I turned reality into a romantic comedy.

The girl was wearing the same oversized blue and white school uniform as Chen Junqian, with a beige down jacket over it. She had a red and white striped thick wool scarf around her neck. Chen Junqian hadn't forgotten to hand-knit a scarf for everyone this year either. On the contrary, Zhu Wenyun, who was sitting next to him, had already started to study some more ominous handmade items. If someone saw them, they would probably suspect that the two of them had already gotten someone pregnant.

As soon as Chen Junqian looked up, he saw Lin Mu already familiarly lying in front of him. Her bangs were slightly messy, and her hands were tucked into the long sleeves of her school uniform, with only a few pink and white fingertips showing as they rested on the edge of the table. The glow of the fluorescent tube shone on her fair cheeks, and his own face was reflected in her clear and bright eyes.

"Qianqian, do you know what day it is today?"

Seeing Chen Junqian look up at her, Lin Mu naturally ignored Zhu Wenyun beside her. To be honest, it was hard to say who was part of whom in the interaction between the three of them, so Lin Mu simply pretended that the other party did not exist, and Zhu Wenyun did not have any objection to this.

"This is the second anniversary of Mumu not being able to solve the last big question on her mock math exam again. Mumu always knew how to do it when I taught her. She just had to keep calculating using the method of subtracting the wrong digits. No matter how strange the final answer was, as long as the steps were correct, she should believe it was the correct answer."

"Yes, yes, I was practicing during evening self-study just now. I used up three whole sheets of draft paper, my hand is about to fall off."

Lin Mu pouted and rubbed her wrist, but her eyes kept secretly fixed on Chen Junqian's face.

A cold wind blew through the corridor, lifting a corner of his scarf. After making this joke, Chen Junqian didn't continue teasing his childhood sweetheart, and simply extended his hand:

"Merry Christmas, here's your greeting card."

In response, Lin Mu slowly pulled his right hand out of his down jacket pocket. However, he didn't take out a heavy and ornately packaged box like in previous years, nor did he pull out any small mechanism that required him to hold it with both hands. What was presented to Chen Junqian was just an ordinary off-white envelope.

The envelope was visibly thin; through the thin paper, Chen Junqian could even feel that there was only a single sheet of stiff cardstock inside, with a plain texture like the most ordinary sheet of letter paper in a stationery store.

"Give."

Lin Mu handed the envelope to Chen Junqian's chest. Chen Junqian subconsciously reached out and took it. In the past, his childhood sweetheart would always look proud when giving him a greeting card, like a child waiting for praise. She would even watch him with great interest as he opened each mechanism, wishing he would read the words behind each window on the spot, just like last year.

But today, Lin Mu simply clasped her hands tightly in front of her, as if she dared not look Chen Junqian in the eye. Her gaze was lowered to the school badge on the chest of his school uniform, her long eyelashes trembling slightly in the dim light. She mumbled softly, as if explaining, or perhaps trying to hide her rapidly beating heart:

"Because senior year of high school... is too busy. There are endless humanities exams to do every day, and the teachers are always watching me closely. I don't even have time to sleep, let alone build a big castle for Qianqian..."

So you have time to play games instead of sleeping during your lunch break, right? If it weren't for Chen Junqian himself working hard every day to extend the lunch break for all the senior students so they could sleep a little longer, I feel like someone would turn into a sleepyhead in class every afternoon.

"Ring ring—"

The piercing preparatory bell suddenly rang, pulling Chen Junqian back from his daze. The break time for evening self-study was only five minutes long, but it seemed that his childhood sweetheart in front of him didn't want this time to last any longer. As if she had found a reason to go back, she quickly returned to her seat. The action of pulling out the chair and sitting down was so violent that it made Chen Xi, who was lying down next to her, raise her head sleepily and glance at her.

"It feels like a love confession."

Renowned romance novelist Zhu Wenyun made a quick judgment on this matter. After all, her childhood sweetheart had been unconsciously building an ever-growing castle of Christmas cards under the guise of having more and more to say each year. Yet, in the most crucial and stressful year of their lives—their senior year of high school—she handed in such a thin piece of paper. This could only mean that the contents of the letter were quite important.

"Actually, Mumu asked me to help write a greeting card last year, but I told her that this isn't some kind of year-end summary report, and that she should just write down her true feelings. It seems she's improved again this year. Let me guess what it says. But speaking of which, I feel like Mumu probably confessed to Junqian offline before, right?"

Hearing Zhu Wenyun's question, Chen Junqian's thoughts and memories were pulled back to June of last year. Even though a year and a half had passed, he could still clearly recall the emotions he felt at that time. Compared to his best friend Xu Youwei, whom he still held a grudge against, Lin Mu had indeed conveyed that feeling to his heart in the most sincere way in just one time.

"Yes, I did confess my feelings."

Zhu Wenyun was not surprised by this answer at all. Rather, she knew very well that Lin Mu was quite traditional or down-to-earth in this regard. The two of them had to confess their feelings and establish a relationship before they could engage in intimate acts. So, considering the current progress of the two of them, it was easy to deduce this result.

"Is that a second confession? Or will it be a more direct love confession? After all, the synonym for confession, or the next step, should be proposing love."

It can only be said that the literary girl is indeed a literary girl. Even when she talks about vulgar language, she is very particular. Zhu Wenyun, who has experienced this feeling more than once, is actually quite interested in seeing Lin Mu's changes. She even has two short poems with the same title in her mind. The second half of the first poem is "Facing the night in front of the hall, I learn to worship the new moon."

Then, the second poem is, "Getting out of bed and putting on new clothes, she learns to bow to her aunt for the first time. She lowers her head shyly, tying her skirt ribbon with both hands." And speaking of which, her theoretical aunt seems to be right next to her.

Facing the literary girl who had already begun to show a mysterious smile on her own, Chen Junqian knew without a doubt that her mind was churning out nonsense again. After all, according to a certain sister who wished to remain anonymous, she had been using her clever mind to write countless completely unpublishable drafts over the years.

"...Let me take a look first."

Chen Junqian didn't care much about the teacher's gaze on the podium, so he simply took out the envelope again. After opening it, all he pulled out was a plain white cardstock, without even a pattern. The edges of the paper were neatly and cleanly trimmed, as white as the first snow that had never been touched.

Compared to the grand castles of the past, this small piece of paper, even if filled with writing, should not contain many words. However, the fact is that this greeting card was not filled with the girl's delicate handwriting. The entire white card has a large amount of blank space, and in the center of that huge blank space, there are only a few simple lines of black pen writing.

The handwriting is meticulous, stroke by stroke, and even at the turning point of a stroke, you can see the slight ink smudges left by the person who applied too much force.

However, before Chen Junqian could examine the contents closely, he noticed some things still left in the envelope after the letter was taken out. After taking them out one by one, he discovered that they were several flattened banknotes and a few coins.

One hundred, fifty, twenty, ten, ten—three one-yuan coins and one fifty-cent coin.

That adds up to 193.5 yuan.

For Chen Junqian, this is indeed a number he will never forget.

Time seemed to stand still at that moment. The sounds of the teacher explaining the problem on the podium, the chalk scratching the blackboard, the wind outside the window, and the scratching of the pen tip across the paper were all sucked out of the world in that instant.

After tearing down all the city walls, demolishing all the towers, and laying bare her most sincere, unreserved, and pure heart before him without any defenses, this is the only thing her childhood sweetheart says to him now:

[I lost my money to Qianqian, so if there really is a next time, Qianqian must remember to come find me. I'll definitely still like Qianqian, really, really.]

At 10:45 p.m., the bell finally rang to end evening self-study, piercing the night sky. The entire senior high school building seemed to be a giant beast awakened from its slumber. The noisy voices, the clattering of desks and chairs, and the zipping of schoolbags gathered into a torrent, surging through the campus where only they remained.

When the students, who had packed their bags in the last few minutes before get out of class ended, rushed into the lobby of the teaching building and saw the scene outside, a small commotion suddenly broke out.

"It's snowing!"

"It's really snowing! Look!"

Influenced by the male protagonist of a romantic comedy, it snows every Christmas in Guoning. Tiny white snowflakes drift down from the leaden night sky, slowly swirling and falling in the dim light of the streetlights, landing on the cold cement ground and on the students' black hair, turning this originally oppressive and dull senior year night into a fairytale-like tranquility.

Lin Mu, standing in the corridor, had half her face buried in a red and white striped woolen scarf, revealing only her bright eyes. She was also reaching out a hand wearing a thick glove to catch the snowflakes falling from the sky. However, when she saw Chen Junqian walk out of the classroom, her movements clearly paused for a moment.

The moment their eyes met, snowflakes, carried by a gentle breeze, drifted down between them, making it seem as if they were on the set of an idol drama.

Lin Mu's eyes flickered, and she subconsciously tried to shrink into her scarf. Her ears instantly flushed red. She didn't dare to look Chen Junqian in the eye, and she seemed restrained and uneasy, as if she was waiting for a crucial verdict.

After all, as the only one whose biggest secret was shared by her childhood sweetheart, she shamelessly wanted a definite guarantee for the next life, or even the next life after that. Even in "Eternal Love," there are various crematoriums where characters chase after their husbands or wives. But Lin Mu doesn't want any of that. Chasing after a wife or a husband is a scene she doesn't even want to imagine.

Chen Junqian didn't speak, but simply strode towards her, his youthful shadow enveloping her. Lin Mu's heart pounded in her chest, and she lowered her head even further, murmuring softly:

"...It's snowing."

Chen Junqian looked at the few snowflakes that had landed on her head, a slight smile playing on his lips, and then gave her his answer:

"Okay."

To outsiders, this was probably a completely nonsensical conversation, but Lin Mu, the person involved, knew very well what his reply was directed at. So he just stared at him blankly, and then saw the reflection of the falling snow in the other's eyes, the warm yellow streetlights, and his own reflection perfectly in the depths of his pupils, along with a vast expanse of brightness and gentleness.

No extra words are needed; all the sentiments have already been seamlessly intertwined.

Lin Mu's eyes welled up slightly, and the next second, an incredibly bright smile bloomed under his scarf.

"Ok!"

She nodded vigorously and leaned closer to him.

"Let's go pick up Weiwei!"

"But if it snows today, it might be difficult to ride a bike, right? Qianqian, do you want my mom to drive you guys home, and Xiaoxi too?"

"I think that's a good idea. Just leave the bicycle in the school's bike shed overnight; there's nothing else to do anyway."

"By the way, if Qianqian feels uncomfortable having others see that greeting card, she can destroy it when she gets home, but she still needs to keep the money safe."

Lin Mu felt like he was imagining something like if a third person knew about this, a pair of men in black would rush out like in the movies and kidnap Qianqian and dissect him. Since last year, Lin Mu had been very careful to protect this secret between the two of them, and he even stopped mentioning any related words in his diary.

"It would be such a waste to tear it up, I'll hide it carefully."

"That works too."

Lin Mu's hands, along with his own, had somehow already been slipped into the large, warm pockets of his down jacket. They were tracing the surface of the coins together, like children sketching on paper with pencils, the patterns on them gradually appearing in his mind.

That was a style that Chen Junqian was all too familiar with.

Three one-yuan coins and one five-jiao coin, for a total of four coins.

They are all in the shape of the national emblem.

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

Chapter 55: From this day forward, the world has changed!

Although the release date for "No Game No Life Zero" was deliberately chosen to be during the winter break, the winter break for Chen Junqian's graduating class was definitely different from that of ordinary students. As a result, it wasn't until February, almost the Lunar New Year, that he finally found an opportunity to get everyone together.

The movie has been in theaters for two weeks now, and the box office trend is becoming clear. Just as Chen Junqian predicted at the beginning, the No Game No Life IP obviously can't compare to Sword Art Online, which was released during last year's summer season. After all, Sword Art Online was a true anime that dominated the market in 2012. However, the movie's reputation is significantly better than the previous one, achieving good scores of 8.0 and 9.5 or higher on major rating platforms including Douban and Maoyan.

If we only look at the trend, it's actually on a slight upward trend. The estimated box office of 20 million is still profitable. After all, Chen Junqian saved a lot in various intermediate projects, including import and censorship, and controlled the costs. At the same time, Bilibili also sent him an invitation to purchase the streaming rights after the film's theatrical run. So, it can be considered a worthwhile investment. Moreover, Chen Junqian himself really likes this movie.

With the above mindset, even though Chen Junqian wouldn't go so far as to book out the entire cinema in Guoning for others to watch, he still made efforts to increase the number of screenings and import some merchandise and promotional materials. As a result, after the release, it attracted many viewers from other small towns and counties nearby, including Jingxian and Jixi. It seems that if a small comic convention were held at this time, the number of customers would be much larger.

However, since it had been released for more than two weeks, it could be said that those who wanted to see it or even wanted to rewatch it had already seen and rewatched it. Therefore, Chen Junqian did not even need to book a whole theater. He easily took the girls to enjoy the entire screening by himself. The group occupied the middle seats of the last two rows completely, and each of them had a different attitude.

Sitting to Chen Junqian's left was his childhood sweetheart, who genuinely treated this as a movie outing. She was holding a large bucket of popcorn. Compared to the other female leads, she was probably the least influenced by the world of anime and manga, having only recently learned a little about it from Lin Guo's wardrobe. Xu Youwei next to her was not much different, as she was currently studying the movie poster she had received.

To Chen Junqian's right sat his younger sister, who was currently listening to her friend's extensive explanation of anime and manga with a look of utter despair. She could even guess why Gu Lingguo was so excited, since the main story of this work called No Game No Life was supposedly also about a brother and sister protagonist, and she remembered being given an example by her friend a few years ago.

"The siblings will automatically explode if separated by five meters..." It sounded like a mysterious advertisement for an 8848 titanium alloy phone, but glancing at her brother sitting beside her, Chen Xi subconsciously reached out and hugged his arm tightly. This caused Shen Nianqiu, sitting in the front row, to pause for a moment when she turned to speak to Chen Junqian, before pretending not to notice and continuing:

"It seems like my younger brother's creative drive has actually increased since he entered his senior year of high school. But it's just that, well, the quality of some of his songs is, how should I put it, a bit... subtle?"

In response to Shen Nianqiu's inquiry, Chen Junqian, who had recently sent her a compilation of almost all the popular songs from Douyin over the past two years, casually replied:

"Sister can just choose which songs she wants to sing and post them. I mainly think they'll fit the style of Douyin better."

"It seems like my younger brother has always valued this software."

"Compared to when it first came out, it's already quite popular now, and it will become even more popular in the future. According to my prediction, it will remain popular for at least another ten years, and even when the history of the Internet is studied a hundred years from now, it will probably be mentioned separately."

"Is it that exaggerated... Fine, I'll listen to you."

After all, she was an industry insider, so after Chen Junqian explained, Shen Nianqiu temporarily put aside her doubts. Although those songs were indeed a bit strange, she had never been a pure person who pursued music with great ambition. Rather, her thoughts in this regard were closer to making more money and then stopping, just like Zhu Wenyun sitting next to her.

However, Zhu Wenyun herself didn't have the mind to turn around and talk to Chen Junqian like Shen Nianqiu did. Instead, she focused her attention on the movie that was about to start. After all, according to Chen Junqian himself, he wanted the final work she completed to be similar in its core to the animated film that everyone was about to see, which he had personally gone to Japan to import and lead the dubbing work of.

The lights in the theater went out completely a minute later, and then the screen lit up. After the music of the Dragon Emblem and the opening, the whole film was presented to everyone.

For the first twenty minutes of the movie, the entire theater was very quiet.

Although Chen Junqian kept his eyes on the front, he kept an eye on the people around him. After all, he had seen the movie more than once. He didn't have to worry about the mysterious Jiahao or the noisy kid that he had encountered when he secretly came to watch the movie. Even Gu Lingguo, who had read the original novel, was determined not to spoil the plot. Everyone watched the movie quietly and gradually became immersed in the narrative.

Chen Junqian still remembers that not long ago, on a whim, he went through the list of new anime series from recent to distant, reviewing his experiences over the years. When he occasionally clicked on "Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day" and saw the comments, when an anime was prejudicially labeled as a tearjerker or a depressing anime, the comments became "I cried here" and "I didn't cry here," ruining the atmosphere. It was as if someone was urging you to say "This is a tearjerker moment."

Therefore, he did not give any prior notice to anyone except Gu Linguo. However, it turns out that excellent works can touch people's hearts at first sight. Even when the ethereal and affectionate melody of the end credits song "THEREISAREASON" suddenly rang out, the light faded, the star cup appeared, and a new world was born in sacrifice, Chen Junqian still keenly noticed the expressions of several people who lost their composure.

The screen dimmed, and the credits slowly rose:

Dubbing Director: Chen Junqian

The moment the lights came on, no one stood up immediately. The seven people remained seated, as if they had just survived a fire that had raged for six thousand years, their body heat still lingering. Finally, all the lights in the theater came on at once, and the announcement that the movie was over and that the audience should leave in an orderly manner was made. Only then did everyone slowly come to their senses.

In fact, if you had to summarize this movie in the simplest terms, it's basically a story about a machine race that gains a soul and becomes a Boy Meets Girl. However, under this classic script, the No Game No Life movie also has its own story, and with the full support of the male protagonist of a romantic comedy, the production quality is quite perfect. It's truly a creation myth story that you'll feel something even after watching it several times.

"Qianqian is a big liar."

The first to speak was Lin Mu. Her eyes were still slightly red. She glared at him irritably, then pulled out a tissue and wiped her nose.

"I thought it was a comedy like the one you showed at the comic convention, Saiki Kusuo. It turns out it's this kind of movie. I've already had a hard time finishing my final exams, and now Qianqian has dragged me here to watch a tragic story."

Hearing the teasing from his childhood friend, everyone couldn't help but chuckle softly, instantly lightening the atmosphere. However, Lin Mu quickly composed himself, his expression turning serious as he added:

"But it is indeed a good story. I thought there would be a barrier to entry for this kind of theatrical version. After all, you have to know a few of the main characters to watch Detective Conan. But this one seems to be a complete prequel? The male and female leads are specific, and the world view is also introduced again at the beginning."