Chapter 26: Car Repair Technician

Where there are trees, it is always cooler. This is because trees lower the surrounding temperature through transpiration and shade.

After leaving Qianwang Shrine and walking through Liulang Wenyin Park, Qin Yun strolled leisurely, and the original heat had noticeably lessened.

Trees swayed in the water, water flowed among the trees, reality and illusion mirrored each other, brimming with charm. He relaxed his mind, immersed in the scenery, no longer paying attention to the timer on his system panel.

When he saw an interesting scene or person, he raised his camera to his chest and pressed the shutter to capture the beauty.

Unconsciously, the first scenery icon lit up quietly.

But just as he left the park and headed toward the dock, a voice filled with surprise suddenly came from nearby.

"Big Brother Qin?"

Qin Yun turned at the sound and saw three young girls dressed beautifully, standing gracefully by the lake. One of them was the girl he had briefly met when he watched the flag-raising in Beijing—what was her name again?

For a moment, Qin Yun couldn't recall. He waved at her, and before he could move toward her, the girl came over.

"Big Brother Qin, why are you in Hangzhou?"

Qin Yun smiled: "I came to Xihu for fun. Why are you here too?"

"Xin Xin, who's this handsome guy? When did you meet such a good-looking guy?"

The other two girls stepped closer, meeting Qin Yun's gaze without any shyness, chattering away.

Hearing their address, Qin Yun suddenly remembered—the girl before him was named Chu Xin.

Chu Xin ignored her friends, grinning at Qin Yun: "Big Brother Qin, didn't I tell you? I'm a student at China Academy of Art."

Qin Yun was enlightened, then asked curiously: "Isn't today Wednesday? Don't you have class?"

"No class this afternoon, so we came to stroll around Xihu."

Chu Xin casually pointed at Qin Yun's camera: "Big Brother Qin, would you take a couple of photos of us?"

Qin Yun chuckled—why did it feel like taking photos for them was some kind of honor? Still, he didn't refuse and nodded: "Sure, but I'm heading to Three Pools Mirroring the Moon afterward. Are you coming?"

"Of course, we already bought tickets."

As soon as she spoke, Chu Xin noticed two resentful glances from either side and suddenly realized she'd neglected her friends.

She quickly pulled the girl on the left—slightly more beautiful than Chu Xin, though shorter, looking cuter: "Big Brother Qin, this is my roommate Jiang Chujì."

Then she pulled the girl on the right: "This is also my roommate—Su Wenjing."

After introducing the two girls, she pointed at Qin Yun: "Big Brother Qin, Qin Yun—I met him when I traveled in Beijing."

Qin Yun extended his hand and shook hands with the two girls: "Hello."

Jiang Chujì and Su Wenjing showed no shyness, staring fixedly at Qin Yun's face.

"Hehe, Xin Xin got lucky—she met such a handsome big brother. Big Brother Qin, what do you do?"

Qin Yun shrugged: "I'm unemployed."

"Pfft, fine, don't tell us then."

In a few words, Qin Yun understood the girls' personalities—all cheerful, just like Chu Xin, naturally friendly. And nowadays, these girls were all beautiful; as long as they bothered to dress up, each one was at least above average.

Among the three, Jiang Chujì was the most beautiful, Chu Xin second, Su Wenjing about the same. Standing together, their laughter echoed like orioles—the oriole songs they hadn't heard in Liulang Wenyin were now heard by the lake.

He raised his camera and took several photos of them.

The three who had originally planned to abandon the camera once they reached Three Pools Mirroring the Moon were stunned by the photos.

Chu Xin: "Big Brother Qin, are you a professional photographer? These photos are amazing."

Jiang Chujì: "Big Brother Qin, you made me look so beautiful—I can't believe I look like that in photos. My friends always say I'm not photogenic."

Su Wenjing: "If I'd known I'd meet Big Brother Qin today, I should've worn my cosplay outfit."

In short, the four boarded the boat, clustering around Qin Yun, chattering nonstop—making nearby men envious. Their gazes burned with longing to take his place.

Qin Yun accepted all the sweet flattery without resistance, snapping photos nonstop. Teenage girls at this age radiated youthful energy, with just a hint of womanly grace—every smile and frown was pleasing to the eye.

Qin Yun was happy to freeze these beautiful moments.

Soon, they reached Three Pools Mirroring the Moon, walking along the winding bridge, each step revealing a new scene. The lake water beside the bridge was crystal clear, occasionally revealing fish swimming below. The willows along the shore dropped long branches, gently swaying in the breeze.

Outside the Imperial Stele Pavilion, they paused briefly to read the historical story behind "Three Pools Mirroring the Moon." Soon, they saw the three stone pagodas—the pattern on the back of the one-yuan banknote.

Chu Xin pointed at the birds on the pagodas: "Big Brother Qin, what kind of birds are those?"

A few days ago, Qin Yun would have said he didn't know. But with Animal Science +1, he recognized the birds on the pagodas at a glance.

"Those are cormorants—expert divers. Right now, they're waiting to catch fish. They're also skilled flyers—look over there, gliding just above the water, so leisurely. But maybe because of weather changes, cormorants have appeared in Jiangnan in mid-September; according to their habits, they don't migrate south until November."

Chu Xin had assumed Qin Yun would just name the animal, but he launched into a full explanation—even knowing their habits in detail.

He took such great photos, and knew all this too—truly learned.

Jiang Chujì pointed to a white waterbird on the other side: "Big Brother Qin, that's probably a great egret, right?"

Qin Yun glanced and nodded: "Yes, that's a great egret. It's different from the cormorant. Cormorants are deep-diving experts, skilled at hunting large fish, while great egrets are shallow-wading foragers, specializing in small aquatic creatures."

He gestured to the egrets and cormorants on either side: "Look at the difference in their feathers."

The three naturally didn't know and shook their heads.

"Great egrets have waterproof feathers; cormorants' feathers aren't waterproof, so after each dive, cormorants need to spread their wings to dry for a long time."

"So that's how it is."

The group continued walking, pausing and strolling around Three Pools Mirroring the Moon, capturing many beautiful photos with the sound of the shutter.

The icons on the panel had long since lit up.

After disembarking, Chu Xin and the others prepared to leave—after all, the distance from Xihu to their school was considerable.

"Big Brother Qin, add us on WeChat—you'll have to send us the photos."

Qin Yun smiled faintly as he scanned the three QR codes on their phones, adding them all as friends.

"I'll send them to you tonight. Goodbye."

"Okay, Big Brother Qin, goodbye."

After bidding farewell to the three, Qin Yun headed to Hua Gang Guan Yu, since he still had eight more scenery icons to unlock—and if he wanted to finish today, he'd likely be walking until nightfall.

However, his spirit was full, his stamina abundant, and his mood relaxed — for a recreational outing that came with rewards, he naturally took great pleasure in it.

Unlike the tourists around him, each one exhausted half to death, and having spent quite a bit of money to boot.

Thinking of this, he felt even more pleased.

The garden here at Flower Harbor Fish-Watching was very large, and the fish were plentiful; walking through it, one felt as if immersed among clusters of blossoms, reluctant to leave.

However, just as he lit up this location's icon, Su Huan sent over the video of "Intangible Heritage Ancient-Method Tofu." He found a pavilion to sit in and waited for the video to finish downloading.

In no time at all, the video began to play.

The video was five minutes in total, and Qin Yun's feeling after watching it turned out to be unexpectedly good.

He had thought this video had no highlights whatsoever — from start to finish it was just a display and demonstration of the tofu-making process, and the raw footage couldn't be called particularly good either. But in the hands of an editor named Fang Nan, those originally plain, unremarkable shots, once spliced together and packaged with background music and text, somehow produced a feeling that made one settle down and be still.

This feeling… Qin Yun quickly thought of Li Ziqi… there was something of Li Ziqi's flavor in it.

He even saw several segments of b-roll footage that he hadn't shot himself — clearly the other party had found them online. Hard-earned, that thousand yuan.

Moving the video into a separate folder on his phone, Qin Yun transferred the money directly to Su Huan, with the note: "Cut really well, please thank him for me."

Seeing Qin Yun's reply, Su Huan laughed and said: "How about I introduce you two? You can contact each other directly then, save me the trouble of running back and forth in between."

"Sure."

Soon, Su Huan sent over a contact card. He tapped to add it, then discovered that the gender information on the card was pink.

He immediately messaged Su Huan: "Fang Nan is a woman?"

"Mm, I thought you already knew. Didn't I mention it?"

"I thought it was a man."

"She's a great beauty, a former subordinate of mine, only twenty-five, with a great figure. You could seize the chance to make a move, hahahahaha."

Looking at Su Huan's reply, Qin Yun thought to himself how nice — so many years had passed, yet Su Huan was basically unchanged.

Glancing at the two videos in his phone's folder, Qin Yun didn't rush to upload them to short-video platforms; he planned to wait a couple of days until he got home before doing anything.

Coming out from Flower Harbor Fish-Watching, the sky had already gradually darkened — he had lingered inside for quite some time.

The next target, on the other hand — Lei Fengta — Qin Yun spent only twenty minutes there; once the scenic-spot icon lit up, he came straight out. There really wasn't much to see — apart from taking a few photos from the tower and gazing at the distant view, the place itself was genuinely nothing worth mentioning.

Though when he went to Lei Fengta, the timing happened to be just right — looking down from above at the sunset over the entire beauty of Xihu was genuinely rather lovely. If not for that final scenic bonus, Lei Fengta would really be nothing more than a mere ornament.

Coming out from Lei Fengta, after walking roughly three hundred-plus meters, a chorus of complaints suddenly rose up ahead.

"How does it just break down at a time like this? What rotten luck."

"Should've just driven myself. Wanted to take a bus, and it breaks down halfway."

"Told you — take a taxi, take a taxi — but you just had to take the bus."

"Ugh, it's already dark, so annoying."

Qin Yun looked ahead and saw a bus broken down on Nanshan Road. Just at this hour the traffic was heavy, and with both directions being single lanes, the cars behind the bus could only borrow the opposite lane to get by — which caused the traffic flow to become very slow.

He saw that not only the passengers were complaining, but the cars stuck behind them were complaining too.

Qin Yun walked up close to the bus and found that this vehicle had a rear-mounted engine. At that moment the driver was drenched in sweat as he inspected the situation, but from his appearance it was clear he had no idea exactly where the problem lay.

"Driver, what's the problem?"

Qin Yun leaned in and asked.

The driver didn't even look up: "Still don't know. We can only wait for the company to send someone now." He had taken Qin Yun for a passenger.

Qin Yun swept a glance over it — on the surface he didn't see any problem — and asked again: "Driver, what's the dashboard showing?"

Before the driver could answer, a middle-aged woman beside them said impatiently: "Young man, don't bother the driver while he's checking. What are you, a youngster, asking this and that for?"

Qin Yun was speechless, but didn't take it to heart.

The driver raised his head, sighed, and looked at Qin Yun: "The battery light is constantly on, the tachometer has dropped to zero — damn strange."

Hearing this, several possible diagnoses instantly formed in Qin Yun's mind.

"Driver, I know how to fix cars — let me take a look."