Chapter 18

"If you want to laugh, laugh then—don't bottle it up and make yourself sick."

Su Huan felt embarrassed; she'd wanted to appear polished in front of her old classmate, but this was the result. Yet seeing Qin Yun's strained expression, she couldn't help but grow angry.

"Hahahaha…"

Qin Yun couldn't hold back anymore and burst out laughing—he hadn't felt this amused in years.

Seeing Qin Yun like this, Su Huan rolled her eyes so hard they nearly flew to the sky. She finally managed to move past the incident, and the square's lights flickered on, the sky retaining only the last faint glimmer of light, reluctant to depart.

The music for the square dance grew even more energetic, and visibly, the dance groups kept expanding.

Su Huan pressed her hands beneath her thighs, glanced at Qin Yun, then looked toward the distant crowd: "Actually, I admire you. I always thought you were a sentimental person."

"Sentimental?"

Qin Yun chewed on those two words, then couldn't help smiling: "Maybe because I'm ultimately a STEM guy—I've been sentimental for so long, it's time to be rational. Do you think my decision was wrong? After all, divorce isn't seen as a good choice by most people."

Su Huan turned her head to him and shook her head seriously: "I don't think so. If living means nothing but enduring and compromising, what's the point? I'm glad you had the courage to make that decision."

Qin Yun was surprised, glancing at her in astonishment.

"Don't think I'm just comforting you—I truly feel this way," Su Huan clearly knew what he was thinking. "Just like you said, many people at Alibaba pursue me, but if he's not the right one, I'd rather stay single forever than settle. Seeing you like this has only strengthened my own conviction."

Qin Yun chuckled silently: "So if you stay single forever, I'm partly to blame now?"

Su Huan immediately shot him a glare and jumped off the rock.

"Let's go—circle back. I've got some things to handle tonight."

The two walked toward the park exit; as they moved farther away, the park's lively sounds gradually faded. At a crossroad, Su Huan pointed to the other side: "My car's parked over there."

Qin Yun nodded: "Alright, you go ahead. Contact me when you get back to Hangzhou."

Su Huan's face lit up with a bright smile: "Deal. When you're in Hangzhou, call me—I'll treat you to Hangzhou delicacies—West Lake Vinegar Fish."

Qin Yun immediately felt a wave of black lines: "I treat you as a friend, but you treat me like a country bumpkin. Don't think I haven't seen the news."

"Hahahaha." Su Huan strode forward, waving her hand without looking back. "Goodbye."

Qin Yun smiled, waited until Su Huan crossed the street, then turned and strolled slowly toward the hotel.

Back at the hotel, though he'd already bathed, it had been noon. In this season, with this weather, even a little activity left his skin sticky.

After bathing, Qin Yun noticed a new WeChat message—from Xia Qingqing.

"Big Brother Qin, I've boarded the plane. Thank you again—when you come to Shanghai, be sure to contact me."

Right after the message came a selfie taken from her airplane seat: her smile charming, her eyes bright, her teeth white—beautiful indeed.

"Good, have a safe trip!"

After replying, Qin Yun scrolled through his phone a bit more, then went to bed.

Online, the news about his rescue was still trending, but the momentum had clearly declined. Especially videos targeting the three new energy vehicle companies had been completely suppressed; most discussions now centered solely on his rescue.

In such circumstances, spontaneous combustion of the cars was understandable—after all, the core was the battery pack. Once damaged, batteries catching fire was entirely normal; many netizens knew this. Unfortunately, the automakers didn't agree—they insisted on opposing netizens, engaging in absurd acts like covering up logos and dismantling vehicles.

Worse still, they directly sued the self-media accounts—their legal teams were terrifyingly strong!

He'd once read news reports about repair shops dismantling cars for owners, only to be mysteriously sued—utterly ridiculous.

The night passed without incident; Qin Yun slept straight through until morning.

After washing and packing, his mood was incredibly cheerful. Since gaining the system, since the divorce, since losing his job, his days had been colorful.

After all, the most important thing in life is to be happy.

This hotel didn't serve breakfast, but wherever there were Chinese people, traditional breakfast food was never hard to find.

He found a bustling shop and ordered a crispy fried bread cake, a bowl of local Liuchang old tofu, and a bowl of spicy egg soup.

Following others' example, he poured soy sauce over the tofu, sprinkled on golden crispy sesame salt, chopped scallions, and cilantro. Though he was from Zhoushan, he liked spice, so he added a bit of chili oil too.

One bite of bread cake, one bite of tofu—delicious beyond words. After finishing, he washed it down with the spicy egg soup, and instantly felt invigorated.

Full and satisfied, he sent a WeChat to Su Huan, then prepared to depart.

Today he planned to cross Shandong, resting only when he reached Xuzhou in Jiangsu—assuming the system didn't issue another check-in task once he entered Shandong.

With the Land Rover roaring, Qin Yun set off again, soon joining the Hengde Expressway.

From Hengshui to Dezhou in Shandong was only sixty to seventy kilometers—less than an hour. But from Dezhou to Xuzhou in Jiangsu was a full four hundred kilometers—no less than five hours.

The highway conditions today were excellent; Qin Yun entered Shandong in under forty minutes. But this time, as he crossed the border, the system gave no check-in task prompt—whether on cooldown or for some other reason, he didn't know.

He didn't care. The check-in tasks were merely an extra along his journey home—do them if they appear, ignore them if they don't.

As the car entered Shandong, Qin Yun checked the time and called his mother.

"Hello, Mom."

"Xiao Yun, you're already up? Was Hebei fun? I saw the photos you posted on your Moments—you look much more spirited."

"Mom, it's almost nine—I've been up for ages. I'm already on the highway. Hebei was great, the scenery was nice, and yesterday I had dinner with my college classmates there."

"Mm, good. Drive carefully, don't speed. Let others go first if they want to."

"I know. Have you gone to work yet? I'll probably get home on the fifth or sixth."

"I just got to the office—busy lately. Go visit more places. Since you were little, you've always wanted to travel Tiannanhaibei—now's your chance."

"Traveling can wait. I'm not working now anyway—when I get home, let's go on a trip together, just you and me. What do you think?"

"That'd be wonderful. I've got so many vacation days now, though my company's hard to get time off from. I told you before—our manager scolded a new girl into tears again the other day. So unfair. She hadn't done anything wrong, just found an excuse. Absolutely…"

Listening to his mother's chatter, Qin Yun felt no irritation—instead, he felt even more longing for home.

After chatting for over ten minutes, his mother hung up as her boss arrived.

Qin Yun's mother worked as an accountant at a Zhoushan institution with state-owned shares—stable enough. Aside from heavy seniority-based hierarchy, low pay, and many ghost employees, everything else was fine.

Though the family never had much money, the two of them lived comfortably.

Another hour passed; the car drifted unknowingly into Jinan City, and then the system's alert sounded.

【Check-in Task Issued: Please proceed to Fan Cliff of Mount Tai, and free-climb 100 meters up the north side of the cliff face without any tools. This counts as completing the check-in.】

Hearing this task, Qin Yun's pupils shrank sharply.

Free solo climbing!!

After mastering the climbing skill, Qin Yun naturally knew there were many types of climbing. For example, based on equipment conditions, it could be divided into free climbing, gear-assisted climbing, and free solo climbing; based on venue type, it could be divided into indoor climbing and outdoor climbing.

Among these, free solo climbing was naturally the "ultimate ceiling" of the climbing world. It relied solely on body contact with the rock face; one slip meant fatal consequences. Because it was free solo, with no protective gear, the danger of outdoor free solo climbing lay not only in its difficulty but also in uncontrollable environmental factors.

Few people worldwide dared attempt outdoor free solo climbing, for one mistake meant the boundary between life and death.

Qin Yun checked his navigation; the next service area was less than five kilometers away.

……

"This is way too extreme," Qin Yun said, staring at the photo of the north cliff of Mount Taishan's Fanzi Cliff in his phone—the cliff face was nearly vertical, even overhanging, with few fissures and mostly smooth, weathered surfaces, and natural handholds were scarce.

Below the cliff lay the deep valley of Qingtong Ravine; if one fell, the fatality rate was nearly one hundred percent.

Qin Yun's face grew grave. Even though he had reached a high level in the field of climbing, skill was skill, body was body, and mental fortitude was mental fortitude.

Although his body had felt as if forged a thousand times when he received the system's skill reward, his mental fortitude remained that of an ordinary person; even with some improvement, it absolutely did not reach the point where he could dare challenge such a limit.

For a moment, Qin Yun, sitting in the car, fell into hesitation.

After long deliberation, he still could not make up his mind.

"Forget it, I'll go take a look first, and visit Mount Tai along the way."

Having made a temporary decision, Qin Yun restarted the car and quickly found a ramp to join the Jing-Tai Expressway heading toward Mount Taishan. About an hour later, he exited at the Tai'an West exit, then swiftly turned onto Mount Taishan Avenue.

After driving roughly two or three kilometers, the car turned onto the Ring Road, and after another five kilometers along it, he saw the scenic area entrance, where a large parking lot was available for tourists.

More than an hour later, Qin Yun looked up at the cliff before him, shaped like a fanned-out fan, his face grave.

From photos, it hadn't seemed so bad, but only by coming here could one feel its sheer peril. The cliff face was steep as if cut by a blade, a thousand ren high, with some sections nearly at right angles, even overhanging.

He climbed upward along the Heavenly Ladder; looking down from above made his heart race and his flesh tremble.

After circling around and viewing from every angle, Qin Yun realized that to complete this task, he would have to ascend from the base of the Qingtong Ravine side, following the central line of the north cliff. Moreover, unlike the other side, this north face had no artificial maintenance; under years of weathering, the rock conditions were unknown. The holds he now saw might turn dangerous when he actually climbed.

Qin Yun descended the mountain with an expressionless face. Giving up felt unsatisfying—he needed to think this through carefully.