Leisurely Traveler with Check-in System

Chapter 371 - 177: Treating the Competition as a Vacation [First Update!]

Seeing her brother’s reaction was far more dramatic than she imagined, Liu Li suddenly realized she might have proposed something outrageous, and instantly felt her momentum weaken, asking meekly, "What’s wrong?"

Liu Yu, annoyed, put down his milk, casually grabbed two napkins, and wiped the milk off his face and clothes. Once he calmed down a little, he said, "In China, this car is about 2 million RMB. If you buy it directly abroad, it’s around 100,000 Euros, but importing it incurs high tariffs, transporting it back would cost about 1.5 million RMB, and that’s just the base price. And converting a Unimog into a camper would cost around another seven-digit sum."

He slowly crumpled the napkins into a ball and tossed it into the trash can beside him, then looked at his sister helplessly.

Liu Li was suddenly dumbfounded. She had thought that a Unimog camper wouldn’t be cheap, after all, it’s a camper, but she didn’t expect it to be so expensive.

Originally, she thought it might cost three to four hundred thousand; her brother could probably just manage to support her if he gritted his teeth. But now understanding how expensive it really was, she wasn’t an unreasonable girl; there’s a limit to absurdity.

Liu Li lightly coughed, trying to act casually as she walked to the dining table, picked up a piece of fried egg with her hand, "Oh, I was just joking, brother, you took it too seriously."

She stuffed the egg into her mouth and licked her fingers.

Liu Yu looked at his sister behaving like this, speechless, and lightly tapped her head with a spoon, dissatisfied.

His sister didn’t resist, merely pouted pitifully.

Running a business doesn’t mean you’ll definitely earn the same amount next year as you did this year; income fluctuates.

Although Liu Yu’s business did fairly well last year overall, earning nearly an eight-figure sum, part of that money needs to be reinvested in expanding business operations, maintaining key channel relationships, and covering big expenses like acquiring assets, such as storefronts. So, in reality, the money he can use isn’t much.

Their family wasn’t wealthy; he achieved everything on his own.

For most of his sister’s requests, Liu Yu supported them unconditionally, provided he could truly meet them.

Unfortunately, he really couldn’t afford a 1.5 to 2 million RMB Unimog.

Yet, moments later, he felt a sense of helplessness and anger: What did Li Younan say to my sister? Suddenly, she wants to buy him a Unimog camper, really...

However, he also knew that Li Younan definitely wasn’t someone who would proactively ask others for things. It was likely when they were discussing future plans, Li Younan just mentioned something about campers or travel, and that sparked this idea in his sister’s mind.

Although these were merely his guesses, they weren’t far from the truth.

The crux, then, was still his sister; who knows what she thinks about all day.

Eating breakfast, Liu Yu’s mind was elsewhere; he barely spoke, just glancing at his sister now and then. Suddenly, he realized a terrifying thought: What if his sister liked Li Younan...

He sighed deeply, afraid to think further.

Li Younan wasn’t much different in age from him; such an older man with his sister...

While lost in wild thoughts, his sister pushed her plate with the sausages towards him and said, "Brother, I can’t finish this. Help me eat it."

Seeing his sister’s obedient appearance, sorrow welled up in his heart, and he silently nodded.

After breakfast, he went to work while his sister turned and went back to her room.

The matter of the Unimog ended here.

...

In the following days, Li Younan started driving around all the major real estate projects around Chengdu, with a clear goal, looking only at finished apartments, not under-construction ones.

He checked everywhere, from within the third ring to outside the third ring.

No one accompanied him for this task, so there was no one to discuss with, but it wasn’t boring.

Besides evaluating the quality of the developments and the community environment, Li Younan also assessed the nearby facilities, imagining his mother living there: Would she get bored wandering around every day? Would the ladies doing plaza dancing be willing to invite her to join? His head was filled with such scattered thoughts.

Price-wise, real estate in Chengdu was generally not considered too high compared to super first-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.

Most of the houses Li Younan looked at were priced around 20,000 RMB per square meter, with some even as low as 15 or 16 thousand.

But to buy a sufficiently large apartment of over 140 square meters, it would still cost upwards of 2 million RMB.

And this was only for the property purchase, excluding renovation costs.

Therefore, budgeting 3 million RMB to buy an ideal home seemed reasonable.

Li Younan didn’t consider large open-plan apartments or villas. For one, he couldn’t afford them yet; for another, it would just be him and his mom living there, possibly adding a wife and a pair of children at most in the future—four bedrooms would be more than enough; a 140-square-meter house was already sufficient.

He wasn’t chasing a life like a wealthy person, even if he had some special advantages.

The saying, "You can’t understand the happiness of the rich," held little significance for Li Younan. He didn’t care about the joy of the rich, only the happiness he wanted to feel; of course, if there were other needs in the future, he could adjust.

Over these few days, he found a few properties he preferred around Chengdu.

The cheapest was a 1.9 million RMB bare-shell apartment, and the most expensive was a 2.4 million RMB fully furnished unit.

There are still some small dilemmas right now.

The money in his bank card isn’t enough.

So the actual plan to buy a house might not be realized until the end of the year.

Although his ability to make money is quite decent now, this ability has only developed recently, so his savings aren’t substantial.

To maintain this earning capability going forward, whether traveling or creating content based on his skills, it’s likely to require money. In addition to necessary expenses, only about half of his monthly earnings can actually be saved.

So, even earning enough money to buy a house by the end of the year is not easy unless the standards for making ends meet are lowered a bit... this thought was extinguished by Li Younan as soon as it emerged.

The house isn’t so necessary at the moment, so it’s not needed.

...

Recently, there has been quite a lively event on the video platform.

The selection for "Alone in the Wilderness" China contestant recommendation has been announced for quite a while.

To further enhance the show’s impact, the planners of "Alone in the Wilderness" have partnered with Douyin for an official event.

The content of the event, in short, is a selection of a Chinese contestant to participate in "Alone in the Wilderness."

The format is through video showcasing one’s skills, then voted by the netizens, and finally reviewed by the show’s planning team to determine the contestant.

Douyin’s officials are well aware of the high popularity of "Alone in the Wilderness" in China.

After all, even a random amateur media can put together some clips from "Alone in the Wilderness" and easily garner tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of likes, with views being tens or even hundreds of times of that.

For Chinese people, due to the country’s almost strictest hunting restrictions globally, there is virtually no real wild survival ground in the domestic market.

But the core selling points of "Alone in the Wilderness," with no external support, no scripts, and pure amateurs, fill the gap in the domestic market for this need, easily satisfying the curiosity of urbanized Chinese people.

However, previously, these clip videos were made by random marketing accounts, and no Chinese person had participated in the show, so there was always a sense of missing something while watching.

On the one hand, it lacked a sense of inclusion without a Chinese participant; on the other, no matter how well the clips were made by the marketing accounts, there was still a significant gap compared to the original.

This time, with "Alone in the Wilderness" directly signing a strategic cooperation agreement with the largest domestic short video platform, with an official broadcast channel and a Chinese participant, it presents a win-win situation.

The show team gains a broadcasting contract and expands the show’s influence.

Douyin wins the favor of advertisers.

So for a time, even though it’s just a contestant selection event, it’s already generated significant buzz and discussion.

This naturally includes some push from the official video platform.

Li Younan has naturally noticed it too.

However, his thoughts are still not much different from before; he feels this kind of show is definitely rigged, absolutely not open to ordinary grassroots like himself.

At the moment, quite a few people consider themselves strong in survival skills and have shown up.

Some players, with influence or program effects, have their introductory videos made into a collection by Douyin official and are placed on the event page.

Li Younan glanced over them, there’s a professional hunter returning from overseas, a retired special forces soldier, and minority groups living in the mountains for years.

The videos of these people are full of gimmicks, some showing scenes of hunting in Africa, others showing videos of holding a snake’s tail and slamming it on CCTV, taming poisonous snakes into snake meat soup, and some appearing in the deep mountains of Yunnan with various poisonous mushrooms and insects.

Watching these videos, Li Younan found it a bit amusing, he had to admit they did show some survival skills, but... from his professional point of view, if these people were thrown into the environment of "Alone in the Wilderness," they’d be eliminated in less than two weeks.

Simply put, their shortcomings are too obvious, even the special forces soldier who seemed quite impressive has significant shortcomings... without firearms, he finds it hard to procure food.

Seeing these people, Li Younan couldn’t help but have a little thought.

Then he suddenly saw on Douyin’s event page that besides the final winner of the show getting a prize of one million US Dollars, if selected to participate in the program, ensuring not being eliminated in the first 30 days, the official would reward one million RMB.

Seeing this prize, Li Younan was instantly tempted.

The first 30 days... It’s quite easy for him!

With this money, he could buy a house in full!

And this season’s "Alone in the Wilderness" is once again set at Canada’s Zierk Lakefront.

Li Younan thought about it... why not treat it as a trip there?