Chapter 42: Locking Down the Deal

"Who would have thought such a fine young man like Qin Yun would get divorced too—what on earth is wrong with the world these days?"

Wang Lili's mother sighed and lamented.

Wang Lili said, "What's so strange about that? The divorce rate is way too high now. Every day at the Minzheng Bureau, there are almost more divorces than marriages. That's why the birth rate is so low."

"Sigh… young people nowadays aren't like us back then. Overthinking isn't good either."

Saying so, she looked at Wang Lili: "Stop only knowing how to work all day. Go out and meet some boys. You're already 28—if you don't get married soon you'll be thirty. Thirty and you're an old Miss—no one will want you."

Wang Lili rolled her eyes: "Best they don't. Living alone suits me just fine—no pressure in life at all."

"You brat, you're doing this on purpose to upset me."

"Hahaha." Wang Lili ran forward a few steps, breaking free from her mother's clutches. "If you keep nagging me, I'll just go marry Qin Yun."

"That's not something a girl should be saying out loud… oh my… you're going to give your old mother a heart attack."

An hour later, the three of them—grandfather, grandmother, and grandchild—returned the same way along the shore. The sesame snails piled together were enough to make three basins full.

Grandfather's house still kept the traditional earthen stove. Although they didn't light a fire for every meal on regular days, every few days they'd always cook up a pot. Like yesterday, when slaughtering a chicken they needed hot water—a regular kettle clearly wasn't enough, so they'd have to boil several batches.

But with an earthen stove, one pot of water could fill six or seven thermos bottles.

He remembered as a child at grandfather and grandmother's house, they'd use the earthen stove to slow-roast rice cakes and bake steamed buns—even if they got ash on them, they didn't mind. The food was unbelievably delicious.

"Xiaoyun, we're out of firewood. Go to the shed in the field and bring back a bundle."

"Okay, Grandpa."

"Woof woof!"

Qin Yun headed toward the field with Da Hei. In that small plot of land, besides vegetables, there were pomelos, tangerines, and even a persimmon tree. It was just the season for the persimmons to ripen—the fruits on the tree were as big as fists, and although they looked unripe, they were all delicious.

Pick them and either place them in the rice jar or cover them with plants and straw—in a few days they'd be fully ripened.

Of course the best method was to use apples or bananas, putting them together in a bag. In two days they'd be thoroughly ripe. Take a bite, and the astringency-free persimmon's flavor could sweeten you right to the heart.

Qin Yun carried a bundle of dry firewood—at least fifty-odd jin. When grandfather saw him holding it in his right hand, he was quite surprised.

"Xiaoyun, when did you get so strong?"

Qin Yun set the firewood down by the stove and smiled: "I've been working out. It's normal to be a bit stronger."

"Mm, health comes first. What you're doing is right."

Grandfather praised him and was about to start the fire, but Qin Yun beat him to it.

"Grandpa, go take care of other things. I'll light the fire."

"Alright then. First boil a pot of water. Today's main dish is kohlrabi rice cake—the flame doesn't need to be too big."

"Got it."

He used a lighter to ignite the thin twigs, then laid slightly thicker branches across the fire. Once those caught, he added even thicker logs, layer upon layer, and soon the temperature inside the stove rose.

Once the fire was stable, Qin Yun sat in front of the stove, his face flushed red by the firelight.

He took out his phone and checked the backend data on Douyin. The new video's like count had broken ten thousand, but it had clearly hit its ceiling. Carving on Douyin wasn't anything rare, and his video was long—very few people actually watched it through to the end.

Still, the comments under the video were mostly positive. Many people gave his carving technique high praise. Several even offered direct prices, hoping he would list the finished carvings in his showcase.

Qin Yun laughed it off, thought for a moment, then sent Su Huan a WeChat message.

"I'm planning to go to Shengsi in a couple of days. There's a cliff called Dongya over there, with a route called Dragon-Slashing Edge—vertical drop of 70 meters. I'll be attempting traditional rock climbing there."

The message was sent, and in less than five minutes, Su Huan called him directly via voice call.

"Hello? Qin Yun, you sure it's traditional climbing, not free solo?"

Qin Yun laughed: "Of course it's traditional climbing—with protection."

"Good then." Su Huan said, "I'll get in touch with DJI's marketing lead. We should be able to negotiate a decent price."

"Mm, the price doesn't matter. As long as they can provide me with a machine that has excellent stability and battery life, that's enough."

"Got it, I'll work it out. Wait for my good news."

Ending the call, Qin Yun suddenly noticed a sneaky shadow at the doorway.

"Mom, what are you doing?"

"Nothing." Hu Fen walked in nonchalantly. "Just now on the phone—who was it? Sounded like a girl."

Qin Yun said, caught between laughter and tears: "Just a college classmate. What are you up to?"

"Hehe, told you, nothing." Hearing it was a female college classmate, Hu Fen smiled and said no more.

Su Huan was very efficient. That evening after dinner, she called him again via voice call.

The moment the WeChat voice connected, laughter came from the other end: "Done. Eight-thousand-yuan deal. All you have to do is show their product model at the end of the video as the one you used for the entire shoot."

"Impressive." Qin Yun genuinely thought Su Huan was amazing. A video creator with only a hundred thousand followers, and she had negotiated an eight-thousand-yuan deal—it completely exceeded his expectations. He'd figured three thousand would be the max.

"Of course. Take a look at who I am."

"Class monitor is still class monitor—gotta hand it to you." Qin Yun piled on the flattery like it was free, then noticed three pairs of ears nearby all showing signs of leaning in.

But he didn't care, so he simply switched to speaker. Though he was about to regret it immediately.

"Oh right, their side was very impressed with the technique you showed in your first video. If this collaboration goes well, they might want to work with you long-term."

"That'd be great. Tell them I absolutely won't let them down."

Qin Yun's mind started working fast, and soon a flash of inspiration gave him a new idea.

"Su Huan, what if I just do a livestream? When the livestream's done, I'll cut out a finished video and post it. That way DJI gets two waves of exposure."

"Livestream?" Su Huan frowned at that. "Won't that be too much pressure? It's not the same as you tackling it alone."

Qin Yun laughed: "I'll definitely be fine. It's not free solo—the difficulty drops several times over for me."

Su Huan was silent for a moment: "If you can do the livestream, I'll need to renegotiate with them on my end, and they'll need to give some input on the equipment. I'll call you tomorrow."

"Alright, thanks for the hard work."

"It's just a matter of opening my mouth—what's hard about it? What are you doing?"

"Me?" Qin Yun glanced at his grandparents and his mom and smiled. "I'm at my grandparents' place, a small island in Zhoushan called Huni Island."

"The scenery must be pretty nice, right?"

"It's alright, I guess. Once you've seen it enough, you get used to it. It's all old folks here, no young people left."

"I actually quite like places like this — work at sunrise, rest at sunset. When I'm old, I'll definitely find a place like this too."

"Heh, keep dreaming. A person used to electronic information would go crazy here in less than three days. An express delivery that reaches you in Hangzhou in two days at most takes at least two weeks to get here."

"You have to do everything yourself. When a lightbulb burns out, there's nowhere to buy a replacement. And it's only because our country has base stations built everywhere that we even have internet — otherwise it'd be even more miserable."

"Hmph, no romance at all. Goodbye."

With a click, the call was hung up. Hu Fen immediately criticized him: "You kid — what the Miss wanted to hear was atmosphere, and what do you do? Stuff a bunch of reality down her throat."

Qin Yun was speechless: "I'm not dating her, so what's there to talk about atmosphere for?"

Hu Fen pointed at him, with the air of someone exasperated at an unpromising pupil.

……

The next day, Sunday at three in the afternoon, Qin Yun sent the contact address to Su Huan, formally finalizing this collaboration with DJI.

Exposure through livestream plus video, total price thirty thousand. The other side would sponsor the filming equipment — one high-end action camera and one drone with livestream capability, along with six secondary cameras that could be mounted on it, capable of intelligent angle switching — quite advanced.

Just like an intelligent AI switching console.

Of course, the equipment wasn't technically a gift, only sponsored — it had to be returned after use.

A drone with livestream capability and built-in AI — the price is over two hundred thousand. It's not that DJI can't afford to give it away; it's that he hasn't yet earned the qualification to be given one.

Qin Yun looked at DJI's official website's introduction of this drone's features, practically drooling.

Minimum-power endurance up to four hours; maximum-power flight sustainable for one hour; with satellite communication function — even in uninhabited areas it can pick up satellite signals and connect to the network smoothly; and during livestream it supports swappable detachable batteries without needing to power down, because the drone has a small built-in battery.

Of course, since this drone supports livestreaming, it also carries an eight-inch large screen, so reading bullet comments is effortless.

"Awesome! Made-in-China smart manufacturing is awesome!"

Qin Yun gives a thumbs-up to DJI!

And after Hu Fen learned of Qin Yun's upcoming work, she had been feeling rather uneasy.

It wasn't until the two had said goodbye to Grandpa and Grandma and gotten onto the small boat that Hu Fen finally said softly: "There really won't be any danger?"

"Mom, there's protection, there won't be any danger. Your son can handle it barehanded, let alone rock climbing with protection. Just relax."

What could Qin Yun say? He could only comfort her like this.

Seeing him say so, Hu Fen finally felt a little better. She looked at that video under her son's Douyin account on her phone — even though she had already scrolled back to watch it countless times, she still felt a chill run down her spine.

Skirting the edge of death — that must be what it's like.

"From now on you absolutely must never do this kind of unprotected rock climbing again, understand?" After getting off the boat, Hu Fen tugged at Qin Yun's hand and added, "If something happened, Mom wouldn't know what to do."

"Mom, don't worry. I won't do anything I'm not sure about."

Qin Yun felt guilty inside, but there was no way to tell his mother about the System. Moreover, she would find out about what he was doing sooner or later, so better she know early than late — maybe she'd get used to it.

Back at the Zhoyu dormitory, two more days passed. Just as Qin Yun finished carving one Buddha and one Bodhisattva, the delivery arrived.

The delivery was sent by DJI — one drone and one action camera.

Qin Yun had bought action cameras before, but compared to the one DJI sent, both the resolution and the specs were far inferior. So this time, naturally, the action camera to use would be the one DJI sent.

Then paired with this livestream-capable drone and three secondary cameras — five camera positions in total.

With the equipment complete, the next step was on-site survey. He planned to drive to Shengsi tomorrow to check out the actual situation.