I turned reality into a romantic comedy

In a flash, Gu Lingguo put down the glass bottle in her hand, first folded the blanket that she had been lying on a little too softly, then lifted the sheet with both hands and shook it to smooth out the wrinkles. Finally, she pretended to be nonchalant and opened the door to see who the visitor was.

To her slight surprise, the person who came with the keys on the evening of the first day of the Lunar New Year was not Chen Junqian's parents as Gu Linguo had expected, but another friend she knew quite well.

"Huh? Why is Lin Guo here?"

As Chen Xi opened the door, she subconsciously took a step back, looked up at the door number on the outside, and then glanced at the layout and decoration of the living room before confirming that she had not gone to the wrong door.

"Oh, it's Xixi."

Gu Lingguo visibly breathed a sigh of relief upon learning that the visitor was Chen Xi. After all, adults are generally easier to deal with and harder to fool than children. Therefore, instead of immediately answering the other party's question honestly, she directly asked in return:

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be spending the New Year with your brother?"

"Oh, my brother went to Lin Mu's place this afternoon, right? I was getting really bored staying at home alone. I didn't bring my laptop with me, and it was too noisy, so I was planning to come to the new house to be alone for a while. Then I remembered that my brother's house and your house are right here, so I sent you a message, but you didn't reply. So I figured you probably weren't home, so I went to my uncle's place and got their house key. I'm going to play on the computer here for a bit."

Chen Xi has never been good at handling these kinds of situations. In the past, her older brother could accompany her and play with her. But this year, as soon as Chen Junqian left, she, who had become somewhat dependent on this routine, couldn't handle it anymore and quickly found a way to escape on her own.

"Sorry, I really didn't check QQ."

After listening to Chen Xi's explanation, Gu Linguo casually recounted the reasons and circumstances of her visit, waving the spare key in her hand at her:

"I was also called here by Sister Lin Mu, and she gave me this key."

Why did she call you over?

As she spoke, Chen Xi changed her shoes, closed the door, walked into the living room, sat on the sofa, and casually opened the tray on the coffee table. She then took the initiative and started eating sunflower seeds, peanuts, and other snacks, clearly indicating that she hadn't eaten enough at home that evening.

"take things."

After thinking it over for a moment, Gu Lingguo felt that it wouldn't matter if she told Chen Xi about it. Besides, she still needed to clean the glass bottle later, so she knew she couldn't hide it from him. Therefore, she might as well tell him first.

After briefly explaining Lin Mu's request, Chen Xi, who was munching on sunflower seeds, also became interested. So she got up and went into Chen Junqian's room, took the glass bottle containing the origami cranes, examined it from head to toe, and then took the origami crane with the words "I love you" written on it from Gu Lingguo. She stood there and chuckled.

"I can't believe Lin Mu would call you here specifically for something like this. Sometimes I just can't figure out what he's thinking."

Unlike Gu Linguo, who affectionately calls Chen Xi "Sister Lin Mu," Chen Xi has never had the habit of calling anyone "sister." Even Shen Nianqiu, who made her very happy during the summer vacation, did not enjoy this treatment. The same is true for the trio from Guo Ning. Her personality is naturally on the colder side, and after she got a little older, she no longer calls Chen Junqian "brother," but simply uses "brother" instead.

However, on the other hand, it also serves as a clear distinction from the girl in front of her. But Gu Lingguo doesn't only call Chen Junqian "brother." At least in Chen Xi's memory, there are a whole bunch of other terms like "senior" and "senior" as well as some Japanese-sounding titles that she doesn't understand.

"Sister Lin Mu is probably worried about being misunderstood, but I think it doesn't really matter even if there is a misunderstanding. We can just explain it later."

"Who knows? Lin Guo just said it was on the bottle too?"

"Yes, it must have been written with an invisible pen. You have to use this ultraviolet light to see it. It seems to be several years old, and some parts are already blurry."

Following the other party's instructions, Chen Xi also took the invisible pen next to her, pointed it at a section of the bottle, and turned on the ultraviolet light. Sure enough, she could see a sentence, the clearest of which was the last sentence, "I like you the most."

"Something feels off. The words on this don't seem like birthday wishes for my mom; they're more like a confession, and the handwriting..."

Chen Xi unfolded the origami crane with "I love you" written on it and laid it out on the desk. She compared the writing of the characters "I" and "you" again, then looked up and made a very definite judgment:

"This must have been written by two different people, because the strokes are written differently."

"Is there such a thing? No wonder Sister Lin Mu didn't tell me. It seems she didn't know either?"

Gu Lingguo, who was also intrigued, hadn't expected today's operation to yield such an unexpected result. After a moment's thought, she realized something:

"I have a way of figuring out who wrote this."

As she spoke, she turned around and opened Chen Junqian's wardrobe with practiced ease, then took out a school uniform that was carefully sealed in a transparent bag:

"This has the autographs of Sister Lin Mu, Sister Xu Youwei, and Sister Zhu Wenyun. A quick comparison should be enough. If none of them are it, then it must be Sister Shen Nianqiu, because besides us, only they should be able to enter Brother's room."

"Let me see."

After receiving the school uniform, the two girls, like detectives, looked it over carefully for a long time, comparing it to other items, and then spoke in unison:

“It belongs to Xu Youwei.”

"Does she look a bit like Sister Hsu Yu-Wei?"

"It should be her."

After thinking for a while, Chen Xi asserted:

"This sentence was written a long time ago. My brother has only been living here for about a year, which means it was written when he was still living in the wear-resistant factory. Zhu Wenjun has hardly ever been there. The only people who will go there are Lin Mu and Xu Youwei, so it must be either Lin Mu or Xu Youwei."

As she spoke, she reflexively scanned the entire ceiling and walls of the room with the still-lit ultraviolet light in her hand, as if conducting an inspection.

"What's wrong?"

"Let's see if there are any other places where it might be found."

"...Has it really come to this?"

"Otherwise, I don't believe Xu Youwei wouldn't know that this glass bottle and the origami cranes inside were a gift from Lin Mu to my brother. Knowing this, she still wrote such words on the outside of the bottle. I wouldn't be surprised if she did anything."

"Even if it was written somewhere else, it should be like what you just said, in the hometown of the wear-resistant factory, where the employee dormitories should be..."

At this point, Gu Lingguo paused, somewhat belatedly realizing what was happening, and exchanged a knowing glance with Chen Xi before speaking in unison:

"Isn't she the daughter of the chairman of the wear-resistant factory?"

"Isn't her dad the owner of the wear-resistant materials factory?"

After realizing this, Chen Xi slumped onto the table with a helpless expression.

"What kind of friends does my brother have?"

It can only be said that Chen Xi, who had already been a little upset tonight because Lin Mu had taken away her brother who had always spent the New Year with her, was now in a bad mood. After this incident, her mood visibly worsened, and she was almost ready to make sweeping generalizations.

"No, no, no, we can't be sure yet. After all, it's just our guess. It's better to see for ourselves."

"...I don't want to see things for myself. I don't even look at those QQ Space background walls that are full of random sentences. They're an eyesore."

Then, she turned to her best friend and complained:

"I don't know how my brother got to know them, and it seems like he still hasn't realized it. It must be exhausting to be around girls like that. My brother is a model student, and I feel like if this continues, they'll lead him into early dating."

"It's certainly not impossible."

Suddenly realizing this might be the perfect opportunity to pull the "sister-type" character to the opposite side of her childhood friend, Gu Lingguo chimed in, while also casually adding fuel to the fire:

"But you'll be moving here in a few months, and then we'll go to and from school together with your brother, and then we can take good care of your uncle and aunt."

"Indeed, my parents have already spoken with my brother's family. Anyway, this is why we bought the house here in the first place."

After saying that, Chen Xi pointed to the writing on the bottle:

"But then again, what do we do about this?"

"If the person involved hasn't said anything, let's leave it alone. It seems like my brother hasn't noticed it either."

"Okay, let's leave it here then. Come on, let's go play games."

"Yes, I'll just reply to Sister Lin Mu's message."

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

[It's all been resolved, please rest assured.]

After receiving the message from Gu Lingguo, Lin Mu finally felt relieved. After replying with a few words of thanks, she handed the phone back to her mother.

Men's drinking sessions always seem to drag on, but Chen Junqian wasn't a drinker, so after a while he found an excuse to get off the table. As soon as he came over, he saw his childhood sweetheart with a bright smile on her face, looking very happy.

"What's wrong? Why are you so happy?"

"No, no, it's just that I was happy to see Qianqian and know that he would be with me tonight."

Feeling a little embarrassed, Lin Mu told Chen Junqian a small lie, then stuffed a peanut nougat into Chen Junqian's mouth, trying to stick his own mouth on Chen Junqian's mouth like he would on the Kitchen God.

It turned out to be quite successful, because although this thing was quite fragrant and sweet, it was really too much effort to chew. It felt like you had to use a lot of strength from the inside out of your mouth. After a while, Chen Junqian finally chewed it until it was soft and crushed and swallowed it. Then he was fed a soccer ball chocolate.

It can only be said that even after growing up to fourteen years old, Lin Mu's interest in feeding him showed no signs of diminishing. In fact, today, in front of so many of her relatives, Chen Junqian began to worry about what the situation would be like in a few years.

But then again, feeding someone chocolates or candies does seem better than peeling a handful of sunflower seeds by hand and feeding them to yourself.

It has to be said that the way Zhu Wenyun started the achievement of "Essential for Caring Bento Boxes" back then was really impressive. So much so that now, every time Chen Junqian sees those various kinds of melon seeds on the tray during the Chinese New Year, he can't help but think of the unexpected and bold move she made a few years ago.

After dinner, just as Lin Mu had said, the adults filed out again and started setting up a mahjong table in the yard. The two minors couldn't watch the fun, nor could they go for a stroll in the mountains like they had in the afternoon, so they could only run into the room inside to hide.

Lin Mu said he needed to get something and went out for a while. Chen Junqian, who was idly watching the Spring Festival Gala reruns on various channels while sitting in his room, suddenly noticed an achievement in his mind that was faintly gleaming:

Childhood friends should definitely bathe together.

What the hell?

Just as Chen Junqian was wondering what was going on, he saw little Mu Mu carrying a large red basin over, just like the one in the public service advertisement they had seen before, except this time she was saying:

"Qianqian, let's wash your feet."

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Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Lotus Bud Just Begins to Emerge (Part Two)

Well, it's another misunderstanding caused by the system's idiotic achievement judgment.

Even though the system that had disappeared from his mind for a long time had previously talked about localization, a considerable portion of the long list of achievements was actually quite obvious and difficult to trigger in the real world. For example, the achievement of scaring Chen Junqian might have had a chance if we went back ten years.

To be honest, although Chen Junqian had traveled with Lin Mu twice before, and even stayed in the same hotel room for several days, both trips were during the summer vacation, so this was indeed the first time he had ever soaked his feet with Mu Mu.

Actually, if you really want to calculate, his foot bath partner should be Zhu Wenyun. The two of them often do this in winter: soak their feet while chatting on the phone until the water in one of their foot baths has reached the water level line where they can't add any more.

"Hey-"

Although her height had always been a source of pain for Lin Mu, she was still a junior high school student, so it wasn't difficult for her to bring over a foot bath basin. After placing it in front of Chen Junqian, she went to get a thermos and then sat down to take off her shoes and socks.

In fact, Chen Junqian has never been particularly interested in shoes, socks, feet, and the like. He used to pay attention to them mainly because of the system's achievements. However, after Xu Youwei took both the achievements for wearing socks and taking off socks, the only sock-related achievements left in his mind were those related to stockings, which felt quite distant. He seemed to recall that Shen Nianqiu had only mentioned it a long time ago.

"I'll test the water temperature first—then Qianqian will put her feet in, because Mom says my feet are delicate and soft, so if it feels right to me, then I shouldn't get burned."

As she spoke, Lin Mu tentatively dipped her toes into the water, her toes barely touching the surface before she reflexively lifted them back up, placing them on Chen Junqian's lap opposite her. Her fair, rounded toes curled slightly from the heat, and then she revealed a slightly shy smile.

"Hmm...it's still a little hot."

To be honest, Chen Junqian always felt that the water temperature for soaking feet was essentially a matter of trial and error, since everyone's feet have different tolerance levels. Some people just like the feeling of being scalded. However, since Lin Mu had already gone this far, he naturally went along with her wishes. And Lin Mu was indeed quite cute.

So, winter really is Mu Mu's comfort zone.

"It should be about time now..."

After waiting a while, Lin Mu finally removed her feet from Chen Junqian's thighs. This time, the temperature was indeed much more comfortable. After putting both feet in and feeling them for a while, she invited Chen Junqian to put his feet in as well.

Following the other person's instructions, Chen Junqian took off his shoes and socks. As soon as he put his feet in, the other person lifted his foot slightly and pressed it on the instep of his foot. However, this was not a prank or out of any perverse sense of humor. It was just that the foot bath was only so big, and it would be a bit cramped if two people soaked their feet together. So they could only make do with it for now.

It seemed that Lin Mu had completely replaced the towel with the soles and toes of her feet. After a while, she started rubbing Chen Junqian's insteps on the towel. The water in the basin swayed slightly with her movements, making a sound that made people feel a little sleepy.

There was absolutely no need to ask whether Qianqian had ever washed her parents' feet before. For Lin Mu, her childhood friend, this was practically basic information. So she simply focused intently on washing the feet until she felt she was done, then picked up the thermos next to her and added a little more hot water.

"Qianqian, lift your foot."

"Ah."

It's only polite to reciprocate, so after adding a batch of hot water, Chen Junqian took the opportunity to wash Mu Mu's feet as well. However, he didn't have the leisure to use his feet. Instead, he focused on using his hands to scrub Mu Mu's toes several times with a towel, making sure not to miss any gaps between them. Then, he realized once again that his childhood sweetheart was indeed a very ticklish child.

If he just touched the armpits, the sides of the waist, and the soles of the feet with his fingers, the other person would react very strongly. Their entire arch would be stretched straight, and they would sit there supporting themselves with both hands, looking up with a pained expression as if they were trying hard to suppress a laugh, their whole body shaking.

Why isn't Qianqian ticklish?

"It's probably related to your constitution? Besides, Mu Mu, you're always scratching openly. If you suddenly launch an attack, it might be more effective."

"Okay, but I was clearly bumped into by Qianqian in a perfectly legitimate way, sigh."

Feeling easily manipulated, Mu Mu puffed out her cheeks in protest, then abruptly changed the subject, turning her head to look at the television and complaining:

"Almost every channel is showing a rerun of the Spring Festival Gala... It's boring."

"After all, it's still the first day of the Lunar New Year. Some local TV stations are showing their own Spring Festival Gala, but it seems like Mu Mu isn't particularly interested."

It's more accurate to say that few children are interested in the Spring Festival Gala. At most, they might watch a skit or a magic show. As the comedy programs have become increasingly bad and he has grown older, Chen Junqian himself has stopped watching the Spring Festival Gala. He has no recollection of this year's gala, as he spent most of his time playing games with his younger sister and chatting with his older sister.

"Hmm."

Lin Mu casually flipped through a few channels with the remote but couldn't find what he wanted to watch. He put the remote down and turned back to look at Chen Junqian's face seriously. He then took out the four-leaf clover that the two of them had found in the mountains that afternoon from his pocket.

"You're really amazing, Qianqian."

"Do I even need to praise this?"

"Because it's really amazing, it found it right away. After all, that's a one in ten thousand chance, almost like winning the lottery. I'm going to send a picture to Weiwei, but it's so annoying that there's no internet right now."

After picking up the tablet computer, which didn't have Wi-Fi, from the coffee table next to him, Lin Mu remembered this and could only take two photos using the camera function.