Leisurely Traveler with Check-in System

Chapter 109: Chapter 89: New Events at the Old House

”I just made dumplings, you can eat as soon as you get back!”

”Hmm...”

After a brief exchange, Li Younan focused on driving, and in just over ten minutes, his car was parked downstairs at his mom’s workplace compound.

This was a product of the era before the housing provident fund.

Back then, before there was a housing provident fund, employees working in units were allocated houses. His mom was among the last batch, receiving a small two-bedroom apartment of less than seventy square meters, which was more than enough for a family of three.

It was an old house from over two decades ago, and each building had only five or six floors, without elevators. The buildings were cement gray, exuding a sense of age.

But Li Younan only felt warmth and security.

At the gate, the security guard, Old Zhang, stopped the car, and Li Younan rolled down the window, ”Grandmaster Zhang, it’s me!”

Old Zhang was the security guard of the compound, and ever since Li Younan could remember, Old Zhang had been the guard here. So many years had passed, and Old Zhang seemed unchanged from his childhood impression, as if he was just as old then.

Old Zhang leaned in to take a look, paused for a moment, ”Oh, Xiaonan? Wow, it really is you, Xiaonan!”

He took a step back and seriously examined the car, ”Tsk, tsk, tsk, I was wondering whose Land Cruiser this was!”

Old Zhang knew a lot about cars. When Li Younan was young, he often heard Old Zhang bragging and chatting with others about which cars were the best and which were terrible. In his mouth, the best car was the Land Cruiser, while others weren’t that great — Audis consumed too much oil, Mercedes had difficult column gear shifts, BMW’s rear-wheel drives tended to skid... As for domestic ones, could those even be considered cars?

After the chat, he’d ride a domestic bicycle to buy groceries.

Old Zhang circled around Li Younan’s car several times, opened the door for a thorough look, and kept making ”tsk tsk” sounds, ”The Land Cruiser really is something else... Whose car is this?”

Li Younan just smiled casually, ”I bought it second-hand...”

”Yours?!”

Old Zhang was first surprised, then chuckled, ”Second-hand is good too... You’ve got an eye for this, buying a used one is better than spending hundreds of thousands on a new car! This car only really breaks in after two to three hundred thousand kilometers...”

Li Younan smiled silently, neither agreeing nor refuting. He didn’t blindly worship the Land Cruiser nor denigrate domestic cars. In this era, domestic cars weren’t bad at all, except for the likes of the Yangwang U8 or the Mulsanne 917 off-road vehicles... which he couldn’t afford.

As someone with a science and engineering background, he viewed everything more objectively and materially, getting down to the essence.

After greeting Old Zhang, Li Younan drove inside.

It was foreseeable that by tomorrow, the story of how discerning Li Younan was in choosing what Old Zhang considered the best car in the universe would be circulating.

Their home was on the fifth floor. Li Younan parked the car in an empty spot in the courtyard downstairs and climbed up slowly.

Carrying his things, with his fitness, he naturally wouldn’t feel tired, but as he reached the fifth floor, he couldn’t help but think... when his mom buys groceries, carrying so much alone and climbing such high stairs...

For now, it’s fine, but what about when mom gets older?

Li Younan knocked on the door, and shortly after, it was opened, accompanied by the aroma of dumplings wafting from the kitchen.

His mom’s name was Xiao Xue. She looked him up and down, a smile appearing on her face, and quickly went over to help him with his things.

Li Younan didn’t agree, simply saying, ”I’ll do it myself.”

Returning home, he saw the familiar but slightly worn furniture, feeling a surge of warmth in his heart, his mood incredibly uplifted.

He put down everything he was carrying and first took out the cosmetics he had specially bought for his mom.

A look of delight flashed in his mom’s eyes as she seriously examined it. Although it wasn’t a brand she knew well, she’d heard of it.

She put the gift down, hugged him, and said, ”Thank you, son. You must be hungry, I’ll get you some dumplings.”

Li Younan nodded, leaning back on the sofa, watching his mom, happy as a little girl, busily moving around the room, and couldn’t help but smile gently.

Since he left home, he had met many parents.

The most common scene was when a child bought something to bring back, regardless of whether the parents liked it or not, they would often say a few complaining words, ”Why buy this kind of thing?”

”It’s unnecessary, I don’t need it...”

”What a waste of money...”

Of course, one can’t say this is wrong, but his mom never did this.

Every time he gave her a gift, she would happily accept it. Whether she was going out or guests came to the house, she would proudly show it off, ”This is a gift from my son, I love it so much!”

She didn’t see it as something that should be tied to feelings of unworthiness.

Perhaps because of this, every time he returned from being away, he always thought of buying his mom a gift, just to see her happy expression.

So from a young age, Li Younan deeply understood a principle: when someone buys a gift for you, whether you like it or not doesn’t matter, you only need to praise the gift, praise the gift-giver, praise the act of gift-giving.

This experience’s Waterloo moment was from... never mind, let’s not mention it.

The dumplings were served, and Younan began eating them heartily.

His mom gently reminded from the side, ”Slow down, don’t choke. I’ll get you some water.”

Ah, homemade dumplings are the best.

Younan felt an indescribable sense of satisfaction.

After eating, as usual, Younan shared interesting stories that happened along the way with his mom.