I turned reality into a romantic comedy.

Without considering the various settings of a romantic comedy, Chen Junqian was simply filled with a sense of satisfaction as a reborn person who had changed his insignificant little world compared to the great tide of this era. He chatted and laughed with his still-living parents, his vigorous elders, his aunt and uncle with whom he had a closer relationship, and his sister and younger sister, who were also family to him, until very late. Only after the adults went out to participate in the routine mahjong activity on New Year's Eve did he help his grandmother clean up the mess after dinner with a little satisfaction.

When he returned to his room, the 2014 Lunar New Year Gala, which officially started airing at 8 p.m., had already been playing for a while. Compared to the 2013 Spring Festival Gala, which he barely remembered, this year's gala at least had two programs that left some memories for Chen Junqian from his previous life.

One of them is "Where Has the Time Gone?", sung by singer Wang Zhengliang. Although it was released as early as 2010 and appeared again last year as an interlude in the movie "Personal Tailor", it was mainly thanks to this year's Spring Festival Gala that it became an unstoppable solo single in 2014, which made it stand out from the crowd.

The second is the comedy sketch "To Help or Not to Help," performed by the Happy Twist team led by Shen Teng and Ma Li, which will be on the Spring Festival Gala again. Chen Junqian has always felt that one of the reasons why their comedy film "Goodbye Mr. Loser," which will be released next year, will be able to generate countless memes in mainland China and achieve a big box office with a small budget is that they left a fairly good impression on many domestic audiences on the Spring Festival Gala stage, which can be regarded as a kind of mass base.

Coincidentally, these two programs were scheduled to air around the same time, with another singing program in between. The broadcast time was also around nine o'clock, neither too early nor too late. After entering the room, Chen Junqian glanced at the real-time time on his phone and realized that it should be almost time for the two programs to start.

When they entered the room, they happened to see the younger sister giving the house key to Shen Nianqiu. Actually, the latter definitely wanted his house key more than Chen Xi's. However, Chen Junqian knew very well that the other party was of similar importance to Zhu Wenyun in some respects, so he would definitely not let his sister stay in his room alone for a night. With Chen Xi, there was no need to consider so much. Chen Xi thought that her trick of luring the tiger away from the mountain was quite skillful.

After all, they are already junior high and high school students. With each of them having a mobile phone, the days of entertaining themselves with playing cards and mahjong have unconsciously come to an end. Moreover, because they need to control their diet, they used to pester Chen Junqian to rummage through their drawers and find all kinds of snacks and desserts to entertain guests, so that she could see if there were any girls they liked. But now they are not so willful anymore; they just grab a handful of sunflower seeds and start cracking them open.

It seemed that her learning and exchange with Zhu Wenyun had indeed yielded results. Sitting next to her, Shen Nianqiu, who was watching TV with a smile, reached out again when Chen Junqian approached and handed him a handful of peeled melon seeds, asking with the same concern:

"Finished with work? Come sit here."

Unlike in the past when they could only connect remotely by phone, Shen Nianqiu seemed a little unsure of what to do during her first New Year sitting right next to Chen Junqian. Mainly, there was a complete third wheel next to her, which prevented her from engaging in any physical contact like when they were alone together. So she could only show her affection through these intimate little details.

"Yes, it's almost all packed up."

Just like when they had their New Year's Eve dinner, Chen Junqian sat in the middle of the two women, with his younger sister in front of him and his older sister behind him. He had only been sitting for a short while when the girl in front of him kicked off her shoes and leaned her upper body against him like a large backrest pillow. She also took a large walnut that Chen Junqian had just cracked open on the spot.

It's not a skill to peel a sister for her brother. Real sisters are peeled and served to them by their brothers. This back-and-forth is a distance that you women can never reach.

Actually, it's not that she can't peel food for her brother, but tonight she's playing the role of a child, so she's being a little willful. Being spoiled and willful is a privilege of children. Chen Xi, who was already mentally prepared to shake Chen Junqian's arm and say to her parents that she wanted to sleep with her brother, found it hard to imagine that Shen Nianqiu could do something like that. Their character settings were incompatible.

However, since hearing Shen Nianqiu's family story the day before yesterday, Chen Xi's attitude towards her has actually improved. After all, she has a close friend of similar importance, and she herself has also experienced a brief family crisis. Therefore, she can understand girls whose personality problems are caused by family reasons.

Moreover, she had already asked her brother, who had personally told her that he would only date psychologically healthy girls in the future. Given Chen Junqian's reputation for trustworthiness, Chen Xi was willing to believe him. So, she could now neatly exclude many people from the dating scene. After all, in her eyes, apart from Lin Mu, there were no other psychologically healthy girls around her brother.

The only girl who met the prerequisites is visibly completely uninterested in this area right now. Her only progress from last year to this year is that she is willing to bring their otherwise intimate interactions, which are actually quite private, to the public eye. It's hardly a noteworthy point.

After mentally debating heroes like a dog guarding a tomb, Chen Xi, with keen insight, gleaned information about Zhu Wenyun from Shen Nianqiu and her brother's conversation, learning about some recent developments in Zhu Wenyun's family.

...It's all about money again.

Looking back, the family crisis she experienced so far was also related to money. There are many proverbs and sayings about this, such as "You don't know the cost of firewood and rice until you're in charge of the household," "Poverty-stricken couples face a hundred sorrows," "Firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea," and "Even brothers should keep clear accounts." The older Chen Xi gets, the more she understands the value behind her brother's hard work in taking their father out to start a business. In other words, the confidence she has now to leisurely try everything she likes, including singing and history, all started from that time.

If Chen Xi hadn't known that she was studying for herself and planned to get into a good university, and if she hadn't had Chen Junqian as a role model, she could have easily given up studying, just like those students who confidently talked about how many hills with walnut trees they owned when the walnut industry in Guoning was booming ten years ago. After all, her future had already opened up countless options.

"What's wrong?"

Noticing that his younger sister, who had been leaning against him, suddenly turned around and hugged him, Chen Junqian wiped his hands with a tissue and changed his position to make her movements more natural.

"Nothing much."

She simply buried her head in Chen Junqian's chest, her voice sounding a little muffled. After saying that, she stopped moving. All that could be seen was the back of her head and her ponytail, which was simply lying there today. It suddenly reminded Chen Junqian of those weird pictures he used to see on QQ Space when he was very young, where the person would turn around and still have a ponytail. There were so many of those weird pictures that would suddenly pop up in your face when you scrolled to the bottom, along with all sorts of confusing captions like "If you don't share it, you'll get xxxx". Now there are far fewer of them.

Whether it was because she had indeed been acting like a child in front of Shen Nianqiu all day, or because Shen Nianqiu herself had never considered the interaction between the two siblings from another perspective, the older sister, who was just short of saying "It's more important for the three of us to live our lives well than anything else," was supporting Chen Junqian's back from behind, reaching out to brush his bangs, and then her attention was quickly drawn to a tone that suddenly came from the Spring Festival Gala program on the TV screen.

"The old tree in front of the door sprouts new buds, and the withered tree in the yard blooms again. Half a lifetime has passed, and many words are hidden in my full head of white hair."

"The little feet in my memory, the chubby little mouth, I gave my whole life to her, just for that one word: Mom and Dad."

Where has the time gone?

Although listening to it now, it's a song written from the perspective of parents and elders, the sadness of the passing of time is something that I could feel as a teenager. It also evokes the same sorrow for children who want to care for their parents but find them gone. This is especially true for Chen Junqian, who has been away from this song for sixteen years, including the years since his rebirth. After singing the first half, I already felt a mix of emotions.

He hadn't expected there to be another girl in the room who felt the song even more deeply than he did, especially when the camera on TV simultaneously focused on another middle-aged woman embracing her mother. Shen Nianqiu, who had been struggling with doubts, anxieties, and unresolved feelings about family, parents, and kinship since birth, and who hadn't even spent New Year's Eve with her family, became the second female protagonist after Gu Linguo to break down in tears in front of Chen Junqian.

She was never really a rebellious girl. On the contrary, for a long time she was the most standard model student. It takes courage and confidence to rebel in front of parents. So Shen Nianqiu couldn't be as capricious as Xu Youwei. Her family experiences over the past sixteen years were just nothingness. Those childhood memories, whether written in Lin Mu's diary, drawn on the wall by Xu Youwei, or recorded by Zhu Wenyun, were rare to her. It was as if she had grown up to where she is now in an instant. Looking back, she could only see a few events and time points related to Chen Junqian.

Everything else is vague.

Even though the other person was not at all like the one described in the lyrics, 'with her mind full of her child's crying and laughing,' and it was hard to say that her tired eyes and wrinkles had anything to do with her, not to mention the father-daughter photos that were constantly being displayed on the screen every year, there were hardly any ordinary photos of them together, but Shen Nianqiu still subconsciously sniffed.

However, she ultimately did not shed any tears.

Having noticed her emotions, Chen Junqian reached out and gently touched the corner of her eye. His tone, also tinged with relief and a smile, softly promised her:

"You'll be fine from now on, this is your home."

The word "go home" is always wonderful; you should go home for the Chinese New Year.

I'll take you home, let's go home, back to our home.

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

Chapter 138: Someone Remembered Your Answer (Part 2)

Human joys and sorrows are never shared. Chen Junqian had just finished comforting Shen Nianqiu when his phone received a series of messages from Lin Mu. When he opened them, he found that they were the same annual photos shown on TV. However, these were not just photos of the father and daughter, but a family photo of the three of them, taken from the year 200, the first year of the 21st century, until 2014.

"Actually, Qianqian and I should be able to find similar photos too. Wait a moment—"

Not long after, Chen Junqian received another set of photos from Lin Mu, which she had dug out from the album. These photos showed the two of them together over the past few years. It seemed that she felt it was too late to start from 2009. She even dug out the earliest photo of the two of them participating in a choir competition when they were in first grade, even though they weren't actually very close at the time and were just ordinary classmates.

But then again, as long as the two of them tacitly refrain from revealing this, then they are the authentic childhood sweethearts who have been classmates since first grade. After all, a lie repeated a hundred times will become the truth, which is more than enough to deal with those female characters who often suddenly appear out of nowhere in high school or college.

It can only be said that thanks to the daily teachings of a certain great writer, even Mu Mu, who initially had no particular feelings about the identity or attribute of childhood sweethearts, would unconsciously begin to identify with it. This was mainly because Zhu Wenyun personally constructed the same identity for them, and the idea that childhood sweethearts should be together was indeed very satisfying to everyone, even though Lin Mu herself had not yet truly felt what the emotions behind it were.

After briefly replying to his childhood sweetheart who still managed to chat with him on New Year's Eve, Chen Junqian put his phone away again. He could understand why the skit was scheduled after this song in the program's arrangement. After feeling sad, one should indeed watch something simple to cheer oneself up. Shen Teng and Ma Li's "To Help or Not to Help" was quite funny. At least when watching Hao Jian, who looked miserable, pressing the clock on the ground, Shen Nianqiu, who was originally feeling a bit heavy-hearted, couldn't help but chuckle, which effectively diluted the original gloomy atmosphere.

Since fireworks and firecrackers are no longer allowed, the whole family no longer needs to stay up until midnight to set off fireworks and go to sleep like before. After estimating that it was about time, Chen Junqian planned to ride his bicycle to take Shen Nianqiu back to Yunqi Jinyuan.

There wouldn't be many cars on the street at this time, and there hadn't been any large-scale snowfall yesterday or today, so there wouldn't be any danger even if you were riding a bicycle with someone on the back, especially for Chen Junqian, whose physical fitness far exceeded that of his peers and could even be said to be the limit of ordinary people.

Thinking about it carefully, it seems that since he bought the bicycle, including Shen Nianqiu today, all six female protagonists have achieved the feat of sitting on the back of his bicycle at least once. However, in terms of the number of times, Xu Youwei, who achieved this feat for the first time, did not sit on it that many times. Most of the time, she sat on it when her younger sister came home from school.

"Happy New Year."

Before parting, Shen Nianqiu said these words, which she could only say to him on the phone in previous years, to him offline for the first time, and also gave him a kiss.

If it were midnight, this would probably be a kiss that lasted from last year to this year. Just as Lin Mu on QQ Space was sharing the same funny caption as every year at the start of the new year, "I've been doing homework for a year now," Shen Nianqiu also used such a kiss to mark the end of her 2013.

"Happy New Year."

The story of this year is simple: I love everything about you.

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

When Chen Junqian returned on his bicycle after dropping Shen Nianqiu off, he happened to witness a rare scene that was, in a sense, quite unusual: his younger sister acting like a child, throwing a tantrum.

It has to be said that if Chen Junqian hadn't felt it wasn't appropriate to take photos or videos in front of him, he would have wanted to take out his phone to record this precious scene. However, upon seeing that he had already returned, his sister, who had been acting quite naturally, suddenly revealed a look of astonishment: "You actually know about the history of the late Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms?" "Actually, I saw some historical sites related to Yang Xingmi when I went to Hefei before." "Your favorite character is actually Prince Qi, Li Maozhen? But what's with the Empress?" "What do you mean Emperor Zhaozong of Tang had a prince named Li Xingyun who later became the Bad Commander?" However, she quickly adjusted her expression and ran over to pull him into the battlefield.

"It's always been like this—why can't it be like this now?"

Well, should I say that the younger sister is indeed the top childhood friend? I didn't expect that this line, which should have been said by Mu Mu and the others, was actually spoken by Chen Xi first, which made Chen Junqian a little amused and exasperated. He simply continued to watch his sister's performance.

Of course, this tug-of-war didn't last long, or rather, Chen Xi's parents didn't really care about this. After all, their daughter had been getting up every morning and the first thing she did was go upstairs to wake Chen Junqian up for more than half a year. It was no big deal for them to squeeze into one bed for one night during the Spring Festival, just like in previous years. Could they really do something? It was strange that they would think in that direction.

In short, after a series of clever maneuvers involving luring the tiger away from the mountain and feigning ignorance, Chen Xi finally succeeded in continuing this tradition for another year. After a small cheer in his heart, he immediately ran to the back to wash his face and feet. Chen Xi's parents also yawned and went to another guest room. After all, it was getting late, but at least they wouldn't have to listen to the continuous firecrackers all night and could get a better night's sleep.

Just like the mysterious romantic comedy achievement of "having taken a bath together" between childhood sweethearts, Chen Junqian also had a similar one in the romantic comedy achievement section related to his sister. However, the content of the two was slightly different. The specific requirement was not to take a bath together, but to use his sister's bath water. When he first saw it, Chen Junqian was stunned and did not understand what it was.

After watching some Japanese romantic comedies, he gradually understood the underlying logic. Generally speaking, they do have this custom, mainly because their bathing is divided into showering and bathing. Everyone washes their body in the shower first before entering the bathtub to enjoy the bathing service. So, what is shared in the bathtub is actually bath water, and the situation he had imagined, where the later bathing is dirtier, does not occur. However, even with this explanation, it is still difficult to understand, which can be considered a difference in national customs.

Recalling how he and Mu Mu almost triggered the achievement of bathing together as childhood sweethearts around this time last year, Chen Junqian slowly walked to the back and happened to see his sister sitting there drying her feet with a towel after washing them. So he casually picked up the thermos, moved a small stool next to her, and started adding hot water. He took off his shoes and socks and pretended to wash his feet right there.

However, there is indeed a fundamental difference between bath water and foot bath water in the system's view. Just like last year with Mu Mu, the related achievement flashed briefly and then disappeared. But Chen Junqian, who was just trying it out, didn't pay much attention. Even his sister sitting opposite him didn't react much. She sat there carefully cleaned her feet and then tensed her arches as if checking if any toenails had grown too long and needed trimming. After a while, she put on her new socks and tucked them into her cotton shoes, humming a song as she went back to her room to wait for Chen Junqian to come over.

When Chen Junqian finished washing his feet and face and changed into his cotton shoes before returning to his room, his sister, who had already taken off her down jacket and sweater and was only wearing a cotton shirt and cotton pants, was already in bed. However, this time she was not in the opposite direction as usual, but leaning against the headboard. It seemed that she did not intend to sleep opposite him as she had in previous years, but instead leaned against the bed.

Chen Junqian, who really didn't want to see a pair of tiny feet in his sight on the first day of every new year, naturally had no objection to this. After all, his sister's sleeping posture was never exactly well-behaved; in fact, it could be said that it got more and more unruly every year. Judging from the previous progress, he was a little worried that when he woke up this year, she might just stuff them directly into his mouth.

Although there are indeed a lot of foot-related achievements in the system, including one similar to this one, Chen Junqian himself genuinely declined. He could have a laugh at this kind of fantasy in a romantic comedy, but in reality, he would rather not, just like the yandere trait.

After taking off their cotton-padded jackets and trousers, Chen Junqian turned off the lights and pulled the covers over himself from the other side. The electric blankets were already on, so they didn't need to warm up the bed with their body heat. The warm atmosphere made them feel a bit cold, especially Chen Xi, who instinctively snuggled closer to Chen Junqian and hugged his arm.

"How did you feel about the two-minute clip of the first episode of the animation I sent you yesterday?"

He casually picked a topic that the other person was interested in, and on this New Year's Eve, which was undoubtedly much quieter than when he was a child, Chen Junqian felt a long-lost sense of relaxation.

"My feeling is that I spent a whole day putting in the effort, and all I got was two minutes of recording?"

"There's really no way around it. After all, Lin Guo herself is a complete novice. It's already quite good that she can produce a finished product in two minutes. As she gradually improves, the later progress will definitely be faster and faster."

"Next time I want to go to the recording studio to see what's going on... But Lin Guo's dubbing was really good, and I learned something from it."

"what?"

"Well, how should I put it? It's just that some text is indeed not suitable to be read aloud or dubbed like this. I don't really realize it when I'm writing it, but after hearing the finished product, I feel that it's a bit strange and I feel that it's best to correct it."

Like voice acting newcomer Gu Lingguo, Chen Xi was indeed a complete scriptwriting newbie. The main problem was that the company basically treated this as a game for the young masters, so naturally they didn't want to offer any suggestions for modifying the script. It wasn't until the voice acting started that scriptwriter Chen Xi realized this problem.

"Lin Guo also talked to me about these issues after she finished her own recording, so her slow progress is partly my fault. That's why I want to go to the recording studio with her next time..."

The more she talked, the more it seemed like she was trying to cover something up. But Chen Xi wasn't really a fool. Her best friend's actions—asking her to gather information and not to come over when she was doing voice acting—had already exposed her little scheme. However, Chen Xi felt that it was understandable for her friend to be dependent on her brother in that kind of family environment. After all, there were many such examples in history. For instance, a certain Ming Dynasty emperor even fell in love with a palace maid who was seventeen years older than him because of this.

In Chen Xi's own opinion, such feelings are not long-lasting, so she didn't really care. Moreover, Gu Lingguo hadn't shown any other substantial actions. On the contrary, Gu Lingguo had dragged her into every step of Gu Lingguo's plans, which meant that Gu Lingguo had no intention of hiding anything. So there was even less to worry about, since the two of them were genuine good friends.

"Okay, then next time I go to the recording studio to do voiceovers, I'll bring Xiaoxi along."

When is the next time?

"It's hard to say right now, it will probably be after the New Year, since staff also need to take their annual leave."

"I wonder what Lin Guo is doing now..."

Perhaps because they had just talked about Gu Linguo, or perhaps for some more secretive reason, Chen Xi suddenly mentioned her best friend's name again as she spoke. As she spoke, she reached out and took Chen Junqian's hand in the darkness, gently prying open his fingers one by one and fitting her fingertips into the gaps, so that their fingers were intertwined.

"It should be much better than before. After all, her family's problems have come to a temporary end. As she grows up and becomes more independent, things will get better year by year."

"Uh-huh."

Sure enough, the brother's intention in helping Lin Guo was to hope that she could become independent.

My brother likes girls who are psychologically healthy and independent.

She already knows, and she will always remember.

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Chapter 139: When You're in Love, the Way You Address Someone Will Change (Part 2)

The first day of the Lunar New Year in 2014 arrived with the long-awaited sunrise. However, the winter sun was somewhat superficial. The sunlight shining on the snow on the eaves and windows in the early morning only added a layer of gold to it. Chen Junqian, who had just woken up from bed, was a little lost in thought. After a while, he noticed that his younger sister was still lying on him. He reached out and moved her still sleepy little head off.

It turns out that once a girl has officially entered puberty, even a little girl like Mu Mu can still trigger various fanservice achievements by sleeping in such a sticky position for one night. Chen Xi, who was officially included as the female lead of the romantic comedy last summer, is no exception.

However, Chen Junqian, who had been thoroughly trained in this area by the two female leads who, apart from personality compatibility, were also making great strides toward double D in other aspects, was already quite experienced. He could handle this small scene with ease, and after easily getting rid of all restraints, he casually changed into the clothes on the bedside table next to him.

Unlike previous years, perhaps because there was more physical contact between the two, Chen Junqian's struggle to break free did indeed disturb his sister's dream. The rustling sound of dressing quickly woke Chen Xi from her drowsy state, and she subconsciously asked, her mind still a little hazy:

"What time is it?"

"It's only seven o'clock. If you're sleepy, go back to sleep. Breakfast isn't ready yet."

"No, I'll get up too."