. Compared to him, they seemed to lack confidence at all.

It was too late to make adjustments at this point, so the resentment was naturally vented on Li Younan. During the live stream, an internet celebrity who was participating in the program said rather sarcastically, "To be honest, ordinary people like us can't possibly compete with big internet celebrities. I only have 20,000 or 30,000 followers, while they have millions."

"From the show's perspective, everyone understands that it's obvious who has the most viewers."

"However, this is, after all, a competition representing the popularity of Chinese people, so haters, don't rush to refute me."

"Yes, this show doesn't discriminate based on nationality, but honestly, there's one Chinese person on the show, and the dozen or so survival experts come from various countries. When you watch this show, can you really say you don't have any biases?"

"Of course we'll take it into account, and people from overseas are also watching the contestants' performances."

"If someone underperforms, people won't say that so-and-so underperformed; they'll just say, 'Oh, that idiot from Asia or China underperformed.'"

His earnest analysis actually made a lot of sense to some people.

But some people immediately retorted: "So you mean if you participate, you can represent China and bring glory? At least Li Younan is good at archery, what about you?"

The internet celebrity scoffed, "You think you're good at wilderness survival just because you can shoot arrows? How naive."

In short, after Li Younan released the video, the internet instantly became abuzz with all sorts of comments.

……

Meanwhile, Li Younan, seeking some peace and quiet, had already successfully arrived in Inner Mongolia.

He came here specifically to see his little pony, Xiao Shengjiang.

Little Ginger is already six months old.

Compared to last time, it had grown quite a bit taller, with its head almost 1.5 meters long. But overall, it was still a silly little horse. To Li Younan's surprise, when he saw it, the little horse recognized him at a glance, playfully came over to play with him, and even rubbed its head against his arm in a coquettish manner.

Although they hadn't spent much time together, perhaps due to a hidden bonus from the riding skills provided by the system, Li Younan had a natural affinity for foals, and Xiao Shengjiang seemed particularly willing to be close to him.

This made Lan Yiyi, who had been taking good care of the pony, a little jealous. She said with dissatisfaction, "I've taken care of it for so long, and it's never been this enthusiastic towards me."

Lan Yiyi naturally saw the video posted by Li Younan. She was both excited and regretful about his possible participation in "Living Alone in the Wilderness"—if Li Younan participated in the show, he definitely wouldn't be able to come to the Naadam Festival in July, which she had been really looking forward to.

Li Younan stayed at Lan Yiyi's place for two or three days, mainly to visit his little horse, but there was no reason for him to stay any longer.

Lan Yiyi no longer only takes care of Li Younan's horses. She has gradually faded out of the entertainment industry and started to focus on running her own horse farm and hotel. She lives a fulfilling and happy life. Watching Xiao Sheng Jiang grow taller day by day, she always has a satisfied smile on her face.

Later, when Li Younan returned to Chengdu, the "Living Alone in the Wilderness" program team sent him an interview invitation.

Li Younan was quite surprised when he received the notification.

Although he had previously signed up for the wilderness solo living program, he was well aware that these programs were recruitment-based and the participants might have already been decided internally. Therefore, he was not very confident about being selected and was just hoping for the best. However, he did not expect that the program team would actually send him an interview notice. If it was not just a formality, it was worth taking seriously.

What surprised Li Younan even more was that this interview was an online one. He would be conducting it with five other highly popular potential contestants. The content of the interview would also be used as part of the contestant introductions in a later episode, and before that, they would need to sign a confidentiality agreement.

Li Younan was well aware that this was actually a form of hype, since the video platform had already signed a broadcasting agreement with the program, and the platform's official team certainly hoped to further expand the program's influence in China.

After receiving the interview notification, Li Younan had two days to prepare, and the notification also kindly reminded him to start preparing in advance.

However, Li Younan did not plan to prepare anything special. He thought that no matter what form the interview took, the core was to examine the contestants' potential in the market.

From this perspective, choosing any of them would open up the Chinese market and increase the copyright value of the videos in China, so in this respect, he is on par with the other five competitors.

Other market potential still depends on hard power, namely the ability to survive.

Given the significant effort invested in the "Living Alone in the Wilderness" program, it's highly unlikely they would want to cast contestants who are eliminated within three days, as that would greatly diminish their commercial value.

Two days later, the online interview arrived as scheduled.

(P.S.: My wife also has a fever, and I took her to the hospital for a check-up. I forgot to set up automatic updates, please forgive me! My wife is in her postpartum period these days, and both the baby and my wife need care. Although we have a postpartum nanny, we are still very busy. I also got sick yesterday. In short, it's been quite difficult. I'm not trying to complain to everyone, but my updates will be irregular these days and may even be reduced. I hope you can understand.)
(End of this chapter)