Leisurely Traveler with Check-in System

Li Younan turned the car onto the small path, and the steering wheel immediately shook a little, followed by constant terrain feedback from the unpaved road.

However, for the mighty Unimog, such a level of unpaved off-road segments posed no real difficulty.

Liu Li looked ahead somewhat excitedly. Of course, she knew the off-road capabilities of the vehicle she was in, but as a girl, she didn’t have a direct sense of just how formidable it was.

Yet, she had a strange thought inside, that this car belonged on roads like these.

She shared her thoughts, to which Li Younan laughed and said, "Actually, your idea isn’t wrong. Some people after buying an off-road car, even though they’re not into off-roading themselves, drive only on highways. Later, whenever they see a ditch on the road, they can’t help but want to drive over it, as if that’s the only way to not waste the off-road car."

"Huh? People really do that, hahaha."

After driving forward for a bit, Li Younan said, "Fly the drone ahead to observe for me."

Liu Li nodded.

Although Li Younan was driving on this small path, he remained very cautious. Fortunately, with the magical tool of a drone, the road conditions ahead could be seen at a glance.

As it was spring, overall the traffic on route 318 was not as heavy as between May and October, so they hadn’t encountered a single car on this unpaved small path, and the convoy they met yesterday was still quite far away.

Liu Li scouted very carefully and seriously, but to ensure the drone wouldn’t lose connection mid-flight, they didn’t dare fly it too far.

At this moment, the drone had already flown over the convoy ahead and continued exploring, when Liu Li pointed at the screen somewhat puzzled, "Li Younan, take a look at this place."

Li Younan glanced at it, slightly raised an eyebrow, then stepped lightly on the brake.

He asked Liu Li to fly the drone a bit closer and zoom in on the screen, then watched for a while.

It was a slope, covered with quite a bit of snow, and although most of the snow had melted by now, the slope had become somewhat muddy.

Li Younan touched his chin and thought for a moment, saying, "We should go around this area."

It’s not that he didn’t trust the performance of his vehicle, but if a more reliable route could be found via drone, there was no need to put oneself into uncertain factors.

With the driving skills granted by the system, Li Younan could instantly judge that this place would likely cause an ordinary off-road vehicle to get stuck or slip.

Liu Li nodded and controlled the drone to continue searching nearby, eventually finding a detour route, though it would require nearly an additional kilometer.

However, Li Younan didn’t mind, saying, "It’s already saving a lot of time compared to the main road."

Li Younan’s Unimog had extremely impressive 445 tires, which could only be fitted on the 5023 Unimog, and they were LT load tires at that.

Driving on such roads, Li Younan didn’t have to worry about the loose stones on the ground, maintaining a considerable speed as he slowly caught up with the convoy ahead.

...

Chen Meiyou was shocked when she saw Li Younan’s Unimog in the rearview mirror.

She instinctively recognized it as the one they encountered at the camping site yesterday, her immediate reaction being somewhat absurd—could it be that the other party was tailing their convoy?

But she quickly dispelled this impossible thought from her mind; it couldn’t be true.

So... does the other party also know this small road?

If that’s the case, maybe she misunderstood him. It seemed he wasn’t visiting the 318 for the first time?

But then she remembered Li Younan saying yesterday that it was his first time here.

As she was pondering, Li Younan’s car had accelerated and caught up.

The unpaved road wasn’t narrow, easily accommodating two cars side by side, but for a big vehicle like the Unimog it was a bit challenging, preventing Li Younan from overtaking.

After a couple of attempts, Li Younan gave up, slowed down, and kept following the convoy.

His presence, of course, quickly drew the attention of the other cars, with the voice of the lead coming through the intercom: "What’s up with the Unimog behind us?"

Chen Meiyou replied, "Seems like it’s the one from yesterday, no idea how, but he’s followed us here."

The lead stayed silent for a while, then said, "It seems he intends to overtake us, but we can’t let him pass for now. Let’s keep going; there’s a spot ahead where we can make way."

The vehicles traveled for a bit further, arriving at the fork where Li Younan and Liu Li had scouted with the drone for an detour option, which provided room for passage.

The lead turned the vehicle to make way, followed by the rest giving way to Li Younan.

As it came to Chen Meiyou’s turn, she waved at Li Younan out the car window before steering to the roadside.

Li Younan stopped the car at the intersection and smiled at Liu Li, saying, "I’ll go say hello to them."

Li Younan jumped out of the car just as the convoy also stopped to take a break.

Li Younan greeted Chen Meiyou.

Among the convoy, only Chen Meiyou was relatively friendly to Li Younan.

Curiously, Chen Meiyou asked, "How come you know this road?"

Li Younan nodded and said, "I have a drone on my car, did some scouting just now and found this route."

Chen Meiyou then showed an enlightened expression.

Li Younan glanced at one side of the intersection and asked, "Are you planning to go this way?"

Chen Meiyou said, "I’m not too sure, just following the lead."

Li Younan said, "You can follow me, there’s a spot on your route I estimate where your car might struggle."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"It’s a slope, the car might slip easily." Li Younan didn’t elaborate.

Chen Meiyou looked troubled: "Are you sure?"

Li Younan nodded: "I checked with the drone."

"Alright, I’ll let the leader know."

While they were talking, others in the car also got out, the leader and the bald guy from yesterday gathered around, both wearing smiles: "Hey, brother, you’re here too, you know this road?"

Li Younan nodded but didn’t explain why he chose this road.

However, Chen Meiyou promptly told the leader: "Leader, it seems there’s a spot ahead where the car can’t easily pass, isn’t it, Li Younan?"

Li Younan nodded: "I just saw it with the drone, there’s a slope..."

Before Li Younan finished speaking, the leader laughed: "Oh, you mean that spot? Of course I know, don’t worry, not a big problem, I drive this road a lot."

Li Younan raised his eyebrows slightly, feeling a bit puzzled. If the leader often drove this road, he’d surely know it’s hard for regular off-road vehicles to pass, to be blunt, there’s nowhere to hook a winch.

The main issue is that the snow makes the original road slippery.

But Li Younan was too lazy to persuade them, he just said to Chen Meiyou behind him: "Haha, I’ll take this road."

Chen Meiyou hesitated for a moment, compared to Li Younan, he naturally trusted the leader more, since the leader said it was passable, there shouldn’t be much problem.

Perhaps Li Younan’s driving skills or judgment weren’t as good, so Chen Meiyou said: "You’ve come all the way here, why not come with us?"

Li Younan shook his head with a laugh, and before he could say anything, the bald middle-aged man next to him spoke to Chen Meiyou: "Chen Laomei, that’s not right, this young brother’s Unimog has strong maneuverability! Instead of worrying about him, you’d better be concerned about your own car."

Seeing the situation, Chen Meiyou could only drop it.

The leader and the bald guy warmly bid farewell to Li Younan.

After Li Younan and his group left, the leader slowly said: "If that guy wanted to follow us, we could let him, but since he has his ideas, let’s not interfere, if anything goes wrong on the road, he’ll blame us."

Chen Meiyou understandably agreed, somewhat exasperated: "Fine, I know, I won’t interfere anymore."

...

After separating from the convoy, Li Younan continued along the route Liu Li had just scouted.

As the altitude climbed, Li Younan frequently glanced at Liu Li beside him, noticing that her expression turned a bit serious, her brows furrowing from time to time.

Li Younan roughly understood that the increasing altitude was causing Liu Li a mild headache at the moment.

The view ahead was clear, Li Younan glanced at the rearview mirror, no cars behind, he stepped on the brake firmly and brought the car to a stop.

Liu Li was momentarily stunned, looking at Li Younan in confusion.

Li Younan sighed lightly: "You girls can be so wooden, feeling unwell and not even mentioning it?"

Liu Li was taken aback, her mouth slightly open: "Huh?"

Liu Li felt a bit absurd, she didn’t feel unwell.

At this moment, she was recalling the girl who greeted Li Younan, they seemed to be... quite friendly.

That girl, quite bold... quite conspicuous.

While she was in a daze, Li Younan had already gone to the cabin and brought back the portable oxygen maker, placing it directly in front of Liu Li, turning it on, and shoved the oxygen tube to her face: "Plug it in."

Liu Li blinked, even though she was sure Li Younan misunderstood something, she didn’t say much, just silently put on the breathing tube.

Oddly, even though it hadn’t reached the level of altitude sickness yet, wearing this oxygen maker seemed to actually make her feel a bit more comfortable, maybe due to psychological effect.

She looked at Li Younan with a curious gaze.

Li Younan resumed driving for quite a while, turning off the trail back to the national highway, and at this point, the mountain summit was right ahead.

Looking back at the mountain foot, there was a long traffic jam.

Liu Li looked at Li Younan, her eyes sparkling.

Li Younan chuckled: "What now?"

Liu Li spoke with a tone close to admiration: "I think your decision was so wise! Otherwise, we’d definitely be stuck in traffic now."

Li Younan secretly delighted, shook his head: "I have lots of wise decisions!"

He pointed to the solitary Gongga Mountain peak ahead, "Later, I’ll park the car in that open area; from there, you can clearly see the Gongga Mountain I climbed last time."

Actually, Gongga Mountain is already visible here.

Liu Li looked at the throne-like peak, surrounded by mountains several thousand meters high, which seemed like its subjects, bowing at its feet, including the Zeduo Mountain under the car.

For a moment, she felt an indescribable emotion; the more majestic Gongga Mountain appeared here, the stronger this emotion grew, she looked at Li Younan—

He climbed such a mountain last time!

Then, Li Younan parked the car on a patch of open ground by the roadside, took out a radio handset from the driver’s cabin, matched the frequency with the car’s radio, and said to Liu Li: "Later, you can talk to me directly using this, within a range of twenty to thirty kilometers. Since we’re here, I might as well check out this little mountain."

Liu Li was stunned, silently gazing at the Zeduo Mountain peak.

Though the Zeduo Mountain peak and the distant Gongga Mountain main summit can’t really be compared, it’s still almost a peak with an altitude of 5,000 meters.

Hmm, little mountain?