I turned reality into a romantic comedy.

This realization was like a lemon, squeezed hard in Chen Xi's heart, the sour juice splashing everywhere, so much so that Chen Xi quickly got up from the bed again, without even putting on shoes, just standing barefoot on the ground, her toes curled up and gripping the floor, the coolness of the tiles climbing up from the soles of her feet, but it couldn't extinguish the chaotic heat in her heart.

When she came to her senses, she heard a 'click' sound. Holding her breath, the girl gently turned the key in the lock, opening the door to Chen Junqian's currently empty house. Only a cat sleeping on one side of the living room was disturbed by the noise, but it went back to its bed after seeing the visitor. Chen Xi took two more steps inside and pushed open the door, and a familiar breeze rushed towards her.

After quickly slipping inside, she gently closed the door behind her.

The room was dark, so only a few rays of moonlight shone through the gaps in the curtains, outlining the desk in a flickering light. The bed was empty, with the thin quilt neatly folded and the pillow lying there obediently. Chen Xi then placed one of the toys she had brought on the bed and lay down on it.

Chen Xi casually picked up the remote control from the bedside table and turned on the air conditioner. Then she turned over and buried her face deep in the pillow, as if doing so would somehow bring her brother, who was with another girl, back to her.

Anyway, it wasn't the first time she had slept on this bed. In fact, among the girls who came to Chen Junqian's room, only Lin Mu and she could do it so naturally.

Just as Chen Xi was preparing to hypnotize herself and fall asleep in this little world filled with Chen Junqian's aura, a very faint metallic scraping sound suddenly came from the doorway again, the sound of a key being inserted into the lock.

The girl suddenly opened her eyes, her body tensing instantly. For some reason, the scene before her felt somewhat familiar, as if she had experienced it before.

Before she could even sort things out, the door lock clicked softly again, and then Chen Junqian's door was pushed open a crack. Another figure wearing a light pink onesie slipped in furtively. Judging from the movements, the figure seemed even more familiar with the person she had just been with.

By the moonlight, Chen Xi and the figure locked eyes.

The air froze for a full three seconds.

"...Lin Guo?"

Upon seeing the person who came in, Chen Xi sat up in bed and finally remembered that the two of them seemed to have met once during the Spring Festival last year in Chen Junqian's empty house. However, Gu Linguo came in first then, but now their positions had been reversed.

"It's me. I heard footsteps coming upstairs just now, and I thought it must be you coming to my senior's house, so I came to see what was going on."

Seemingly unsurprised by Chen Xi's presence, Gu Lingguo, who had entered the room, naturally sat down beside her, spread her arms, and lay back on the bed. Then, turning her head to her best friend, she spoke:

"Just as I expected."

What are you doing here?

Sitting on the bed, Chen Xi hugged her knees, looking at Gu Linguo with a slightly wary gaze. As the younger sister, she had a natural sense of territory, even in this situation where her own behavior was not exactly honorable.

Faced with Chen Xi's questioning, Gu Lingguo simply kicked off her slippers, propped her chin on her hand, and gave her a dismissive smirk.

"Is it okay to say 'like you'?"

"No, because this is my brother's room and my brother's bed."

At this moment, Chen Xi once again brought up the title "my brother" in an attempt to refute Gu Linguo's sophistry.

"Oh, don't worry about the details. I usually call you 'senpai-nii' too."

Gu Linguo remained completely unfazed by the situation, and after the air conditioner was turned on, she casually pulled a corner of the blanket over her legs.

"Anyway, the bed is so big, and the senior isn't coming back tonight."

When the words "not coming back" were mentioned, both girls fell silent again.

The tense atmosphere instantly became subtle and sticky because of this shared pain point. Gu Linguo sighed, put her hand down from her chin, and casually stroked the head of the large squirrel plush toy that Chen Xi had brought over, only to be met with another glare from her friend.

"you say……"

Gu Linguo stared at the blurry spots of light on the ceiling, her voice lowering:

What is he doing now?

Upon hearing this question, which sounded like both a question and a muttered monologue, Chen Xi's fingers unconsciously tightened their grip on the bedsheet beneath her, though she still stubbornly insisted:

"What's there to think about? It's not like it's the first time my brother has spent the night with a girl. Didn't he go to Changsha with Zhu Wenyun last month?"

"Whether he and Zhu Wenyun are dating or not, and since last summer, their way of getting along has been a bit strange, so it should be completely different from tonight."

A girlfriend is indeed different from a childhood sweetheart, a neighbor, and a younger sister.

Seeing Gu Lingguo's pessimistic attitude, Chen Xi thought for a moment and finally said what Chen Junqian had told her before, even though she herself didn't quite believe it anymore:

"Don't worry, I asked my brother myself, and he said he wouldn't date a girl with mental health issues. Xu Youwei's personality definitely wouldn't work."

After receiving entirely new information from Chen Xi that he had never heard of before, Gu Lingguo lowered his eyes subtly before continuing:

"Who knows how seniors define mental health? There's a counseling center right next to our club activity room, but I've never seen any students go there. These things are inherently subjective, and often the people involved aren't even aware of it themselves."

As she spoke, she took the initiative to ask Chen Xi:

"Xiaoxi thinks that Sister Youwei's personality is not good, but what exactly is wrong with her?"

"Have I... forgotten that Lin Guo left a note on the bottle Lin Mu gave my brother with an invisible pen?"

"This matter has already been confessed, and even Sister Lin Mu herself has forgiven her."

"And another thing, she was tinkering with something in my brother's old house, and she even cut up some photos."

"Just like the last thing, the senior must have known about this for a long time. As the person involved, he not only didn't say anything, but he also took the wall down and moved it to the other party's new house. Didn't you see it when you went to her house today? So maybe it was the senior's tacit approval from the beginning."

"She can be unreasonable and too flamboyant at times..."

"Extroverted girls like this are actually very attractive, but only in front of strangers. They're probably a different person in front of their seniors. These tsundere heiresses who are three parts arrogant and seven parts coquettish are always very popular."

"...Whose side is Lin Guo here to take?!"

"It's just an analysis from an objective perspective."

Gu Linguo lay there with her eyes closed, her tone indifferent.

"Actually, just like we said before we went there tonight, apart from Sister Lin Mu, who is currently an extremely stable 'unstable factor,' it's perfectly normal for the two of them to be dating."

Seeing that Chen Xi remained silent, she opened her eyes again and poked her best friend's arm with a finger:

"Hey, Xiaoxi."

"What's wrong now?"

"If... I mean if, senior, you don't end up with Youwei-neechan, who would you hope is next?"

"Nobody wants that."

Chen Xi gave his answer to this question almost without hesitation.

"If I really have to choose one?"

"That must be Lin Mu."

"why?"

"Because Lin Guo just said it herself, if my brother breaks up with Xu Youwei in the end, it will most likely be because of Lin Mu, so it's only natural that she will be next. That's from a rational point of view. But from an emotional point of view, she's also a good person. It's just that she had a little problem recently."

"What are the minor issues?"

Gu Lingguo was taken aback for a moment, then immediately pressed for an answer.

"I don't know either, but one morning when my brother got up, he complained about it a little."

For Chen Xi right now, this emotion, which cannot be accurately described as jealousy, is more like a low-grade fever, making her uncomfortable but not to the point of complete collapse. After all, she is only a junior high school student, and her understanding of the word "like" is more of a habitual dependence and possessiveness. Her actions of running to Chen Junqian's room tonight were basically driven by instinct.

Seeing that Chen Xi also seemed unaware, Gu Linguo gave up asking any further questions. Instead, she glanced at the time displayed on her phone; it was already past 11 p.m.

"Are they kissing right now?"

Chen Xi's breath caught in her throat at Gu Lingguo's sudden words. The image involuntarily flashed through her mind, and she instinctively hugged the doll, covering half her face with the squirrel's face:

"I don't know, but the teacher said that early romance affects studies. They'll both be in their final year of junior high next semester. I'm definitely not worried about my brother's grades. Hmph... It'll be funny if Xu Youwei doesn't get into Ningzhong High School."

"Actually, getting into Ningzhong isn't all that great. After all, the senior is definitely a student in the special admission class. In the end, you'll most likely have to ask Sister Yun if you'll be in the same class as him. Being a year younger and a grade lower is really troublesome, right? After all, Xiaoxi's grades are quite good too, right?"

"There's nothing we can do about this. Are we expecting my brother to repeat a grade like those characters in those messy romance novels? That's too unrealistic."

"Too."

Gu Lingguo seemed to have figured something out as well. She reached out and pulled the lower half of the doll on Chen Xi's body to cover her face. Her nose was itchy from the fuzz, so she took the opportunity to sneeze.

“Let’s go to sleep! We’re going to make a huge mess of his bed so he can smell us when he comes back tomorrow.”

"This is my brother's room, my brother's bed!"

Chen Xi repeated what she had said at the beginning, but Gu Linguo had already pretended to close her eyes and doze off, leaving Chen Xi at a loss for what to do.

Goodnight, Xiaoxi.

The squirrel plush toy she had brought with her now served as a natural barrier. The two girls, one in front of the other, each carrying the same height plush toy, closed their eyes on the bed of the person the toy represented, each lost in their own thoughts.

If you take a nap, it will actually be morning.

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

That evening, Chen Junqian missed his phone calls with both Shen Nianqiu and Zhu Wenjun, so the two of them, who were already on good terms, naturally started chatting. However, just like Chen Xi and Gu Linguo, who were chatting in the same bed, they were talking about the same topics.

"Why is it that even though Wen Jun knows that the two of them are dating, she still doesn't have any particular emotions? You've actually written many passages like this in your novels, right? The female protagonist, who becomes aware of her own feelings and little crush because of the sudden arrival of a new love interest, experiences jealousy, coquetry, anger, confusion, bewilderment, and helplessness without even realizing it, and finally sits there and cries."

"This description should definitely be given to Mu Mu, right?"

Zhu Wenyun, sitting at her desk with a blank manuscript spread out before her friend's teasing, simply smiled casually.

"I'm not the kind of girl who cares a lot about these things."

“She stole her brother’s phone around this time last year.”

"So I got a good scolding, and to be honest, it was actually Nianqiu's fault. I didn't know you back then, so I subconsciously assumed you were like me."

"That's really too kind of me. Even if I had twenty years, I still couldn't write like you, Wen Yun. A novelist who can express what you think more delicately than me, the person involved, is the one who will carry on his literary dreams. It's only natural that my brother would choose you to carry on his literary dreams."

"Yes, that's it."

The corners of her mouth unconsciously curved into a noticeable smile because of the other person's words, but soon, Zhu Wenyun heard Shen Nianqiu's next sentence:

"If I calculate the time, my mom's due date is approaching."

Then, she naturally recalled a sentence she had written in the book:

My mother's hands were like a pair of blunt scissors, always slowly and stubbornly pruning the branches of my life. With each "for your own good" admonition, I could hear the sound of my bones breaking.

"I've got everything ready on my end, in case you have any problems."

"Okay—thank you, it's always good to be prepared."

Seemingly feeling that mere words of thanks were insufficient to express her gratitude, Shen Nianqiu remained silent for a while before finally making up her mind and speaking again:

"Actually, in my opinion, you could be my younger brother's girlfriend."

(End of Volume 3)

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

A list of achievements in Romantic Comedy in Volume 3

1. [The back seat of a bicycle is a designated area.]