I turned reality into a romantic comedy.

"No matter what the outcome is tomorrow, I am very happy to be able to come to Shanghai with you this time."

"There will be opportunities to come together again in the future."

"Going to university?"

"Maybe."

"That would be too late; there are still four years left."

"No, we've known each other for five years, but it feels like it was just yesterday."

"Time definitely flies when you're a child, because you don't have to think about anything every day. Now you have to think about a lot of random things every day."

"That's what growing pains are like."

Do you have one?

"what?"

"It's the growing pains of adolescence that you mentioned. Since I've known you, I don't think I've ever seen you really troubled by anything."

"That's just because you didn't see it, Yun. Putting everything else aside, you're the kind of person who often annoys me."

What's bothering you?

"Of course I'm worried about whether you've really listened to what I'm saying."

As he spoke, Chen Junqian nodded to Zhu Wenyun once again:

"I've already told many people offstage today that in literature and writing, you are the one who is more talented and hardworking than me and many others. Our relationship is not about wheat and weeds. If we really have to say, I am the weed."

Without giving Zhu Wenyun a chance to speak, Chen Junqian continued to express his thoughts:

"If I were to write about today's semi-final questions, I would probably choose the first one. As for the main point of the essay, it would probably be something like this—"

How you love yourself is how you teach others to love you.

"This is my view on love."

Faced with Chen Junqian's rapid-fire barrage of questions, Zhu Wenyun also stood there stunned for a moment before smiling and replying with mixed feelings:

"...Aren't you quite good at writing?"

"These are the lessons I learned from reading Wen Yun's novels."

The characters in a work are always a projection of the author's soul. However, compared to themselves, they are stronger, prouder, more indestructible, and more perfect. The characters in Zhu Wenyun's works are the same. The real self and the perfect self look at each other across the pages of the book and the familiar yet unfamiliar plot, at the boundary between fantasy and reality, waiting for an ending where they either drift further apart or head towards each other.

Sixteen years have passed since the New Concept Writing Competition was founded in 1998. The sacred era of literature is gradually fading away. Even the label of "post-80s emerging writers" now seems a bit old-fashioned, like the post-85s actresses. In another ten years, the scale and influence of the New Concept Writing Competition will continue to shrink, and even the names Han Han and Guo Jingming will no longer be mentioned as widely as they have in recent years.

However, right now on the streets of Shanghai, Chen Junqian is still willing to continue to cherish and watch over this young girl's dream:

"I am also a reader who really enjoys reading your work."

Zhu Wenyun simply looked away and muttered something inexplicably:

"But I am not Qian Zhongshu."

She doesn't want someone who only likes eggs.

In the countryside, an old hen that lays eggs is the real treasure that should be taken home.

P.S.: Thank you for reading and subscribing.

PS2: The sentence at the end of the chapter is an anecdote about Mr. Qian Zhongshu. A reader who read his novel "Fortress Besieged" wanted to meet him. Qian Zhongshu replied, "If you eat an egg and find it delicious, why do you need to meet the chicken that placed the order?"

Chapter 122: You've Grown Up, Tell the Whole World! (Part 2)

If Chen Junqian were to make a judgment about Zhu Wenyun's current mental state, he might think that the other party's current mentality is somewhat close to a kind of retaliatory consumption.

As everyone knows, as the most thrifty or frugal girl, Zhu Wenyun values ​​cost-effectiveness the most. Just like if she had one yuan to buy food, she would definitely choose a serving of ten small steamed buns instead of hot dogs and sausages that can be eaten in two bites. However, her current standard of evaluation has changed from the small steamed buns of the past to a real 50,000 yuan.

For example, in the past, when Zhu Wenyun saw a ten-yuan cake, she would subconsciously consider the cost-effectiveness of small steamed buns and think that the money was enough to buy ten small steamed buns. But now, when she sees a restaurant with an average cost of five hundred yuan, she would only think that it is only one percent of fifty thousand yuan.

She's already spent a hundred yuan on her family, so why should she skimp on that amount for herself?

Chen Junqian was well aware that such a mentality was far from healthy, but firstly, he trusted Zhu Wenyun's ability to self-regulate, and secondly, the other party was spending her own money and had not really fallen into the trap of consumerism. Unlike those cases a decade or so later where people believed that "things that were unattainable in youth have bound me for life, so I must consume them in revenge as an adult" and then turn around and overspend, he didn't say anything more for the time being.

After all, occasional venting is indeed beneficial to physical and mental health. With him watching over her, the amount will naturally be kept within a reasonable range. Moreover, compared to her peers, Zhu Wenyun's self-control is definitely among the best. Although she has made a big show of it these past two days, she has not actually spent all of the initial two thousand yuan.

Unlike other essay competitions where you have to go home and wait for news after the competition, the New Concept Essay Competition always releases results the day after the semi-finals, and the winners receive their certificates and prizes on the spot. So the two of them have to stay in a hotel in Shanghai for another night and wait until the results are announced tomorrow afternoon before setting off back to Guoning.

After having dinner and shopping, Chen Junqian, having successfully bought all sorts of anime-related merchandise that Zhu Wenyun knew nothing about, returned to his hotel room with her.

Actually, there's no need to shower every day in winter. However, since the bathroom here is quite nice, and the two of us had been walking around for so long, we were a little sweaty. So, we decided to take a shower and change into our underwear. But, despite showering for two days in a row, we didn't encounter any classic scenarios like "forgot to bring me a towel."

Unlike yesterday, today while Chen Junqian was taking a bath, Zhu Wenyun took the initiative to run outside the bathroom and chat with him through the bathroom door and glass door:

"Did someone call you when Junqian was taking a shower yesterday? It seemed like he was soaking in the tub for quite a while."

"Yeah, Youyou called me and we got so caught up in talking that we lost track of time, just like when I used to call Wenyun every night. But with you, we only ended the call because I was sleepy. Yesterday, it was because the water got cold."

As he spoke, Chen Junqian glanced at his phone in the transparent waterproof bag next to him, feeling that, given the typical nature of romantic comedies, someone should be calling him at this point.

"Have you been getting along really well with Youyou lately?"

"We've always been like this. Youyou even came all the way to Beijing to see us last summer, and now she's become a meme. I bet in two years people won't even know where this meme comes from, and then some account will appear to help netizens trace its origins."

"That's true."

Because Chen Junqian was intentionally steer the conversation in a lighthearted direction, Zhu Wenyun didn't think much of it. After all, with Shen Nianqiu about to head to Guoning again, these three childhood friends from Guoning should have reunited after more than a year.

As they were talking, Chen Junqian's phone screen, which he had been staring at, suddenly lit up. It turned out that he had received a reply to the message he sent to Gu Linguo two hours earlier after buying the merchandise and taking photos. After casually picking up the phone and replying in the same way, he heard Zhu Wenyun outside asking about Gu Linguo.

"But I feel like Gu Lingguo's attitude towards Junqian has been a little different lately. Has something happened?"

To be fair, it's not surprising that Zhu Wenyun would ask such a question so bluntly. After all, that's always been her personality. And compared to a check-up-style interrogation, she's always had a mysterious research mindset. Just like when she started by rewriting the story of another childhood friend losing two hundred yuan, Chen Junqian's stories with other people have always been her favorite material. That's why Chen Junqian has always felt that the other party's so-called jealousy has always been so weak that it's almost non-existent.

It can only be said that Zhu has a wealth of experience in self-comfort, self-deception, and secretly reliving one's own happiness by misattributing things. Otherwise, Chen Junqian would not often doubt and worry that the other party would prejudicially place him in the role of some tragic heroine.

"Yes, she had some family issues, and I helped her resolve them."

Because this topic was Gu Linguo's own privacy, it was different from things that could be used as stories or material to tell. Therefore, Chen Junqian gave a vague and perfunctory answer. However, with just that one sentence, Zhu Wenyun understood his meaning, nodded, and did not ask any more questions.

However, just this one sentence reignited the competitive spirit of the literary girl. She couldn't help but think that since Chen Junqian had to help her with her family matters, she should do it herself. She then compared herself to Shen Nianqiu, who clearly had family problems and was only able to come to Guoning to find Chen Junqian during the Lunar New Year.

Indeed, compared to Gu Linguo, whose outward appearance was almost flawless and who only showed a slight flaw due to the ups and downs of her emotions during this period, Zhu Wenyun's current target is actually Shen Nianqiu. It's hard to say whether these two, whose personalities and other aspects are all aimed at achieving double D, are somewhat incompatible or too compatible.

Although Chen Junqian felt that Guo Ning was in such a precarious situation that he had to use his full time management skills to keep an eye on everyone, the other girls seemed to see it as a peaceful and idyllic scene. It was as if a girl who was trying to catch her younger sister cheating on her boyfriend couldn't catch her at all, and it was as if everyone was waiting for Shen Nianqiu to arrive.

That's why Chen Junqian naturally felt that his sister's New Year trip to Guoning wouldn't go so smoothly.

...It would be better for him to go to Lin'an to find her. If his sister doesn't like Lin'an either, anywhere is fine, even Shanghai where they are now. But let's hope that nothing unexpected happens, since the weather is still bad.

After having this somewhat helpless thought, Chen Junqian, who had re-submerged his entire body in the warm water, did not notice that the progress bar for a certain milestone reward had subtly advanced one step.

The first step in turning reality into a romantic comedy:

May all promises be kept, all expectations be met, and all efforts be rewarded, so that the story can have a beautiful ending from the very beginning.

As long as the male protagonist on stage has such a wish, the world will change because of it.

----------------------------------

For Luo Dadi, a reporter and writer for The Paper who has been in this field for more than a decade, reporting on the results of the 17th New Concept Writing Competition is already a very familiar task. After all, he had already written news reports about the previous New Concept Writing Competitions, which mainly involved interviewing judges and participants to ask for their opinions on this year's essay questions and literary writing, summarizing the past and looking forward to the future.

With an almost habitual touch, he began by writing this opening:

As China's "Chinese Language Olympics," the New Concept Writing Competition continues to attract countless young writers. It always begins in spring, is nurtured by participants throughout the summer, harvested in autumn, and concludes in the depths of winter.

After describing how many submissions were received during the preliminary round, how many participants were selected for the semi-finals, and the objective details such as the time, location, and questions of the semi-finals, Luo Dadi then took his equipment and intern assistant to the Qingsong Road Hotel to interview the judges.

After he began conducting the interviews, he started hearing a certain person's name one after another.

"Regarding the two topics this time, the second topic, writing a letter to parents, seems traditional and simple, but it is actually a very avant-garde topic. Even many junior high school students who have never been in a relationship would rather talk about their views on love in their essays than write a letter to their parents. Writing a letter is about learning how to communicate with others, and how to communicate with parents is an eternal topic. As a result, very few essays in the entire junior high school group chose the second topic. Therefore, during this review process, Zhu Wenjun's essay left the deepest impression on me."

"This year's New Concept Writing Competition... my biggest feeling is that some contestants don't know how to control their emotions. They always write about their love, hate, and grudges without restraint. Of course, I know this is a habit of young writers, but conscious writers are detached and know how to limit themselves. If you want to go further on the path of writing, it is better to learn to consciously control this. Zhu Wenyun from the junior high school group has a very good sense of proportion."

"Actually, I was a literature enthusiast when I was young. If there had been the 'New Concept Writing Competition' back then, I think the conflicts between me and my parents might have been alleviated a lot. In my opinion, the 'New Concept Writing Competition' would be a 'band-aid for life' for young people. It's like having a channel to write down their anxieties, unease, and even dark things, buffering the collision between themselves and the world, and at the same time, gaining real growth through writing."

"However, while reading the works of this year's contestants, I still feel a little regretful. Sometimes when reading the articles written by young people today, I feel that there is more sadness than beauty. There is too much melancholy poetry, and the power of humor from life is a little lacking. So I really hope that future writers can unleash the more terrifying, tiger-like power within themselves, so that the 'New Concept' can have a new version in 2014. After all, the New Concept Writing Competition has only been held for seventeen years. When converted to age, seventeen years old is still in the prime of youth."

"In this regard, there is a girl named Zhu Wenjun in the junior high school group who wrote very well. I felt that the name was familiar to me when I saw it. Later, I found out that she had participated in the Chinese Character Dictation Competition last year. Her writing is as beautiful and spirited as she is. What is even more commendable is that she chose a very difficult topic to write about, but she still wrote it well."

After several rounds of such interviews, Luo Dadi couldn't help but become interested in interviewing this contestant who appeared too frequently. So he came back again on the day the results were announced and pointed his camera at Zhu Wenyun, who walked in from there, and the boy next to her.

“There are cameras filming us.”

As someone who had participated in CCTV program recordings, Zhu Wenyun was quite sensitive to this kind of camera work, but Chen Junqian didn't seem to care much.

"After all, it's an awards ceremony. The New Concept Writing Competition is quite well-known, so it's normal for reporters to come and take pictures today. If they're taking pictures of you, it definitely means that Wenyun has already secured the first prize."

"Then I'll take your kind words."

Unlike yesterday, today the participants' family members were allowed to sit with them. After all, it's best to share the news of winning an award with family, friends, and teachers as soon as possible. After casually finding an empty seat, the host on stage began announcing the final results of this year's New Concept Writing Competition.

One hundred and one people won the second prize, and thirty-four people won the first prize.

Then came the announcement of the winners.

The very first name called was Zhu Wenyun.

Without a doubt, even among the thirty-four first-prize winners, she was the one most judges unanimously chose as the best and number one.

Chen Junqian could feel all eyes and camera lenses focused on Zhu Wenyun, who seemed a little dazed. He reached out and quickly pulled her up from her seat, then gently pushed her back as she walked towards the brightly lit front to receive her honor.

He wished her a bright and boundless future.

P.S.: Thank you for reading and subscribing.

PS2: Thank you to readers [翼海风] and [Bluay] for the golden treasure chest rewards. Thank you for your support and love.

Chapter 123: What do you think of these two children? (Part 2)

Similar to many essay competitions Zhu Wenyun had participated in before, the honor value of winning the New Concept Essay Competition far exceeds its material value. In an era before the Strong Foundation Program was established and universities could still conduct independent admissions, the New Concept Essay Competition award certificate was undoubtedly a very powerful stepping stone. In the past, many winners of the awards have been admitted early or given extra points by prestigious domestic universities such as Peking University, Tsinghua University, Fudan University, Beijing Normal University, East China Normal University, Nanjing University, and Xiamen University.

However, for Zhu Wenyun, who is currently only a junior high school student, she cannot enjoy such benefits for the time being. For her, the most important thing about this award is obviously that she can take this opportunity to formally enter the literary world. Putting aside the fact that the editorial department of "Fireworks" magazine made this deal just for this, even without them, this award would naturally allow Zhu Wenyun to get the attention of the organizer "Sprouts" magazine and become its contracted author, or directly switch to "The Smallest Novel" edited by Guo Jingming. This is also the path taken by many winners of the New Concept Writing Competition in the past.

Receiving the first prize certificate from the smiling judges, patiently listening to their encouragement and suggestions, and finally giving a polite and appropriate smile to the camera lens—this process was no longer unfamiliar to Zhu Wenyun. However, what she didn't expect was that after she finished receiving the certificate and returned to her seat, a reporter even followed her with a camera.

"Hello, student Zhu. I'm Luo, a reporter from The Paper. Would it be convenient for you to be here for an interview?"

"OK."

Perhaps she had grown accustomed to such scenes, or perhaps it was because Chen Junqian was right beside her. Compared to the child who used to deliberately avoid reporters' questions and even drag Chen Junqian along when she couldn't avoid them, Zhu Wenyun no longer showed any nervousness when facing the camera and readily nodded in agreement.

"How do you feel about winning first prize this time?"

"It's still a pleasant surprise, after all, the New Concept Writing Competition has always been the most famous writing competition in China. I read the collection of selected winning essays from previous competitions when I was in elementary school."