Chapter 24

Qin Yun had occasionally seen news about intangible cultural heritage online.

For example, lack of successors, squeezed living space, weakened cultural identity, and so on.

Especially the crisis of lack of successors is the most direct survival threat to the interruption of intangible cultural heritage transmission, because most intangible heritage skills rely on oral transmission and master-apprentice succession, involve long learning cycles and slow results, and heritage bearers generally earn low incomes—insufficient to maintain a decent life—leading to fewer and fewer people willing to devote themselves full-time to inheritance.

Many elderly artisans are advanced in age, and their crafts face the predicament of dying with them.

Compared to these, Hu Bingbing's ancient-method tofu is already quite good; at least it generates income, and with the flourishing tourism in Shouxian, these inheritors of ancient-method tofu live very well.

If done well and keeping pace with the traffic era, the earnings are even more obvious.

As far as he knew, several intangible heritage skills had already completely lost their inheritors.

Qin Yun, like most ordinary people, felt that it would be better to pass down interesting crafts, but for those he deemed useless or uninteresting, he thought it was fine if they disappeared.

For example, paper-cutting and shadow puppetry—transmitting such intangible heritage allows the world to see the charm of Chinese culture, avoids global homogenization, and carries national confidence and cultural power, so it must be well transmitted and well inherited.

But some he found utterly meaningless, such as carving live poultry, branding live livestock, and certain feudal dross; even more detestable were those "invented" for the sake of intangible heritage—lacking historical depth and cultural core, merely using the intangible heritage label as a gimmick.

Hu Bingbing's family's intangible heritage ancient-method tofu, from selecting beans, soaking beans, to coagulating the curd, every step emphasizes slow work producing fine results; this meticulous attitude is a rare quality in an impatient era.

Most importantly, this kind of intangible heritage project relates to human "food," and thus deserves inheritance and promotion.

Hu Bingbing stared at the Land Rover Defender at the door, his mouth watering.

"Senior, this is my dream car—you actually got it? That's incredible."

Qin Yun, watching the kid's excited outburst, casually tossed him the keys: "Go drive it, just don't crash it."

"Thank you, senior."

Hu Bingbing burst with joy, snatched the keys, and leapt into the car; with the engine roaring, the vehicle shot off with a "whoosh."

"Little Qin, is it alright if I call you that?"

Hu Bingbing's mother walked to the door carrying food and drink, placing them on a nearby table.

"Mom, you can call me whatever you like."

"Bingbing doesn't have many friends, but I often hear him mention you, Little Qin."

"Oh? What does he say about me, Mom?"

"Heh, he always talks about how you helped him—finding him off-campus internships, helping him with his research projects—I don't really understand all that, but I can tell this kid is truly grateful to you; today, when he heard you were coming to Shouxian, he was overjoyed."

"Hahaha… there's no helping it—Bingbing looks nothing like his actual personality; people don't know how to interact with him."

Thinking of her son's personality and appearance, Hu Bingbing's mother felt helpless.

He has a rough, rugged look, yet a delicate mind, and even his voice is soft and gentle—this contrast seems amusing at first sight, but over time, few people are willing to associate with him.

Men think he's a sissy, get lost; women think he's a sissy, has zero masculinity, wasting that fierce-looking face.

Whenever this came up, Hu Bingbing's mother grew utterly distressed.

Don't be fooled by his young age—he's only just over twenty-five, but after the New Year he'll be twenty-six, twenty-seven by lunar age, soon twenty-eight, nearly thirty; there's little time left to pretend.

"If I'd known it'd be like this here, I never would've let him come back; now I regret it. Working at a big company, at least he'd have rich social circles and plenty of girls to meet. Here? You can't even spot one for half a day."

Listening to Hu Bingbing's mother complain, Qin Yun couldn't help but laugh and sigh; as a divorced man, he had no right to give advice, so he just smiled and nodded along.

Soon after, Hu Bingbing drove back.

"Senior, this car is amazing—it's the 5.0T V8 version! I thought you'd added it yourself." Hu Bingbing's expression was ecstatic, babbling on, completely oblivious to his mother's uneasy expression.

A burly man speaking in a feminine voice, especially in front of strangers—Hu Bingbing's mother looked utterly exasperated.

"By the way, Mom, Senior's staying at our place for the next couple days—could you prepare a room for him?"

"I already prepared it—do I need you to remind me?"

"Hehe, thanks, Mom."

Hu Bingbing's mother said: "Little Qin, you and Bingbing sit here for a bit—your father will be back soon and we'll eat."

"Alright, Mom, you go ahead."

As soon as Hu Bingbing's mother left, Hu Bingbing hurriedly asked: "Senior, this car cost over 1.3 million—really? You actually bought it?"

Qin Yun laughed: "What are you thinking? Even if I had the money, I wouldn't buy it—I got it as a lucky find."

"Lucky find?" Hu Bingbing blinked. "Cars can be lucky finds?" He'd never heard of such a thing.

"Yeah, this car was an accident vehicle; since it was brand new, I checked it and found it repairable, so I bought it cheaply—spent about 200,000 total."

Hu Bingbing blinked again, looked at Qin Yun, and confirmed he wasn't joking.

"Senior, you're not messing with me?"

Qin Yun, too lazy to explain, changed the subject: "I want to start learning tomorrow. Where do you suggest we begin?"

"Then just learn bean selection from me directly."

"Don't we need to go to Bagong Mountain to dig up gypsum first?"

"Huh? You want to do that yourself too? We have suitable gypsum right here!"

Qin Yun nodded: "I want to film the entire process, so naturally I have to do every little step myself."

Hu Bingbing thought for a moment: "That works too. Tomorrow I'll take you to the mining area first. There are quite a few cooperatives supplying our shop there. We can inspect the goods on-site and try grinding them."

"Sounds good, I'll follow your lead."

……

Early the next morning, Qin Yun was adjusting his equipment. Once the setup was done, he faced the camera and began recording.

"Hello everyone, I'm Qin Yun. Yesterday I arrived in Shouxian and met my friend Hu Bingbing. Bingbing, say hello to everyone."

After speaking, he turned the camera toward Hu Bingbing. She gave a slightly shy wave: "Hello everyone."

Qin Yun turned the camera back to himself and continued: "I don't know if any of you have been to Shouxian or tried the ancient-method tofu from Bagong Mountain here. After tasting it yesterday, I learned that there's an intangible cultural heritage technique here, so I thought it would be quite interesting to record the entire production process of this ancient-method tofu."

"Now, follow in my footsteps and experience the complete production process of ancient-method tofu. The first step is to select the gypsum suitable for making tofu. Let's go!"

After stopping the recording, the two set off from Daquan Village and headed toward the Bagong Mountain mining area cooperative. Daquan Village itself actually lies within the Bagong Mountain range, and there are naturally mining areas in the mountains, but for filming convenience, they chose the one with the best market.

Along the way, Qin Yun occasionally turned the camera on to record a few sentences, and they soon arrived at a market below the mining area. A complete industry chain had already formed here, quite similar to what they had seen in the old town.

"Many ancient city workshops originated from here," said Hu Bingbing.

The two arrived at a partnered shop, exchanged greetings, and Qin Yun turned the camera to Hu Bingbing; though Hu Bingbing felt somewhat uneasy, she endured it.

"When making tofu, prefer gypsum blocks with fibrous structure, recommended size 0.5–1 cm, as this facilitates grinding into powder. Look here—this gypsum shows clear longitudinal fibers, soft but not crumbly... This is raw gypsum; we need to calcine it to half-baked state, so its activity is optimal..."

After recording Hu Bingbing's explanation, Qin Yun turned the camera to himself, selecting gypsum according to her instructions while giving his own commentary.

Soon, the two finished selecting the gypsum, calcined it on-site, then tested grinding; Qin Yun successfully obtained the amount he needed—about one hundred grams—with extra kept for emergencies.

After buying the gypsum, Hu Bingbing took Qin Yun to Tuanjie Village and directly collected soybeans from farmers.

Qin Yun said into the camera: "The small-grain soybeans from Shouxian are plump and round, with thin skins and abundant pulp—this is key to tender tofu."

Thus, under Hu Bingbing's accompaniment, Qin Yun fully recorded the traditional method of making tofu; though he performed every step, the timing and heat control depended entirely on Hu Bingbing.

When he inverted the mold, removed the tofu, sliced it into even cubes, and held the tofu in his hands for Hu Bingbing to photograph, the system's notification chimed on time.

【Check-in task completed, received random reward: Zoology +1】

【Zoology LV1: Track and Identify, Tame and Diagnose, Know All Beasts' Origins】

In an instant, countless zoology concepts flooded into his mind—vertebrate and invertebrate anatomy, behavior patterns, habitat habits; whether mammalian migration, avian plumage variation, fish migration routes, insect mimicry, or amphibian and reptile hibernation mechanisms—all knowledge he previously knew nothing about became instinctive.

Qin Yun blinked, suddenly feeling he could identify a species from a single glance at claw prints or feces, discern an animal's emotion from a single cry or roar, and even master animal taming and disease diagnosis—it was almost absurd.

In just one minute, he transformed from a complete outsider with zero knowledge of zoology into a master of the field.

"Senior, what's wrong?"

Seeing Qin Yun motionless for so long, Hu Bingbing wondered if something had happened.

Qin Yun snapped back, took back his phone, and smiled: "Nothing, thanks a lot today."

"Don't be so formal, Senior. Let my mom cook with these tofu pieces for dinner."

That evening, Qin Yun ate scallion-mixed tofu, tofu-and-crucian-carp soup, braised tofu, Bagongshan tofu stew, tofu-meatball soup, and pan-fried tofu—so much tofu he vowed not to see it for fifteen days.

There was no help for it; even the tastiest food becomes unbearable when overdone.

Lying on Hu Bingbing's bed, Qin Yun opened the video sent by Su Huan, and soon realized his rough cut paled in comparison.

The video on his phone had the same content but a sharper theme; redundant shots were cut, pacing became smoother, and the viewing experience flowed effortlessly—fast when needed, slow when appropriate, with deliberate rapid cuts heightening tension and intensity.

The video even included color grading, sound effects, subtitles, and packaging—it was incredible the person had finished it in one day.

Yet the total runtime remained precisely thirty minutes; Qin Yun watched it through without skipping a second, feeling not a hint of sluggishness.

"Thanks. How much?" he asked Su Huan.

Su Huan replied: "Free. The other person won't accept payment."

Qin Yun frowned, then transferred three thousand yuan to Su Huan: "Give it to her. I don't want to owe anyone."

Su Huan accepted the money, glanced at her chat interface with Fang Nan, and saw clearly her own transfer record to Fang Nan—exactly three thousand yuan.

"I have another video. Ask her if she's willing to do it? If yes, I'll send it to you."

Su Huan read the message and frowned: "You didn't go rock climbing barehanded again, did you?"

"No, I just recorded a video on traditional tofu-making. You know I'm in Shouxian, right?"

"Then send me the video."

"Alright, uploading to the cloud now. Last time via email nearly killed me."

Su Huan didn't reply. She reopened her chat with Fang Nan, thought for a moment, and sent: "Xiao Nan, here's another video. Same price—check if there are any issues?"

"Is it from the God?"

Seeing the word "God," Su Huan felt exasperated—but remembering Qin Yun's absurd feats at Shanzi Cliff, she conceded he truly deserved the title.

"Yeah!"

"Alright, Sister Huan," Fang Nan replied. "From now on, for anything from the God, I won't mention free or not—I'll just charge a flat rate of one thousand yuan, okay?"

"Fine, settled then."

Seeing Su Huan agree, Fang Nan in her rented room raised her fist triumphantly. She had failed at self-media—but now she wondered: could videos she edited succeed? This thought meant she had pinned her hopes for success on Qin Yun.