Right now, Lu Xiaolan is shouting in the group: "Oh come on, cousin, you’ve grabbed so much, it’s your turn to give out now!"
Li Younan put down his phone and said to his mom, "How could that be? Mom, I actually find chatting with you pretty interesting. Keep telling me the story of your colleague who’s thirty-eight and still not married. I really enjoy it."
His mom snorted, "Don’t make fun of others, in a few years, you’ll be pushing thirty too. Once you hit thirty, time flies by like turning pages in a book. In the blink of an eye, you’ll be thirty-eight or thirty-nine."
"Mom, are you worried I won’t find a girlfriend?"
"Of course not, let’s continue talking about that colleague, ha..."
As you get older, you can’t stay up late anymore. Mom didn’t even stay awake for the dumpling-making scene on TV before her eyelids started drooping.
After she went to bed early, Li Younan found himself unable to sleep.
He sat on the sofa, silently watching the Spring Festival Gala.
Outside, there were sporadic sounds of firecrackers and fireworks, which caused a brief commotion.
Due to recent years’ ban on fireworks, the spectacular scenes of fireworks filling the sky from childhood are no longer seen.
Li Younan walked to the window. Downstairs, a chubby man was setting off small fireworks with his child, while a woman next to them was taking a video of them.
The little boy lit a firework and ran away, but after a few steps, he fell with a "thud." Instead of rushing to help him up, the man and woman laughed and walked over to him, making a heart shape with their arms, covering the shadow over the little boy who was wailing.
Seeing this, Li Younan couldn’t help but laugh, and as he laughed, his eyes became slightly wet.
Seriously, it’s New Year, and here I am watching this kind of stuff.
A bit sentimental, but never mind, if no one sees it, being sentimental is fine.
After thirty, New Year celebrations become lively, visiting homes, giving New Year’s greetings, eating reunion dinners, and 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 had recently developed a new interest in tea art—not just the brewing art, but the entire process from planting to processing, inheriting the intangible cultural heritage.
She sent Li Younan a package of tea cakes she made herself and then expressed that she wanted to invite him over after the spring.
Besides Jing Chaoyi, Lan Yiyi also sent a message.
In fact, Lan Yiyi had been sending him messages continually, updating him on little Shengjiang’s situation.
Visibly, little Shengjiang had grown taller and stronger.
Lan Yiyi said, "But he’s also become mischievous. As his mother, I can barely control him."
Li Younan amusingly said, "Have you become his mom? Then who’s his dad?"
Lan Yiyi nonchalantly said, "Don’t worry about these details, girls just like to say it this way, you know? It’s just a saying. When are you coming to see little Shengjiang?"
Li Younan said, "Didn’t you say you want me to come in the summer for the Nadamu Festival? I’ll come a bit earlier then."
After the Spring Festival, life gradually returned to its usual track, and Li Younan started preparing for the upcoming mountain climbing.
Regarding Zhu Qingyue’s somewhat silly choices, Li Younan could understand.
This girl has plenty of unrealistic artistic dreams in her head, so her choices are not surprising to Li Younan at all.
With artistic girls, you cannot understand their thoughts through normal logic; they are creatures who will risk everything for a vibe, a belief, or a feeling.
For Li Younan, even when such misfortune happened to someone as close as his little aunt, he would gradually see it calmly after a period of sorrow.
But in Zhu Qingyue’s eyes, the significance of this matter is different.
Even when the world thinks she’s a fool or unrealistic, she continues unwaveringly.
But for this matter, there’s no need to be that tense... the best cure for the disease of being an artsy person is a harsh reality check, if it doesn’t work, then more checks.
Li Younan knew clearly that this trip would probably end fruitlessly, and he was almost certain that Zhu Qingyue couldn’t persist till the end, and would likely turn back midway.
He even thought that he should first find her aunt’s former teammates, perhaps stopping Zhu Qingyue in her tracks right from the start.
Worst case scenario, even if Zhu Qingyue really finds her aunt’s former teammates and confirms a general direction and destination, he wouldn’t mind accompanying her since he was planning to climb anyway.
Originally, this would also be Li Younan’s first time climbing, so he only came with a mindset of learning and experiencing, the stronger the capability, the more reverence one should have.
Therefore, distance is not important; this thing, once done, has meaning.
While preparing his climbing gear, Li Younan made a video, briefly explaining his upcoming plans to his fans, though he wasn’t particularly explicit, only mentioning going to Gongga Mountain.
Time flew by, and it was already April, Zhu Qingyue sent a message, the two of them agreed to meet in Chengdu... to first find her aunt’s teammate.
Li Younan directly drove over.
Zhu Qingyue looked even more beautiful compared to the last time they met.
She cut her hair short, saying this hairstyle was easier to manage, then smiled at Li Younan, "You seem to have gotten a bit tanned."
Li Younan shrugged, "The sun outside is too great."
After getting in the car, Zhu Qingyue gave Li Younan an address, and he drove all the way there.
Looking at the road ahead, Zhu Qingyue said a bit awkwardly, "Earlier, I was a bit impulsive, but I’ve thought it over these days, and I can’t be that idealistic."
Li Younan turned his head with a hint of amusement, "What, have you given up?"
Zhu Qingyue shook her head, her gaze becoming firm, "No, I just changed my goal. I now realize I definitely won’t find my aunt’s belongings... or remains. What I plan to do this time is simply to walk the paths my aunt once did. I’m not as incredible as my aunt, so I’ll go as far as I can, and if I can’t go on, we’ll just turn back."
She turned to look at Li Younan, "I’ll try my best not to be a burden to you! And I definitely won’t be troublesome!"
Li Younan blinked, saying with some amusement, "It’s not that serious."
His expression then became serious, "So, tell me about that teammate of your aunt’s."
Zhu Qingyue nodded, then sighed and said, "I only found out when I was looking through my aunt’s emails."
"That teammate of my aunt is a very famous mountaineer in Sichuan, but the incident last time hit him hard, and he hasn’t gone climbing outside for a long time."
"I searched online for information about him, besides being a mountaineer, he’s also a three-time champion of the Chengdu rock climbing competition. But forums say he doesn’t have a good temper. When I arranged to visit him, though, I didn’t feel his temper was a problem."
Li Younan nodded, taking note of these details, then turned to Zhu Qingyue and asked, "Have you mentally prepared yourself?"
Zhu Qingyue was stunned for a moment, "Uh, yes..."
Li Younan shook his head, "I mean, are you prepared for nothing to come of this?"
Zhu Qingyue asked puzzled, "Why?"
Li Younan didn’t explain, just silently drove for a while before slowly saying, "Psychological trauma is... quite complex."
Zhu Qingyue: "Huh?"

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