Chapter 648: The Power of the Motorhome Agreement

After finishing their morning run, the group returned to the motorhome and made a simple breakfast.

Li Luo finally got Xu Youyu out of bed; after breakfast, everyone took a commemorative photo facing away from the lake at the campsite, then drove off again in their two motorhomes toward the next campsite.

Before the trip, Xu Youyu and Ying Chanxi had finalized six campsite locations around Taihu, choosing only one transitional spot between Huxing City and Qiandaohu.

But over the next few days, since they kept circling around Taihu almost daily, even though the campsites changed, the scenery barely differed.

After the initial novelty wore off in the first two days, the next two or three days of viewing Taihu's landscape grew dull.

So on the seventh, Xu Youyu simply changed course, heading straight south instead of visiting the last two campsites, heading directly for the previously chosen transitional spot.

"It's near Moganshan, right?" Li Luo asked from the passenger seat, turning to Xu Youyu in the back.

Ying Chanxi was driving now; Xu Youyu was resting in the back and nodded upon hearing Li Luo's question: "Originally, I planned to spend just one night near Moganshan."

"But I've had enough of Taihu's scenery these past two days, so I thought I'd just get there early and see the mountain views, give my eyes a break."

"We'll stay three nights there, then head to Qiandaohu on the tenth to meet Huanhuan and the others."

"Fine," Li Luo nodded, indicating no objection, then switched seats with Yan Zhusheng during a rest stop at a service area.

When they resumed driving, he opened his laptop and began working in his seat.

Xu Youyu, sitting beside him, stared in disbelief: "Do you really need to do this? Even while driving?"

"I've got nothing else to do," Li Luo said matter-of-factly. "Might as well write some words—it's relaxing."

"Are you serious? That's not human talk," Xu Youyu groaned, utterly speechless.

After all, to her, writing was an extremely draining mental and physical task.

But for Li Luo, thanks to his Memory Palace, writing was fairly easy.

And once a person achieves continuous success, positive feedback keeps flowing in, changing the entire drive behind their actions.

Li Luo was now in that positive feedback loop.

Writing was both work and pleasure.

He couldn't do much else while riding in the car, so writing was fine.

Of course, he couldn't type nonstop.

When his fingers grew tired, he'd pause, browse his author backend or check Weibo, keeping tabs on recent trends.

Today was July 7th; the plot of "Little Joy" had just reached a mid-point crisis.

After days of buildup, the storyline surrounding Qiao Yingzi's family was drawing ever closer to a breaking point, ready to explode at any moment.

Due to Tencent Video's early-bird episode access, viewers had already watched episodes fifteen and sixteen, and related discussions surged to trending topics overnight.

Simply put, the top student Qiao Yingzi had developed depressive, anti-study tendencies under her mother Song Qian's long-term academic pressure.

With her father's help, she skipped morning self-study for several days, sneaking off to play with him and relax.

When her homeroom teacher inquired, Song Qian discovered the truth—she caught her daughter happily playing with her ex-husband and his current girlfriend, even seeing her daughter give the bird's nest she'd brought that morning to her father's new girlfriend to drink.

This scene shattered Song Qian's composure; she smashed Qiao Yingzi's giant LEGO structure right there on the spot.

Such heart-wrenching, intense drama instantly propelled "Little Joy," already on trending lists, to break out and go viral again.

Four of the top ten trending topics were related to "Little Joy."

The ninth trending topic even involved Li Luo.

【How did a Gao Zhongsheng from Chongran come up with a plot like "Little Joy"?】

Xu Youyu had clearly seen this trending topic; seeing Li Luo scrolling Weibo, she grinned and asked: "So how did you even think up this plot? Online, people are almost convinced Lin Yi treated you the same way Song Qian treats her daughter."

"My mom's more like Dong Wenjie, the protagonist's mother," Li Luo laughed. "Song Qian? Honestly, she's more like Wei Chun's mom."

It was somewhat tragic to think about.

When Wei Chun switched to the science class in Gao Er, his mother Zhang Xuefen kept her eyes fixed on Li Luo, constantly comparing him to Wei Chun at home.

On the contrary, this caused Wei Chun's college entrance exam score to be even worse than the score Li Luo remembered from his past life.

In Li Luo's memory, Wei Chun had once entered Qianjiang University.

But this year, his score fell short, forcing him to choose a lower-tier 985 university outside the province.

Though still a 985, for most other students this result was excellent enough, but for Wei Chun, it was clearly too low.

Li Luo had once heard Li Guohong casually mention that Wei Dongrong's real estate project wasn't going smoothly.

Now that his son hadn't gotten into his dream university and his husband's business was uncertain, Zhang Xuefen had snapped at home.

Especially after seeing Lin Xiuhong's life improving, Zhang Xuefen grew wildly jealous.

After seeing Lin Xiuhong's WeChat Moments post about her Fitur car, she deliberately left a sarcastic comment underneath; Lin Xiuhong didn't even bother replying.

Three years ago, compared to Li Luo's family, Zhang Xuefen's household—both in living conditions and children's academic performance—had firmly towered over them. Now, looking back, they had become roadside dust.

Li Luo had just thought of it suddenly and mentioned it offhand, then pushed them out of his mind.

……

The motorhome drove on; halfway, Ying Chanxi grew tired of driving and switched with Xu Youyu.

Around eleven a. m., they finally arrived near Luoxin Valley in Moganshan, found a suitable spot at a motorhome campsite, and parked successfully.

This location was very close to Luoxin Valley, an eco-resort, situated halfway up Moganshan.

From the campsite, distant views revealed surrounding mountains, rolling hills, and highways winding like hidden dragons through the forests.

"There's a place nearby where you can pick waxberries—we can go there this afternoon, and right next door is Jianquan, so we can stop by to play in the water," Xu Youyu said after getting out of the car.

Since it was mealtime, everyone set up tents between the two motorhomes and cooked a simple meal.

In the afternoon, they headed to the nearby waxberry orchard to experience fruit-picking firsthand.

"Don't pick too much—you'll end up with more than you can eat," Cui Suling warned.

"We'll just buy less later—how could we possibly eat it all?" Xu Youyu blinked.

"Huh?" Cui Suling paused, then realized: "Isn't it pick as much as you want?"

"Of course not," Xu Youyu said. "The ticket just lets you enter to experience picking. If you don't care about cleanliness, you can eat them right off the tree."

"The last plucked bayberries must be returned to the owners."

"If you want to take some home to eat, you'll have to pay them for it."

Hearing this, Cui Suling fell silent: "So we paid money and still ended up picking bayberries for them? They're just sitting there making money."

"It's about experiencing life—everyone gets what they need," Xu Youyu said casually, happily picking away until she'd filled two large bamboo baskets.

After playing in the bayberry orchard for over two hours, they bought only one small box of bayberries to take back, stored it in the motorhome's fridge, then headed toward Sword Spring.

Sword Spring was a local tourist attraction, but the stream where Xu Youyu and the others were was merely a tributary of the upper Sword Spring, with almost no visitors.

Before arriving, they'd bought several water guns at the convenience store at the campsite; once by the stream, Xu Youyu eagerly filled her water gun and blasted everyone with biubiubiu.

Li Luo and the others didn't back down, immediately filling their own water guns and launching a counterattack.

Lin Xiuhong and Cui Suling watched from the side; as elders, they'd originally planned not to join the kids' battle, but still got accidentally soaked.

Cui Suling got sprayed full in the face by Xu Youyu, immediately grabbed her water gun, and fired back.

Eventually, the whole group returned to the motorhome soaking wet, quickly stripped off their clothes, and went to shower to avoid catching a cold.

Unfortunately, the motorhome's bathroom was far too small—even this motorhome's bathroom, with its clever design, could barely fit Ying Chanxi and Yan Zhusheng together.

Li Luo and Xu Youyu had to wait in the living room first, but they'd already taken off their clothes and pants, lest damp fabric cling to them and cause a cold.

"Still not being serious at a time like this?" Xu Youyu glanced at Li Luo and teased with a grin.

Li Luo looked at Xu Youyu, who wore only undergarments, then forced himself to look away—otherwise, staring too long would only make him suffer.

"So… should we shower together later?" Xu Youyu extended one long, pale leg, teasing and tempting him.

"Ying Chanxi and Yan Zhusheng can squeeze together, but how are we supposed to squeeze?" Li Luo rolled his eyes. "It's just not possible."

"If we pressed right up against each other while showering, it wouldn't be impossible," Xu Youyu winked at him, grinning slyly.

Li Luo replied with a dry laugh, thinking: You think Ying Chanxi and Yan Zhusheng are just decorations?

After Ying Chanxi and Yan Zhusheng finished showering and came out, Xu Youyu winked at Yan Zhusheng and said seriously: "There are a few specialty ingredients around Mogan Mountain that are quite famous."

"Especially the bamboo shoots here—the quality and flavor are unmatched."

"Ying Chanxi, since you and Zhusheng just finished showering, why don't you go ask at the convenience store if there's anywhere nearby selling fresh bamboo shoots?"

Before Ying Chanxi could even nod, Yan Zhusheng had already grabbed her wrist and pulled her toward the door: "Let's go ask."

Taken by surprise and pulled out of the motorhome, Ying Chanxi found no excuse to refuse and was led away by Yan Zhusheng to buy bamboo shoots as Xu Youyu had instructed.

Seeing the two sisters successfully distracted, Xu Youyu's face lit up with a satisfied smile.

She stood up, walked straight into the bathroom, then turned to Li Luo and winked: "So… coming?"

…

Although bamboo shoots were sold at the campsite, they were all pre-packaged and no longer fresh.

So Ying Chanxi and Yan Zhusheng walked seven or eight hundred meters to a nearby small mountain village, bought fresh bamboo shoots from locals, and returned with them.

After over half an hour of going back and forth, they finally returned successfully.

By then, Li Luo and Xu Youyu had already finished showering and had started a fire in the pavilion to cook dinner.

Seeing Yan Zhusheng return, Xu Youyu greeted her with a grin and gave her a high-five.

Ying Chanxi watched, confused, thinking Xu Youyu was praising them for buying fresh bamboo shoots.

"Why is the rear door open again?" Yan Zhusheng suddenly noticed and asked curiously.

This instantly triggered Ying Chanxi's nerves—her gaze snapped over and saw the rear door truly wide open; a bad suspicion rose in her heart.

She hurried up into the motorhome, her expression suspicious, and gently twitched her nose on the bunk bed.

Unfortunately, she couldn't smell that familiar scent.

But maybe the smell had just dissipated quickly.

Otherwise, why would they open the rear door after showering?

"After showering, the motorhome's floor was too wet," Li Luo coughed and explained to Ying Chanxi. "Opening the rear door helps it dry faster."

"Is that so…" Ying Chanxi sounded half-skeptical.

Beside her, Yan Zhusheng asked innocently: "What are you suspecting, sister?"

"N-nothing…" Ying Chanxi replied evasively, feeling guilty.

After all, she herself had only learned after doing something improper with Li Luo that the scent was quite noticeable—and only opening the rear door could dispel it quickly.

But she clearly couldn't explain such a thing to her own younger sister.

So in the end, she just brushed it off, pretending nothing had happened.

Yet at that moment, Ying Chanxi felt a quiet little thrill inside.

After all, seeing Yan Zhusheng's innocent, clueless expression, she might be the second one to have done something improper with Li Luo.

Even if Xu Youyu had gotten there first, it was better than being last.

With this thought, Ying Chanxi felt happier—she truly understood the wisdom of being content with what you have.

Yet without Ying Chanxi noticing, certain notions within her had already begun to slowly change.

If this had been the proud, prickly Ying Chanxi from two or three years ago, she wouldn't have accepted even the idea of drawing lots to decide who slept with Li Luo each day.

But now, for Ying Chanxi, it had become routine—she no longer saw anything wrong with it and accepted the arrangement effortlessly.

"Bamboo shoot stewed pork—come taste how it tastes," Li Luo called out after finishing dinner.

Ying Chanxi immediately rushed to help set out bowls and chopsticks, forgetting her earlier suspicions entirely.

(End of Chapter)