Leisurely Traveler with Check-in System

Chapter 355 - 164: The Flavor of Li Ziqi’s Videos

After giving a simple demonstration of his painting skills to the elderly lady, Lu Shihua was naturally amazed.

And after a brief surprise, Granny Li picked up the meticulously drawn smiling doll by Li Younan and nodded repeatedly, "This is drawn so well."

Li Younan stood by, smiling without saying a word.

When it comes to intangible cultural heritage related to craftsmanship and painting, although the initial production processes are complex, you can basically learn them after watching once. But painting is something that requires many years of study.

From Li Younan’s perspective, trying to promote certain intangible cultural heritages in this era is almost impossible. It’s like going against the tide.

Some things have different values in different historical periods.

Take this smiling doll, for instance. At its peak, villages everywhere were making these items.

Back then, with no toys around, a single smiling doll could entertain a child all day, and they would even hold it while sleeping at night. The mugwort and dried orange peel inside had a soothing effect.

But in today’s era, such things have completely lost their original meaning, so their gradual elimination has become inevitable.

To find a successor and ensure that this craft doesn’t disappear is already a great consolation.

The elderly have their obsessions, which Li Younan can understand. He won’t choose to shatter them, but he must be clear about this in his heart.

Of course, not all intangible cultural heritages are like this. Some intangible cultural heritages transcend practical aspects.

For instance, the Dragon Boat Festival commemorating Qu Yuan, dragon boat racing, lion dances, or even the ancient Chinese swordsmanship he now possesses.

Such intangible cultural heritages were never meant to have practical value in ancient times. They represent a culture, a spirit, and these things, for better or worse, must be passed on as evidence that this nation once existed.

What Li Younan is doing at this moment is likely just to give the elderly some comfort in their heart.

But seeing the smile on Granny Li’s face, Li Younan felt that what he was doing also had significance.

He smiled and said, "Granny Li, how about I become your successor... Is that okay?"

Granny Li was stunned for a moment, then earnestly said, "Yes, of course, it’s okay."

"Do I need to go through some ceremony? Like maybe bowing to you a few times or something."

This made Granny Li stand up a bit nervously, hurriedly shaking her head, "No need, no need, there aren’t that many rules. As long as you can learn this craft and ensure it doesn’t get lost, that is enough. Then I can face our ancestors with a clear conscience..."

Li Younan checked the time. It wasn’t too late yet, so he said, "In that case, there’s no time to waste, let’s start now."

He then turned to Lu Shihua and said, "Can you help me shoot a video? We can use it for promotion."

Lu Shihua nodded excitedly.

Watching Li Younan refresh her understanding of an online celebrity once again.

In her mind, she kept replaying the scene of him painting the smiling doll.

She suddenly realized that the skills Li Younan possessed went far beyond what he had shown in his videos.

This craft is actually not complicated to learn. The most difficult part, painting, for Li Younan, is something he can master just by looking at it once.

The earlier steps, although time-consuming and requiring some materials to be prepared in advance if strictly following the craft’s procedures, Granny Li already has semi-finished products for every step here. While Li Younan can learn each process once, he skips the waiting time in between.

For instance, bamboo needs to be soaked for three days. There is soaked bamboo here; ingredients like dried orange peel and mugwort need to be prepared in advance, and Grandma Li already has them ready here.

All Li Younan needs to learn is how to execute each process.

The earlier processes are indeed quite simple.

Li Younan followed Granny Li up the mountain to cut bamboo, while Lu Shihua followed behind, filming the entire process.

Cutting the bamboo into pieces was particularly easy for Li Younan.

He already has Level 3 carving skills, which, in a sense, means that what he’s doing now is also carving.

So, the more Lu Shihua filmed, the more amazed she felt at heart.

It seems ever since Li Younan came to Granny Li’s house, this feeling of awe never stopped. Just when she was getting used to one amazing display from Li Younan, the next wave followed closely.

Li Younan was like a continuous wave.

He learned this craft extremely quickly, and Lu Shihua secretly compared in her heart. Clearly, what Younan made looked more exquisite than what Granny Li made.

It was the kind of finesse that could be seen at a glance, even if compared with Granny Li’s work. If you claimed that Younan was the teacher, Lu Shihua would believe it without a second thought.

After soaking the bamboo, Granny Li and the others went directly to another room to fetch the already soaked bamboo to continue with the next step...

So, in the span of just two or three hours, something that originally took several days to prepare, Li Younan had already learned the entire process and filmed it.

Of course, the time omitted from the video doesn’t need to be shown.

Li Younan didn’t forget and checked everything again after finishing filming all the procedures.

To ensure the video quality, Li Younan used multiple camera angles during the shoot.

During this process, Lu Shihua naturally could only serve as a human tripod.

With his Level 3 photography skills, he was exceptionally professional in choosing angles, lighting, and layout, producing highly textured videos.

If there were better equipment, things could definitely be taken a step further.

In addition, Li Younan also captured the original, serene village atmosphere around him.

The material in this video has a similar feeling to Li Ziqi’s videos.

This was a surprising part.

Li Younan arranged the shots based on intuition and didn’t expect to make the most suitable choices relying just on feeling.

After fully learning the elderly’s craft, Li Younan still couldn’t resist mischievously drawing a few unconventional things at the end.

Besides the previous fabric toys, like Nezha the Demon Child, Li Younan also added some popular anime characters, such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Q-version Goku, Luffy, and Naruto.

Of course, the latter drawings left Granny Li’s expression rather complex and silent.

Li Younan naturally didn’t care about it, explaining wasn’t necessary.

He understood clearly that it was impossible to reason with elderly people about how these items are outdated; on the contrary, drawing popular things might bring this craft to life.

Handcrafted items always have a luxurious nature and will always have a market. Some wealthy people are willing to pay for them.

Moreover, the dolls Li Younan created were of superior quality, far more exquisite than some industrial toys.

Li Younan sent these materials to JK Long. After watching, Brother Long said with some surprise, "Wow, you’ve changed your style. These videos have a great feel. Give me some time, I can definitely edit them with the vibe of Li Ziqi."

Li Younan was waiting for Brother Long to say that, and since Brother Long promised, Li Younan felt completely reassured.

In a sense, among all his friends, it was Brother Long who gave him the most solid and reliable feeling... even more so than Huang Xiaoyang and her brother Liu Yu.

Li Younan couldn’t help but recall Liu Yu’s slip-up earlier, revealing that JK Long is actually a very cute girl. Naturally, his curiosity grew. What kind of girl is she?

Currently, JK Long still didn’t know that Li Younan was aware that she’s a girl and continued to chat naively, posing as Brother Long.

Li Younan played along with her act.

But lately, her mishaps have increased. JK Long is a very smart person. Honestly, Li Younan thinks she should have already realized this but still stubbornly refuses to admit it.

This might be the common fault of cute girls... they like to deceive themselves.

After spending quite some time at Granny Li’s house and having lunch there, which was a traditional farmhouse meal, they also filmed this and included it as part of the video.

Li Younan checked the time, feeling like he might have forgotten something, but couldn’t remember immediately until JK Long messaged, "Today’s video angles and camera arrangements are really nice; it seems my brother was really committed."

Upon hearing this message, Li Younan suddenly remembered what he had forgotten.

He didn’t reply to JK Long’s message and immediately called Liu Yu.

Liu Yu maintained his calm and indifferent attitude.

Li Younan’s first words were: "I thought you’d be really focused on fishing, so I didn’t want to disturb you and break your immersion, waiting for you to call me instead. But since you hadn’t called me, I decided to interrupt with slight guilt... Do you need me to pick you up?"

Liu Yu was a bit surprised and touched; he didn’t expect Li Younan to be so considerate.

At that moment, he was feeling quite hungry, having already finished the few cookies he brought with him.

Initially a bit disgruntled, hearing Li Younan’s explanation made him feel slightly guilty for being upset but he responded with his usual calm tone, "No need to rush, you can take your time coming over."

Li Younan breathed a sigh of relief and then continued, "So, did you catch any fish?"

Speaking of this, Liu Yu’s tone finally had some fluctuations, carrying a hint of pride. He said, "Haha, not that many, maybe seven or eight fish."

His tone was extremely calm, as if it was something very ordinary.

But in reality, his mouth couldn’t suppress a grin.

Li Younan was slightly stunned; he really didn’t expect that with Liu Yu’s average skills, he could catch so many fish.

Liu Yu then said, "I’ve decided to register for next month’s national fishing master competition in the Sichuan region, and I want you to join me."