I turned reality into a romantic comedy.

"Holy crap! This song!"

"Who played that sound system? Wow, that's awesome!"

Upon suddenly hearing the familiar singer, the previously lifeless crowd erupted in a few joyful shouts. After all, compared to other singers, the students of Ningzhong naturally felt a sense of kinship with Yiqiu, who had actually visited Guoning, in their support.

That's why, as soon as the intro ended, the boy holding the speaker opened his throat and shouted the first line at the top of his lungs, following the beat. Immediately afterwards, several boys next to him laughed and joined in.

At first, it was just a few teenagers having fun and joking around, but on the long and boring highway, the song quickly ignited a certain restlessness in everyone's hearts, so in just an instant, it seemed to spread like a tsunami.

"Speaking of which, wasn't this song written by Qianqian for Sister Shen?"

"Ah."

Upon hearing Lin Mu's question, Chen Junqian smiled and nodded. He then turned around to look at the crowd that had started singing together. His memories from his past life and the scene before him suddenly overlapped in a strange way. However, his position and mindset had also undergone earth-shattering changes. Even the singer had become one of his closest people.

"Feels pretty good? What's the name?"

"Huh? You haven't heard of it, Wen Yun? This song has been popular on Douyin for a long time."

"I don't watch TikTok much."

"It's 'Can We Be Together'."

As Chen Junqian answered, he joined the students who had already sung the middle part of the song in singing the lyrics loudly:

"Can I be with you? We have so many memories together—"

There's no reason why I fell in love with you, it just so happened that I was just beginning to experience love and met you!

The sound of hundreds of people singing together made the valley vibrate, startled the birds in the treetops, and made the scorching sun overhead seem gentle.

Everywhere you look, whether it's the top students who usually wear thick glasses and only know how to bury themselves in doing practice problems, or the students who are crying in the toilet because they failed the mock exam, or the sports students you always see on the playground, all of them are blushing, arm in arm, striding forward while looking up at the blue sky and singing loudly.

It was as if hormones suppressed for a whole year were unleashed in a frenzy before the college entrance exam, and the singing continued, wave after wave, pushing emotions to their peak at this moment:

I don't want my future to be without you; I only wish to be with you forever.

"While I'm still alive, while you're still willing—!!"

When this line was sung, the atmosphere on the entire highway almost reached its peak. Countless teenagers' eyes quietly shifted during the song. Some people, under the cover of the chorus, mustered up the courage to look at the back of the girl they had secretly loved for three years in front of them. Others, amidst the cheers, secretly tried to hold the hand of the girl next to them, only to burst into carefree laughter after being shaken off.

The anxiety of the college entrance examination, the weight of scores, and the uncertainty of the future were all thrown to the winds at this moment. The song turned into an invisible torrent, lifting up these tired but tireless graduating students and pushing them to run wildly toward the finish line.

"I don't want my future to not be with you..."

Lin Mu sang loudly with the crowd, but as he sang, his voice gradually lowered. He turned his head slightly, his gaze passing over Zhu Wenjun beside him and quietly landing on Chen Junqian's profile.

The midday sun shone on her childhood sweetheart's eyebrows and straight nose, outlining a youthful profile. A thin layer of sweat glistened on her neck in the sunlight, and her childish pink backpack hung on her chest, looking somewhat comical, yet exuding an unparalleled sense of security.

I met you when I was just beginning to experience love.

...I met you when I was just beginning to experience love.

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

PS2: My most vivid memory of my senior year of high school is when the whole class suddenly started singing this song during a field trip. That's pretty much all I remember about the word "youth".

Chapter 58: A Chinese-Style Romantic Comedy

The sun at the end of May had already taken on the unreasonable intensity of midsummer. The soreness from the long hike took two or three days to gradually subside from the boys' muscles. What followed was a farewell ceremony that was even more meaningful than the hike itself.

The weather that day was so clear it was almost blinding, without a single cloud. Nearly a thousand teachers and students from the senior year were taken in batches to the large square in front of the school's comprehensive experimental building, where a seven-story iron tiered grandstand had been set up early. Three specially hired veteran photographers, wearing sun hats, were directing the heavy panoramic rotating camera to adjust its level.

"For Class One, the teachers' chairs in the first row are arranged symmetrically on both sides. The class leaders will organize everyone to stand in order of height from shortest to tallest!"

A photographer was waving his hand at the bottom of the stands, shouting. Students who usually left their school uniforms zipped up or complained that they were too big were all dressed properly today. Their black and white summer short-sleeved school uniforms were washed until they were faded, and their collars were ironed flat. Lin Mu stood rightfully in the middle of the first row, her pretty face glowing white in the sunlight. Chen Xi was one seat to her left, while Zhu Wenjun, being the tallest, stood in the most upright position in the last row.

As a typical liberal arts class, there were only a few boys in the class, not even enough to form a row. So, when lining up, they were just randomly arranged according to height. Therefore, Chen Junqian, who had just appeared on camera with Zhu Wenyun not long ago, was naturally assigned to stand next to Zhu Wenyun this time... That's how it was supposed to be.

But whether it was because the homeroom teacher, Ms. Shen, genuinely liked this student she had taught for three years, or because she had made a mysterious deal with the two heiresses of the Guoning Three Fierce Xu Group, in any case, when it came time to take graduation photos, Chen Junqian was once again called to the front row with the school leaders and teachers, giving him a strange sense of déjà vu, as if he were sitting at the podium.

However, this meant that Lin Mu and Chen Xi, who could only stare blankly at Chen Junqian from afar, could now smile and put their hands on each other's shoulders when taking photos. Graduation photos don't usually mind students making these little gestures, and there were several people in the back row making funny faces and giving peace signs, so no one really cared.

After all, it's not like he suddenly walks out of the formation before filming and confesses his love to a girl in his class, or some kind of teen idol drama plot. But then again, it seems like he's acted out this kind of scene quite a few times in the past three years.

"Look at the camera! Three, two, one—"

"Class 1 of Senior Three, number one in the world!"

Amidst the unanimous shouts of the entire class, the rotating camera lens slowly turned, and with a crisp, long click, more than sixty spirited young faces were permanently imprinted on the film.

With the graduation photos successfully taken, the red countdown clock in the upper right corner of the blackboard, after being torn apart day by day, finally flipped to its final number on the morning of June 6th.

Only 1 day left until the college entrance examination

By this time, the senior high school students no longer need to attend classes. According to the unified arrangements of the Education Bureau and the school, the candidates only need to return to one of the test centers in Ningzhong at the specified time, find their corresponding test room for tomorrow's college entrance examination, confirm and verify their information to ensure that they will not go to the wrong place tomorrow, and then they can leave the school and quietly wait for the final battle tomorrow.

After several years of college entrance exam holidays, now everyone else is finally on holiday too. There are no more urgent school bells or deafening running slogans on the playground. When Chen Junqian, who was assigned to the Ningzhong High School exam site, came back to confirm the location, the whole campus was so quiet that he could clearly hear the hot cicada chirping from the dense forest behind the mountain.

At the school gate, a red-background, black-letter notice board was covered with a list of all the college entrance examination sites in Guoning City and the student assignments. A group of people stood side by side in front of the notice board.

"Great!"

Lin Mu looked at the exam room number on his admission ticket, breathed a sigh of relief, and patted his chest.

"Luckily, I wasn't assigned to the exam room in Jinzhong. If I had gone to those unfamiliar places, I feel like it would have been very troublesome to find my way around and the restroom. But at least we weren't in the same exam room."

"The probability of being assigned to the same classroom by chance is indeed very low, after all, there are dozens of classrooms from the first to the third year of high school."

After confirming their respective exam locations, the group found their exam rooms in an orderly manner. Chen Junqian stood at the entrance of the exam room for Class 1 of Grade 11, checked the candidate information sheet with his name on it posted on the door frame, and then walked into the exam room and sat down at table number 2.

After checking the exam venue, they could have gone back, but Lin Mu suddenly suggested that she wanted to go back to the classroom one last time. So Chen Junqian followed his childhood sweetheart back. In fact, they had walked this road thousands of times over the past three years, so much so that every step they took felt like rewinding the memories of the past thousand days and nights.

Seeing the classroom I had spent three years in again, the first feeling was a huge sense of disbelief and disorientation. Just a few days ago, this place was piled up with countless test papers, supplementary books, and draft papers, making it impossible to breathe. Now, it had been completely emptied and cleaned spotlessly. The clean and empty space only made it feel unfamiliar. The "Five-Year College Entrance Examination and Three-Year Simulation" books that were usually piled up to a meter high on each student's desk, blocking each other's view like a fortress, had all disappeared. The snack wrappers stuffed in the desks had also been packed up and taken away by their respective owners.

To meet the needs of tomorrow's college entrance examination, the classroom, which was originally packed with two students sitting together, has been rearranged by the academic affairs office into five rows and six columns of thirty individual desks, with neat spacing, in accordance with the standards of a standardized college entrance examination room.

The desks were separated by a straight aisle more than a meter wide, like rows of neatly arranged gray stone tablets. The afternoon sun, around three o'clock, slanted in through the classroom's glass windows, casting golden beams of light across the entire room. Invisible dust particles floated and swirled slowly within the beams of light. The floor was spotless, having been mopped clean, and still carried a faint smell of disinfectant.

Even for a moment, he couldn't find his own seat, since there were more than thirty desks missing. So Lin Mu could only find a seat nearby, pull out a chair and sit down. Just like countless tiring self-study classes in the past, he gently rested his chin on the smooth tabletop and hugged the cool wooden edge with his arms.

"I suddenly feel a little out of sorts."

"Ah."

Chen Xi, who had sat next to Lin Mu for two years, also sat down. However, the distance between the two of them had widened to the point that they wouldn't touch elbows when they turned around. Zhu Wenyun stared at the windowsill, where she had placed countless cups of cold and hot drinks. All the laughter, tears, repression, vows, and heartbeats seemed to be condensed into these thirty bare tables and chairs, quietly placed in the golden sunlight of midsummer.

Compared to the girls who were suddenly overcome with emotion by the scenery there, Chen Junqian was leaning against the railing in the corridor with Xu Youwei, who was not in the same class as him, looking out at the courtyard.

If he had to use one word to describe his feelings at this moment, Chen Junqian would probably choose "as if it were a lifetime ago".

"How are you feeling right now, Yoyo?"

"Hmm... I can't quite put my finger on it. I feel like I'm still thinking about what kind of questions might be on the exam tomorrow. Mumu said that Qinqin is really good at predicting exam questions, so can Qinqin guess what the essay topic will be for tomorrow's college entrance exam?"

"Let me think about it, if it were me, I would probably start with our generation, right?"

"Our generation?"

"Yes, this year is 2018, so most of the students taking the college entrance examination this year are the 'millennium babies' born in 2000. We are also the first batch of post-00s to come of age. I feel that just from this perspective, we can come up with a lot of related essay topics."

"That seems to make sense. I'll go back and check if there are any relevant materials and example sentences that I can use."

"If Youyou trusts me, you can definitely prepare more in this direction."

After casually revealing the essay topic for this year's National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) Chinese Language Paper 1, Chen Junqian turned his gaze back to the vast sky and suddenly thought of a game called "Chinese Parents" that was going to be released in a few months and spark a wave of interest in domestic indie games.

Taking that game as an example, they had already reached the final round.

Everyone knows that life ahead is incredibly long, and that college entrance exam scores don't absolutely determine one's future. But for these eighteen-year-old high school seniors who have just crossed the threshold of adulthood, this is the final chapter of their lives so far.

Of course, there will be new experiences and new troubles, as well as new happiness and joy, but as one of the girls in my class who was almost driven crazy by the high pressure complained the other day:

Even if I regret it later, that's a problem for the future. Let me take the exam now, hurry up and take it!

Good luck on the college entrance exam!

"Yes, good luck on the college entrance exam."

On the morning of the second day, the entire city of Guoning seemed to be silenced. Temporary traffic control was implemented on all the main roads leading to the test centers. Traffic police set up eye-catching warning lines at the intersections, and uniformed motorcycle patrol cars drove through the morning mist. No vehicles were allowed to honk their horns within two kilometers of the test centers. Even the usually bustling morning market vendors tacitly moved to more distant sections of the road.

During the four battles that lasted two days, Chen Junqian's small circle also adhered to the 'rules' he had set from the beginning: before the last exam was over, no one was allowed to discuss the answers, estimate scores, or even mention any words related to the exam questions.

On the afternoon of June 8th, Chen Junqian, who was sitting at the second table by the window, stopped writing after finishing the last letter. His English answer sheet was filled out perfectly, with every black pencil mark squarely in the center of the box. On the essay page, the standard and beautiful Hengshui style of writing flowed smoothly, without even a single ink mark for correction.

If reality were a game, the background music would probably be changed to an ending theme, and then a slideshow of all the scenes from childhood to the present would flash by. But even if reality wasn't a game, Chen Junqian's mind was indeed filled with all the years he had lived through. He even unconsciously leaned down and lay on the table. This leisurely posture made the students sitting next to him and the proctor on the podium feel awe. Is this the relaxed feeling of being the top student in the city?

At exactly 5 p.m., the exam officially ended, and along with the bell, the examiner's solemn and indifferent standardized announcement came over the loudspeaker:

"The exam has ended. Candidates must immediately stop answering. Please stand up and place your exam paper, answer sheet, and scratch paper flat on the table in order. Do not touch any exam materials or continue answering..."

The exam papers and answer sheets on the table were quickly collected. After confirming that the quantity was correct, the invigilator picked up the heavy, sealed box of exam papers, pressed the handle of the exam room door, turned around, and gave the entire room the first gentle smile in two days:

"Students, the exam papers have been counted correctly. You are... free."

Almost simultaneously, a tremendous roar, nearly capable of ripping off the roof of the entire building, erupted without warning within the entire Bo Xue Building.

"The exam is over—!"

"I've finished my exams! To hell with functions and derivatives! To hell with solid geometry!"

"A phone! I want to buy a new phone!"

The entire building descended into utter madness. No one cared that the proctor was still in the corridor. Hormones that had been suppressed for three years turned into a storm of revelry in an instant. Chen Junqian walked out of the exam room and went down the stairs against the flow of the frenzied crowd, where he bumped into his childhood sweetheart, who looked a little dizzy.

The moment Lin Mu saw Chen Junqian, all his previous thoughts about whether to choose B or D for the last cloze test miraculously vanished. Or rather, after the exam was over, his mind couldn't hold even a single question. No one cared about the answers or the scores. The immense sense of exhaustion and ultimate freedom after unloading a huge burden was like a raging warm current that instantly swallowed up all reason.

"The exams are over! Qianqian, you've really finished them all!"

Lin Mu grabbed Chen Junqian's sleeve, shouting and jumping, her voice trembling with excitement. Tears, for some reason, rolled down her cheeks, but against the backdrop of her ecstatic smile, they appeared exceptionally radiant.

"Waaaaah... I'm done! I'm finally done with the exam!"

However, these tears came and went quickly. In no time, Lin Mu wiped away her tears again, smiled at him, and raised her little face. By this time, the school gate was already packed with thousands of parents, relatives and friends who had arrived early, reporters from major media outlets, and traffic police and special police maintaining order, turning the entire street into a colorful sea of ​​people.

Countless banners fluttered in the early summer breeze:

"Warmest congratulations to the 2018 graduates of Guoning on their triumphant return!"

"After overcoming numerous obstacles, we finally see the dawn!"

Parents held large bouquets of vibrant flowers, the most numerous being golden sunflowers symbolizing success. Countless flashes of light created a dazzling sea of ​​light in the crowd, and cameras with long lenses were all aimed at each student walking out of the school gate. The sounds of sirens, cheers, cries, and camera shutters quickly intertwined to form a grand and passionate final chapter of youth.

At a glance, Chen Junqian spotted Chen Xi, Zhu Wenyun, and Xu Youwei, who had also emerged from their respective examination halls, along with Shen Nianqiu and Gu Linguo, who were waiting outside with their parents. As soon as Chen Junqian reunited with them, reporters noticed him and quickly brought a photographer over for an interview, wanting to ask this top student, who was almost certain to be the city's top scorer, about his views on this year's college entrance examination and his predictions for his results.

After answering two questions with a smile, Chen Junqian, facing the camera, gestured to the photographer that he hoped to take a group photo of them, and the photographer readily agreed.

So everyone gathered together, taking what looked like a group photo for the grand finale, and you could even feel the barrage of comments in the sky already displaying "The End is Over" messages.