I turned reality into a romantic comedy.

"It seems to be a stationery set, but I haven't opened it yet. Then there's a 500 yuan bonus. Apparently, the essay may also be published in the Anhui Youth Daily, Primary School Students' Guide, or the Selected Excellent Essays of Primary and Secondary School Students published by a provincial publishing house. There will be additional royalties then."

Seeing Chen Junqian ask this question, Zhu Wenyun manually began to unpack the prize. Sure enough, it was a stationery set consisting of a high-end fountain pen and an exquisite notebook framed with a red ribbon.

"As for the prize money, my homeroom teacher already gave it to me. How about I treat you instead, since I'm the one who won the prize?"

"We're celebrating for you precisely because you won the award."

"Okay, I'll treat you next time."

Indeed, Chen Junqian felt there was no need to dwell on this matter any longer. After carefully putting away the certificate and prize, he led Zhu Wenyun away from the school's reception room where the interview had been conducted and headed towards the outside of the school.

"But I don't think I've ever seen Wenyun use a fountain pen before."

"Since I don't have one at home, I feel that this one is more of a commemorative item than a practical one. I don't think I'll really need it. I'll just put it on my desk when I get back."

"In that case, how about I give you a pen as a congratulatory gift for Wenjun's essay award?"

"Great, there's a stationery store right at the school gate. Even though it's the weekend, it should be open... and sure enough, it is."

Zhu Wenyun walked ahead to check the situation at the school gate and nodded in agreement. Then she took Chen Junqian's hand and walked in.

Unlike Lin Mu, who practically wore the words "poor student has too many stationery items" on his face and opened his three-tiered pencil case as if opening some kind of treasure trove, and even prepared several different pens to write in his diary at night, Zhu Wenyun wasn't particularly enthusiastic about stationery. Compared to flashy styles, she focused on cost-effectiveness, using whatever was easy to use and durable.

That's why today was almost the first time since Zhu Wenyun started school that she had browsed and observed the dazzling array of goods on the shelves so carefully, and for the first time she discovered that even the simplest pen could be made into so many cute and adorable shapes.

Whether it's a large-format pen that can freely switch ink colors, or an automatic pen with a cute Miffy pendant hanging on the cap, making you want to deliberately make bigger movements to watch it shake while writing, or even a type shaped like a whole carrot that makes you want to throw it to a rabbit to see if it will take a bite, Zhu Wenyun was a little dazzled by all the choices.

However, after carefully selecting for a long time, Zhu Wenyun finally chose another diamond pen that looked just as good as the crown pen.

As its name suggests, this pen has a cap inlaid with a dazzling red diamond-like decoration. Although it looks flashy, according to Zhu Wenyun herself, the pen writes very smoothly and is actually quite easy to use. She had used a classmate's pen once by chance.

Of course, whether she harbors any other romantic feelings for other girls remains to be seen.

However, since Zhu Wenyun had already chosen her favorite pen, Chen Junqian naturally didn't say anything more. After paying at the stationery store counter, he even put on a little bit of a solemn ceremony, handing the pen to her as if he were really giving her a diamond.

"If you buy the diamond pen, you'll have to eat the matching diamond candy."

Looking at the large, conspicuous diamond on the pen cap, Chen Junqian seemed to suddenly remember something. He pulled Zhu Wenyun to the small shop next door, which he often came to buy snacks and popsicles with Lin Mu at noon. Then, he easily found the one on the shelf that stood out among the candy snacks.

A diamond-shaped candy set in a plastic ring.

"Well, it's a bit troublesome to eat, you have to lick it bit by bit. Mu Mu usually puts it on her hand when she eats it, and licks it whenever she remembers. Anyway, she says it tastes pretty good."

After demonstrating briefly with his own hand, Chen Junqian placed the diamond candy directly on the other person's hand and then, mimicking Lin Mu's tone, said:

"I wish the diamond on my mom's ring was this big too," Mu Mu would say every time she ate.

“My parents didn’t buy a diamond ring when they got married, but my grandmother does have a gold ring that is said to have been passed down from her great-great-grandmother and is only passed down to the next generation of children.”

Looking at the extravagantly designed diamond candy on the ring that the other person had placed on her finger, Zhu Wenyun cautiously stuck out the tip of her tongue and licked it:

"It's actually pretty good."

"Okay, then let's find a place to have a good meal and ask Yun what she wants to eat?"

"Although that's what I said... I don't really have anything in particular I want to eat. How about we just go back and make some fried rice or noodles? My grandma's pickled vegetables from this year are ready to eat in the next couple of days. They'd be great with fried rice."

"Okay, let's go then."

They waited for a bus at the bus stop near the school gate and took it back to the vicinity of Zhu Wenjun's house. In the corner of her small courtyard, they moved the stone that was weighing down the pickling jar, which looked quite flavorful. After taking out a piece of pickled vegetable, the two of them quickly started working in the kitchen. They took a cucumber from the refrigerator, smashed it, and made a cold salad. Then they went to the nearby braised food shop and bought some ingredients. In no time, they had prepared a simple lunch.

However, when it comes to eating, there is no distinction between high and low food; what suits one's taste is precious.

For Zhu Wenyun, what she was most satisfied with was that she now knew all of Chen Junqian's likes and dislikes, just like how she would intentionally not put cilantro in her cold dishes.

Correspondingly, the other person will also intentionally cater to her tastes. This unspoken understanding is always more evident in the kitchen and at the dinner table, making her unconsciously immerse herself in it.

While eating, Chen Junqian heard the system notification in his mind, an achievement unlocking sound, which he hadn't heard in a long time.

The achievement "[Must-Have Bento Boxes]" has been completed 100 times, and is now considered to have unlocked another achievement.

This is certainly not the one that Chen Junqian has achieved the most among the repeatable achievements in his mind. After all, he and the four female protagonists have already completed the "Come... Ah" feeding and being fed achievement more than four hundred times.

But unlike other achievements:

This is the only repeatable achievement, "Essential Love-Filled Bento Boxes," that was triggered entirely by one person.

From the first time to the hundredth time.

It was all Zhu Wenyun alone.

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

During the summer of 2011, Chen Junqian was first dragged by Zhong Yu to become a 'black slave', accompanying him and two other netizens he had invited to start a fierce battle in the newly updated challenge mode of CrossFire.

Unfortunately, the four challenge mode maps recently released in CrossFire – 'Mysterious Camp', 'Water City', 'Valkyrie', and 'Valley of Death' – are actually quite difficult. Playing with random players without any coordination makes it impossible to clear the level and get the highest-tier crystal box reward; in fact, it's quite easy to fail.

Although Zhong Yu used his financial power from the beginning to gather dozens or even hundreds of resurrection coins, which were worth one yuan each, it was better to find acquaintances to play with than to revive random teammates. After all, it's better to keep the good stuff in the family. So Chen Junqian was brought over.

It can only be said that Zhong Yu is already showing the style he will have a year later, playing all night in the Giant City Ruins for his online girlfriend, just to get her a golden M249. He plays games day and night without stopping.

After spending two days with the other party, Chen Junqian himself couldn't take it anymore. After all, he was going to Tangshan to see his father in a couple of days, so he had to temporarily leave the four-person internet addiction group and let Zhong Yu go and get others to play together.

Although the final exam results are usually released a few days after the start of summer vacation, there are ways to find out in advance. After the papers are graded, the homeroom teacher usually invites two students he knows well to the school to help with the copying, since he is busy writing so many books about students' growth.

Because the results of this final exam were related to Lin Mu's summer travel plans, Chen Junqian took the initiative to register with the homeroom teacher. Then, on the third day after the start of summer vacation, he returned to school with the class monitor, Lu Cheng, and received a large pile of papers from the homeroom teacher that had not yet been sorted out. He then began to sort them out by name and start copying them.

"Speaking of which, you're first in the grade again this time."

Chen Junqian's test paper was indeed one of the easiest to find. After all, the row of checkmarks and the big 100 marks were quite eye-catching no matter where it was placed. It fully demonstrated to everyone what it means to be a top student with ample time to study, while you get 100 marks because you can get 100 marks, and I get 100 marks because the full score is only 100 marks.

"Well, I think everyone's gotten used to it by now, from teachers to students."

"Indeed, if you weren't first in the grade every time, people would probably talk about it more."

He seemed to be a seasoned veteran who often came to help. Although he was chatting with Chen Junqian, Lu Cheng's hands never stopped. He skillfully copied the scores one by one onto the roster and onto the corresponding names.

"Let me know when you see Lin Mu."

"Row."

Not long after, Chen Junqian saw Lu Cheng hand over all three exam papers at once:

"78 in Chinese, five points higher than the midterm exam."

"75 in math, two points lower than the midterm exam."

"71 in English, not bad this time. I failed the midterm exam last time. All three subjects are better than the midterm."

As he spoke, Lu Cheng raised an eyebrow at Chen Junqian again:

"Your contribution?"

"A little bit, but mainly it's because Mu Mu herself works hard."

After taking the test paper from the other party, I habitually browsed through all the wrong questions. I also paid special attention to Lin Mu's usually worst subject, English. I can only say that practicing the Hengshui style of writing for so long has indeed been effective. At least on the paper, it is easy to give the examiner a better first impression.

"As for the specific ranking, we'll have to wait until everyone's scores are tallied."

"Okay, let's finish this quickly and call it a day. After all, it's a wonderful summer vacation."

"really."

After some effort, the two of them worked together to transcribe and organize everyone's scores in the class. After clicking on the relevant software on the computer and arranging them in descending order, the class rankings were clearly displayed in front of them.

Xu Youwei's grades continued to improve steadily, as if sitting next to Chen Junqian gave her some kind of mysterious buff. This time, she even rose several places to reach the top ten, while Lin Mu had to scroll down with the mouse wheel to find her name.

"Twenty-eighth place is not bad. I remember I was in the thirties in the midterm exam, so there has been progress."

"Okay, then she should be relieved. I'll send her a message on QQ."

Lin Mu took out his phone from his pocket and sent Chen Junqian the other person's grades and ranking via QQ. Almost instantly, Chen Junqian replied:

"Yay—I can go out and play with Qianqian again!"

"Qinhuangdao, here we come!"

In response, Chen Junqian only glanced at the system achievement list in his mind again, after all, he had also figured out that this thing could indeed be used as a radar system sometimes.

Well, the achievement "[Of course, romantic comedies must have fan service]" remains unmoved, not even bothering to subtly tease it.

Please take one day off.

So far this month, I've updated 116,000 words, averaging about 9,000 words per day. I've been updating at roughly the same pace since the book was first published. Readers who have read my older books should know that I used to be a one-update-per-day writer, but now I've evolved to a two-update-per-day writer with great difficulty. I just don't know if I'll continue to evolve in the future.

However, as the title suggests, I've been under a lot of pressure since the book started, since it didn't do well at first. So I didn't dare take a single day off. Now that the first highly recommended novel is finished, I can finally breathe a sigh of relief, so I'm taking a long-awaited day off to rest.

Thanks to everyone's support, the book has performed much better than I expected. Actually, as I said at the beginning, this is a topic I've always wanted to write about, and this result is enough for me to write smoothly all the way to the end. Thank you again!

By the way, let me answer two questions:

First, stop asking about past lives. I've read a lot of rebirth novels myself, and I know that some authors do write about backstory plots that are absurd, but I definitely won't. Besides, if it were really absurd, the book review section would have been flooded with comments already. You can tell just by looking at it, right?

Second, this book is a harem novel. I never engage in stock market speculation or factional infighting when I write books. You can play around with themes like persecution, the main heroine, and who I'm really into, but in the end, it will definitely be a harem.

The cover will be changed starting next week. I'm releasing it in advance for everyone to see. It can be roughly seen as Mu Mu on a thundery day.

Chapter 18: The Secret Base is Actually the Wedding Room (Two Chapters Combined)

However, before Chen Junqian could begin his trip to Tangshan and Qinhuangdao, he had to give Xu Youwei a heads-up, as she was completely absorbed in another important endeavor.

Although he visited Xu Youwei's home during the Lunar New Year this year and received permission from her father that he could come to visit often in the future, Chen Junqian has not visited Xu's home again since then.

After all, even Xu Youwei herself doesn't stay at her house much. Every time she meets Chen Junqian on weekends, she either goes directly to his house or they meet outside.

However, starting this year, the latter situation has occurred much more frequently.

It's not that Xu Youwei was a little guilty and didn't want to run into Lin Mu, who also frequently visited Chen Junqian's house. After all, she always went to Chen Junqian's grandmother's house in the countryside more often than the employee dormitory of the wear-resistant factory, so the chance of running into her was almost zero.

The main problem is that Xu Youwei doesn't seem to have taken what she said during the New Year as a joke. She actually pulled Chen Junqian to establish a magical organization whose full name is "In order to prepare for the upcoming 2012 doomsday, we must build shelters in advance," which is abbreviated as "Doomsday Shelter."

Although this organization currently only consists of the two of them.

However, compared to some miraculous projects that have 'no script, no actors, and no start-up funds,' they at least had a full two thousand yuan in start-up funds, mainly because the red envelope that Xu Zhiling gave to Chen Junqian at that time was indeed quite large.

Since it's a shelter plan, the first thing we need is a fixed, secluded location.

Although the two had left various footprints throughout Guoning and established secret bases of all sizes, they were basically just talking for fun. After all, whether it was a water ball on the lake in the park, a swing on the sand, or a small alley that no one passed by at certain times, it was obviously not suitable as a place for long-term fixed use.

During this semester, Chen Junqian and Xu Youwei spent almost all their time after school looking for a base. The two of them went through abandoned construction sites, ran under bridges, and even almost considered renting a house. However, because they were too young and didn't even have ID cards, they had to give up on all of them.