Leisurely Traveler with Check-in System

Granny Li sat on a low stool in the main room, back facing the door, clutching a bamboo splint tightly, her head hung low.

They had already called before they came. Granny Li was visibly very happy to see Lu Shihua, though a bit nervously glanced at Li Younan, smiling cheerfully yet unsure what to say.

Lu Shihua had told her over the phone that they had invited a pretty amazing internet influencer this time.

She didn’t really understand what an internet influencer was, but Lu Shihua had mentioned that the person coming could help promote the ”Smiling Face Dolls.”

Actually, the local government had attempted this a few years ago.

At that time, she thought the old ancestral craftsmanship could really be saved and cooperated, but it yielded minimal results.

Although the government tried hard to promote it, ultimately, not many people bought these items.

Visitors to the ancient city were even more inclined to purchase those trinkets imported from Yiwu. The genuine crafts were left untouched due to their prices.

So this time, with Li Younan’s visit, she didn’t hold much hope.

The elderly lady saw it quite clearly; promotions were useless. She now just hoped for one or two genuine successors who could inherit this craftsmanship.

While in the process of making them, she simultaneously explained to Li Younan.

”This is the first step of making the Langzhong Smiling Face Doll — select locally grown three-year-old bamboo, scrape off the green skin, split it into bamboo splints finer than hair, then soak it in rice water for three days to enhance flexibility.”

”Next, sew the doll’s body with self-spun cloth, stuffed with dried mugwort and tangerine peels, and finally paint the face. You must use pine soot and acacia juice.”

”The eyes should be painted in an ’apricot seed round’ shape, the eyebrows ’crescent curved,’ and the mouth with a tilted shape, as if it just tasted a sweet fruit...”

Saying this, she reached into the drawer and pulled out a doll wrapped in red cloth, the fabric worn at the edges, yet the doll’s smiling face remained vibrant. ”I made this for my grandson when he turned one month old,” she reminisced, her fingers gently caressing the doll’s face, and sighed softly, ”Last year when he visited, I handed it to him and he said, ’Grandma, this is an antique, everyone in the city plays with robots,’ and tossed it onto the table right away.”

”Four years ago, three Japanese visitors came.” She suddenly paused, carefully placing the red cloth-wrapped doll back into the drawer, ”They wore raincoats, squatted in the courtyard watching me make dolls, observing for a whole day. When I split bamboo splints, they recorded the thickness; when I boiled dye, they photographed the acacia seeds in the porcelain bowl; they even inquired precisely about the needle size I used.” She paused, ”One of them was an elderly lady over seventy, bowed to the unfinished doll. Before leaving, they bought ten dolls, saying they would exhibit them in Japan and if I were willing, they could send apprentices to learn.”

Li Younan asked if she agreed; she shook her head, then said earnestly, ”What the ancestors handed down, even if it’s lost, shouldn’t be passed to other places!”

Lu Shihua, standing beside, said with a somewhat complex expression, ”Things about to be lost here are treated as treasures in Japan and South Korea.”

Granny Li pointed to the unfinished products piled in the corner of the main room: ”Who would I teach? There used to be five wives in the village learning from me, but now they’ve either gone to work in the city or fled because it doesn’t pay. My son says once I can’t continue, he’ll burn all this bamboo and fabric to save space.”

The rain continued to pour. She picked up a doll without a painted face, dipped some acacia juice, intending to paint the eyes, but her hands trembled violently, and the dye dripped onto the fabric, spreading into a small blot.

She sighed, placing the brush down: ”Actually, an old woman like me doesn’t rely on this to make a living now. The village provides me with welfare benefits. I don’t worry about food and clothing. I’m just saddened, after all, this is ancestral craftsmanship. It’s going to end with my generation... no one else will know it.”

Lu Shihua glanced at Li Younan, sighed deeply with a tinge of bitterness, ”The most painful thing isn’t the loss, but having someone guarding it yet still unable to preserve it.”

Li Younan remained silent for a while, suddenly picked up the doll without a face, and asked Granny Li, ”Granny, do you want to find a successor? What’s the hardest part about making these?”

”The hardest is the face painting.” She dipped the brush in pine soot, scraping the ink along the bowl’s edge but didn’t immediately begin painting, ”Look at the doll’s face, just a palm-sized piece of fabric, the eyes should be painted ’apricot seed round’, slightly bigger on the left, smaller on the right, just like that; eyebrows ’crescent curved’, starting gently, finishing with a slight lift, if too heavy, it becomes ’crying brows’; the most delicate is the mouth, must be tilted up from the left corner to the middle, slowly lowered, the curve should be like freshly picked sweet plums, sweet but not too tilted, or it becomes a ’silly smile’.”

Li Younan thought for a moment, directly took the brush up from the side.

He pondered briefly, suddenly started painting briskly on the doll’s face.

This scene instantly stunned Lu Shihua, she quickly exclaimed, ”Brother Li, no, what are you doing?”

Yet Granny Li chuckled and said, ”It’s okay, anyway I can only make it for fun now, can’t sell them.”

Lu Shihua frowned slightly, restraining her urge to stop Li Younan.

But moments later, upon seeing the doll’s face, she was taken aback.

Li Younan hadn’t painted a traditional smiling face doll.

With his current painting skill, he could paint whatever he liked, without any hesitation.

Within a few strokes, a vivid image leaped onto the doll’s face.

The smile was still there... It was Ragbob that recently made quite a bit of money off foreign buyers.

Li Younan put down the Ragbob doll, casually picked another.

Within a few strokes, painted a magic child Nezha.

Lu Shihua was certainly astounded, first by Li Younan’s painting skills.

She hurriedly took out her phone to snap a couple of photos.

Looking again at this doll, made with the coarsest materials, yet painted vividly.

Lu Shihua secretly assessed... Though Granny Li was the heir of this craft, honestly speaking, Li Younan’s painting skill far surpassed Granny Li’s.

Considering this was the first time he had used such brushes and materials, and painted to this level with ease—this mastery, even among those art school classmates she once knew, none could match Li Younan’s caliber.

She continued to be astounded.

Because she suddenly realized these two quirky dolls had completely diverged from the previous smiling face dolls, yet were extraordinarily cute, cute to the point even she wanted to buy them.

Li Younan looked up and asked Granny Li, ”Granny, do you think my painting skills are enough to inherit this craft?”

The elderly lady stared at the doll for a while, with a somewhat complex expression said, ”This painting... is quite good, but... this painting, isn’t quite right.”

Li Younan casually took up another and began painting again.

This time, he painted a highly traditional smiling face doll.

As he painted, the old lady’s somewhat murky eyes gradually brightened up, eventually, her eyes reddened, staring blankly at Li Younan.