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

Chapter 61 Thank you, no bargaining.
Zhou Xiaotiao decided to give the photographer one last chance.

This time, he performed a backflip after pushing off the wall, landing firmly on the sand.

Zhou Xiaotiao straightened up, habitually wiped his face, shook off the sweat, and subconsciously glanced at the guy with the sign.

He looked flustered and his complexion wasn't good. Zhou Xiaotiao took a deep breath, and the exhilarating feeling from the exercise was instantly suppressed by an even hotter heat.

"Where's the film?"

Zhou Xiaotiao walked over, his voice slightly out of breath, but he couldn't suppress his impatience.

The sunlight was too bright, so the cameraman squinted and turned the camera screen to Zhou Xiaotiao.

The moment the screen lit up, Zhou Xiaotiao almost choked on his own breath.

WTF?

A blurry, indistinct shadow of mixed colors, barely recognizable as a human shape, but what about the airborne figure? What about the taut, arched back during the hang time? What about the precise stability achieved by the ankles' instantaneous power upon landing? It was all a complete mess! The only clear detail was probably a few grains of sand kicked up from the sandy ground before the jump!

"That's it?!" Zhou Xiaotiao pointed at the screen, his fingertip almost poking at it. "Dude, I paid you to shoot art! To capture moments of power! To capture my pose in mid-air! What did you shoot? A moving mosaic? My grandma's old-fashioned phone is better than this!"

Zhou Xiaotiao raised his voice, and several skateboarders nearby turned to look.

The salty sea breeze filled my mouth, but it couldn't extinguish the raging fire in my heart.

"My backflip was so clean! The feeling of being suspended in mid-air! Don't you understand the feeling of being suspended in mid-air? You're chasing my camera around like you're filming a ghost."

The photographer blushed and stammered, saying things like, "I was moving too fast," "The sunlight was too strong," and "I'll be more careful next time"...

In fact, finding a truly professional photographer in a scenic area is no less difficult than finding a model student in a nightclub.

Nonsense! It's all just an excuse!

Zhou Xiaotiao waved his hand irritably, as if shooing away flies: "Alright, alright! Here's the money, hurry up and delete all the junk movies with me in them! Don't leave a single one! They're infuriating to look at!"

The thought that my powerful and dynamic movements had been ruined by such clumsy technique was more disgusting than swallowing a mouthful of sand.

Zhou Xiaotiao turned and left, feeling that all the guys on the beach holding cameras and phones had become repulsive.

They don't know anything about photography; they just randomly press the shutter button!
Too lazy to pay attention to anyone else, Zhou Xiaotiao walked over and sat down on a few discarded tires piled up nearby, and unscrewed the cap of a mineral water bottle.

When you tilt your head back to drink water, the water rushes down your throat, bringing a brief moment of coolness.

He looked down at the bulging veins and taut muscle lines on his arms, and the outline of his abs, glistening with sweat, faintly visible beneath his sports vest—

These lines, this sense of power—how could no one capture it in a photograph? What a waste!

Not far away, a little girl holding a phone seemed to have mustered up her courage and ran over, her face flushed: "Um... handsome, you flipped so cool just now! Can... can I take another picture? I didn't get a good one before..."

She timidly turned her phone screen to Zhou Xiaotiao, and sure enough, it was just another blurry afterimage.

Zhou Xiaotiao glanced at the blurry image, then looked up at her expectant yet nervous eyes. A strange sense of smugness inexplicably mixed into the anger stirred up by the terrible photography.

Perhaps it's because... the movements are too fast and too cool, and most people simply can't catch them.

Zhou Xiaotiao twitched the corners of his mouth, gave a half-smile, and neither agreed nor refused.

The distant bass drumbeats continued to rumble, making the sand beneath our feet tremble slightly.

The girl was a little embarrassed and at a loss for what to do. She blushed, said sorry, and hurriedly ran away.

Not far away, Jing Chaoyi and Li Younan watched this scene with great interest.

To be precise, only Li Younan seemed genuinely interested, while Jing Chaoyi's face showed a hint of indignation.

She snorted, "What's with that guy's arrogance? He's so stupid and has no manners at all. Even if he doesn't want to be photographed, what does it mean to ignore him?"

Li Younan knew that Jing Chaoyi was putting herself in the shoes of the girl from earlier and was speaking out for her.

But just then, the parkour guy stood up, crushed the empty bottle with a series of snapping sounds, and kicked it directly into a trash can more than ten meters away. Then, he shouted loudly at the little girl, "Let's take another picture!"

The girl turned around and paused for a moment. Then she saw the parkour guy stride over and do a somersault in front of her.

Upon landing, he chuckled softly, "Did you get the picture?"

The little girl's lips twitched slightly.

Seeing this, Li Younan and Jing Chaoyi couldn't help but hold their foreheads together.

Jing Chaoyi asked blankly, "Senior, what do you think?"

Li Younan said, "Use your eyes to see."

Li Younan shook his head, no longer looking at the eye-searing parkour guy, and continued to look for the next subject to film.

That parkour guy was too narcissistic. Li Younan didn't want to take his picture because it was too funny. He was a professional photographer and would never laugh unless he couldn't help it.

Just then, a guy who had been photographed by Li Younan earlier brought another guy along and asked Li Younan to take a picture of him.

Li Younan was quite happy to help with this.

Because Li Younan had previously taken stunning photos for many people, many people were now gathered around him, asking him to take photos for them.

Zhou Xiaotiao, who was not far away, suddenly noticed Li Younan, who was surrounded by a crowd. ...

Zhou Xiaotiao, still carrying the lingering energy of sweat and resentment, walked towards Li Younan.

"Hey, want to take a picture?"

Zhou Xiaotiao raised his chin and pointed to the low wall in the distance, "There it is, the Great King Kong jump catches the cat hook... never mind, you wouldn't understand."

The tone wasn't one of discussion, it was one of notification.

It's as if being able to photograph him is a blessing in itself.

Li Younan had a strange expression, didn't say anything, nodded, and looked past him to the wall he had chosen.

The sun was shining brightly from the side, casting long, sculpted shadows on the wall.

Li Younan picked up the camera and adjusted several parameters on the cold metal and leather surface—shutter speed, aperture, ISO—as quickly as breathing.

The camera is focused on the wall, but not where he started running; rather, it's on the point where he's about to leap to his highest point.

After all, Li Younan knows parkour.

Zhou Xiaotiao bounced around twice on the spot, using his ankles to generate power, like a wound-up spring.

Then, without warning, I sprinted forward, my feet exploding with power on the scorching sand, kicking up a small cloud of yellow dust. Pushing off the wall, using the momentum, my body shot upwards, the power traveling from my taut toes all the way to my beautifully stretched latissimus dorsi muscles.

"Click."

Li Younan's index finger gently fell, and the sound of the shutter was so faint that it was almost swallowed up by the sea breeze.

Li Younan could feel the intricate mechanical movements inside the fuselage, perfectly capturing that fleeting moment of explosive power.

Zhou Xiaotiao landed steadily on the top of the wall with clean and swift movements, then jumped down, dusted off his hands, and strode over, bringing his face directly to Li Younan's camera screen with a hint of critical intent, ready to launch into another tirade.

The screen lights up.

His face, which had been close, froze.

His eyes widened slightly, and he seemed to hold his breath for half a second.

On the screen, there were no blurry afterimages or out-of-focus color blocks.

Only in the stark contrast between the blinding sunlight and the dark cement wall did his entire body stretch out completely, as if he had broken free from the constraints of gravity.

The sense of power comes from the pointed instep, the elongated calf muscles, the tightened core, and the expanded shoulders and back; every line is clear, sharp, and full of explosive tension.

The blurred background, with its distorted sand and sky, further emphasizes his powerful presence as the absolute subject, frozen in that peak moment.

The air was quiet for a few seconds, with only the muffled boom of a subwoofer and the sound of waves coming from afar.

Zhou Xiaotiao didn't say anything.

His finger unconsciously rose, as if wanting to touch his reflection on the screen, then stopped. He stared intently at the photograph, from left to right, from top to bottom, as if admiring a rare treasure—and that treasure was himself.

"Hmm..." He finally uttered a muffled syllable, cleared his slightly dry throat, his eyes still glued to the screen, "This one... is alright."

The resentment and fault-finding in his tone miraculously disappeared, replaced by a satisfaction that he tried hard to hide but couldn't, and the corners of his mouth even twitched upwards involuntarily.

[Ding, check-in task completed!]

[Random reward...]

[Reward: Woodworking Skill +1]

[Woodworking Skill LV.1: A single chisel precisely positions the mortise; two hands adjust the movable structure to within a 0.2mm tolerance, making hardwood as docile as leather (top brands require a tolerance of ±0.3mm)]

Carpentry?

A wealth of knowledge about wood species, processing characteristics, tool operation, various ancient mortise and tenon joints and modern connections, and surface treatments flooded into my mind.

And I'll never forget it.

"Alright, you're the one. Come over later and take a full set of photos for me." After saying that, Zhou Xiaotiao turned around and prepared to leave.

Li Younan did not move.

Zhou Xiaotiao turned around, raising an eyebrow: "Let's go..."

Li Younan calmly pointed to the photo in the camera and asked, "Do you want this photo?"

Zhou Xiaotiao coughed and said, "It's alright, I'll take it."

Li Younan smiled brightly and said, "200 yuan."

"what?"

"Thank you, no bargaining."

(End of this chapter)