Undoubtedly, when Li Younan pulled out that toolset, everyone realized things were not so simple.
It was around 2 pm, the time when the sun was at its most scorching.
Even under the canopy, waves of heat seemed to surge from all directions.
The glaring sun hung high over Tongji Lake, the water vaporizing heat, making people's eyes dizzy. The shadow of the mountain sank in the boiling water, seemingly wilting.
The two families, four adults, quietly stood next to Li Younan, intently watching what he was doing.
The adorable little girl Yaoyao and her playmate weren't running around now. The table was a bit high for Yaoyao, and she couldn't understand what the handsome older brother was doing, so she lay down on a folding chair nearby and fell asleep.
At this moment, Li Younan had already cut two snow-white marble stones into rough shapes.
Then, he switched to an electric carving knife with different blades, delicately and precisely manipulating the stones.
This scene captivated the surrounding adults, especially the bearded uncle.
As someone who has long been in the social media scene, he knows the fundamental logic behind a person's fame... Simply put, it's being impressive.
Some say it's about contrast, but the premise of contrast is still being impressive, like a chef who can perform a backflip, the contrast triggers his fame, but the fundamental reason is his ability to backflip... A backflip is inherently an impressive attribute.
Is Li Younan impressive? Before Li Younan pulled out this toolbox, the uncle thought this boy, apart from having star-level looks, wasn't particularly impressive, overall quite ordinary.
But now, he couldn't help but admire Li Younan's skill.
No one knew stone carving, couldn't evaluate professionally.
But in Li Younan's hands, it was as if the stone itself contained a vivid image, like a mammoth frozen in ice, or a bee sealed in amber for thousands of years, and Li Younan was just using tools to chip away at the shell encapsulating the animal, revealing its true form.
As Li Younan put down the carving tool, a lifelike elephant, to be exact, an elephant with wings, stood vividly there.
This elephant had a round base under its feet, with only one foot on the ground, the other three pudgy legs lifted, its entire posture clumsy yet light, as if it were about to fly. The cutest part was its trunk, with a perfect curve, playful and realistic.
It's hard to imagine such a small piece of stone could produce an animal with such perfect detail.
With one last step remaining, after polishing the entire sculpture, Li Younan added eyes to the elephant.
At this moment, the idiom "adding the finishing touch" learned in childhood materialized vividly, allowing people to deeply and intuitively understand why the ancients said adding eyes bestowed life.
Li Younan wiped his sweat and said, "Let's call this little thing Flying Elephant."
After a pause, Li Younan added, "Hmm, let's name this work Yaoyao's Dream."
Li Younan gifted the little elephant to the bearded uncle.
The uncle's first thought was, this thing is carved beautifully, his daughter would surely love it. Damn, an elephant with wings, such a bizarre creature, yet so adorably crafted.
The second thought was, it's such a pity for this young man. Yes, the uncle found it unfortunate. With these carving skills alone, if this young man learned from those video creators on short video platforms that live off carving and made some videos, he'd definitely become popular. People often say older folks can't keep up with the times, their thinking isn't as dynamic as the younger ones. But how could this young man not know how to capitalize on his strengths?
But what made the uncle even happier was that he had just recorded the entire process of Li Younan carving this Flying Elephant. His short video traffic had been hitting a bottleneck recently. He knew that although his work had technical content, it wasn't highly advanced. Many people watched his videos out of curiosity because extracting gold from waste electronic components seemed fresh to ordinary people. But after watching several times, aesthetic fatigue set in.
So when making videos, he occasionally interspersed other videos. On one hand, to share his life, and on the other, to attract viewers. But to attract viewers, the video must have highlights. He had already drafted the script structure for this episode in his mind. Thinking about it, the uncle asked, "Young man, do you mind if I post the video of your carving on my account?"
Li Younan smiled: "No problem, go ahead."
For Li Younan, making a video account and posting some content is definitely something he'll do in the future, so appearing in someone else's video is not something difficult for him to accept.
Receiving Li Younan's affirmative response, the uncle's mood lifted. He knew a viral video was going to appear. Once in work mode, the man becomes extremely focused. At this moment, the bearded uncle didn't even have the mood to play while camping. He simply went under the nearby canopy and started editing the video alone on his laptop.
Everyone would not disturb him at this point. Watching from afar, sometimes seeing the bearded uncle frowning, sometimes laughing, after a while picking up the microphone to start recording, he seemed eager to finish the video editing. Li Younan found it somewhat amusing. To be honest, earning money while traveling like this is indeed a pleasant thing.
There was a piece of stone material left, and Li Younan started working again, carving it into a white rabbit, gifting it to another child.
The scorching weather didn't last into the night. Not long after the uncle began editing the video, dark clouds started rolling over from the horizon, and a strong wind began to blow nearby. The uncle's friend seemed very experienced, frowning, saying, "Looks like it's going to rain, let's go back." Then he started packing things.
Seeing the weather, Li Younan felt a bit frustrated. After all, his task this time was to capture the starry sky. If the weather doesn't clear up, how will he photograph the starry sky tonight?
So Li Younan was quite indecisive now. If he retreats, he's spent so much time here, what if it clears up right after he leaves? No one knows how long the rain will last. But if he doesn't retreat, what if the rain continues until tomorrow morning, won't this mean spending the night in the car?
While contemplating this, Li Younan didn't idle, hurriedly dismantling the canopy and cleaning up the site rubbish. Meanwhile, the bearded uncle also finished editing the video and packed his laptop. Everyone quickened their actions, swiftly tidying up, and got into the car.
The sun in the sky was already completely obscured by the dark clouds. Li Younan quickly returned to his car. The uncle and his group opened two cars, stopping next to Li Younan's car, lowering the car window, the uncle cheerfully said: "Young man, let's part ways here then, since we've already exchanged contacts, let's meet again sometime."
Li Younan nodded. He was still hesitating whether to leave or not, so he didn't rush to ignite the engine. At this moment, the uncle's car slowly drove away. The little girl lowered the rear window and waved goodbye to Li Younan, holding the Flying Elephant, sweetly shouting: "Thank you, big brother!"
After the two cars drove away, Li Younan leaned back in his seat and played a song, "Hotel California." The rain started to pour outside, everything beyond tens of meters turned into a hazy mist, obscuring the lake, water splashed everywhere.
The melody of "Hotel California" mixed with the white noise of the heavy rain, and Li Younan suddenly felt a bit sleepy.