I turned reality into a romantic comedy.

"Although I can understand that Lin Guo, you deliberately didn't read it so smoothly, the most important thing in animation dubbing is whether it matches the character. You have to be able to grasp the right balance in this aspect."

As fellow anime enthusiasts with Gu Lingguo, Chen Junqian had discussed this topic with her while watching anime or playing games together. After all, stilted delivery is one of the most common mistakes voice actors make in the anime industry, and it's widespread across various popular and niche anime. Even the voice acting for Maki Nishikino in the anime they watched last year was like that. However, this wasn't because the voice actress was a newcomer, but because she was originally a singer and not a professional voice actress, which led to this problem.

“Animation can indeed be more exaggerated than talking to real people in real life, but our animation hasn’t reached that level of expressiveness yet. We just need to tone down the emotions a bit and let them explode in the right places.”

Actually, the rewards for "multi-talented" distributed by the system also included basic knowledge related to animation production and voice acting. After all, in various romantic comedies, there are often heroines who strive towards these goals and dreams. Chen Junqian was probably most impressed by Aoyama Nanami from "The Pet Girl of Sakurasou". Now, looking at Gu Lingguo in the recording studio, who also had a simple ponytail, he suddenly felt that the two figures overlapped... I hope they won't recreate some famous scene of hugging and crying in the rain.

"That's right. The thing to pay attention to is to adjust your breathing. It's better to use a real voice here than a breathy voice. If you keep your voice strained, you'll feel like you can't breathe properly."

After receiving guidance from Chen Junqian and Luo Hongyu, Gu Linguo nodded and made a second attempt. The main reason was that their low-budget and simple-to-produce animation episode was only about five or six minutes long, so the amount of dialogue was not actually that much. However, unlike the first time when the entire line was dubbed, this time Luo Hongyu asked Gu Linguo to break a line into two or three parts to record, and to polish the emotion and breath in each part separately. This was called "splitting the lines," and then the voice and emotion of each version were preserved. Later, the dubbing director would select the one with the best emotion, rhythm, and sound quality.

If they feel that both versions have merit, they will also use post-production editing techniques to piece them together, such as combining the first half of the second version with the second half of the fifth version to create the most perfect dubbing.

For Lin Mu, who was new to this field, this kind of knowledge was naturally fascinating. For Gu Linguo and Chen Junqian, who were turning their hobby into a job and needed guidance in both emotion and technique, the process was equally valuable. So much so that Gu Linguo forgot that Lin Mu was still there. Since the other girl wouldn't interrupt their conversation anyway, she simply ignored the girl sitting there and began to focus on sharing her first voice acting experience and feelings with Chen Junqian.

To ensure that the visiting princes and princesses could immediately see the results of their hour-long work, Luo Hongyu selected two lines of voice-over that he felt were acceptable. He then skillfully processed these lines, including noise reduction, equalization, compression, and reverb, removing the faint background noise and breathing sounds from the recording studio, adjusting the frequency bands, and controlling the dynamic range to make the sound clearer, smoother, and more integrated with the visuals. Finally, he proudly presented the finished product to the group.

"It is now 522 BC. Wu Zixu is standing at Zhaoguan Pass on the border of the State of Chu. He is a fugitive, and he is better known to later generations as Wu Zixu."

It is now...time.

The style of this voice message feels somewhat familiar.

The young Crown Princess tilted her head subconsciously, but still couldn't remember.

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Chapter 135: Your Story and Others' Stories

Around afternoon, Lin Mu was about to head back to her hometown. When seeing her off, Chen Junqian casually called Shen Nianqiu. Unexpectedly, Shen Nianqiu and Zhu Wenyun got along even better than he had imagined, and they even talked to each other to their hearts' content. However, it was always a good thing to see the two of them getting along better, especially since it was a win-win situation.

Zhu Wenyun received the outline of her new book and learned about Shen Nianqiu's experiences, which she had always longed to know. Shen Nianqiu was also able to prepare for her future actions by setting up a public opinion front in advance. Moreover, some things are easier to say out loud, after all, being able to say them is, in a sense, the first step to accepting them.

Time flew by and it was already the 30th of the twelfth lunar month the next day. Almost all the children in Guoning were dragged back to their hometowns by their parents, where there were no computers or Wi-Fi. Even Chen Xi had to go to her grandparents' house for New Year's Eve dinner first, and then go back to Chen Junqian's grandmother's house in the evening. This has always been a tradition in their family. They have New Year's Eve dinner at their biological grandparents' house at noon and New Year's Eve dinner at their godparents' house. This is mainly because Chen Junqian's aunt's parents passed away when she was very young, so she recognized Chen Junqian's grandparents as her godparents.

However, this does not mean that Chen Junqian can really relax. After all, there are always things to do on New Year's Eve. From putting up couplets to going to the grave with his grandfather to burn paper money, he even cooked two dishes himself. He was busy from early morning until almost noon before he finally had a chance to rest.

In Guoning, some people celebrate the New Year at noon, while others celebrate it in the evening. After browsing through QQ Space and WeChat Moments, Chen Junqian could already see the list of friends who had posted photos of their New Year's Eve dinners. His family, on the other hand, was used to celebrating the New Year in the evening, so they just had a casual meal at noon. Actually, saying it was in the evening wasn't quite accurate; they usually started having a proper meal around three or four in the afternoon.

In the past, the sound of firecrackers would have been deafening by now. However, due to the ban on fireworks implemented last year, it's much quieter now, which is almost unsettling for Chen Junqian, who has grown up hearing so much noise. The only good thing is that the little monster that used to run around in fear and hide in the corner of the house every year can now leisurely wait for the feast to begin. Call it and it will wag its tail and come running over, running around under the table in anticipation of the extra meal.

Shen Nianqiu arrived around noon. Firstly, her situation was a bit awkward. She could at least say she knew Chen Jun and Wang Hongling, but Chen Junqian's grandparents knew nothing about her. It was fine for her to come over as a friend and have a meal with them, but coming so early in the morning didn't seem like there was anything she could do. Chen Junqian was busy going to the cemetery with his grandfather and couldn't take care of her. Just sitting there waiting for the opening would be torture. So she waited until Chen Junqian was almost done with his work before coming over from the hotel.

Secondly, it was because she had indeed gone to bed late last night. Mainly, she had been reading the words that Zhu Wenyun had written on short notice the day before, and before she knew it, she was thinking about the late night. She began to understand why Chen Junqian kept saying that he wanted the other party to help him fulfill his literary ideals. Sometimes, the power of words can indeed surpass language and move people's hearts. The feeling of having one's own thoughts described and outlined by someone skillfully and lightly with beautiful and poetic words can satisfy people from the depths of their soul.

Moreover, Shen Nianqiu was one of those girls who loved reading youth romance magazines like "Fireworks" since she was a child and had fantasies about love.

Besides being able to understand Chen Junqian, Shen Nianqiu is now also beginning to empathize with Zhu Wenyun, or rather, she understands why the other could remain unmoved by her outbursts during the summer vacation. It's because Zhu Wenyun is the kind of girl who can be content with her own words and fantasies. And when the heroine of her story this time becomes her, even she herself feels a similar feeling, as if she has finally turned to the final chapter of her childhood fairy tale book, where 'the prince and princess lived happily ever after.'

This wasn't even a self-deceiving fantasy on one's part, because Zhu Wenyun could also receive a steady stream of positive feedback from other readers. This made Shen Nianqiu understand why many famous writers like to design character suits for themselves or other people in their works. After all, theoretically, these readers are only enthusiastically supporting the story of her and Chen Junqian, in Zhu Wenyun's eyes.

...From this perspective, it's no different from her own sexual fantasies, and perhaps even more so.

After all, Shen Nianqiu was merely whispering the other person's name and putting it into action, while the other person had been with the other person hundreds of times in the world of literary fantasy, and had done everything from kissing to touching to getting married and having children. So, the brain is, in a sense, also a sexual organ.

To be honest, Shen Nianqiu was initially worried that the other person might not be able to write about the awkwardness of family life outside of the romance-related sections. However, she quickly dispelled her doubts because Zhu Wenyun's performance in this aspect was no less impressive than in the romance section. It was as if she had just experienced a family crisis, and she described the awkwardness between the closest and most distant relatives quite well. It made Shen Nianqiu start to wonder what had happened in the other person's family, since all she knew was that Zhu Wenyun was a left-behind child.

Family...

Thinking this, Shen Nianqiu rested her chin on her hand and looked at Chen Junqian, who was busy in the kitchen with his mother and grandmother. She felt as if she could finally grasp a bit of his growth trajectory and know how her younger brother grew into who he is today.

She didn't know enough about him; all she knew was about the things between herself and him. Her communication and conversations with Zhu Wenjun made up for this deficiency, because Shen Nianqiu could see everyone's stories there, as well as the different attitudes, behaviors, and the same gentleness he showed in his stories with other girls compared to when he was with her, all from the girls' perspectives.

Zhu Wenyun would tell her about what they had experienced after last summer vacation: their trip to Shanghai, the New Concept Writing Competition, the first topic she wanted to choose but ultimately didn't, and the long QQ chat history that corresponded to the numerous, almost uninterrupted, call records in her phone's contacts that spanned several years and often lasted one or two hours.

How did they first develop this relationship?

It's quite simple. One day, Chen Junqian said this to Zhu Wenyun:

"If you ask Yun if she wakes up in the middle of the night and can't fall back asleep, call me. Don't just play on your phone alone."

To be honest, Shen Nianqiu was a little jealous when she first heard these words, since she had never heard them before. But soon, she suddenly felt exceptionally at ease.

After all, it's quite challenging to fall in love with a boy you've only known offline for a few months and think about spending the rest of your life with him. Not only do you have to constantly face the vast amount of memories about him that you don't even know, but you also have to worry about whether the way he presents himself to you now is his true self or a facade where he says one thing to one person and another to another.

But the more Shen Nianqiu learned about the past she didn't know from other people, including Chen Junqian himself, the less she felt this kind of worry.

Because the underlying nature of his personality hadn't changed, just like the qualities she had come to like about him.

That's enough, really. After all, we are different this year than we were last year, and so are the people we've fallen for.

The change that preserves the essence of one's soul is called growth.

If we, who are constantly growing, can continue to love another person who has grown as well, that is probably one of the luckiest things in the world.

A few firecrackers, their origins unknown, drifted from the distant horizon.

Another Chinese New Year has arrived.

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

PS2: I had some things to do this morning and only wrote 2500 words. I'll make up for it with another chapter tonight.

PS3: The Double Eleven discount event is here! This book is on sale for the first time!

Chapter 136: The Episode Where I Envy Mu Mu the Most

Although Chen Junqian always says that he hasn't watched the Spring Festival Gala on New Year's Eve since 2012, this statement is actually inaccurate. After all, almost every channel on TV is showing the CCTV Spring Festival Gala on New Year's Eve. Even if you don't watch it intently like you did when you were a child, you're still used to having it playing in the background, and this year is no exception.

Chen Xi rushed over around 4 o'clock. After all, she had already given the sixth, seventh, and eighth days of the Lunar New Year to Shen Nianqiu so that her brother could go to Lin'an and watch fireworks with Xu Youwei the year before last, and the first day of the Lunar New Year to Lin Mu last year. If she were to give up the Lunar New Year's Eve this year, then her status as the younger sister would be no different from being nominal. So after finishing her meal at her grandparents' house, she immediately rushed over.

When she and her parents arrived at Chen Junqian's grandparents' house, they could already see Shen Nianqiu, who was gradually getting to know the family, helping to set the table and put down the bowls. Together with Chen Junqian, they each took one side and spread the still intact transparent tablecloth in the air, then covered it on the large red square table that was only brought out during the New Year. Then they carried the round tray used for turning dishes onto the table and placed it in the center.

"Hello Grandpa, hello Grandma, hello Uncle, hello Aunt."

After greeting every adult she saw in one breath, Chen Xi ran over and hugged Chen Junqian's arm tightly.

Hello, brother.

"...We just met this morning, didn't we?"

Chen Junqian couldn't help but chuckle at this intimate gesture, which seemed like they hadn't seen each other for ages, even though he hadn't actually been separated from his sister for more than eight hours. It was really strange, really. When Chen Xi first started calling him "brother," he didn't feel anything at all. But after she changed to the single word "brother" for two years, he unconsciously wanted his sister to call him that again. Now, when she occasionally said it like that, he felt a special connection to it.

Why do I feel like I'm being manipulated?

"And hello Sister Shen."

"Yes, Happy New Year, Xiaoxi."

For some reason, Shen Nianqiu felt that Chen Xi was behaving very childishly today, as if she was deliberately acting cute and charming in front of everyone. Even though she was about to enter the second year of junior high school, her words and actions were still like those of a child. It was a little unclear what she was planning.

After all, in Shen Nianqiu's eyes, Chen Xi was definitely one of the more mature kids among her peers. She had grown up reading all sorts of history and science stories since she was a child. With the accumulation of her reading, while her classmates were still memorizing the order of the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, she had already begun to delve into original historical materials to study the gains and losses of the political systems of each dynasty. If she were on Zhihu, she would be a big V who could impress many people, and her knowledge was much richer than that of Shen Nianqiu, a high school student.

Shen Nianqiu's feeling was actually correct; Chen Xi herself did indeed do it deliberately.

As for the reason, it is also very simple.

If she doesn't act like a child, how can she still legitimately squeeze into the same bed with her brother on New Year's Eve as before?

What are you looking at? I'm talking about you. It's too late to pretend now. You're obviously someone who can't share a bed with a boy or someone will die.

Sigh, if we're only talking about today, this is probably the episode where Chen Xi envies Lin Mu the most. After all, if she had Lin Mu's height, face, and voice, she could sleep in bed for another two years without being noticed by any adults.

Unaware that his younger sister, who was clinging to his arm, had already impolitely uttered such a slightly melancholic and mysterious sentiment in her heart, Chen Junqian, after serving all the dishes, naturally began to invite everyone to sit down at the table. Their family was not so large that anyone could not sit down at the table, and even if Shen Nianqiu were added, it would be the same. He also called back the dog that had run outside to avoid the firecrackers, closed the door to block out the winter wind, and the steaming and lively New Year's Eve dinner finally began.

As the saying goes, those who drink should sit together, and children should sit together. On the long bench over Chen Junqian's side, his younger sister, who was always there, sat on his left, and Shen Nianqiu sat on his right.

Although in many romantic comedies, this delightful scene should immediately be followed by the two girls vying to serve the male protagonist food, and the empty bowls quickly piled up like a mountain, in reality, neither Shen Nianqiu nor Chen Xi intended to do that.

Shen Nianqiu didn't want to be the center of attention on her first visit to Chen Junqian's house. Chen Xi, on the other hand, had suffered from relatives casually serving her food during Chinese New Year since she was a child. Chen Junqian's relationship with his sister had improved because he would cover for her and deal with things perfunctorily at such dinner tables, so he had no intention of serving her food.

Rather, among the girls around Chen Junqian, Lin Mu is the only one who likes to serve him food the most and is most used to having him serve her food. Zhu Wenyun will feed him a bite at the last minute under the guise of tasting when the two are cooking. The others simply don't have this habit. Moreover, this kind of thing is usually done by the host to the guests. The two of them are more like guests now, especially in front of adults.

If Chen Junqian really wanted to unlock the relevant achievements, he would think it would be easier to call two of them out for hot pot or barbecue, since at least they could use subtle excuses like "I grilled this" or "I scalded this" to pick up food for them.

Chen Xi's mother's grand entrepreneurial saga, which lasted for over half a year, has temporarily come to a chaotic end. Chen Xi's father, now relieved of one worry, continues to diligently create a lively atmosphere, showering the elderly and children with auspicious words. However, when the couple gets up together to ladle out the rice crust soup from the stove in the back kitchen, the former nudges her husband's arm again:

"Who was the girl Junqian brought home today?"

"Xiao Xi didn't say anything, he's an online friend, he had some family matters to attend to, so he's temporarily coming to spend the New Year with us."

"Tch, what kind of online friend would bring home for New Year's Eve dinner? Probably his little girlfriend."

"If Xiaoxi heard you say that, she'd be furious with you. Junqian is so young, it's not that serious."

"After the New Year, I'll be 15 years old, which is not young anymore. In the second half of this year, I'll be in my third year of junior high school. As a teacher, I don't know much about it, but kids in this age group are the most likely to be in relationships, and a lot of them are in online relationships."

"Let's not gossip about other people's business. Here, let me serve you some soup."

As he spoke, Chen Junqian's uncle reached out and ladled a bowl of crispy rice soup for his wife:

"You don't mean you want to set up Xiaoxi and Junqian, do you?"

"There's nothing wrong with a marriage between relatives, right? When I made a mess of things a while ago, you weren't in Guoning. It was their family who helped me clean up that mess... Xiaoxi even stayed at her brother's place for more than a month."

"You call yourself a teacher? These two kids are so young. This morning, Xiaoxi was asking me if she could stay overnight at Junqian's house like before. She doesn't even want to. Don't worry about it. Come on, let's go back and have some food."

After saying that with a laugh, the couple carried the rice crust soup back to the bustling hall. The little dog, who was under the table gnawing on a chicken bone as his extra treat, was the quietest one. The three minors over there seemed to be talking about something very lively.

"Are you going back to the hotel tonight, Sister Shen? Why don't you just come to my place? No one's staying there tonight anyway, I can just give you the key."

"That's certainly possible, and if it happens to be tomorrow, I'm not planning on coming here."

"Hmm? Where is my sister going?"

"I've already made plans with Wenjun in the mountains. I'll take a bus to visit her at her grandmother's place tomorrow. Yesterday wasn't enough time for us to talk. It just so happens that she's all alone in the mountains and doesn't have much to do."

After saying this, Shen Nianqiu lowered her head again and continued to focus on the chicken soup in her bowl.

Tomorrow, Lin Mu, Xu Youwei, and Chen Xi will be sitting here.

Since she had already made a promise with Chen Junqian to go to the movies together, she naturally didn't want to become the target of everyone's criticism here.

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Chapter 137: Little Feet in My Memory (Part 2)

For children, the New Year's Eve dinner is probably the most carefree and relaxed meal they have during the entire Spring Festival. But once the first and second days of the Lunar New Year arrive, they have to immediately give up their table and have their parents and relatives help them serve the food before sitting down at the children's table. As a result, many people have developed the habit of eating a simple meal at home during the Spring Festival and then using their newly received lucky money to treat themselves outside.

Putting aside other things, the only KFC in Guoning that Chen Junqian's family opens on time every Lunar New Year's Day evening has achieved its plan to recoup a significant portion of the children's New Year's money in Guoning through this method.

Even so, most children are not particularly enthusiastic about the New Year's Eve dinner. After all, with the current level of living standards, as the older generation would say, they eat almost the same things every day as they used to during the New Year. The variety and dishes of the New Year's Eve dinner are much more numerous, but it is still just an ordinary meal. The main thing is the meaning attached to this meal. This is especially true for Chen Junqian, since for a long time in his previous life, his family's New Year's Eve dinner was always cold and quiet.

Just like when he was very young, he held his mother's hand and asked her anxiously what he would do if he had to visit so many relatives in the future, and she told him that he wouldn't have to visit them anymore. Relative relationships often cannot continue to their generation.

In Chen Junqian's memory, when his parents passed away, his uncle and aunt would still visit him on New Year's Eve. But when his grandparents passed away two years before his rebirth, this tradition, which he naively thought would never change in his childhood, was silently broken. So much so that when he raises a glass with his relatives in this hall to wish them a happy new year, Chen Junqian feels a little dazed.

From this perspective, this is also the key reason why he agreed to the system's suggestion to strive to become the male protagonist of a romantic comedy and turn reality into a romantic comedy. After all, in Chen Junqian's own view, it was like a mutually agreeable transaction. The other party fulfilled his wish, allowing him to be reborn back to his childhood and change many regrets, so he would naturally reciprocate by fulfilling the other party's 'obsession'.