I turned reality into a romantic comedy.

The calendar hanging on the living room wall rustled in the wind, its red characters marking the date of the second day of the Lunar New Year.

Today is the day I go back to my parents' home.

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

PS2: I've pretty much finished writing the beginning of all the side stories that needed to be explained. Now I can speed up some of the time.

Chapter 146: Memories are like moonlight that cannot be grasped; if you try to hold them tight, they turn to darkness (Part 2)

Thanks to Zhu Wenyun sealing away Shen Nianqiu, the biggest 'time bomb,' one-on-one throughout the Spring Festival, Chen Junqian couldn't be sure if this arrangement would become a foreshadowing of another story or even an accident in the future. But at least he had a very comfortable winter vacation in 2014.

Before we knew it, it was already the sixth day of the first lunar month. Even though there is a saying that the New Year celebrations last until the Lantern Festival, there is basically no festive atmosphere at this time. Factories are back in operation, employees are back at work, and even children have to make the most of the last few days to catch up on their winter vacation homework and start worrying about the final exams they missed last year when school starts.

Because Shen Nianqiu had made a promise a week ago when she first came to Guoning that he would bring her to see the movie today, Chen Junqian got up very early and used his money to turn the movie they were supposed to see into a private screening for just the two of them. On the one hand, he really wanted to give his sister a little surprise, and on the other hand, he wanted to see if he could trigger a more private achievement under such circumstances.

That's right. Although it was mentioned earlier that Mu Mu had already obtained almost all the achievements that could be triggered in the movie theater setting, "almost" means that it's not all of them. After all, as a very common setting in romantic comedies and even more advanced art works, the achievements in the movie theater are certainly not so simplistic as accidentally touching each other's fingertips in a popcorn bucket.

However, that would obviously be a field that Mu Mu could not access now. Theoretically, the most suitable candidate should be Youyou, but considering the significance of this movie to both him and Shen Nianqiu, and the prior agreement, Chen Junqian ultimately chose his sister. If there are no surprises, he should go to see Disney's "Big Hero 6" next year and "Zootopia" the year after.

Then, considering the time, after watching the movie with his sister today, he will prepare to send her back to Lin'an. However, not home, but directly back to school. The senior high school there officially started classes yesterday, and the dormitories have reopened to students. Although it is a bit early for Shen Nianqiu to go back to school, at most people will say a few words behind her back that she is too frivolous, but nothing else.

The main reason is that Chen Junqian really doesn't want his sister to stay in that house anymore, and Shen Nianqiu herself feels the same way, preferring to stay in the school dormitory and study alone.

However, since his appointment with Shen Nianqiu was this afternoon and evening, it seemed unnecessary for him to get up early. But the most basic skill that an excellent time management master needs to master is to make the most effective use of every minute. So Chen Junqian naturally wouldn't let this morning go to waste and had already made an appointment with Gu Linguo to go to the recording studio.

Of course, I have to bring my younger sister along this time.

On the way to the company's recording studio with the two kids, Gu Linguo suddenly brought up another matter with him.

"Have you watched Gigguk's videos, senior?"

Perhaps because Chen Xi has started calling Chen Junqian "brother" again, Gu Linguo has also recently changed her address to "senior" or "senior," and occasionally calls him that in Japanese. Chen Junqian is starting to hallucinate that he has actually traveled into a Japanese romantic comedy, especially if the other girl next to him adds a couple of "onii-chan" lines.

"Yes, I've seen it. In fact, I even translated some screenshots from his videos. So what?"

Chen Junqian in this life wasn't unfamiliar with the anime-related video creator that Gu Linguo mentioned, since anime is a niche community these days. However, after watching a work, people often have various urges to vent, and the internet becomes the best platform. Even Chen Junqian himself would occasionally use his social media accounts to share his and Gu Linguo's comments on various works, in addition to sharing information about new anime, voice actor programs, and industry news.

"I think his kind of video-based吐槽 (tu cao, a type of humorous commentary) show, organized by work or season, is quite interesting. But he's a foreigner after all, and we don't really understand many of his jokes. So do you think we have a chance to make this kind of video ourselves?"

In fact, gigguk was similar to Chen Junqian in his early years, mainly posting text comments. He only started making videos around 2012, and his popularity skyrocketed. Because his criticisms were quite sharp, domestic forums also liked to repost his videos, and there are all kinds of clips on Bilibili.

Gu Lingguo's idea wasn't something she suddenly came up with on a whim. Firstly, this foreign senior had indeed proven the feasibility of this path to them. Secondly, Chen Junqian's account did have a following in this area, especially given the increasing number of monthly active users on Bilibili. She even felt that soon some domestic video bloggers would actively try this new track.

More importantly, they have recording equipment readily available.

Although Gu Lingguo herself did not understand the video production process, she knew very well that it required at least a certain level of technical and equipment support, as well as the blogger having good speaking skills or a unique style. For a child, the most difficult thing to solve would naturally be the former. However, these two problems were not a problem at all for Gu Lingguo, who had only recently gone to a proper recording studio for a short time. After considering all factors, she took the initiative to express her ideas to Chen Junqian today.

"If Lin Guo wants to give it a try, I have no problem with that. I can lend you my account."

Because he wasn't into anime and manga in his previous life, Chen Junqian's views on this topic weren't as far-sighted as his investment perspective. However, when he used Bilibili in his previous life, he did see similar吐槽 videos on the rankings, so the popularity shouldn't be too bad. And most importantly, Gu Lingguo seemed very interested. It wasn't a big deal, so Chen Junqian was naturally willing to go all out to support her.

However, Chen Xi clearly couldn't understand their whispers at all. She strained her ears to listen for a long time, but could only guess that her brother and Gu Linguo seemed to be planning to make a video. She was completely baffled by the various jargon terms that sounded like slang from their little circle. She could only look suspiciously at her best friend and then at Chen Junqian's face.

Compared to her previous awkwardness, Gu Linguo's dubbing this time was obviously much more skillful. However, this was also related to Chen Xi's initiative in modifying some of the lines. It can only be said that some lines are indeed more suitable for written form. If someone actually reads them aloud, it would sound a bit strange and thus interfere with the voice actor's performance.

The sound engineer working here today is still Luo Hongyu, whom I met last time. Coming to work on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year is considered overtime, allowing him to earn an extra salary. In addition, although he is playing house with the children of the company's senior executives, none of them seem to be the kind of spoiled and willful people to him. Whether it is the Crown Prince and Princess before the New Year or the little princess who came today, they are all easy-going children, so the work is not too torturous.

After all, he also wants to improve.

That's why, after the basic voice-over work was finished, Luo Hongyu readily agreed to Chen Junqian's request to occasionally borrow the recording studio or ask him to help with other tasks. After all, animation production was just a bonus department within the company, and there wasn't much work assigned to him as a newcomer. He might as well take the opportunity to spend more time with the prince, since they were all from Guoning, and he should help his fellow townsman.

After finishing the morning's arrangements, Shen Nianqiu returned to the city from the mountains where Zhu Wenjun's hometown was located. A week of spending time together had turned the two, who were at odds last summer, into best friends. This was one of Chen Junqian's goals. After all, the female leads in a romantic comedy can have conflicts, but their relationship should never degenerate into something like pulling hair and slapping each other, like in an eight o'clock family drama.

The situation between Shen Nianqiu and Zhu Wenyun, which was most likely to occur at the moment, was resolved under his arrangement, making Chen Junqian feel that he had taken a big step forward on his path of turning reality into a romantic comedy.

As for Shen Nianqiu herself, although she didn't spend much time with Chen Junqian on this trip to Guoning, only about two or three days, and didn't have many opportunities to be alone with him, the overall gains were still considerable. Whether it was taking precautions to prevent family problems in advance, or learning a lot of information about her younger brother and other girls from Zhu Wenyun that she had never known before, not to mention that the time she missed being alone with him was about to be made up for by him.

As Chen Junqian said, Shen Nianqiu does have an extra fondness for Disney animated films. After all, she has very few related childhood memories, and she attaches to each and every princess character a kind of inexplicable commemoration, much like Christmas.

"Frozen, judging from the synopsis, seems to be a story about a princess?"

"Yes, it's said to be adapted from Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale 'The Snow Queen'."

Perhaps because they thought that most of the people who would come to see this show were children and that reading the subtitles would be too troublesome, the cinemas in Guoning, a small county town, only showed the Mandarin dubbed version. However, Chen Junqian, who had seen both the English and Mandarin versions in his previous life, didn't think it mattered much.

After all, he always felt that the localization work of this movie was done very well. The dubbing quality was commendable, and the most popular insert song in the movie, "Let it go," was also specially made into a Mandarin version. In fact, the original singer's voice sounded a bit old-fashioned to Chen Junqian. When he first heard it, he almost couldn't connect the original singer's voice with the face of the princess who was using her powers to build an ice castle on screen.

As the audience member who booked the entire theater in advance and contributed a considerable amount of revenue, the cinema even thoughtfully prepared a complete movie-watching gift package for the two of them, including food, drinks and flower decorations. If it weren't for Chen Junqian's young age, they probably would have asked him if he wanted a confession or marriage proposal page to be displayed after all the scenes in the movie. After all, their cinema had done something like this before.

However, even a censored version of a confession and proposal is enough for a sixteen or seventeen-year-old girl. Girls generally need some sense of ritual and small surprises in their daily lives, even if they don't say it. Shen Nianqiu is no exception. Rather, she was originally the little girl who loved watching "Fireworks" and dreamed of becoming a Disney princess, but it had always been suppressed in the deepest corner of her heart.

The empty movie theater, except for the two of them, was the perfect place. For a moment, Chen Junqian and Shen Nianqiu even had the illusion of returning to the scene at the Shanghai World Expo four years ago, holding hands and facing the boundless starry sky together in the Saudi Arabia Pavilion.

There's no need to listen to the discussions about gender issues surrounding this film. The two people lying in their seats can simply enjoy the excellent production of this animated film and the audio-visual stimulation it provides, marveling at the special effects and the perfectly placed theme song.

If she truly possessed the magic to manipulate ice and snow, perhaps her journey to Guoning wouldn't have been so arduous. But then again, such a tortuous journey was indeed all the more memorable.

Just like a child of a few years old, even though she is now a high school student, Shen Nianqiu still has this unrealistic wish, as if she expects that she will always be the only one in the eyes of the people around her, and hopes that such magic really exists in this world.

But at least in this moment, she wasn't the only one; the moon truly shone its light upon her.

The girl, heading towards the moon, temporarily grasped it in her palm and moved closer to him.

The theme song, translated as "Let It Go," was still playing on the big screen.

She suddenly felt cheerful, so much so that she became bolder in her actions. Before she knew it, she was sitting on the other person's lap with her back to the screen in a superior position.

Well, let it be, let it be, let it be!

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

PS2: I won't mention the specific uploader's name, but the trend of criticizing new and old anime in China officially started around 14 or 15.

Chapter 147: Valentine's Day Chocolate (Part 2)

Chen Junqian remained silent about what exactly happened between him and Shen Nianqiu in the movie theater on February 5, 2014. He even felt a little apprehensive after sending her back to Lin'an. After all, apart from some works labeled R18, most romantic comedies only scratch the surface of kissing, and then the scene shifts to more than ten years later.

But reality is clearly not a romantic comedy.

So, the male protagonist of a romantic comedy, who almost got burned while playing with fire, once again raised his sister's danger and threat level to the highest. If the system were still around, it would probably rush out and say something like, "Please don't ruin the world view of romantic comedy," even though its own system achievements contain a bunch of unexplained achievements, which is just like the epilogue of the college arc after the high school arc of some light novels ends.

Of course, seeing Shen Nianqiu off doesn't mean that Chen Junqian's busy winter vacation can come to a perfect end.

Like previous years, the last day of this year's winter vacation is also the Lantern Festival. However, due to the literal discrepancy between the lunar and solar calendars, the Lantern Festival in 2014 coincides with Valentine's Day on February 14th.

That's why, starting around the Lunar New Year, Xu Youwei, who considers herself the only official girlfriend, had been keeping an eye on the itinerary for this day. In any case, she could say to the outside world that the two of them went out to play on the Lantern Festival, and it just happened to coincide with Valentine's Day. She said that Qinqin and I are just friends, and it's your problem if you're overthinking it.

As for Chen Junqian himself, he didn't have any other plans for the day. After agreeing to Xu Youwei's request, he noticed an achievement called "Valentine's Day Chocolate" starting to glow brightly, as if giving a heads-up.

Whether it's Christmas, New Year's Day, or Valentine's Day, holidays always play a significant role in romantic comedies, resulting in a multitude of memorable scenes, with Valentine's Day chocolate being a prime example.

Whether it's the tsundere heroine saying, "This is just a obligatory chocolate," the straightforward heroine saying, "This is my special chocolate that I'm only giving to you," or the more mysterious younger sister character saying, "Choose either my obligatory cannon or my special chocolate," romantic comedies featuring chocolate and Valentine's Day are countless, making it hard not to look forward to them.

Condition for achievement: Receive chocolates from the female lead who is suited for romantic comedies on Valentine's Day.

Although Chen Junqian had exchanged chocolates with these girls countless times over the past few years, the system was stuck on Valentine's Day as a prerequisite for this achievement. Therefore, no matter how many chocolates he exchanged with Mu Mu at the World Expo, how many footballs, gold coins, or Ferrero Rochers he fed his sister during the Chinese New Year, or how many chocolate-related desserts he made with Zhu Wenyun in the kitchen, he could never trigger this achievement.

However, judging from the current situation, it seems likely that Yoyo will unlock this achievement for the first time.

Based on Chen Junqian's understanding of her, Xu Youwei could at most buy all kinds of chocolates, melt them all down, and then re-solidify them into "yogurt." Or she might just buy ready-made ones. After all, there aren't many home economics classes like those in romantic comedies in China. There aren't many students her age who can cook for themselves, let alone make chocolate.

Thinking this way, Chen Junqian also took some time to make a chocolate at home in advance. Regardless of whether Xu Youwei gave it to him in the end, he, as her boyfriend, would still send her his share on time. Just like the saying, "Don't underestimate a sweet bean bun," even the most secretive underground relationship is still a relationship, so it's normal to put some effort into it.

I wonder if Youyou will have trouble sleeping the night before Valentine's Day, but Chen Junqian slept soundly.

It should be like this.

He was awakened by some kind of pressure coming from his abdomen.

To be honest, his first reaction was whether he was experiencing sleep paralysis, since he had encountered this kind of phenomenon before, but he would still say it was a natural phenomenon.

My second thought was whether I had been secretly thrown into the world of anime by some system that hadn't been active for a long time. After all, younger sisters in romantic comedies always like to make their official debut in this way, showing a more intimate ecological niche than childhood friends.

The third thought was whether it was his good sister who had been thrown into the two-dimensional world for further study, because the only person who would wake him up at this time should be Chen Xi, but the other party would not just press her body on him without saying a word, even on the second day of the Lunar New Year, she would wake him up first before climbing into bed.

Before his fourth reaction occurred, Chen Junqian had already opened his eyes and saw another girl sitting on his lower abdomen through the blanket.

It was a classmate surnamed Gu who lived next door to him.

Combined with the other person's subconsciously lowered voice when they said "Onii-chan," and with this scene and posture, Chen Junqian almost had the illusion that the other person was his real sister.

Happy Lantern Festival and Valentine's Day, brother.

"...Should I ask how you got in?"

Faced with Chen Junqian's subconscious question, Gu Linguo nodded seriously and answered:

"Because I have a spare key to your house. I made a copy with Xiaoxi last year, and she knows it too. Don't worry, I arrived earlier than her today. Well... she won't be up for at least another ten minutes."

Gu Linguo glanced at the clock on the wall, then leaned closer and pressed down on Chen Junqian's hands, leaning forward and half-lying on his upper body. However, Chen Junqian didn't need to look away from this position, because winter is a season when everyone is bundled up.

"So, is there something you need?"

"Of course, I wish you a happy Lantern Festival and Valentine's Day, senior."

With the mindset that they were all ancient foxes trying to play some kind of ghost story with me... or that they were all old-school anime fans trying to play dumb with me, Gu Linguo smiled slyly, her tied-up hair looking particularly dazzling and beautiful as it swayed.

Then, she took a beautifully packaged box of chocolates from her coat pocket and handed it to me:

"Obligation chocolate? Will you believe me, senpai?"

"letter."

"Okay, then it's now called Obligation Chocolate."

Gu Lingguo neatly placed the chocolate box next to Chen Junqian's pillow and straightened her upper body again.

"After all, if a special chocolate isn't reciprocal, it's better to just declare it as a duty chocolate that friends would exchange, otherwise you'll just become a loser, right?"

"Thinking about it that way, it's definitely more convenient for my younger sister, but Xiao Xi probably wouldn't understand any of this."

I don't know if it's because I've been writing reviews or previews of new anime lately, but Gu Lingguo seemed unusually talkative this morning. She just lay on Chen Junqian's lap, continuing to complain on and off:

"There are two more anime series that sell sibling relationships in the April season next season. It's so convenient to have a younger sister character. For creators, it's an easy way to blend various character designs together. And because there are always n younger sisters, their stats in other areas will naturally be much higher. Combined with the setting that the male protagonist in anime is an orphan or both parents are busy, it's easy to turn them into a relationship where they depend on each other for survival."

"The upcoming 'No Game No Life' is like this, as is 'The Irregular at Magic High School,' not to mention all the previous works. Don't you think it's unfair, brother?"

"Reality isn't a two-dimensional world... Get up first."

"Oh, is there anywhere you're pressing on it? I'm actually not that heavy."

Obediently following Chen Junqian's instructions, Gu Lingguo got out of his blanket and sat on the edge of the bed to put her shoes back on.

Are you going out with Sister Youwei today?

"Yes, it was arranged a long time ago."

"Oh dear—that's very cunning."