I turned reality into a romantic comedy.

"Oh, I thought a student like my brother who is so good at studying wouldn't be interested in this kind of cartoon."

"It's not that bad, I'll still check it on my own initiative."

Chen Junqian felt inexplicably embarrassed to talk about anime and manga in public, even though no one around them was paying attention. However, being a relatively new otaku himself, he quickly changed the subject.

"My sister said yesterday that there are limited daily gifts available at the Japan Pavilion. What exactly does that mean?"

"I'm not sure about that either. It seems like we have to complete four hidden challenges or collect four hidden Easter eggs in the museum. Look, the first one is the crested ibis statue over there. We'll go try it out in a bit and we'll find out."

As they spoke, the two of them slowly lined up at the entrance. Just as the crested ibis statue spread its wings to welcome Shen Nianqiu, she reached out and covered the sensor on the left side of the statue for a few seconds. As a result, the crested ibis wings that had just spread out suddenly paused, and then a cherry blossom pattern flashed on the projection screen. Sure enough, there was a hidden Easter egg.

Seeing this, Chen Junqian followed suit. After confirming that he had also triggered the same hidden easter egg, he and Shen Nianqiu entered the venue together.

"I heard from others that only the first 300 people to do these actions each day can trigger the hidden Easter egg. It seems we're pretty lucky today... Let me see, according to the guide I found online, the next Easter egg should be located there."

Following the direction Shen Nianqiu pointed, they saw a robotic musician standing on the stage, holding a violin with a mechanical arm. The vibrato produced by his metal fingers on the strings was the tune of "Jasmine Flower." The two of them found a seat near the right side of the stage as Shen Nianqiu suggested and sat down, then quietly enjoyed the robot's performance.

As the song ended, the robot stood up and bowed to the audience to take its bow. Just as the audience was about to leave, Shen Nianqiu, holding Chen Junqian's hand, quietly took advantage of the situation and ran to the voice control pillar on the right side of the stage. She whispered the Japanese word 'Sakura' to it, and then saw the robot on the stage turn its head and wink at the two of them. It seemed to be a hidden Easter egg after all.

"Then, there's that little game."

After successfully collecting the second Easter egg, Shen Nianqiu didn't stop and ran to the cherry blossom wall on the far left of the children's interactive area. It was an interactive mini-game similar to whack-a-mole, where players needed to continuously tap the cherry blossoms moving on the screen. They only needed to tap five cherry blossoms in a row within ten seconds to pass the level.

Of course, since it was originally a game designed for children, the difficulty was not high at all. Except for being distracted by the third cherry blossom that suddenly accelerated the first time, the two of them completed the game very quickly. Then, they put the blank Expo passport book on it as instructed. When they took it out, there was a dorayaki stamp on it.

"It's Doraemon, isn't it?"

Even someone like Shen Nianqiu, who doesn't actively seek out Japanese animation, could recognize this ridiculously popular work at a glance.

"I've been craving this dorayaki since I was little."

"Indeed, it looks incredibly soft, sweet, and fragrant."

With only one step left to collect all the items and redeem the limited-edition gift, Chen Junqian and Shen Nianqiu chatted as they continued walking towards their final destination, before stopping in front of the touchscreen in the exit corridor.

The game here is an electronic origami game. Players need to fold origami into the shape of a paper crane. Once successful, they can see their paper crane flying around Mount Fuji on the screen. To unlock a special Easter egg, players need to deliberately fold a paper crane with asymmetrical wings in the hard mode.

The only problem is that Chen Junqian doesn't know how to do this at all.

But Shen Nianqiu was quite skilled at it, to the point that Chen Junqian almost wondered if every girl knew how to fold such little things. After all, there was still a glass bottle of origami cranes and little stars that Lin Mu had given him on his bookshelf.

After following Shen Nianqiu's instructions step by step to complete a paper crane with crooked wings, it flew shakily on the screen for a while before suddenly exploding into a shower of cherry blossoms, and the words "Congratulations" appeared simultaneously in both Chinese and Japanese.

"Much more from Europe and America, much more from Europe and America?"

"So Qianqian can speak Japanese?"

"...just a little bit?"

After all, he had a Japanese-style anime system in his head, and he did have a mysterious achievement called "[Congratulations, Congratulations]", but it looked like something someone his age couldn't have accomplished, so Chen Junqian put it at the very bottom of his priority list to gather dust.

In any case, after collecting all four hidden Easter eggs, the two slowed down and chatted and laughed as they arrived at the souvenir shop on the basement floor. After showing their passports to the staff and explaining their purpose, they were given one of the three hundred daily limited-edition gifts without any hesitation.

It is a metal cherry blossom petal, about the size of a coin, housed in a small transparent box. Its surface is coated with a nano-coating that changes color with the light. If you shine a mobile phone flash on it, you can also project the outline of the Japan Pavilion onto the ground. The craftsmanship is quite exquisite.

The souvenir shop next door also sells regular metal petals, but they don't have the color-changing function; that's what makes them so limited edition.

Since it was something she got for free, and it was a limited edition she got together with Chen Junqian, Shen Nianqiu seemed quite happy. She held the cherry blossom in her hand, held it up to the light, and looked at it again and again. She even asked the staff to take several photos of the two of them together.

The background music in the souvenir shop on the basement floor was very nice, but at this point, Shen Nianqiu could only understand the constantly repeated phrase "Sakura".

However, Chen Junqian recognized the music because after watching Clannad this year, he had seen a fan-made edit on an online video platform, and the background music of that video was the same song playing in his ears right now.

Facing the camera lens held up by the staff, Chen Junqian once again raised the cherry blossom petal in his hand and placed it next to the one held up by Shen Nianqiu beside him, freezing this moment in time.

Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms, I want to see you.

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

That evening, Chen Junqian and Lin Mu went to the Belgium-EU Pavilion, which was adjacent to the French Pavilion, mainly because they had heard on their way back the night before that they could get free chocolates every night.

However, when the family arrived at the scene, they found that the scene was much more spectacular than they had imagined. The liquid chocolate waterfall, which was only open from 8 pm to 9 pm, was 2.5 meters high. It is said that it consumes more than 200 kilograms of high-quality Belgian chocolate every day. The rich and mellow taste made Chen Junqian feel that if he didn't stop his little Lin Mu, he would jump in.

After receiving the chocolate from the staff who were making chocolate chips on the spot using copper shovels, Chen Junqian recalled a chocolate-related achievement in his mind.

Valentine's Day Chocolates

Whether it's Christmas, New Year's Day, or Valentine's Day, holidays always play a significant role in romantic comedies, resulting in a multitude of memorable scenes, with Valentine's Day chocolate being a prime example.

Whether it's the tsundere heroine saying, "This is just a obligatory chocolate," the straightforward heroine saying, "This is my special chocolate that I'm only giving to you," or the more mysterious younger sister character saying, "Choose either my obligatory cannon or my special chocolate," romantic comedies featuring chocolate and Valentine's Day are countless, making it hard not to look forward to them.

Condition for achievement: Receive chocolates from the female lead who is suited for romantic comedies on Valentine's Day.

Chen Junqian initially thought he could try to fool this embarrassing system again, so he swapped the chocolate in his hand with Lin Mu's, but as expected, he still couldn't trigger it.

It seems that the condition of Valentine's Day is still a bit too restrictive. I should have found an excuse to have Xu Youwei make a fake move to fool the system on the first day of the Lunar New Year, which is also Valentine's Day this year. There are chocolates in my family's New Year's divination plate. After all, it is estimated that there will be no good opportunity for Valentine's Day to coincide with the Lunar New Year for a long time to come.

Like the French Pavilion next door, the Belgium-EU Pavilion here also has a central garden. In the evening, when the night falls, fifty glowing resin Smurf sculptures will be hidden in the bushes. You can collect five of them and exchange them for a badge.

And so, Chen Junqian and Lin Mu, who had already started humming "There's a group of Smurfs on the other side of the mountain and the other side of the sea," began to look for the Smurfs. Chen Junqian also managed to resist his habit of randomly changing nursery rhymes, which his younger sister had complained about before, and did not add any strange lyrics such as "They kill and set fires."

While the two children were searching for the Smurfs on the other side of the mountains and the sea, Chen Jun and his wife went straight into the Belgian beer laboratory next door and began to taste the Brussels Night Stout, a special nighttime cocktail.

There was no way around it. Since being promoted to workshop director, Chen Jun himself had a lot more social engagements involving drinking. Even though he wasn't particularly fond of alcohol in the past, he was forced to learn to drink a little due to work requirements. Not only Chen Junqian, but Lin Mu also deeply agreed with this.

"Actually, my dad sometimes comes home drunk, but luckily my mom doesn't drink, so she drives him home. I can hear her coaxing him to sleep like she's coaxing a child every time he comes home."

Unlike Xu Youwei, whom he had met at Lin Mu's birthday party last year, who vehemently opposed drinking, Lin Mu seemed less strict and even found it somewhat amusing, continuing with great enthusiasm:

"Qianqian, do you know? Don't let my dad's serious demeanor fool you. When he's drunk, he clings to my mom like a little kid and calls her by her nickname. It's so funny."

"Isn't there a saying that people speak the truth when they're drunk? This should mean that my parents have a pretty good relationship, right?"

At this point, Lin Mu glanced at Chen Junqian's profile again, wondering what he was thinking.

"Then your dad's drinking behavior must be pretty good. After all, many people just go crazy when they drink, and it's not uncommon for them to do things like domestic violence. Moreover, compared to speaking the truth when drunk, I think there's a greater chance that they'll subconsciously say something more hurtful when they're drunk."

"...That's true."

Lin Mu felt a little wronged after Chen Junqian replied with such a long message. After all, she didn't really mean to say that drinking was a good thing. She just sometimes found it interesting that her usually manly father suddenly turned into someone who could only rely on his mother. After all, even people who are always taken care of have moments when they want to take care of others.

...I just want this kind of situation, whether it's getting drunk or accidentally getting sick.

She would also want to press her head against his forehead to check his temperature, then tuck him in, sit on the edge of the bed and pour freshly boiled water from one cup to another and back again to speed up the cooling process to the right temperature, then coax him by saying:

"Qianqian, you have to be good when you take your medicine. Don't be so careless with your health next time."

Just like the Little Prince in "The Little Prince" who watered the only rose on the entire planet every day, after all, there has to be a moment like that.

in case……

Unconsciously, Lin Mu wrote those two words in her diary again, but the next second, she erased them with her Miffy eraser.

Even during her trip, she never gave up her habit of writing in her diary every day. However, due to the complexity of her thoughts and the variability of her ideas over the past two days, Lin Mu had to change her writing method. She would first write it down with a mechanical pencil, and then copy it down with a mechanical pencil after she felt there were no problems.

How could she have such thoughts?

She quickly shook her head to clear the "what if" from her mind. She even felt a little ashamed for having such a thought, since it was practically the same as drawing a circle and cursing someone.

And so, tonight's diary entry comes to an abrupt end.

Chapter 69: The World Line Changed (Part 2)

In the following days, Chen Junqian and Shen Nianqiu went to the Swiss Pavilion to ride a real cable car, hugged an electronic koala at the Australian Pavilion, saw African mask painting and primitive dances, and touched the Charles Bridge and listened to the local classic fairy tales at the Czech Pavilion.

The two of them tried out almost everything they could in the limited time available. Unlike the previous two days when they rushed straight to the popular venues, in the latter half of the day, they opted for less crowded, less popular venues, in order to spread their footprints as far as possible across the entire global village.

Chen Junqian didn't miss out on the evening either. Whether it was enjoying free slices of Spanish ham and watching flamenco at the Spanish Pavilion, watching the simulated aurora borealis in the outdoor exhibition area of ​​the Canadian Pavilion, or appreciating performances from various European countries such as French chanson and Irish tap dance in the European Square, all of these were unique and exclusive memories between him and Lin Mu.

But even the longest vacation will eventually run out.

On the last afternoon, Chen Junqian and Shen Nianqiu did not visit any more exhibition halls, but instead wandered aimlessly throughout the entire Expo site.

Even though he had introduced his parents to Shen Nianqiu on the first day, Chen Junqian had not met Shen Nianqiu's family even once until the last day before he was about to leave, and they hadn't even mentioned them much.

However, since Shen Nianqiu herself didn't say anything, Chen Junqian wouldn't be so tactless as to ask. After all, every family has its own troubles, and his contact with her would return to the internet after today's event. Even if he knew the details, there was nothing he could do to help.

"Is it the train tomorrow morning?"

"Yes, the train leaves at nine in the morning, so there's no need to rush. I can sleep a little longer at the hotel."

At this point, Chen Junqian unconsciously thought of Lin Mu again.

After all, during this trip, he did manage to grind through the "Time to get up" achievement. Every morning, Lin Mu would get up first and then come knocking on his room door to wake him up.

As for why Chen Junqian could sleep so soundly, it can only be said that he could easily rack up achievements by doing so. Even if he was pretending to be asleep, he had to put in a lot of effort to do so.

"Then I should be able to get home by noon tomorrow, right?"

"more or less."

After exchanging a few dry and meaningless words, the two fell into an awkward silence once again.

Although the distance between Guoning and Lin'an is not that far compared to the vast distances of the north and south, it is still a province away. Considering their current age and financial situation, it is really impossible for them to have a spontaneous reunion.

"If I were in junior high, I would probably have to live on campus."

"The good news is that I might be able to sneak in a cell phone and chat with you every night, but the bad news is that I probably won't have any free time except during summer and winter vacations."

After a long while, it was the older sister who spoke first.

"So, how about I sneak out of the hotel tonight to find you?"

"How could they sneak out like that?"

"Yes, because my dad and mom share a room, and I have a room by myself."

Although Chen Junqian could understand Shen Nianqiu's desire to spend a little more time with him at this final moment, he couldn't immediately agree, because Lin Mu wouldn't accept such a thing.

Without a doubt, Lin Mu is a very generous and easily satisfied child. Apart from a couple of subtle behaviors in front of Zhu Wenjun, she rarely interferes with Chen Junqian's affairs or time, such as his time with Xu Youwei after school.

On the other hand, she always values ​​the time that is rightfully hers. If Xu Youwei or Zhu Wenyun were to say to her after school one day, "Don't go to after-school care today, come to my house for lunch," she would probably bristle and arch her back to express her dissatisfaction.

"It's because of that child, Lin Mu, Mu Mu."

Seeing that Chen Junqian didn't immediately agree, Shen Nianqiu quickly guessed the reason for his hesitation and then smiled quite easily, even reaching out to ruffle Chen Junqian's hair:

"Then forget it. I don't want to be a sister who makes my younger brother feel troubled and puts him in a dilemma."

After saying this, just like when they first met a few days ago, Shen Nianqiu once again took the initiative to reach out and hug Chen Junqian.

Whether it was because the past few days had made them more familiar with each other, or for some other reason, she felt that Chen Junqian made her feel more at ease and wanted to get closer to him than when they first met. In addition, since there was no one else around this time, the hug lasted longer than before.

After a long while, just when Chen Junqian was about to utter the classic line from some mysterious achievement, "I can't breathe," Shen Nianqiu finally belatedly released him, cupped his face in her hands, lowered her body, and pressed her forehead against the tip of his nose. At this close distance, where their breaths could be clearly heard, she spoke her last words before parting:

"Next time, let's go see the stars together again."