I turned reality into a romantic comedy

The more Lin Mu thought about it, the more feasible the plan seemed. She chattered on and on, adding a whole bunch of little details about Xu Youwei's personality, as if she really intended for the two of them to become good friends.

However, no matter how long the walk home from school is, he will walk it without taking a detour. After spending the last of his money to buy all the vegetables for today and even the weekend at the market, Chen Junqian stayed at Lin Mu's house because it was Friday and he could play outside a little longer.

Just moments ago, Lin Mu was taking her time on the way home, but when it came time to eat, she seemed to remember that she was playing games again. She abandoned her ladylike demeanor for once and finished dinner at a faster pace than usual before taking Chen Junqian into the study at home.

Unlike Chen Junqian's family, where the computer had to be crammed into the parents' bedroom, Lin Mu's family had a dedicated room as a study and computer room, and the space was quite spacious with good lighting.

After moving the more comfortable but larger computer swivel chair to the corner of the room, Lin Mu then brought over two square stools, and the two sat side by side in front of the computer.

Since they had already discussed this topic before, they both preferred cooperative puzzle games to competitive two-player games, so they randomly picked a cute version of Bubble Fighter.

The games of that era were naturally inferior to the AAA titles of later years in terms of performance. In fact, even Chen Junqian, who won the TGA Game of the Year award, never played "Two People Together". After all, the hardest thing to find in online games is always to find friends who are willing to play with you.

If possible, he also hopes that more than ten years from now, the person sitting next to him, pressing the controller and personally starting that game that he only saw streamers playing, will still be the same girl sitting next to him right now, frantically throwing bombs and picking up items, carefully dealing with every rough enemy attack on the slightly flawed page.

As the most popular gaming platform for children in China, 4399 Games is great because it releases invincible versions of many games simultaneously. After all, the most important thing about playing games is to have fun, especially for casual players like him and Lin Mu. So after getting stuck on a level for a while, the two of them decisively switched to the invincible version and started to easily pass the level with unlimited lives.

After finishing that game, Lin Mu seemed to find it boring to talk about the game the whole time without being able to chat, so he found a more casual two-player version of Gold Miner, and even specially chose the invincible version with unlimited time. Then the two of them started chatting while 'mining furiously' on the computer.

"I feel that Chen Junqian's skills are much better than mine."

"It's probably because I often play with other people at home."

"Who is it?"

“There’s a guy named Duan Xin in our neighborhood. The game he plays the most is the one I told you about before, Journey to the West.”

"That's it."

Speaking of this, Chen Junqian recalled the past incident related to computer passwords. He was able to trick Duan Xin into revealing the password to his home computer by working together. He first had Duan Xin come over when he was not home, and then said that he would play together when he came back.

After waiting a while, he asked his mother again if he suddenly needed to use the computer. She certainly wouldn't refuse the request of a child who always came to her house to play. In the end, he just had to secretly write down the password and tell her later.

This was probably Chen Junqian's most successful battle of wits in fourth grade.

However, now that he's been reborn, he doesn't have to go through all that trouble again. He's mastered the family computer much earlier than in his previous life. But compared to his past self, who was full of enthusiasm for both novels and games, he's not as enthusiastic now. Every time he logs in, he just chats with Qiu and plays online games.

"I've never played two-player games with anyone, since no friends have ever come to my house. Vivi is the same; she always plays single-player games."

As he spoke, Lin Mu's expression seemed a little off, as if he found the topic too difficult to bring up. After hesitating for a while, he finally spoke indirectly to Chen Junqian:

"You'd never guess what her favorite 4399 mini-game is. I feel like no one in the world could guess it out of thin air. Actually, I didn't believe it when I first heard it. After all, would any girl really like that kind of thing? It just felt disgusting. I even came back and searched for it later, and I felt like throwing up."

Because the rules and regulations on the internet in this era are still relatively incomplete, even on small game websites like 4399, you can find many works that are completely unsuitable for children, or are either bizarre or terrifying, or even cult works. So after Lin Mu said all this, although many guesses flashed through Chen Junqian's mind, he really couldn't make a judgment for the time being.

It wasn't until the other person muttered things like, "This is even more vicious than the curse drawn in the Strange World," and "Who does Weiwei hate so much?" that Chen Junqian finally tentatively asked:

"Is it that Superman thing?"

Lin Mu clearly approved of his deliberate avoidance of offensive words, and nodded in agreement.

"Yes, yes, it's the one you mentioned, Chen Junqian."

Upon receiving this answer, Chen Junqian couldn't help but chuckle. He unconsciously reached out to hook a rock in the corner, but since it was an invincible version with unlimited time, he let it go.

The game that he and Lin Mu had just vaguely mentioned, which Xu Youwei herself admitted was her favorite, was naturally "Poop Superman." It's a little game where you write down the name of someone you don't like, and then your character uses all sorts of low-class moves involving poop and pee to attack the doll with that name. Although it sounds quite bizarre and the game isn't very long, the smooth Flash animation does give you a strangely relaxing experience, and it's surprisingly popular among elementary school students.

If Chen Junqian were to recall a game that could rival this "masterpiece," it would probably only be the game "Fart King Brothers" that Duan Xin later dragged him to play.

Perhaps feeling that this topic was a bit inappropriate to discuss right after a meal, the two tacitly stopped there and then chatted about all sorts of things, including the cartoons they usually liked to watch.

"Oh right, besides domestic animation, I've also been watching Japanese animation lately, it's that 'Shugo Chara!' that's really popular among the girls in my class."

Hearing Lin Mu mention this name, Chen Junqian was also a little dazed.

Perhaps due to the strange generation gap between elementary school boys and girls, much like the 38th parallel, they tried to draw clear lines not only in games but also in cartoons when they were young. Whether it was "Shugo Chara!" or similar works like "Cardcaptor Sakura", "Balala the Fairies", and "Sweet Princess", they were basically all categorized as girls.

Of course, Chen Junqian also remained skeptical as to whether the boys were secretly watching the whole thing out of curiosity, since he was the one who had secretly watched it all in private.

Looking back now, it seems that this was probably his only contact with the anime/manga world that the system kept talking about, but it only lasted until elementary school.

Seemingly quite fond of this animation, Lin Mu muttered to himself with anticipation:

"I wonder if one day I'll be able to see my own Guardian Egg hatch, and what my Guardian Character will look like?"

"That depends on what Lin Mu envisions himself to be like."

"What? You actually saw it!"

With a hint of surprise, Lin Mu nudged Chen Junqian's arm and urged him to shout the transformation lines with her. She spread her thumbs and forefingers in front of her chest in a pose like she was taking a picture, then shouted with great pride:

"My heart, Unlock!"

In the end, of course, nothing happened.

Seeing Chen Junqian's tense expression but still quietly repeating the same thing along with her, Lin Mu laughed so hard she almost leaned against him.

It will probably be a very long time before she realizes that the ceremony was actually a success.

Their hearts were opened to each other thereafter, and they remained open to one another for many years afterward.

Chapter Seventeen: A One-Man King (Bonus Chapter with Blades)

After a long absence, Chen Junqian boarded a bus that traveled between urban and rural areas. It was similar to a regular bus, but with a slightly different interior structure and even had a ticket seller who charged fares. After a roughly one-hour ride with slight bumps, Chen Junqian successfully arrived at his grandparents' village on Saturday morning.

The first thing to greet him was his family's little mongrel, a Chinese rural dog named "Little Monster," just like the cat in the cartoon "Big Ears Tutu." It wasn't very big, but it had a fierce temperament. However, after hearing his footsteps from afar, it still came running over, circling his trouser legs and feet affectionately.

Upon meeting his grandparents, who were still taller than him at that time, he gave them a warm hug. Chen Junqian was not so sarcastic as to say, like Xia Luo in Charlotte's Trouble, "I don't know how I died later." After all, barring unforeseen circumstances, birth, aging, illness, and death are inevitable, especially since he was still a child and his elders were not yet old enough to be completely frail.

Grandma's two-story "villa" in the countryside, with its own small courtyard, is actually much larger than the dormitory room she currently lives in in the city. The open space in front is usually used to dry grains and vegetables, and in the summer, a bamboo cooling bed can be brought out to cool off. Behind the house are pigsties and chicken coops for raising pigs and chickens.

Upon entering the living room, the first thing you see is the central painting commonly found in traditional rural homes, either a landscape painting or a portrait of a leader. Below, on a small table, are bottles and jars containing homemade plum wine or medicinal wine.

When Chen Junqian returned, his grandparents were watching TV in their room. The show playing was a rebroadcast of last night's "Avenue of Stars." With the host counting down "five, four, three, two, one!" and the constant slow-motion shots, the contestants, some nervous and some composed, had their backs to the large screen displaying the results of advancement and elimination. The background music, as rapid as the beat of drums, kept the audience on the edge of their seats.

As one of the most popular TV talent shows among middle-aged and elderly audiences, the influence of "Avenue of Stars" is self-evident. In the 2009 Spring Festival Gala broadcast at the beginning of this year, the skit "Not Short of Money", which was made and arranged based on the story of this program, also became an instant hit, pushing Xiao Shenyang's popularity to the top of the list.

Anyway, Chen Junqian had heard Zhong Yu deliberately sing in a hoarse voice, "My name is Xiao Shenyang, and my stage name is also Xiao Shenyang. Shen is the Shen of Shenyang, and Yang is the Yang of Shenyang."

The elderly couple made thorough preparations for their beloved grandson, who only came home once a week. They even brought out the communal dishes they had prepared for guests who came to visit during the Lunar New Year, filling them with all sorts of melon seeds, candies, and pastries without any expense. The three of them watched the rebroadcast of "Avenue of Stars" together, eating melon seeds and candies, chatting and laughing.

While Grandma went to cook, Chen Junqian also followed Grandpa with great interest to feed the chickens and pigs in the house. His family did not raise geese, but other families in the village did. That area was forbidden for children, since not to mention children, even adult men might not be able to beat a goose that was extremely aggressive.

After reminiscing about his old home, which he hadn't visited in over a decade and which had undergone significant changes, Chen Junqian, as before, took the family's tricycle out of the yard and recklessly sped along the unsupervised country roads.

Perhaps because of this experience from childhood, he never felt that there was any difference in the status of this kind of transportation, or whether it was shameful to be seen in public or not. Sometimes he even felt like a charioteer in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, charging into battle, only missing a halberd-wielding man and a bow-wielding archer standing behind him.

At this time, most of those still in the village were elderly people, and the roads were quite empty. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to be so carefree. After going down a big slope and feeling the wind blowing on his face, Chen Junqian inadvertently sped out of his own village and ran all the way to the neighboring village.

Just as Chen Junqian was about to turn the car around, he suddenly heard a very familiar voice calling his name from behind. When he turned around, he was surprised to see someone he had never expected.

"Xu Youwei?"

Reaching out, Chen Junqian pressed the handbrake to stop the car. He turned his head to look at his classmate, who was dressed in a non-school uniform, a rare sight for him, and his mind was a little blank.

"Why are you here?"

“My maternal grandmother’s house is right here, so why can’t I stay here? But it’s true that I haven’t been back for a while.”

Faced with Chen Junqian's question, Xu Youwei simply rolled her eyes. Having taken off her school uniform and wearing only a simple black T-shirt, her hair was a mess, completely lacking the carefully styled and refined look she had at school. With dust on her hands and mud on her trousers, she looked like a complete wild and unruly girl.

"I didn't know you could drive! Can you give me a ride?"

Although she asked that question, Xu Youwei had already jumped onto his tricycle in a few quick steps, sitting sideways on the edge of the back seat, her legs swinging restlessly.

"where to?"

"I don't know, and I can't say where I'm going. I'm mainly looking for something."

"What are you looking for?"

"The cardboard from the corrugated boxes, white glue, and a whole bunch of other junk that I think is usable."

Upon hearing the familiar white glue, Chen Junqian immediately realized what it meant:

"Hey, hey, hey, did you watch the 'Artistic Imagination' segment from the Little Dragon Club a few days ago?"

"Yes, I was particularly interested in what he made in that episode, and it looked like it didn't require many materials and wasn't difficult to make, so I thought I'd take advantage of my weekend trip back to my hometown to make it."

"You really are quite proactive."

Although Chen Junqian had watched many episodes of Art Imagination when he was young and was very impressed by many of the small inventions created by the host Uncle Neil, he had hardly ever actually tried to do them. Now, hearing what Xu Youwei said, he couldn't help but feel a deep respect.

“I have some cardboard at home that I’m planning to sell to the recycling center in a couple of days, and I think I also have some white glue. Instead of wandering around aimlessly here, you might as well just come to my house and get some.”

Because he had just toured his hometown inside and out, Chen Junqian remembered it quite clearly. Mainly because his grandfather also knew a little carpentry and usually repaired farm tools himself, so he had a complete set of carpentry tools. There was a time when he was particularly craving nunchucks after watching the "Chinese Hero" animation, and his grandfather even made him a decent one.

"Okay."

Hearing Chen Junqian say that, Xu Youwei's eyes lit up, and she sat in the back of the car and patted him on the shoulder in a very familiar manner:

"He truly is my good partner; he's so reliable."

"So what are you planning to do? We can't handle anything too complicated."

Since he spent all his time after school with Lin Mu after his rebirth, Chen Junqian hadn't watched the Little Dragon Club's "Artistic Creativity" for a long time. Moreover, each issue of Artistic Creativity usually included several creative items, so he didn't know what the other party was going to do, so he simply asked one more question.

"It's the first throne from the episode that aired yesterday. Look, I've already measured the height of the chair in my room at home. I just need to draw the cardboard according to that and cut it out."

Upon hearing Xu Youwei mention the throne, Chen Junqian gradually began to recall some details. He wondered if it was due to the buffs the cheap system had given him that had improved his memory. Many things that happened in his childhood in his previous life that he had gradually forgotten and things he had seen were now able to be recalled in more detail.

In his memory, the throne that Hsu Yu-wei mentioned was actually just finding two large corrugated cardboard boxes that matched the size and height of the chair in his room. After marking the armrests, backrest, circumference, and other measurements, he could start designing it himself. He would draw his favorite design on the cardboard, cut it out, and then add more detailed decorations. Finally, he would tie it to his chair with ribbons so that it would look like a fairytale throne when viewed from the side or in a photo.

"This time, but it seems we can't completely replicate it. At least we definitely can't buy the butterfly-shaped macaroni he used here."

Due to the cultural background of the production team of the program "Artistic Creativity", for Chinese children, sometimes the hardest materials to find are not things like white glue or old newspapers, but all sorts of little things that they have never heard of, which are quite common in their country but are not easy to find in China.

"It's alright, we can be flexible. You can design your own throne."

Xu Youwei didn't seem to be a dogmatist; she waved her hand casually and said:

"As long as it looks good, that's fine."

Seeing that the steep downhill slope that Chen Junqian had just ridden down had now turned into a steep uphill slope, Xu Youwei jumped off the back of the tricycle without saying a word and started helping Chen Junqian push the tricycle. Only after they had passed the slope did she dust off her hands and sit back down.

Is your hometown also around this area?

"Yes, my grandparents live here."

"You come back every weekend?"

That's generally how it is.

"Oh……"

No one knew what the other party was thinking by deliberately dragging out the last syllable of their sentence, but after leaving with an empty car, Chen Junqian returned with a little girl, which surprised even the little monster guarding the door.

But before it could even bark, Chen Junqian had already used his chirping to guide it to the side, and before turning back, he didn't forget to give Xu Youwei a word of advice:

"It doesn't bite, it just looks a bit fierce."

"What's your name? It sounds a bit corny, but it's actually quite cute."

"Little monster."

Xu Youwei didn't think of Big Ear Tutu for a moment; instead, she thought of the Ultraman set first. Without any fear, she reached out to touch the puppy's head, and replied with a smile:

"If I ever raise a dog in the future, I'll name it Ultraman, because Ultraman fights monsters."

Chen Junqian's grandparents had no objection to their grandson going out to play and bringing back a little girl who was about his age. Especially after hearing that the two were classmates at school, they warmly invited Xu Youwei to stay for lunch.

Although Xu Youwei currently appears to be a complete tomboy, her attitude towards her elders is quite proper. She made a point of getting water from the water pump to wash her face and hands before sweetly saying "Hello, Grandpa and Grandma" to them. However, she politely declined the invitation to stay for dinner.

After briefly discussing it with Grandpa, the two of them easily found the tools they wanted in his toolbox. They then unpacked the cardboard that had already been packed and found a large piece of suitable size before getting right to work, following the steps shown on TV to replicate the design.

Based on the data that Xu Youwei had measured in advance, the two of them used a measuring tape to mark the corresponding data points and lines on the cardboard, and then began to draw the outline.

In fact, Chen Junqian had already witnessed Xu Youwei's drawing skills when they were making the blackboard newspaper these past two days. She was definitely one of the best among her peers, especially compared to him, who could only draw old man Ding. But now, seeing her smoothly and easily sketch two fairytale-like, luxurious yet exquisitely romantic side views of a throne on cardboard with markers was quite a surprise.

After carefully cutting them out of the cardboard, the next step is to color and decorate them.

Chen Junqian generously contributed marbles that he hadn't played with in a long time and had kept in a drawer at his old home to impersonate pearls. He also crumpled old newspapers into strips and coated them with white glue to increase their three-dimensionality. They couldn't find macaroni, so they took some chocolates with gold coin patterns from the claw machine and stuck them on to make them look real. They then added shiny metal pieces to the top and painted the background with deep red and gold as the main colors. The two cardboard thrones were then completed.

"It's not easy for you to carry these two things back by hand by yourself, so I'll take you by bike. It'll be easier to put them there."

"Yes, thank you for your hard work. Well, I can't ride a tricycle myself, but I can ride a bicycle. I'll take you there sometime to repay you."