I turned reality into a romantic comedy.

Happy Valentine's Day, Qinqin!

Unconsciously infected by the other person's smile and words, Chen Junqian's own tone also lifted considerably, and he simultaneously handed over the chocolates he had prepared in advance, just like Xu Youwei:

Happy Valentine's Day, Yoyo!

"Did Qinqin make it herself? It must be delicious."

It wasn't a one-way gift exchange, but a two-way exchange of Valentine's Day chocolates. Xu Youwei seemed eager to try them out, quickly opening the box and popping one into her mouth. Then she fed one to Chen Junqian, savoring the sweetness as it rose on her tongue, her eyes involuntarily narrowing into crescent shapes.

"Qinqin, can you teach me how to make chocolate next year? I really don't know how."

"Sure, but you don't need to worry too much about it. Most people buy ready-made chocolates for Valentine's Day and give them to each other. There's no need to be particularly picky about handmade ones. Sometimes you work hard to make them and find that they don't taste as good as the ones you buy outside."

"That's true, but Wenyun knows how to make chocolate. I've seen her make chocolate cakes before. Making chocolate is just one step in the process... Wait, did she give you chocolate today, Qinqin?"

It seemed that she herself only realized how subtle the question was after asking it. Before Chen Junqian could answer, Xu Youwei shook her head:

"Forget it, even if she really did give Qinqin chocolates today, Qinqin is still spending Valentine's Day with me. People at school gave Qinqin chocolates before, but in the end, we club members ended up sharing them."

As she spoke, her tone was filled with a sense of ease and undisguised pride, which made Chen Junqian unconsciously reach out and tap the tip of her nose, as if he wanted to poke back the part that was growing longer.

"So where are we going today?"

While it's generally true that the man should make detailed and comprehensive plans for dating, this wasn't the case for Chen Junqian and Xu Youwei. From the moment they got to know each other and started hanging out together, Xu Youwei was the one in charge of this aspect most of the time. She has always been quite opinionated, which is the result of a strong sense of insecurity that she developed later in life. However, Chen Junqian himself was indeed willing to let her lead him on his silly antics.

"I haven't decided yet, but I'll go for a walk in the streets first. It's quite lively today."

As a native of Guoning, a small county town, Xu Youwei knew it like the back of her hand, whether in the city or the countryside. However, being too familiar with it is not always a good thing, especially in a small town where entertainment options are quite limited. Apart from the newly opened shops, the two of them had already eaten and played in everything else countless times.

At the street corner where the two frequented most, the flower shop, which, as always, only made its fortune on a few fixed holidays, displayed its sign brightly. Clearly, compared to the Lantern Festival, Valentine's Day was their main focus of promotion.

Every couple or potential couple passing by is inevitably drawn to the carefully arranged bouquets of flowers near the entrance. As soon as they show the slightest sign of stopping or a hint of interest, the well-trained shop assistants will proactively approach them to make a sale. This smooth little combo is usually enough to get them to hand over their money and buy a bouquet for their girlfriend.

However, no staff members came up to promote the bouquets to Chen Junqian and Xu Youwei. Even though the two of them were standing at the door staring at the various bouquets, the shop assistants just walked past them as if they didn't see them.

"Hmm...does it mean you think Qinqin and I don't look like a couple?"

Xu Youwei looked around in confusion. Most of the people passing by who hadn't been actively sold to by the shop assistants were groups of the same sex. A man and a woman like them should definitely be the main targets of the sales pitches.

"They probably thought we were too young, that we were still obviously middle school students."

Although they are all underage middle school students, high school students are obviously closer to the boundaries of adulthood. If Shen Nianqiu or Zhu Wenyun had come out with Chen Junqian today, they might not have looked so childish. Xu Youwei certainly doesn't look younger than her actual age like Lin Mu, but she is not very mature either. She is just a fourteen or fifteen-year-old girl.

"But I think minors should be the main buyers of these things, just like how internet cafes in the city mainly make money from minors. If they don't want to make money, then so be it..."

Xu Youwei seemed quite resentful about this. After muttering a few words, she suddenly saw Chen Junqian wave to a shop assistant passing by. Then, as if by magic, Chen Junqian temporarily let go of Xu Youwei's hand, turned around, and presented a bright bouquet of flowers in his hand.

Pink peonies, white dahlias, yellow hyacinths, creamy garden roses, as well as lilacs, white citrus, lavender, and fresh mint, all blended together like a small garden, their various colors and fragrances filling Xu Youwei's vision in an instant.

It can only be said that the years he spent with Xu Youwei were not wasted. In addition, Guoning is such a small place that Chen Junqian could almost guess where she was going with his eyes closed. So he would prepare some small surprises in advance. After all, many times, it has been proven that what girls say is like their answer of "whatever" when asked where they are going or what they want to eat. It is something that can be believed but not completely trusted. Xu Youwei is the same.

Just moments ago, Yoyo was muttering to herself, clearly not expecting Chen Junqian to pull this stunt. It wasn't until the beautiful bouquet was handed to her and even other passersby began to cast curious glances that she belatedly took it, hugging it tightly to her chest. Instantly, her nostrils were filled with the fragrance of flowers, and she felt her cheeks and earlobes begin to burn.

Actually, she initially felt that the bouquet Chen Junqian gave her might be a bit small, considering that next to it was a huge bouquet of ninety-nine red roses that looked too big to be held in two hands. Many customers choose bouquets that are as exaggerated as possible, as if they can't express their feelings otherwise.

But soon, Xu Youwei realized her boyfriend's intention. A large bouquet of flowers often only brings a moment of surprise upon receipt, and if you carry it around while shopping, it quickly becomes a burden. In this respect, the emotional value it provides is even more fleeting than the short blooming period itself. This made her unconsciously think of a story about Valentine's Day roses that Zhu Wenyun had written in a novel.

On Valentine's Day, a college student bought his girlfriend a large bouquet of roses, but before going out on a date, he impulsively gave one to each of his father and grandfather, jokingly saying that they should also give one to his partner, who is his mother and grandmother.

My father and grandfather had never experienced anything like this before. My grandfather didn't even know what Valentine's Day and roses meant. They instinctively felt a little ashamed and embarrassed, saying they'd been married for so long and were way past these youthful customs.

However, in the end, the two men each gave away the roses. The father gave it to his wife who was cooking in the kitchen, and the grandfather gave it to his wife who was sick and staying in the hospital. To their surprise, both of them accepted the roses with delight.

The large bouquet of roses that the college student gave to his girlfriend was left in the hotel room after they checked in, and was casually thrown into the trash can by the second cleaning staff.

The rose her father gave to his wife was carefully cared for in a vase for several days, remaining vibrant for a week afterward.

The rose that the grandfather gave to his wife was dried and made into a sachet, which he still wears around his neck to this day.

Incidentally, Zhu Wenyun defined the female protagonist, herself, in that book as the last type, but Xu Youwei felt that it was precisely because of this old man and woman mentality that the other party was lagging behind her. After all, in her opinion, such behavior seemed rather petty, and she had always longed for the kind of thinking that Lin Mu had.

If we could exchange roses every day, there would be no need to make rose sachets.

Without a doubt, Xu Youwei, who was wholeheartedly immersed in her first love at this moment, would have been wagging her tail to the sky if she had one. She was worried when she first went out that she might run into a familiar classmate or Lin Mu himself on the streets of this ridiculously small county town, but now she wanted to show off the flowers in her left hand and the palm in her right hand to the whole world. The chocolate that had long since melted between her lips and teeth felt sweet again at this moment, almost making her head dizzy and immersed in it.

So, her thoughts, soaked in sugar water, turned into a sponge. After absorbing every word, every action, and every expression from the other person, they lazily became bloated, soft, and fragile, almost to the point that she couldn't tell which way was which or where she was going.

"How about we go check out the new house?"

"Okay, I'll listen to Qinqin."

Xu Youwei, who is now completely in love, probably agrees to whatever Chen Junqian says without question, especially after noticing that she hasn't added any prefixes indicating ownership before the words "new home".

Xu Youwei's new home location was finalized during this winter break. Since it's the house she'll be living in when she goes to high school, the location was intentionally chosen to be close to the high school section of Guoning Middle School, making it much more convenient for her to go to and from school. It's not exactly close to Chen Junqian's house, but considering that there's a room specifically reserved for him, the distance between them can't be calculated like that; it should be practically zero.

However, since the renovation has only just begun, what is presented to the two of them now is actually just a bare, extremely simple whiteboard house with nothing in it. The necessary furniture has not yet been purchased, and there are very few places to sit and rest. But when Xu Youwei thinks that this will be a house that belongs to her and Qinqin, she feels excited as if she is facing a blank canvas, and she can't wait to fill it with colors, draw patterns, and depict their future blueprint according to her own wishes.

Of course, it wouldn't be accurate to say that it was completely empty. The two walls in front of Chen Junqian were the best proof. These were the old employee dormitories of the wear-resistant factory that he had specially salvaged before their demolition, and they were temporarily placed there like two murals.

Turning on the specially installed ultraviolet light hanging from the ceiling, the girl leaning against the wall holding a bouquet of flowers suddenly had the perfect backdrop for her pose. The words were closely packed together, as if they were in a fixed mobile phone camera lens, with the two of them in the same zero-distance contact.

Human thought and memory will eventually be overwhelmed by the torrent of time, which is why we need to solidify the most unforgettable memories into reefs and then build them into a wall for the two of us. And this moment is a landmark that belongs exclusively to Chen Junqian and Xu Youwei.

In the camera set to time-lapse, the silhouettes of the two people, cast into the most radiant moment, were finally captured at this instant.

At that very moment, Chen Junqian's mental assessment of the system's various ratings for the female protagonist, Xu Youwei, underwent a significant change for the first time, and what reappeared was this panel of data:

Xu Youwei: Appearance adaptability A, basic ability adaptability B+ (original B), personality adaptability A- (original B), action adaptability B+ (original B), speech adaptability B (original C-), current romantic comedy adaptability is B+ (original B).

Then, just like the suffix "[Childhood Friend (First Candidate)]" in Lin Mu's panel, her panel also had a new line: "This is a 'judgment' made by a certain system that views everything through the lens of romantic comedy, purely out of the subjective will of the entertainment system, and does not represent any subsequent plot development; it's just that they feel this makes it more like a romantic comedy."

[First love (ex-girlfriend?) No. 1 candidate]

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

Shuke's rare original masterpieces are available for those interested.

Chapter 150: A Semester Without Incident (Part 2)

If the start of school itself was a major disaster movie for students who had enjoyed a whole winter break, then exams right after the start of school were a disaster within a disaster movie. Apart from some students who had been sharpening their knives and opening the book during the holidays, ready to take this opportunity to make a comeback, Chen Junqian could clearly feel a dark cloud hanging over him as he walked into the classroom with his backpack.

Seeing Mu Mu, who was also studying for the open exam, sighing with the girl in front of him, looking like she hadn't studied at all and was doomed, Chen Junqian found it a bit amusing. He didn't intend to expose his childhood friend, so he just rested his chin on his hand and watched for a while until she noticed his gaze, turned around and gave him a big glare. Only then did he chuckle and look away.

Because it was something that had been announced in advance, the homeroom teacher didn't waste any time when she came in. Everyone's desk drawers were still not full at the beginning of the semester, so it was easy to open them up and set up the exam room. When she felt that it was about time, she gave the order and told the students to get up and start preparing for the exam.

At Guoning Middle School, midterm and final exams are ranked by grade. Students are assigned to exam rooms based on their scores. For example, students ranked 1st to 60th go to Class 1, students ranked 61st to 120th go to Class 2, and so on. Because Chen Junqian is always ranked first, he has never been assigned to the same exam room as Mu Mu or You Wei since he enrolled. He wonders if this situation will change in the next year or so.

However, the possibility seems quite slim. The main reason is that Zhu Wenyun is indeed not in Ningzhong but in Jinzhong. If it were him, he might be able to keep his position behind him in every exam. After all, judging from the scores and rankings of the joint exams of several schools in Guoning, he is the second-best student in the entire Guoning school. Otherwise, Zhu Wenyun would not have had the confidence to persuade the school not to attend evening self-study sessions in the second half of this year.

To be honest, Chen Junqian could sense that Zhu Wenyun was subtly implying something to him when she mentioned it. After all, what she could do at Jinzhong High School, he could do at Ningzhong High School as well. Given his grades and performance, skipping evening self-study was an incredibly easy thing for him.

And when that time comes, the period when Lin Mu and Xu Youwei have to be locked in the classroom will suddenly become a time when the two of them can spend time alone together.

Just as Japanese romantic comedies often feature various formulaic plots, Zhu Wenyun, a writer of Chinese youth romance novels, is also well-versed in this style of writing youth-themed works in China. The idea of ​​skipping school to go on dates with a partner can often ignite the deepest emotions of students at this age, making them incredibly excited.

Compared to simply skipping class, skipping evening self-study is undoubtedly more classic. Firstly, it's not blatantly skipping class during the day, making it somewhat feasible. Secondly, the nighttime setting makes it easier to generate hormones, naturally connecting it to more romantic scenarios later on.

Chen Junqian wouldn't mind accompanying Zhu Wenyun to gather information once or twice, but he still possesses the essential balancing act of a romantic comedy protagonist. With Mu Mu in his class, he certainly can't neglect one for the other. And don't be fooled by Zhu Wenyun's current overbearing hints; once they're in the same class in high school, it'll probably be her turn to be so vigilant, practically wanting to spend every evening study session with him in the school classroom forever.

The main reason was that the exam content at this stage really didn't bother him at all. So even though Chen Junqian's mind was full of random thoughts, it didn't affect his writing at all. He finished the exam while multitasking.

The second year of junior high has the most courses, so the exam time is a full three days. On the night the exam was over, the class representatives of each subject had already copied the answers to the multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank questions onto the blackboard. The teachers of each subject also started to explain the questions at the same time. If it were the final exam of the previous semester, they would generally not explain it, but now that the exam time has been moved to the beginning of the semester, they naturally have to explain it.

That's why, before the exam results were officially released, the students had a general idea of ​​their scores, like Mu Mu, who was currently lying on his desk.

"I feel like I'm going to get my best ranking so far this time—Qianqian, you know what? I got three math multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank questions wrong on my first try, and one of them was even because I changed the answer that was right to wrong. It's the same with English. As long as I don't lose more than five points on the essay, I can break through ninety points."

It has to be said that Chen Junqian only truly realized the fact that a student's primary responsibility is to study when he was talking to Lin Mu and Gu Linguo. Compared to the latter, the former was more willing to talk to him about exams, grades, scores, rankings, and so on. It almost made Chen Junqian, who was busy with club activities, psychological counseling, and dating, feel like he was still in the real world of China, rather than some two-dimensional romantic comedy world.

"This shows that Mu Mu's efforts during the winter break were effective."

"Yes, yes, I'm sure I can get into Ningzhong High School on my own."

Unlike most students in her class who didn't feel anything about their homeroom teacher's oft-repeated phrase, "The high school entrance exam is your first chance to earn money for your family," Lin Mu firmly believed in this statement. After all, she had never done anything to give back to her family in her life so far, only enjoying their pampering. That's why she was so enthusiastic about studying, the most basic and emphasized way to repay her family.

Her immediate goal is to get into Ningzhong High School through her own efforts. She is working hard in both her studies and physical training to achieve this goal.

After all, spending money, especially tens or hundreds of thousands of yuan, to buy points is too much for Mu Mu. She is not a child who has no concept of money. If such a day really comes, she will definitely ask her parents to use her own New Year's money.

Well, although she's speaking with such conviction now, Lin Mu has actually seriously considered the worst-case scenario. If, of course, it's just a hypothetical, if she really fails to get into Ningzhong High School in the high school entrance exam, then she'll definitely buy her way in. After all, she's been mentally preparing herself for so long, and the worst-case scenario she can accept is being in the same school but different classes with Qianqian. If they end up going to different schools, then they can hardly be considered childhood sweethearts anymore!

The thought of this future is enough to make me faint...

Unaware that his childhood sweetheart had already let her thoughts wander to a year into the future, Chen Junqian had been trying to teach her some useful study methods. For one thing, the Hengshui style of writing he had taught Mu Mu in elementary school had already helped her gain a lot of points in her English essays.

Two days later, when the exam results were officially released, Lin Mu's ranking improved significantly as she had expected. She not only easily surpassed the admission line for Ningzhong High School, but even exceeded it by a significant margin. She had even met with Xu Youwei, whose ranking had been fluctuating around this range for years. It seemed that the two of them would be assigned to the same exam room for the next midterm exam.

Apart from that, nothing major happened in February and March of that year. Shen Nianqiu from Lin'an stayed in her dormitory at school, making herself completely isolated. Whenever asked, she would say she was busy with her studies or had something to do at school, and she resolutely refused to go home, even when her family threatened to cut off her allowance. In fact, she almost hoped they would do that, as it would be a perfect excuse for future arguments. Anyway, her living expenses were already low, and Chen Junqian was in charge of managing them, so it wouldn't affect her at all. After all, it was impossible for him to go to the school and cause trouble.

Meanwhile, in Guoning, Gu Lingguo's voice acting work has finally come to a temporary end. After post-production, the debut work, which this middle school club spent almost a year working on, is finally complete. However, it is impossible to expect this low-budget work, which was presented by an amateur screenwriter, a new illustrator, and a voice actor doing voice acting for the first time, to generate any enthusiastic response. However, because their Weibo account has accumulated a large number of fans, it has still made a splash. At least Chen Xi and Xu Youwei are happy to read the fresh comments every day.

However, Gu Lingguo did not rest after finishing her voice acting work. With professional staff and equipment readily available, she quickly completed her first new anime preview video without even needing to spend three months learning editing on her own. She then posted it on Chen Junqian's Bilibili account, which he had been running for several years.

In terms of its impact within the community, Gu Lingguo's video actually far surpasses the animation produced by their studio. Aside from the surprise of the 'ten-year veteran fans' that the creator is actually a woman, the otaku who haven't seen this kind of approach—introducing the next season's anime through video commentary—are very enthusiastic. As a result, there's now one more person checking the platform every day in the clubroom for new comments.

Unlike the trio who were constantly staring at their phones, either giggling or indignant, Lin Mu and Zhu Wenyun were much quieter, one studying alone and the other writing a book alone.

As for Chen Junqian himself... he was studying the system in his mind.

Although Gu Lingguo's existence had long proven that the system's rating would change according to the person's mindset, for a considerable period of time, only Gu Lingguo had experienced such rollercoaster-like ups and downs. Therefore, Chen Junqian subconsciously regarded her as an exception until one day when he idly opened Xu Youwei's panel again, he was surprised to find the changes in her.

Each adaptation has visibly progressed a little bit, meaning that according to the system's judgment criteria, Xu Youwei is now closer to the setting of a romantic comedy heroine than before. Is it because she is dating him?

Also, what's with that line "[First Love (Ex-Girlfriend?) First Candidate]"?

But thinking about it, it seems to make sense. Whether it's Japanese romantic comedies or domestic youth novels, the attribute of first love is, to some extent, just as unlucky as childhood sweethearts. It's as if it's inherently accompanied by some kind of malice from the creators. Basically, the one who gets the role is the victim. After all, if first love could smoothly go all the way to the end, where would the story's plot development and dramatic conflicts come from?

Conversely, once a first love ends, it's only natural to move into the realm of ex-boyfriend literature.

But it's just literature about exes. After all, in Chen Junqian's combined experience across two lifetimes, most of his friends always thought of their exes as something to be as far away as possible. On the contrary, he, a lifelong single, would fall into inexplicable melancholy and contemplation while listening to songs like "Guest," "Accomplishment," and "Decent," as well as the barrage of comments with a bunch of names and confessions.

I briefly imagined what it would be like if Yoyo really became my ex one day... Hmm, it's best not to imagine it. After all, Chen Junqian won't forget that just because Yoyo has become normal in the past two years, she did something like writing a diary and deliberately letting her family find it in order to gain attention and vent her feelings when she was in elementary school.

Around mid-April, Zhu Wenyun's first draft of her new book was completed. After being submitted to the editor, it received very high praise. After about a month of revisions and additions, it officially entered the printing and publishing stage. The "Fireworks" studio also launched a publicity campaign for her as a new generation of youth campus romance novelist.

It's worth mentioning that the second season of "Chinese Character Dictation Competition," which was a huge success last summer, also canceled the assignment system of the first season. Instead, it announced that the education departments of each province would organize schools and representative teams to conduct preliminary selections, and select the final representative team to represent their province through a selection mechanism that goes through the county, city, and province levels. However, since Guo Ning had already made a splash once, and Chen Junqian and Zhu Wenyun both declined the invitation to participate again, neither Ningzhong nor Jinzhong participated again.

In mid-June, just before the summer vacation was about to begin, the editorial department of "Fireworks" finally sent Zhu Wenyun an invitation, hoping that she could go to Changsha after the summer vacation started to complete a series of promotional work, including shooting, interviews and book signings, as a newly signed A-level author.

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

PS2: Because Volume 3 was indeed too long, I sped up the world timeline by about half a year, cut out some daily life scenes, and moved forward the main storyline first.

Chapter 151: Personally Stamping the Certificate (Bonus Chapter)

Looking back from this point in time, Zhu Wenyun often thinks that it might have been a good thing that her long-planned trip years ago didn't happen during the summer after graduation. After all, around that time, she and Chen Junqian started traveling together more and more, covering everything from Beijing to Shanghai, and now they're going to Changsha together again.

As the two have grown older, they have become increasingly adept at traveling without adult supervision. Moreover, they are not actually going to some unfamiliar city with the intention of tourism or eloping. Whether it is Beijing, Shanghai or Changsha, they will be greeted by someone upon arrival. So, thinking about it this way, it seems more like a business trip.