I turned reality into a romantic comedy.

"Why are you here so early? Didn't we agree that I would come to see you this afternoon?"

"You're not welcome."

"No, it's just that you would never eat at my house before."

"You said it was in the past, right?"

Xu Youwei casually picked up the palm-leaf fan beside her, adjusting the angle so that both of them could feel the breeze. While fanning herself, she rested her chin on her hand, looked at Chen Junqian, and gestured with her chin:

Where is my gift?

"Here."

Chen Junqian took a rather large conch shell from the bag next to him and handed it to Xu Youwei, then added an explanation:

"It is said that if you put it to your ear, you can hear the sound of the ocean."

"...It was clearly just the sound of the wind."

After listening to the conch shell near her ear for a while, Xu Youwei made this comment, but still carefully put it away.

Before Shen Nianqiu was even discovered by Xu Youwei, from Xu Youwei's perspective, Lin Mu and Chen Junqian had already gone on two consecutive summer vacations, each one longer than the last.

That's why she tried to change her approach. With Chen Junqian's parents clearly already biased towards Lin Mu, Xu Youwei decisively set her sights on Chen Junqian's grandparents.

Just as Chen Junqian himself could easily get along with Xu Youwei's maternal grandmother, the elderly are never stingy with their kindness and affection for their grandchildren's good friends. Moreover, Xu Youwei, in her pure and well-behaved nature, is a very likable child.

After half a month, just like what Chen Junqian could see, not to mention his grandparents, even the little dog that guarded the house was already in a state of being subdued.

After discreetly joining Chen Junqian's family dinner table, Xu Youwei, who also displayed impeccable manners, even leisurely sat and chatted with him for a while before pulling Chen Junqian away, riding their family's tricycle straight to their secret hideout.

All I can say is that if it had been Xu Youwei who went on this trip with him, the conversation in the hotel that night would probably have been about laughing on a tricycle, not on a bicycle. The girl sitting on the back of him was completely happy, and even made background noises like "ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh" when they went down that familiar big downhill slope.

He rode off to their secret hideout in a flash. It seemed that after he left, Xu Youwei had cleaned and tidied the room herself. The old bed boards were removed and replaced with a new straw mat. Now it was almost habitable.

Upon arriving here, Xu Youwei seemed to immediately enter a role-playing state, and began to ask Chen Junqian in a serious tone:

"Qinqin, do you know what the most important stored supplies should be in a doomsday shelter?"

"food?"

"Yes, food is also a very important aspect. By the way, I find compressed biscuits terribly unpalatable. I think if we really want to stock up, we should just stock up on instant noodles instead."

After this brief moment of distraction, Xu Youwei cleared her throat again:

"As the saying goes, if my neighbor stores grain, I store guns; my neighbor's house is my granary."

"For a post-apocalyptic shelter, the most important thing is definitely the stockpile of weapons."

As she spoke, Xu Youwei reached out and opened the drawer of the dressing table next to her, taking out two rather realistic toy guns.

Chen Junqian took it and glanced at it. It was the Hehuang brand toy gun that was popular a few years ago. He remembered that this brand was discontinued because it was too realistic and powerful. However, because it was expensive, he hadn't played with it much before. He played with another kind of homemade gun toy.

"I just bought this yesterday, but there aren't enough bullets."

Xu Youwei took out the plastic bag containing the small yellow, ball-shaped bullets and began enthusiastically teaching Chen Junqian how to load them. It seemed she had done a lot of research while she was alone here these past two days.

"...This thing is incredibly powerful."

After loading the bullets, Chen Junqian fired a shot at the ground to test their power. The bullet shattered into powder on the ground due to the force of the shot, leaving him somewhat astonished.

"Yeah, I heard that if you hit someone in the eye, you can blind them."

Xu Youwei was well aware that Chen Junqian always prioritized personal safety, just like when he stopped her from playing with snow spray with him back then. So, after saying that, she took the initiative to say:

"Don't worry, this is our shelter's ultimate weapon. We definitely can't take it out to use normally. We can just use it to smash bottles when it's just the two of us here."

"As for going out, does Qinqin know how to make bamboo guns?"

"They really do."

Rather than the 'luxury' he holds now, the bamboo gun was the toy gun Chen Junqian most often encountered in the countryside when he was a child.

After all, Guoning is the hometown of bamboo in China, and bamboo is quite common there, so you can easily find raw materials.

"Okay, let's make bamboo guns today."

After setting their goal for the shelter for the day, Chen Junqian and Xu Youwei went out. They got a sickle from Xu Youwei's grandmother, then chopped down two bamboo stalks, one thick and one thin, and started working.

Frankly speaking, making this kind of bamboo tube gun is even simpler than imitating many of the works in "Artistic Imagination" that they have been imitating in the past two years. It basically requires no technical skill and can be made in a few strokes.

But even though you have a gun, you still have to find the bullets yourself.

When Chen Junqian was a child, he usually used some kind of camphor tree seeds. These seeds look a bit like peppercorns. Before they mature, they are green, round, small, and hard, making them perfect for making bullets.

This thing was much less powerful than the toy guns from the Yellow Brand. So much so that the moment they found the bullets after they finished making it, Chen Junqian and Xu Youwei had already tacitly separated and started a chaotic gunfight on the ridges of the fields in the countryside. For a moment, the sound of bullets being fired could be heard everywhere.

Relying on his physical advantage, Chen Junqian was much faster than Xu Youwei in both movement and reloading speed. However, Xu Youwei was not the type to give up easily. With the former deliberately holding back, the two supreme beings fought until their Dao was worn away (the bamboo tube gun was almost broken) and their spiritual energy was exhausted (the bullets were almost gone) before they finally stopped, somewhat reluctantly.

While searching for bullets, Xu Youwei accidentally discovered the fruit of a plant in the countryside that was very similar to camphor seeds, but was purplish-red in color and softer in texture.

"This is pokeweed, right? Be careful not to sit on it, the juice of this thing has a strong staining ability, it's not easy to wash off clothes. When I play with it, I either use it as a firecracker or use its juice to write on the ground."

Having spent all his childhood winter and summer vacations in the countryside, Chen Junqian was no stranger to these natural toys that were readily available. However, his words only aroused Xu Youwei's interest even more.

However, she didn't intend to smash it on the ground or write with the juice. Instead, after staring at the small, purplish-red fruits for a while, she suddenly reached out, picked two of them, and handed them to Chen Junqian. Then she placed her right hand, back of its head, in front of him.

"Then Qinqin can use it as nail polish."

"Um... I want you to apply this for me."

Chapter Thirty-One: When My Hair Reaches My Waist (Part Two)

To be honest, Xu Youwei doesn't consider herself a girl who loves beauty. Even if she used to be, she had given up most of that after her mother's illness and death. Just like in her empty and plain room now, the only bright spot is the big teddy bear that her mother left her.

Time may not be a panacea that can heal all wounds, but the best medicine for healing wounds is indeed hidden within time.

Just like the teddy bear that gradually shrank in Xu Youwei's arms as she grew up, it seemed that things she had lost had been gradually found again, starting from the school anniversary performance two or three months ago.

There weren't many cars passing by on the country road, but just as Xu Youwei said to Chen Junqian, "Help me paint my nails," a common sight in this era, like the electric tricycles selling steamed buns and mantou, was driving by, collecting scrap metal in the city and countryside. The loudspeaker on the front of the vehicle kept repeating its announcement:

"High prices for long hair, old cell phones, radios, televisions..."

Seemingly stirred by something in her words, as Chen Junqian took the fruit from Xu Youwei and began to study how to apply it to his nails while avoiding contact with his skin (because some people may be allergic to pokeweed juice), she casually mentioned some things about herself and her mother.

"Actually, I used to have long hair, Qinqin, do you remember?"

"To be honest, I don't remember much about it."

"That's true. After all, we weren't familiar with each other at that time. Although we were classmates in the same class, and only in the first and second grades, it's normal that we don't remember each other."

As she spoke, Xu Youwei gestured with her hand to her chest:

"It was about this long back then."

"Qinqin, have you ever read a story like this before? It's about a child in the class who lost all her hair because of chemotherapy. To prevent her from being ridiculed, the homeroom teacher shaved her head first. I think that's what I was thinking back then, but I didn't succeed completely and only cut this part."

"Because my mom wouldn't let me cut my hair anymore back then. She said she hoped I could carry her share with me and continue to walk beautifully. But even now, I still don't have the habit of growing my hair long, and this isn't particularly short, is it?"

At this point, Xu Youwei asked Chen Junqian a question, which Chen Junqian simply nodded in response:

"Well, it's not short. Besides, whether it's long or short hair, it's up to Yoyo to grow it as long as she wants."

Actually, this was his honest opinion. After all, Xu Youwei wasn't exactly a typical tomboy. Although she didn't have long hair like Lin Mu or Zhu Wenyun, her hair was almost shoulder-length. He didn't have the same obsession as Nisio Isin (the original author of the Monogatari series) of having long-haired characters cut their hair short to highlight their growth, so he didn't have a strong preference for that.

"Yeah, and I think it's better to move around more now, since it's different from Mu Mu's time. We two should be spending more time running around outside."

As Xu Youwei said this, she seemed to be subtly testing the waters, as if she would immediately change her mind for him if Chen Junqian showed even the slightest preference for long hair.

However, Chen Junqian himself did not think this was a good omen, so he simply dropped the topic and turned his attention back to Xu Youwei's nails, starting to concentrate on using a small purplish-red fruit called pokeweed to impersonate nail polish.

[A Novice Makeup Artist's First Experience]

When your clumsy fingertips first touch her eyelashes, when the foundation in your palm becomes more difficult to solve than a math problem, when the many shades of lipstick turn into a puzzle more complex than a physics formula in your eyes, then congratulations, you have officially entered the battlefield of love called makeup.

Whether it's getting poked in the cheek by her sudden blink while applying eyeliner, or frantically applying loose powder to cover up a mistake and causing a mini sandstorm, or squeezing out a huge amount of BB cream into the palm of the hand without knowing the amount, novice makeup artists always make countless mistakes.

But you will always improve, become more skilled, and one day you will be able to personally transform that girl who is willing to dress up for someone who appreciates her into the most beautiful leading lady.

The temperature recorded by your fingertips is the limited edition color that you will cherish forever.

Condition for achievement: Personally do the makeup for any heroine who is suited for romantic comedies.

Although he really wanted to complain about the system's consistently idiotic judgment, Chen Junqian had already experienced firsthand the kind of chaotic situation a novice makeup artist described in the achievement's description.

After all, he was just helping Xu Youwei apply fake nail polish, and he had already shown a level of focus that was many times more serious and meticulous than he usually was when studying or taking exams. The difficulty of painting each nail was no less than that of taking on an Olympiad math exam.

Because the amount used was deliberately controlled, the final color effect on Xu Youwei's nails was a light, even slightly gradient, purplish-red.

Xu Youwei seemed quite satisfied with this all-natural nail art, but it was hard to say whether she was satisfied with the final result or simply enjoyed the process of him carefully holding her hand and applying the color inch by inch.

After being out and about for so long, the two of them were a bit tired, especially Chen Junqian, who had just returned by car that day. So after applying the cream, they bought two ice creams at a nearby convenience store and then slowly returned to their secret hideout. They lay down on the bed, which had been laid out with a straw mat, and started eating ice cream.

After all, there was two thousand yuan of public funds at stake, so it was only natural that the ice cream they bought today had evolved into the Big Torch. This thing should be one of the most expensive ice creams Chen Junqian had when he was a child. Anyway, his family hadn't approved much of it in his previous life, and after his rebirth, he ate it more often at Mu Mu's house. Both Yili and Bright Dairy's Big Torch ice creams tasted pretty good.

"Can Qinqin come and play with me tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow... is not a good time."

After considering his plans for tomorrow, Chen Junqian shook his head.

"I'm going out with my mom tomorrow."

"I see. Then there's nothing we can do."

Hearing that Chen Junqian had gone out with his mother, Xu Youwei felt relieved and continued to eat the chocolate coating on top of the torch through the packaging.

If she had asked one more question, she would have learned that Chen Junqian was going to the sales office to look at houses with his mother tomorrow.

They are about to move away from the wear-resistant factory area, away from the house where, besides the glass bottles, there are also words written by a girl with an invisible pen on the walls.

Before he discovered it.

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

"...So why is Mu Mu here?"

The next morning, around noon, Chen Junqian had just met his mother, who had taken a day off, in front of the Yunqi Jinyuan sales office when he saw Lin Mu standing there, holding his mother's arm and looking quite charming.

"I've come to look at houses with you. Knowing where the place is will make it easier to visit each other in the future."

"But I remember you have tutoring in the afternoon, right?"

"Yes, that's why I brought all my books. After we look at the house and have a meal, we can go straight to the tutoring center."