I turned reality into a romantic comedy.

"Now I know what cosplay my brother should do at the next anime convention."

Gu Lingguo hummed and moved forward a little, rubbing against the piano bench like a caterpillar. She stretched out a finger and poked Chen Junqian's calf lightly.

"...Episode 6."

As she spoke, she looked up again, her eyes sparkling as she gazed at the coat Chen Junqian had taken off, which was placed on the piano bench to the right of the piano. The hints, both overt and covert, were quite obvious. She clearly wanted to recreate the scene in episode six of the anime where Kaori Miyazono accompanied Kousei Arima during his piano practice, and after she fell asleep, he gently covered her with his coat.

All I can say is that if you only look at this single scene, it does have the atmosphere of a romantic comedy.

Seeing this drama queen who quickly moved back to the wall, closed her eyes, hugged her shoulders, and made a pitiful face of shivering in the snow waiting for rescue, Chen Junqian, the male protagonist who first started this story, also stood up.

In the now quiet music room, even the ticking of the second hand became clearly audible. Gu Linguo closed her eyes; although it was pitch black before her, her hearing became exceptionally acute. She heard the subtle rustling of fabric, the soft creaking of the piano bench as Chen Junqian stood up, and then footsteps—one step, two steps—stopping beside her.

Then, a warm feeling approached.

Chen Junqian didn't speak. He simply leaned down gently, his movements slow and tender. He unfolded his dark gray woolen coat, which still seemed to be warm from his body, and placed it gently on Gu Lingguo's shoulder like a large embrace.

He didn't just do it perfunctorily; instead, he carefully grabbed her collar, pulled her coat tighter, and wrapped her up completely, as if he were wrapping up a precious, fragile item or treasure.

Gu Linguo secretly opened her eyes a little, stepping out of her role-playing position. What came into view was Chen Junqian's face backlit by the sunlight, which gilded his features. He lowered his head slightly, and his dark eyes were filled with a tenderness that she herself often complained about, but could not find a more suitable word for now, because real people are more vivid and real than any male protagonist in anime.

Once again, Gu Lingguo felt that it was great that the boy in front of her had this strange chuunibyou (middle school syndrome).

Although it's impossible to be each other's childhood sweetheart or first love from the very beginning, at least...

This also saves her from having to go through the roundabout process of starting as some kind of 'friend A'.

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

Chapter 35: You know I'm expanding my resource library? (6k)

In a sense, Christmas can be considered a substitute for Children's Day for middle school students. Although many of them still don't feel out of place buying a kids' meal, students at this age are always eager to shed their childishness and try to show their adult side.

The shops near the school gate after school are always among the busiest places, and today they are even more lively. Various decorations create an inexpensive yet joyful festive atmosphere. Lin Mu, standing at the door, tightened the beige scarf around her neck, buried half of her slightly flushed face in it, and then reached out and pushed open the glass door covered with "Merry Christmas" foam stickers.

With a loud crash, the wind chimes on the door jingled wildly from the violent movement, but the clear sound was instantly swallowed up by the huge noise inside the store.

A mixture of the smoky aroma of grilled sausages, the scent of cheap lavender sachets, the warmth of the heated body, and the dusty smell of the room filled the air, wafting into Lin Mu's nostrils and making her subconsciously swallow. The shop's stereo was playing "Jingle Bells," a song that had been played countless times around the world that day, mixed with the noisy voices of the crowd, making her head buzz.

"Don't push! Boss, do you have any more snow spray cans?"

"I want the wrapping paper with lace trim! Pink one!"

"These peace apples are way too expensive! Ten yuan each? That's highway robbery!"

Among the large group of middle school students next to her, dressed in bulky school uniforms and carrying heavy backpacks, she was the oldest senior, but this was not apparent from her figure. However, this was a good thing at the moment. Lin Mu skillfully turned to the side, like a nimble fish, avoiding two boys who were playing around, and carefully bypassed several girls who were crowding around to choose crystal balls.

Her goal was clear: not the piles of ordinary greeting cards at the entrance that seemed to be sold by weight, nor the colorful gift boxes used to wrap apples for good luck; but to go straight to the deepest part of the shop, to the boutique display area that was usually locked in a glass cabinet or hung at the highest point by the owner, which always attracted the attention of children passing by outside the shop.

After finally squeezing his way to the counter, Lin Mu raised his voice again, trying to drown out the heated argument between the two students next to him about whether or not to give greeting cards to so-and-so.

"Boss, could you please get the biggest one on the shelf? Yes, the one with the red and gold color scheme, the one with the 3D castle."

The shop owner, who was busy sweating profusely and frantically collecting and giving change, looked up, glanced at Lin Mu through his thick glasses, and then smiled knowingly:

"It's you again, little girl. I knew you'd come back to buy this big one this year. You have a good eye. It just arrived last night. This is the only one this year with three folding layers."

As he spoke, the shop owner bypassed the other students, stepped onto a stool, and took down a large, exquisitely packaged box from the very top of the shelf.

Several girls who were picking out highlighters immediately cast envious and curious glances at her. After all, at an age when everyone is still carefully calculating every penny, buying a greeting card priced at nearly three figures is undoubtedly a grand gesture.

Wow, that's so pretty.

"Who is that for? It's so luxurious!"

Lin Mu initially tried to pretend she hadn't heard the whispers, just like before, but she couldn't help but think of what Xu Youwei had said about the rumors between her and Chen Junqian. Her ears turned pink, and after paying the bill, she quickly left with the heavy bag.

The moment I pushed open the door, a cold wind rushed in, instantly dispelling the warmth and sweet, cloying scent of incense that clung to my body.

It wasn't snowing at the school gate, but the wind stung my face. The shops on both sides of the street were lit up, their red and green neon lights flashing in the night. An old man selling roasted sweet potatoes was lifting the lid of his oven, and white steam rose conspicuously into the air, creating a warm mist under the streetlights.

Lin Mu stood at the school gate, buried his face in his scarf, took a deep breath of the cold air, and held the unwritten deluxe greeting card in his hand. Unexpectedly, he felt a sense of peace and fullness in his heart. Then he ran all the way to the club's activity room before stopping.

Zhu Wenyun hadn't arrived yet at this time, and Xu Youwei and Chen Junqian were still buying dinner, so she was the only one in the classroom for the time being.

However, it wouldn't be a big deal even if others saw it, since everyone knows that she sends Qianqian a Christmas card every year. As long as the contents of the card aren't seen, it's fine.

Thinking this, Lin Mu began to unpack the package. With a flick of his fingertips, the thick, special paper card slowly unfolded on the table.

It must be said that, with the support of advanced technology and financial resources, greeting cards are becoming more and more exquisite. Instead of the embarrassingly cheap electronic music, there is now a subtle mechanical friction sound.

Immediately afterwards, a magnificent golden paper castle rose up from the ground, with towering spires, exquisitely crafted openwork windows, and even the moat outside the castle was paved with shimmering silver glitter. As the greeting card was completely unfolded, the castle's spire seemed to poke Lin Mu's nose.

This is a veritable paper castle. In terms of scale and size, it is the largest one Lin Mu has ever bought. No wonder it is the ultimate, invincible, super-enhanced version that she pre-ordered from the shop owner at the entrance last year. It is closer to the category of toy than a greeting card.

However, in essence, it's still the same as before. She chose this one not to show off, nor to make Chen Junqian think it was valuable, but simply because it's spacious.

After admiring the overall effect of the castle rising from the ground for a while, Lin Mu turned the entire greeting card over again, his fingertips gently tracing the large blank areas around the castle base, the specially reserved wide writing area on the back of the castle, and even the cleverly hidden pull-out message board on the side.

Yes, that's exactly what she wanted.

This is the key reason why she had to buy the most luxurious and enormous greeting card.

Regular greeting cards are too small.

Those template greeting cards with "Merry Christmas" and "Wishing you happiness every day" printed in the most standard regular script were too perfunctory. Even the ordinary folding cards with music, as the years went by, became too small for her to express herself.

She had so much to say, and on this day, under the seemingly respectable pretext of a Christmas card, she wanted to shove it all at him.

Lin Mu's fingers traced lines in the blank space, while his mind began to arrange the various experiences that he had already mentally rehearsed hundreds of times and vividly recorded in his diary.

2014 was also a memorable year for her. Everyone said that the year would pass by faster and faster, but Lin Mu herself didn't feel anything. Maybe it was because she wrote in her diary every day?

After all, she felt that Chen Junqian had helped her get her phone back at the beginning of the year, which was a very long time ago. Or perhaps it was because this event, which could be considered to have advanced the relationship between the two of them, happened on the first day of the Lunar New Year that the whole year seemed so fulfilling. Youwei moved into a new house, Wenyun's new book was very popular, and there were so many things she could remember... However, on her Christmas card, she would only write about the things between herself and Qianqian.

Just then, Zhu Wenyun pushed open the door and entered. As Lin Mu had expected, even faced with the conspicuously large stack of greeting cards on the table, she showed no surprise or confusion. After glancing at them, she sat down directly beside them, only casually remarking:

"Wow, it's huge!"

"Right, right? I bought the biggest one in the store on purpose."

Lin Mu, who was looking at Zhu Wenyun's natural smile, hadn't expected that the female lead in Zhu's completed new book also had this habit, and that Zhu Wenyun herself described her as follows:

Even if she herself is unaware of it, everyone knows that to others, this is her annual year-end summary, the person she reports to is her childhood sweetheart, and the content of the report is 'how much she likes him this year,' one of the most precious things in the long years they have spent together.

She even planned to fill the left tower of the castle with complaints about him, the right garden with words of encouragement, and then, in the most hidden compartment in the middle, write in the smallest font a sentence that you absolutely wouldn't notice unless you looked very closely... her secret.

Well, although the prototype was the girl in front of her, Zhu Wenyun knew very well that even the part of the plot she wrote in the book was something the other party couldn't do at all. Rather, it was a certain second female lead who preferred to use this trick.

Seeing that Zhu Wenyun was already taking the food out of the thermos, Lin Mu quickly closed the greeting card again. The magnificent castle instantly collapsed into a single piece, like a folded dream.

"I heard that Wen Yun's new book is about Weiwei? Is that true?"

Although Xu Youwei wasn't the type to tell everyone everything she said, Lin Mu was definitely one of the people she chatted with, or rather, 'bragged' about.' When Lin Mu asked her, Zhu Wenyun continued working on her tasks while calmly replying:

"Yes, but it's not just her, there's also Mu Mu."

"Huh? Me?"

Completely unprepared for Zhu Wenyun's answer, Lin Mu was about to press for more information when she saw Chen Junqian and Xu Youwei returning with dinner they had bought. So she quickly lowered her voice again.

When will we be able to see Wen Yun's new book?

"If everything goes smoothly, it should be published before the end of the year."

"I'll definitely buy it then!"

Although Lin Mu herself had long known that Zhu Wenyun's favorite thing to do was to adapt and rewrite the daily experiences of her friends into books, she had never felt that she had any stories worth writing about. More precisely, she didn't have any stories like Shen Nianqiu and Xu Youwei's. Many things were only particularly precious to her, so she was quite curious after hearing this news.

The renowned author, Zhu, who sold three more books with just three sentences, simply smiled. Chen Junqian, who had just walked in, happened to witness this scene. As he put down the fried noodles he had bought, he inquired of her:

"What are you talking about?"

"Nothing, I just saw Mumu's Christmas card this year, um—it's huge."

Hearing what Zhu Wenyun said, Xu Youwei, who was standing next to her, also became interested and ran over to her friend to see what was going on. Soon after, she also expressed the same sentiment as Zhu Wenyun.

"It must cost quite a bit of money, right?"

"It's alright, ninety-eight. It's enough for my meager allowance."

Chen Junqian also glanced at it, but what he really wanted to complain about was something else:

"I feel like my drawer in the room is probably too big to fit everything."

After all, these are greeting cards that unfold to reveal a three-dimensional castle. Even when folded for storage, they are definitely not as thick as a regular greeting card, which is just a sheet of paper. Moreover, the two of them would open them up again from time to time to look at them. So, naturally, they couldn't really use any heavy objects to press them down, otherwise, they would easily not be able to stand up after being opened.

That's why, after storing greeting cards from the past few years, the drawer in Chen Junqian's room, which was specifically used to store them, began to be overwhelmed. Although it wasn't completely full, looking at the huge, exaggerated castle in front of him, Chen Junqian really didn't have the confidence to hold it all.

If it were anything else, Chen Junqian could simply throw it into the room at the new house and everything would be fine. But as mentioned before, every year's Christmas card is something that he and Lin Mu would open and look at twice, so it's better to keep it in the bedroom.

"Should Qianqian put it on the bookshelf?"

"Okay, I'll tidy it up a bit later and make some room."

Unlike a girl who willingly stays under the bed, the traces Lin Mu left in Chen Junqian's room would naturally be placed in the most obvious places. His things were also placed in Lin Mu's room in the same way. This was something that both of them were used to. Therefore, even though the space under the bed and in the wardrobe was now empty, Chen Junqian would still subconsciously look for space in those more obvious places.

"By the way, I have something to do during evening self-study tonight, so Mu Mu doesn't need to change seats when she comes back to class."

"Hmm? What's wrong?"

"We need to go to the auditorium to try out the school's piano, for the New Year's Day performance."

"Oh, I understand."

As soon as Chen Junqian finished speaking, Xu Youwei saw Zhu Wenyun immediately turn to her and say:

"Then Youwei doesn't need to come here for tutoring tonight. It just so happens that your grades have improved recently. Well, you've been wanting to leave get out of class early, just like you've always wanted."

Seeing this, Xu Youwei rolled her eyes in annoyance, but she still agreed verbally:

"When I wanted to leave get out of class early, someone didn't actually let me. They just wanted to go and watch Qinqin play the piano. Go ahead, go ahead."

Her reason for saying that was quite simple. First, the two of them had been quite close recently. Second, since Zhu Wenyun, who was not a student of this school, could only come and peek today, she wouldn't be able to get in during the New Year's Day performance a few days later. Anyway, she and Lin Mu would be able to see her on that day, so she thought it was a small compensation for now.

So, after the bell rang for the first evening self-study session, Chen Junqian did not go back to the classroom with Lin Mu as usual, but went directly to the auditorium. He couldn't possibly bring his piano all the way here just for a New Year's Day performance, so he used the piano provided by the school. Tonight was also to test and familiarize himself with it.

When Chen Junqian and Zhu Wenyun arrived at the place, the latter discovered that there were two other people waiting there, namely Gu Lingguo and Chen Xi, who seemed to still be at school.

"Actually, I came from home after eating. As long as I wear my school uniform and tell the guard that I forgot my homework and came back to get it, I can easily come in. It would be strange if you asked Sister Yun if you are a student from another school but the guard always lets you in."

Although she seemed a little surprised by Zhu Wenyun's arrival at first, Gu Lingguo quickly started to liven up the atmosphere. In her initial plan, tonight was supposed to be just her and Chen Junqian spending time together. However, she was caught by her best friend Chen Xi when she went out, and then she found out that Zhu Wenyun had followed her when she arrived at the place, which made her feel quite melancholy.

"If Lin Guo were also a well-known writer and academic star in our city, then these things would be very easy for him to achieve."

"Tch, does a big Bilibili content creator count...?"

"If Lin Guo doesn't mind if some strange rumors suddenly start circulating in our school, such as 'this person is a fan of anime' or 'this big guy is still watching cartoons,' then he can give it a try."