I turned reality into a romantic comedy.

Then, while trying to climb the ladder to get out, Chitoge accidentally fell again, and she and the male protagonist who rushed to catch her once more engaged in a mysterious top-bottom position. Just then, the door was opened, allowing the second female lead, Onodera, to witness this ambiguous scene, creating a chaotic love triangle... So, it's no wonder that *Nisekoi* is called a "clichéd romance"—every step of the plot feels like a standard romantic comedy unfolding.

After briefly reviewing the specific portrayal of this scene in the animation, even Chen Junqian, the seasoned romantic comedy male lead, was speechless and facepalmed. On the contrary, the female lead in front of him looked increasingly eager and impatient.

"If the two of us want to replicate this, we need to find a suitable location first, and then think about how to lock the outside from the inside, creating a secret room that we can't get out of temporarily. We need to have some sense of ritual, otherwise we can just claim that we are trapped in this room now. In fact, Xiaoxi might come and open the door in a little while."

“That’s true. Let’s go downstairs and take a look outside. I feel like there are quite a few of these empty old houses in the countryside. At least in terms of atmosphere, there’s no problem. The suspension bridge effect also requires people to be on the suspension bridge, otherwise it feels like there’s no need to replicate it.”

As they talked, they walked downstairs. Chen Junqian also took the opportunity to glance at the description of the achievement "[The Secret of the Sports Warehouse]" in his mind:

Whether it was the sports committee member's carelessness causing the lock on the sports storage room to click shut, or the god of love's prank causing the elevator to suddenly stop working, or all sorts of extreme weather...

Actually, if we're being honest, it seems like the place where kids living in the city are most likely to get caught up in this romantic comedy-like situation is the 'elevator' mentioned in the achievement description.

Thinking of this, Chen Junqian glanced at the progress bar, which had been slightly increased due to the new achievement he and Gu Linguo had made a couple of days ago. Recalling his experience with Shen Nianqiu during the winter break, he suddenly had the idea to give it a try.

"I feel like the countryside is still a bit far. I just remembered, the company should have some meeting rooms that aren't used much. Let's go there and I'll call someone over to lock them. It seems about the same."

Because she had been to the company many times in the past six months, either with Chen Junqian or on her own, Gu Lingguo was quite familiar with the office location of the three fierce Xus. At first, she thought that such a meeting room would definitely lack the atmosphere of being locked inside and unable to get out compared to an empty house in the countryside. However, when she thought about the various teasing remarks about Chen Junqian, Lin Mu, and Chen Xi inside the company, she felt that it was necessary to play such a little trick with Chen Junqian inside.

After all, she really wanted to be included in this kind of office gossip as a party involved.

It's because this Crown Princess has absolutely no sense of responsibility as a Crown Princess.

With that in mind, Gu Lingguo nodded in agreement.

Thus, the two's destination directly shifted to the company of the three fierce men.

As the best-performing local company in Guoning, this company has directly booked an entire office building. Adults don't have summer vacation like children, so today is still a normal workday. However, since it is already around 10 a.m., the morning rush hour has passed. Therefore, when the two of them arrived, there were almost no people in the elevator lobby on the first floor. Chen Junqian casually found an empty elevator and went in with Gu Lingguo.

After pressing the button for the sixth floor, Chen Junqian silently began to mentally implement a kind of psychological suggestion or wish, hoping to convey to the world, as the male protagonist of a romantic comedy, that a classic romantic comedy plot should be staged here.

Then, this narrow little world began to be shaped according to his wishes.

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

The lights in the elevator suddenly flickered on and off. After a series of oppressive buzzing sounds, the entire space shook violently beneath their feet. The elevator, which was supposed to go to the sixth floor of the office building, seemed to be nailed to the ground, stuck between two unknown floors, and remained motionless.

In the confined space, only the sound of their breathing remained for a moment. Suddenly faced with this unexpected turn of events, Gu Lingguo instinctively tightened her grip on Chen Junqian's hand. Her previously casual smile froze, her lower lip trembled slightly, and she took an uneasy step forward, instinctively speaking:

"...The elevator stopped?"

Although it wasn't midnight on a hospital set, but rather around 10 a.m., so there was no need to worry about accidentally stumbling onto the set of some supernatural horror movie, Gu Lingguo couldn't help but think of the news reports about elevator accidents she had seen before when she suddenly encountered this unexpected situation, and then she began to try to find a way to save herself.

However, Chen Junqian was even faster than her, and even seemed to have known that this would happen all along. After quietly observing the button lights on the control panel for a few seconds, and trying to press the open and close buttons a couple more times, and finding that they were indeed ineffective, he immediately looked up to find the emergency call button in the elevator.

Gu Lingguo could even see the lines on his profile, which appeared as distinct silhouettes under the light of the small lamp above his head. He still had the calm demeanor she knew best, and his words of comfort showed no sign of panic.

"It's nothing, it's probably just a minor problem with one of the wiring lines in the building. Modern elevators have safety devices in case of power failure, and there's a fair amount of foot traffic here, so we're safe. If Lin Guo feels a little unwell, she can sit down and conserve her energy."

Just as he had feared, the elevator accident actually happened.

It was precisely because of this that Chen Junqian felt no panic at all, because the latter half of the explanation regarding this achievement contained the following:

[But please rest assured, neither storms nor blizzards will attract any deranged killers. After all, this is a romantic comedy set, so even these seemingly unfortunate accidents are just the most ingenious arrangements.]

"Yeah, but I'm fine."

After a brief moment of panic, perhaps influenced by Chen Junqian's calmness, or perhaps recalling something they had just discussed, Gu Linguo's face began to show a smile, almost uncontrollably. After all, they were trapped in a confined space due to an accident, and before rescue arrived, they were left to rely on each other. The male lead was calm and composed, while the female lead was slightly flustered. After being comforted, she quickly adapted to the situation and even started to feel her heart flutter.

Isn't this one of the most classic scenes in Japanese romantic comedies?

Thinking of this, Gu Lingguo finally couldn't help but let a sly little smile appear on her lips. She even suddenly felt that this "accident" was a kind of stolen romance—she never expected that on the road to pursuing such a scene, she would actually encounter such a scene, and the object of her affections was Chen Junqian.

She glanced at him furtively and saw that he had already contacted the floor security guard using the elevator intercom. His tone, vocabulary, and rhythm were impeccable—neither humble nor arrogant, and without a trace of impatience. The security guard quickly promised to contact maintenance personnel immediately and asked them to wait patiently. Chen Junqian nodded, released the button, and placed the intercom back in its place.

"The security guard said someone will be here in about ten minutes. Lin Guo, why don't you sit in this corner? It'll be more comfortable there."

Because it was an elevator for company use, it wasn't the kind of cramped space that two people would feel. There was more than enough room to stand or sit. However, just like Chiji, who was afraid of the dark and wanted to lie on the male lead's back in such a large warehouse, Gu Lingguo moved closer to Chen Junqian instead. After sitting down as instructed, she leaned against the cold metal wall, but felt a kind of passion brewing in her chest.

Seemingly worried that she might be scared in this situation, or perhaps simply thinking of a joke they had posted on their account before, Chen Junqian even had the energy to tell Gu Linguo a joke, which was about an uncle who had an elevator accident with a primary school student.

Unlike their iconic romantic comedy segments and cast, the protagonist in that segment not only had a primary school student who needed constant reassurance, but he himself was also suffering from diarrhea and in a hurry to go back to the toilet. So, after trying to hold it in for a while, he couldn't hold it in any longer and started pulling up his pants in front of the primary school student in the elevator. As a result, the student mistook it for fear and could only cover his nose and cry, repeatedly saying, "Uncle, don't pull, I'm scared."

But that wasn't the end of it. Just when the protagonist was thinking that he might as well just die, the elevator was finally repaired. Besides the maintenance workers, there was also a group of residents waiting outside to watch the commotion. The grandmother of the trapped elementary school student was among them. After smelling the odor, she started cursing at the property management while preparing to hit her grandson, saying that he was so scared in the elevator that he lost control of his bladder, which was too embarrassing. But the elementary school student pointed behind him and said that it wasn't him who had been pulled, but the uncle behind him.

The bad news is that the protagonist was so frustrated at that moment that he almost had the urge to jump back into the elevator and die.

The good news is that after this incident, the property management finally replaced the elevator with a new one. He has since become a rights protection ambassador and a hot topic in the community. There are even neighboring communities that are also troubled by the property management, and they have offered him a lot of money to help them fix their pants.

After hearing the joke, although Gu Lingguo really wanted to retort that the male protagonist of a romantic comedy wouldn't talk about this kind of topic, she couldn't help but chuckle first, and then nudged his elbow:

"Can't you be a little more romantic?"

"If someone can find such an unexpected situation romantic, it can only mean that their chuunibyou symptoms are no less severe than mine."

"That's better than being scared, right? Moving around here trying to pry open doors and stuff."

Looking up at the security camera directly above, Gu Linguo reached out and hugged Chen Junqian again, resting her head on his shoulder and whispering in his ear:

"But I'm still a little scared... I heard that if an elevator goes down, there's a chance of survival if everyone jumps upwards at the last moment?"

"Instead of saying such things, Lin Guo should just treat it as a classic scene from a romantic comedy. Don't worry, nothing will happen. If something does happen, I'll be with you."

"Hmm—this line really gives off the vibe of a male protagonist in a romantic comedy. Ah, I'm satisfied."

After a moment of silence, Gu Linguo, who was being held by Chen Junqian, closed her eyes. There were no unusual noises in the elevator; on the contrary, it was unusually quiet because of the dim light of the emergency lights and the occasional "buzzing" of the intercom.

Everything around them slowed down. Time seemed to be paused; the outside noise couldn't penetrate the sealed steel shell, and the air was filled with the heartbeats of two people and their slightly languid whispers. This long and somewhat strange intimacy grew abruptly yet naturally between them.

The girl's mind was already filled with images from comic book panels—the elevator predicament, the two embracing, whispers under the dim light, and the tender words amplified silently: "I'm with you too."

She suddenly felt that she had memorized every ray of light and shadow, every heartbeat.

The wait wasn't long. After the security guard announced again over the walkie-talkie that "the maintenance worker is coming soon," knocking sounds quickly filled the hallway. The maintenance worker operated the elevator while reassuring them, and soon the elevator slowly descended, finally coming to a smooth stop on the first floor, the doors creaking open.

Unlike in the jokes, he wasn't surrounded by a large crowd of onlookers.

But the situation might be worse than the protagonist in the joke.

Indeed, Chen Junqian, who was hoping for a romantic comedy, knew very well that, just like in Nisekoi, when the male and female leads of a romantic comedy were discovered in an intimate manner after experiencing such a thing, it was indeed necessary for the other female lead to see it.

However, unlike Onodera, who is shy and fled in a sorry state after encountering these things.

The girl standing outside the elevator now is his girlfriend, Xu Youwei.

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

Chapter 162: I Can't Hold Back Anymore (Part 2)

"So, it turns out that Qinqin and Linguo were the ones who encountered the elevator accident?"

Xu Youwei had simply heard from Chen Xi that Chen Junqian and Gu Linguo had come to the company, so she followed out of curiosity to see what the two were up to. Then she ran into maintenance staff who said that there had been an elevator malfunction and it was under repair. So she stayed in the elevator lobby on the first floor to watch the commotion. Xu Youwei obviously didn't expect that the two she was looking for would emerge from the opened elevator so spectacularly. Their expressions were so vivid that they showed the two why her meme is still used on the internet today. She stood there stunned for a while before belatedly going up and separating them.

"We're already out, how much longer are you going to hold me?"

On the one hand, Gu Lingguo obediently let go of Chen Junqian's arms following Xu Youwei's force, and on the other hand, she seemed to subconsciously defend herself:

"Sorry, sorry, I suddenly ran into this. Phew—thankfully nothing's wrong."

Looking at Chen Junqian and then Gu Linguo with a somewhat suspicious expression, Xu Youwei suddenly began to resent not being the "crown princess" of this company. Otherwise, she could immediately go upstairs to check the elevator surveillance footage from the time of the incident and see if there was anything fishy going on.

The main reason is that when Gu Lingguo first entered Chen Junqian's life, Xu Youwei had already keenly noticed some similarities between the girl and her past self. However, because the girl's words and actions were quite tactful, and she was a year younger, Xu Youwei did not attach as much importance to her as she did to Shen Nianqiu and Zhu Wenjun.

Although she could understand that being caught in an elevator accident would leave one feeling lost and wanting to rely on others, seeing her boyfriend being held so intimately by another girl in front of her would still make her feel a little uncomfortable.

As for your question about whether Zhu Wenyun from Changsha might have done something even more outrageous, well, let's just say that what we didn't see, we should pretend it never happened. If Zhu Wenyun were to bring it up someday, she would definitely just ignore it.

"This is the first time I've encountered something like this. Luckily, it was resolved quickly. Actually, Lin Guo and I were only trapped for about ten minutes combined. The efficiency here is quite fast. Thumbs up! By the way, why did Youyou suddenly come here?"

Not intending to give Xu Youwei any more time to act like a legitimate girlfriend interrogating him, Chen Junqian quickly regained control of the conversation.

"It's nothing. I just heard from Xiaoxi that you two would be coming here today, and I was a little curious. After all, the voice-over work should have been completed by now."

It was clear that Xu Youwei was still a bit troubled by what happened today. You could feel that the frequency of the single ponytail tied at the back of her head was much higher than usual. This reminded Chen Junqian of an achievement related to ponytails, so he simply reached out and grabbed it.

What are you doing?

Startled by Chen Junqian's sudden action, Xu Youwei felt she would have slapped him if she hadn't known he wasn't the type of boy who would sit in the back row and grab the ponytails of girls in the front row. However, she still jumped back two steps like a rabbit, which allowed Chen Junqian to grab her ponytail and pull it to the front, tickling her cheek.

"It's nothing, it just feels like Youyou's ponytail is tied crooked. Don't move, I'll untie the hair tie and tie it again, turn it around."

Chen Junqian, with years of experience in comforting Xu Youwei, was quite adept at soothing her like a cat with its fur standing up. While gently stroking her fur, he smiled and said to Gu Lingguo beside him:

"Actually, even though people at our school always say that Youyou is a very pretty girl, she only learned how to tie her hair in the last two years, and she's not very skilled at it at all. She even makes mistakes with the simplest ponytail sometimes, even though I taught her properly for a long time."

Faced with Chen Junqian's offer of a topic and a way out, Gu Lingguo, who had completely recovered from the elevator romantic comedy incident, accepted it almost without hesitation, joining him in the task of scratching the proud little cat's chin to cheer him up, nodding in agreement as she replied:

"So it turns out that Sister Youwei learned these skills from Brother. I didn't know that before. You two have such a good relationship. But I think Sister Youwei looks good with any hairstyle. It's like how the school rules stipulate that everyone can only wear the most common and uniform single ponytail, but everyone still thinks that Sister Youwei is the prettiest girl in the grade."

In fact, Chen Junqian has a lot to say about Xu Youwei's hair, since his girlfriend's hair, like her life so far, can be clearly divided into two parts.

When she had long hair, her biological mother was still alive, so she would patiently braid various intricate hairstyles for her, just like Lin Mu's mother still does for Lin Mu now. After her mother passed away, she kept her hair short for a long time and didn't need to tie it up at all. So when she grew it long again in the last two years, she found herself in an awkward situation, just like with makeup, where no one could teach her. In the end, Chen Junqian started teaching her step by step.

"...I was just in a rush when I left home today, and I've been learning by following online tutorials lately, but I just couldn't do it when I was in school."

Faced with Chen Junqian, who skillfully started tying his hair up right in front of her, and Gu Linguo, who was acting like a seasoned veteran, Xu Youwei, whose hair had been smoothed out, felt there was no need to assert her dominance. However, she remained as stubborn as ever, since she had been worrying about how to dress herself for quite some time, especially after she started dating Chen Junqian.

Everyone says that women dress up for those they love, but how exactly do you dress up?

However, the two girls' conversation did offer Xu Youwei some comfort. After all, she had the kind of face that was considered good without any negative connotation, which is why she said that even among those uniform blue and white school uniforms and single ponytails, she would still be the most eye-catching one... Anyway, Xu Youwei would never admit that a large part of the reason was because a girl who stood out even more among her peers was not in Ningzhong, but in Jinzhong.

"Lin Guo and I came here today mainly to record audio for a new video. I didn't expect to encounter something like this. I'm not in the mood anymore. How about we schedule it for another time? I'll take Youyou shopping today."

While Xu Youwei was already strutting around, Chen Junqian exchanged glances with Gu Linguo. Having achieved her goal for the day, Gu Linguo also chose to stop while she was ahead. After all, Xu Youwei herself had made it very clear that she had come here because she got the information from Chen Xi. The fact that the two of them, who clearly didn't get along, still had this kind of contact meant that her behavior over the past two days had been noticed by others. Even Chen Xi, who was closest to her, had sent someone to see what was going on.

If it were Lin Mu, Xu Youwei would definitely say, "How about the three of you go shopping together?" But facing Gu Lingguo, she obviously wouldn't think that way. However, she still politely invited her, but Gu Lingguo also shook her head and refused, saying that she had other things to do after going home, and then left directly.

After the other person disappeared from sight, Xu Youwei pulled Chen Junqian into an empty elevator next to her. Instead of pressing the floor button immediately, she stood there with her arms crossed, looking around at the layout, as if trying to imagine what the two of them had just experienced. After a while, she casually pressed the highest floor button.

When the elevator doors swung open again in front of them, Chen Junqian could even see Xu Youwei smacking her lips and looking disappointed.

"...You don't want to experience an elevator accident yourself, do you?"

"Well, it's normal that we didn't encounter it, especially since it was such a dangerous thing."

After stepping out of the elevator, Xu Youwei seemed to calm down once again. Ultimately, this feeling of "if others have it, I must have it too" only lasted a short while. After all, she already possessed far too many things that others lacked, and besides—

"In real life, such an accident could actually lead to something terrible... I don't want that."

If Xu Youwei's stubborn choice of the Sheep Talisman a few years ago did indeed indicate a certain self-destructive tendency, then now she has begun to loathe discussing this topic. After all, she has a long life ahead of her and plenty of time to spend with Chen Junqian.

"I guess only a girl like Wenjun would yearn for such an accident, a brush with death, a deepening of feelings, and no matter whether she lives or dies in the end, she might end up with lifelong regrets—did Qinqin ask the maintenance worker what was wrong with the elevator?"

"I asked, but I don't know either. From what he said, it's just a minor malfunction, not a safety hazard, just a purely accidental event. He hasn't encountered it more than twice in all these years."

"Hmph, that's what they'll definitely say. I'm going to talk to Mu Mu, and then have her talk to her dad, or maybe I should tell Qin Qin not to take the elevator anymore?"

"...It hasn't come to that. Neither Lin Guo nor I are in any danger this time. Besides, if we're talking about danger, all the things you've dragged me to do over the years are far more dangerous than simply riding an elevator. Do you want me to help you remember? Like that time on that steep downhill road in the countryside when I rode my bicycle with you on the back and let go—"