I turned reality into a romantic comedy.

The more Chen Junqian chatted with Gu Lingguo, the more he could sense a certain indescribable quality about the other person. After all, many adults cannot speak clearly and express themselves clearly. Moreover, while speaking, the child maintained a sincere and polite eye contact with him, somewhat like Mu Mu's behavior in front of strangers, but not exactly the same. It naturally gave people a pleasant and comfortable conversation experience.

If we were to define it, it would be what we call emotional intelligence.

This is a child with high emotional intelligence, and so far, it's quite comfortable to get along with him.

After making this initial judgment in his mind, Chen Junqian reviewed the system in his mind again, but it was still pretending to be dead and showed no intention of recruiting a new female lead.

"By the way, can I go into your room, brother? I'm currently renovating my new room and I'm curious about what a boy's room looks like."

"That's alright, but actually I haven't moved all my own things in yet. Right now, there's only half a bookshelf of books in the room."

"Yes, Xixi often says that you love reading, so you know a lot and your grades are also very good."

As she spoke, Gu Lingguo followed Chen Junqian into his room. Just as Chen Junqian had said, apart from the bedding on the bed and half a bookshelf of books, the other decorations had not yet been started, and the wardrobe was empty. So she naturally walked to the bookshelf, as if she wanted to find something in it.

"Oh—so my brother subscribes to magazines like this too."

Seeing Xia Lingguo flipping through the magazines on his bookshelf with great interest—most of which were either temporarily stored by Xu Youwei or brought to his house to read together and then forgotten to be taken back—Chen Junqian didn't think much of it. He just suddenly felt that the scene before him resembled a classic scene from some romantic comedies he had read, and even had it recorded in his achievements list.

[Health Check]

In fact, in traditional romantic comedies, when the female protagonists first enter the male protagonist's room, the first thing they do is, while saying something like, "Well, a boy's room should definitely have that, right?", they begin a mysterious search while he goes down to pour tea.

But whether one genuinely wants to investigate the sexual fetishes of their crush, or secretly hopes to find a type that corresponds to their own, is another matter entirely.

Condition for achievement: Have any of the heroines with romantic comedy abilities check the room for any hidden strange books and items.

It can only be said that this is another Japanese achievement that would be difficult to achieve in China. After all, with the popularity of the Internet, learning materials are already in the cloud. Moreover, he is not yet of age for the Holy Grail War. There are no strange items or books in the room. He can't very well write out a mysterious article about "Abin's high school grades are not ideal" or "Bai Jie is twenty-four years old this year and graduated from a local normal college" just to achieve this achievement.

Moreover, Mu Mu, who goes to his room most often, would never have such thoughts or behaviors. Two months ago, his mother said that Xu Youwei came to the house several times when he was not home and stayed in his room for a while. But Chen Junqian was not there at the time, otherwise he might have had a chance to fool her.

"Wow, there's even a Japanese textbook! Is my brother planning to study a less commonly taught language when he takes the college entrance exam?"

Gu Linguo's words brought Chen Junqian's thoughts back to reality.

"No, I'm just learning on my own. After all, some things are not very convenient to read without localization."

It's fair to say that when Japanese art is mentioned at this time, the only thing that comes to mind is something like "A Well in the Mountains" or "The Name of the Void." So, after saying that, Chen Junqian realized the ambiguity in his statement and was about to explain when the other person leaned closer, giving him a look of confirmation.

"I understand. What my brother wants to translate and watch are the new anime series that air each season in Japan, right?"

Before Chen Junqian could react, the other person ran to the door again, changed their shoes, and unlocked their own door with a key, seemingly to get something. Two minutes later, they returned and carried in a rather heavy-looking book box.

Upon opening it, one finds layers upon layers of supplementary teaching materials such as textbook explanations, gifted courses, elementary school innovation guides, and colorful classrooms. However, after taking all these books out, what lies at the very bottom is a thick stack of comic magazines.

From "Anime City" to "Dynamic New Force" (later renamed "Dynamic New Era") and then to "Anime Fever," the bottom of the entire book box was filled with anime-related magazines, featuring characters that would be quite familiar to acquaintances but completely unknown to outsiders, such as EVA, Code Geass, Touhou Project, and characters from the latest anime series.

Then came a large stack of CDs, which were all included as freebies with the magazine.

Unlike other popular print magazines of this era, anime and manga magazines related to the two-dimensional world come with a CD containing programs produced by the editorial department, newly recorded anime series, and even collections of Galgames and numerous CM series illustrations. As a result, a single copy often costs more than 20 yuan, and the deluxe edition can even sell for 40 or 50 yuan.

"...We probably haven't met more than a few times."

"Actually, when I'm bored, I sometimes secretly listen to my brother and that senior student Zhu's conversation after class, and then I notice whether you are also a fan of otaku culture. It probably started when my brother mentioned that Haruhi Suzumiya appeared in the promotional video for the Japanese Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo when he was chatting with her."

"Although I always thought that a model student like my brother, who is good at studying, has good grades, and good character, doesn't seem like a typical otaku, there are always such contrasting characters in many works, right? I never thought it would be proven today. My brother is just like me, and like me, he has never told anyone before, right?"

It feels a bit like the opening plot of an anime I watched a year ago called "My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute," but it seems completely different because these hobbies weren't suddenly discovered by someone; rather, she took the initiative to confess them.

More importantly, the other party understood these things from the very beginning.

"But it's okay. From now on, we'll be just the two of us. Please feel free to talk to me about these things, brother. Of course, I also have a lot to say to you. This is our secret."

As she spoke, she raised her little finger at Chen Junqian.

At the same time, the system also began to officially collect information on the girl named Gu Lingguo and to rate her.

Speech adaptability: A.

Action adaptability: A.

Personality adaptability: A.

Appearance... Basic abilities... Adaptability to romantic comedy...

As if it had encountered some kind of bug, the system, which was in complete chaos, fell silent again, and the half-finished file of the female protagonist disappeared without a trace once more.

Data entry failed.

Chapter 42: Birthdays One Day Apart (Part 2)

"and then?"

"And then what?"

"It's about what happened between you and that Gu Lingguo."

"We became friends in a fairly ordinary way?"

It was Monday again. Lin Mu was particularly curious about who his new neighbor was, and he would be going to visit her new home next week. So Chen Junqian didn't hide the fact that he had met such a girl from his childhood sweetheart, and besides, there was nothing to hide anyway.

After all, Mu Mu really couldn't understand their anime-related topics.

"I didn't know there were so many different kinds of animated films."

Today's main dish is braised winter melon, which Mu Mu seems to like quite a bit. While munching on it, she turns her gaze to the TV, where "Lilo & Stitch" is playing. This is the next show chosen by the children themselves after "Super Beast Force" finished airing. It has been shown in the animation world before, and together with "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "Jackie Chan Adventures," it should be considered one of the three most popular animation shows in their tutoring class.

"So only Japanese anime is considered '2D'? Doesn't Stitch count?"

"It depends on whether this definition is narrow or broad. But what I talked about with her was mostly Japanese anime, and it was anime with a season as the time unit, with one episode released every week, and a season of anime with about twelve or thirteen episodes."

"Huh—is it that short?"

For children like Lin Mu, who are used to watching large-scale domestic animated series with 52 episodes, or episodic series like "Lilo & Stitch," "SpongeBob SquarePants," and "Jackie Chan Adventures," which often have hundreds of episodes, a 12 or 13-episode animation, especially with one episode released every week, is indeed a bit hard to imagine.

"But I remember that the anime I watched before, like 'Detective Conan,' 'Pokémon,' 'Digimon,' 'Cardcaptor Sakura,' and 'Shugo Chara!,' were also very long."

"Because some of them are long-running IPs that are still being serialized, while others have already had several seasons. When they were introduced to China, they were automatically compiled into a collection. Mu Mu saw something like that, just like Naruto and One Piece."

Although Chen Junqian offered this explanation, Lin Mu still seemed to understand but not quite. However, she didn't delve too deeply into the matter and instead shifted the topic to that specific person.

She said she was Qianqian's friend.

"Yes, I asked Xiaoxi later, and she is indeed her good friend."

Speaking of this, Chen Junqian recalled the information his sister had sent on QQ that was related to the other party's family. However, there was no need to tell Mu Mu these things, since it was another situation that the other party had never seen and could not understand at all.

"Is this the same person that Qianqian saved during that stampede?"

"Well, I wouldn't really call it saving her; I just casually pulled her up."

"...so why wasn't I there that day?"

Chen Junqian felt that Lin Mu, sitting opposite him, muttered something to himself in a low voice, which he couldn't quite hear. Then he saw Lin Mu look up, his tone unusually serious:

"So, Qianqian, do you want to think back carefully about that day? Did you save anyone else that day?"

"...Actually, at that time, I was only holding onto my sister and her. Why are you suddenly asking about this?"

"Because I was afraid that one day some random girl would suddenly appear out of nowhere and say that you had saved her before. But now that I think about it, that day was really strange. Weiwei just happened to leave me in the classroom, and I didn't even know what exactly happened until after it was over."

To be honest, in Lin Mu's current imagination, his childhood sweetheart is already like Stitch in the TV show who is going through a second phase and has grown four arms. Each arm is saving a girl. It's just that only two of their faces are clear right now. The other two might jump out at any time, just like Gu Lingguo this time and Shen Nianqiu last time.

"And she even went into Qianqian's new room before I did."

"So this is what Mu Mu cares about?"

"Of course, we already agreed on that beforehand."

Faced with Lin Mu, who seemed unusually a little emotional, Chen Junqian, already adept at coaxing his childhood sweetheart, immediately said:

"But when she went in, the room was basically unfurnished. Mu Mu is going to help me decorate my new room this week. Only when everything is finished can it be considered my bedroom. Right now, it's just an empty room that I haven't even moved into yet."

As expected, faced with Chen Junqian's explanation, Lin Mu's attention was once again easily diverted. Just like Stitch, the former horror experiment subject 626 and now Earth's good friend, who was being held in the arms of the protagonist Lilo, a Hawaiian girl, and started saying "I love my family" in the old Lilo & Stitch accent, he began to smile and discuss the arrangements with his childhood friend again.

"Although we're decorating a new room, you're not allowed to throw away any of the little trinkets I gave you when you move, okay? Whether it's that glass bottle with the little stars and origami cranes, or that colorful braided bracelet, or... you can't throw any of them away. You have to bring them all to the new room without losing a single one."

"Okay, I know. Do you think I should make a special drawer in my desk to store all your little gadgets?"

"No, no, Qianqian's gifts have to be placed on the bookshelf or desk so I can see them every day when I sit in my room. That's how I keep all the gifts Qianqian gave me. For example, that little Ali doll is still there. I look at it every day when I can't write anything in my diary."

"So Mu Mu has times when she can't write in her diary."

"It's not that I can't write it, it's just that I don't know how to describe it or record it in the best and most appropriate way. So I've always envied girls like Wenyun who are particularly good at writing. I still flip through the book she wrote about our story several times now."

Just a few days ago, Lin Mu had made a statement about hiring Xu Youwei to draw comics when he became rich. Now, he started daydreaming about whether he should invite Zhu Wenyun to write for him. A smile involuntarily crept onto his lips.

It has to be said that for a short and thin child like Mu Mu, winter clothes are indeed much cuter than summer clothes. After all, with a thick cotton-padded coat wrapped around her body, all that is exposed is her cute, fair and rosy little face, which makes people feel better just by looking at her.

On TV, this episode of Lilo & Stitch was nearing its end. Watching Dr. Juggernaut, One-Eyed Thunderbolt, and Stitch, these three strangely shaped aliens, take a group photo with the protagonist, Lilo, who was an Earthling, just like a family, Lin Mu also said that word along with Stitch in the show.

Ohana, which means "family" in Hawaiian, is a key word that runs throughout the entire animation.

However, unlike the little blue dog in the show whose speech was unclear and confusing because the language module was not fully loaded, Lin Mu spoke very clearly.

She's going to Qianqian's new house this weekend to help him decorate his new room.

They're practically like a family.

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

December 21, 2011, was an ordinary Wednesday.

As in previous years, with Christmas approaching, the students in the class have started thinking about what Christmas gifts to give each other this year.

For Chan Kwan-him himself, this year's Christmas is indeed a bit different, because his birthday is on the second day of the twelfth lunar month, which corresponds to December 26th of this year's Gregorian calendar. That is to say, his birthday is after Christmas Eve on the 24th and Christmas Day on the 25th.

In a sense, this can be considered as celebrating three holidays in a row, although Chen Junqian wasn't particularly interested in the first two holidays, or even his own birthday.

However, things are different for the girls. For example, Zhu Wenyun has already started preparing scarves for this winter, and Xu Youwei seems to have some new ideas as well.

Of course, she was still using the same old pretext she'd been using for almost a year: preparing for the end of the world.

"Actually, today marks the final year of the countdown before the end of the world, because the Mayan civilization predicted that the end of the world would occur on December 21, 2012. We don't have much time left to prepare."

"Uh-huh."

Over the course of a year, Chen Junqian had grown accustomed to Xu Youwei's role-playing games. He was simply playing along with her nonsense like a child playing house. And it has to be said that it was quite interesting to see Xu Youwei so seriously come up with all sorts of new fun and ways to play around the theme of the end of the world.

If he weren't so bad at keeping a diary, all the silly and foolish things they did on their way home from school and at their secret weekend hideout over the past year would probably be enough to make up a whole series of "desk mate rivals," since they really are desk mates now.

"You'll find out when you come with me to the secret base this weekend. So, speaking of which, why didn't you go to Grandma's house last weekend?"