I turned reality into a romantic comedy

Frankly speaking, if Chen Junqian and Zhu Wenyun were willing, their first issue of the magazine wouldn't have ended up with half of it piled up on bookshelves and in libraries. As for the latter, she is now a genuine up-and-coming writer that "Fireworks" is actively promoting. If she openly revealed her identity, Guoning would still be able to find fans willing to collect it, since it's free anyway.

As for the former, one can only say that in terms of appearance alone, Chen Junqian is undoubtedly worthy of being called an idol-type teenage writer, although he himself is well aware of this.

He is neither an idol nor a teenager, and certainly not a writer.

Overall, Chen Junqian was quite satisfied with the journal he had edited. After all, everything is difficult at the beginning, and with this experience, he would definitely do better next time.

Unlike the lackluster response of the journal, which he was involved in and even led in almost every step of the process from soliciting manuscripts to publication, the novella "Plums Too Ripe Are Bitter, Unrequited Love Too Long Is Sour," which he could only be considered to have participated in indirectly, was written by Zhu Wenjun himself. It was serialized in "Firework" for a year and then compiled into a collection for publication. Naturally, it was much more popular, and even in bookstores in small places like Guoning, it could be found as a standalone book.

Chen Junqian himself also went to support the publication as soon as it was published. He originally thought of buying a copy for all the girls around him, but when he thought about the story content, he gave up the idea for the time being. After all, it would be fine if they saw it themselves, but if he bought it and gave it to them, it would be easier for people to overthink it.

Of course, Mu Mu, who is sitting right in front of him now, is definitely not one of them.

This week was their turn to be on duty. The duty rosters in their class rotate every week, and the rosters are divided into groups of eight according to the seating order. So Lin Mu, who was two rows away from Chen Junqian, was assigned to a group with him as he wished, and they could spend some time alone together while cleaning the area they were responsible for cleaning.

After quickly cleaning the area, the two of them took brooms and dustpans and went to sit down and rest in the nearby corridor.

I don’t know if every middle school has a corridor like this, with flowers and plants wrapped around the top and sides. The corridor in the junior high school section of Ningzhong is mostly purple in color, just like the modern prose called “Wisteria Waterfall” that they will study in their Chinese textbook.

However, the two of them wouldn't do the three-part process of appreciating, remembering, and understanding flowers as described in the teacher's slides. They came here simply because there was a place to sit and the scenery was nice. After all, Mu Mu wasn't someone who would really consider these things. All sorts of scenery had already become various images in her eyes. She was a literary girl who always got full marks in reading comprehension in Chinese.

"I bought Wen Yun's book, and I didn't expect that she was using her real name as a pen name."

Lin Mu, who possesses the talent of being able to dangle her feet in the air and swing her legs easily while sitting on most chairs, was also there carefree today, swinging her legs back and forth while chewing on the hamburger candy that Chen Junqian fed her today, and taking the initiative to talk to him about Zhu Wenyun.

Unlike Xu Youwei, who follows every issue, Lin Mu hadn't paid attention to Zhu Wenyun's serialized work before. Now that a combined edition had been released, he simply bought it, but it seems he hasn't read much of it yet.

"Although the book is titled something like 'ripe plums will turn bitter,' or 'unrequited love will turn sour after a long time,' the content inside is clearly still about childhood sweethearts."

"The title is probably ironic, since the conditions are things like being too familiar and having been together for too long, so theoretically, as long as it doesn't drag on for that long, it should be fine."

Lin Mu, however, showed a disapproving expression towards Chen Junqian's explanation:

"But doing it like that wouldn't be considered childhood sweethearts, and overripe fruit doesn't necessarily taste bitter or sour; it just falls naturally from the tree, like the walnuts in our mountains."

"Hmm... I think it's better for Mumu to read the whole thing before asking the author. Anyway, Yun comes over every night now."

"Indeed, I'll read the book first, but could you give me a sneak peek, Qianqian?"

As he spoke, Lin Mu's expression shifted between nervousness and anticipation:

"So, in the end...did the childhood sweethearts end up together in the book?"

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"They'll definitely end up together. I feel like if I were to have a dramatic, sentimental outburst and write a story about a couple missing each other and regretting it for life, I'd probably get a lot of flak from readers, let alone publish it as a whole."

Sitting in the literary club's activity room, facing Lin Mu, who had spent an entire day of her spare time rushing to read the entire novel and immediately came over to have a long discussion about childhood sweethearts, Zhu Wenyun also unusually opened up and started talking.

After all, no author would refuse an invitation from readers to discuss the plot, especially since the one who came to the door was Lin Mu, whom Zhu Wenyun always regarded as her biggest enemy and who best represented the identity of her childhood sweetheart. It was a good opportunity to use this opportunity to test the other party's thoughts.

"Yes, yes, but that part in the middle was really scary. Suddenly a girl appeared and started spouting nonsense. She had only known the male lead for a few days, yet she dared to say things like, 'If they really liked each other, they should have been together a long time ago.' Being able to say something like that shows that she doesn't understand childhood sweethearts at all, because childhood sweethearts are supposed to be together all the time."

"Heh, so from the beginning, she was deliberately designed as a stepping stone for the two to take their relationship to the next level. Rather than saying that this is the meaning of the existence of such a character who falls from the sky."

Xu Youwei had also read the novel written by Zhu Wenyun, and she had been following the serialization since the first installment, so she quickly joined the discussion as well:

"I think Wenyun should have a side story or an epilogue later, like the topic of your last essay contest, 'Returning to her hometown after twenty years,' so that she can see the wedding scene and tell her how cheap the other person's feelings were back then, hmph."

It has to be said that the lively atmosphere of these three girls criticizing the newcomer character is even more intense than the first National Childhood Sweethearts Alliance Ceremony when Shen Nianqiu arrived. This is also one of the reasons why Zhu Wenyun is particularly concerned about when Shen Nianqiu and Chen Junqian reached their intimate relationship, to the point that she even wants to secretly log into the other party's QQ account to check the chat history.

Because if the other party really did arrive even earlier than them, then Shen Nianqiu could turn around and say, "You are the ones who are the ones who have fallen from the sky and the challengers."

Of course, even if that time comes, they can at least come up with some stubborn arguments like "childhood sweethearts definitely have to be together in real life to count" or "what kind of childhood sweetheart relationship is it?" to defend themselves, and who knows, they might even start another discussion about the true childhood sweetheart archetype.

After the three girls, still full of enthusiasm, elevated the "childhood sweetheart" archetype to its pinnacle, adopting an air of certainty that if the childhood sweetheart theme didn't ultimately succeed, it must have been orchestrated by capital or the author's intervention, everyone turned to look at the male protagonist himself, who was tidying up the bookshelves on the other side of the classroom.

"Have you finished chatting?"

Noticing that the noise in the classroom had suddenly subsided, Chen Junqian, who had almost completely reorganized the bookshelf, came over and sat down. He picked up a bag of puffed snacks from the coffee table next to him, tore open the packaging, poured a bite into his mouth, and crunched away.

What is Qianqian thinking?

Sure enough, after the woman reached an agreement, the focus of the problem was once again shifted to Chen Junqian.

"What do you mean, what are you thinking? Childhood sweethearts? Yun asked me this question when she was writing this book, and of course I'm supportive. Childhood sweethearts should be together, and true love will prevail in the end—"

Chen Junqian himself felt no psychological burden at all about saying such things. After all, the girls around him were all his childhood sweethearts. They had known each other since elementary school at the latest. By the timeline moved to high school, where most romantic comedies take place, everyone could say something about how they had been together since childhood.

Ultimately, if we really followed the system's strictest, most traditional childhood sweetheart standard, Mu Mu would be eliminated along with them. After all, she and Chen Junqian had never been neighbors, and they were the kind of neighbors who were separated by only a crack, and could shout and chat across each other's rooms just by opening their windows.

After stating his position, Chen Junqian immediately changed the subject. After being reborn for so long, he had come to understand more and more that the identity of the male protagonist in a romantic comedy is essentially no different from that of a scumbag in reality. And being a scumbag means trying to control the words and actions in every moment of the relationship.

While romantic comedies often feature male protagonists who are so oblivious they seem like wooden blocks, with events and girls constantly approaching them just by standing there, doing so in reality would only lead to certain doom, especially after realizing that more than half of the girls around him have difficult personalities.

Without exaggeration, Chen Junqian had no doubt that if he couldn't take the initiative to manage the relationship at all times, what awaited him would definitely not be a romantic comedy, but a real-life hellish situation, not to mention that there was Cheng Ge as a bloody example to follow.

"Now that the literature club's work on the surface is all done, our club's real activities can officially begin. Everyone should be free this Sunday, right?"

After receiving affirmative answers from everyone, Minister Chen Junqian clapped his hands in satisfaction:

"Okay, let's meet at my house this Sunday. If things go smoothly, our club's first long joke can be officially released this week. If the response is good, everyone can also get an advertising fee."

"Advertising fees?"

"Yes, because this joke will be sponsored by the Three Fierce Xus."

Upon hearing this name, both Xu Youwei and Zhu Wenyun instinctively looked up at Lin Mu beside them.

The former subconsciously recalled the conversation the other person had made about squirrels and trees atop Jingting Mountain around this time last year.

The latter, however, requires even more thought.

She is currently just a rising author who has just published her first book, but Three Fierce Xu has already swept through the entire nut market with unparalleled speed and is moving towards the even larger snack market.

This is why Zhu Wenyun found it troublesome.

She absolutely refused to believe that the relationship between Chen Junqian and Lin Mu would be like that of childhood sweethearts in most stories, ending in separation for various reasons.

Because by then, if any one of them walks into any snack shop along the road, they will immediately see the two squirrels standing together on the packaging. Those two squirrels were designed based on the two children when they were first created.

Memories always need a carrier, which could be a thing, a landscape, or a smell. When you come into contact with them again, it's like unlocking a safe with a combination lock, and all those memories come rushing out all at once.

After all, human thought and memory will eventually be overwhelmed by the torrent of time, which is why we need to solidify the most irreplaceable memories into reefs and build castles. These are landmarks that are even more conspicuous than those diaries, and even indelible.

But... it belongs only to the two of them.

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