I turned reality into a romantic comedy

"Are you free right now?"

"I do have free time, what's wrong?"

"Um, could you come with me to school?"

"Now?"

"Well... I just realized I forgot to bring my math test paper when I was doing my homework. If I don't get it tonight, it will definitely be too late to finish it at school tomorrow, but my parents won't be back until tomorrow."

As he spoke, Chen Junqian could sense that the other person's tone had become a little embarrassed, after all, in Lin Mu's own opinion, this was probably a rather unreasonable request.

"...I'm too scared to go to my current school classroom to get my homework by myself."

"Okay, I got it. Are you still at home?"

"Ah."

"Then wait for me at the bus stop at the entrance of your community. I'll be right there."

If his father hadn't gone to work overtime at the factory tonight, having him ride his motorcycle to take him and Lin Mu to school would have been the best solution. However, tonight was another night where his father was home alone, so Chen Junqian had no choice but to change his shoes and head to the bus stop by himself.

Although it was already 7 p.m. and night was falling, fortunately, it was not yet the bus service ended. After waiting for a while, Chen Junqian boarded a bus that passed through the Green Gull Garden residential area. As soon as he got off the bus, he saw Lin Mu waiting for him at the bus stop.

Seeing that he had actually come all this way by car, the other party visibly breathed a sigh of relief. While waiting for the next bus heading towards the school, Lin Mu quickly apologized to Chen Junqian several times.

"I was thinking that my parents would be back tomorrow, so I wanted to take advantage of this last weekend to play as much as possible. I only started thinking about doing my homework now, and that's when I realized I hadn't brought it home."

When Chen Junqian was in elementary school, he did sometimes realize he hadn't brought his homework home, but that was usually the case. He would only realize it as soon as he got home and put his schoolbag down, and by the time he rushed back to school, the school was still full. But this was the first time he had ever encountered someone like Lin Mu, who only realized he hadn't brought his homework when he was rushing to finish it at the last minute on the weekend.

And the other party happened to be at home without their parents. Otherwise, they could have asked one of their parents to come with them to pick it up, and it would only have taken ten or twenty minutes by car.

"It's okay, it's okay, I'll go with you."

However, since Chen Junqian had already decided to become Lin Mu's childhood sweethearts who would accompany each other as they grew up, he naturally couldn't stand idly by in the face of this situation. Moreover, while the deserted school building and classrooms at night might indeed be terrifying for elementary school students, he was, after all, a reborn adult.

They took a bus to the bus stop in front of the Experimental Primary School. This was probably the first time the two of them had come to the school at this time. Under the deep night, none of the teaching buildings were lit, and the dark windows looked rather gloomy.

After explaining the situation to the gatekeeper on night duty and registering their names and classes, the gatekeeper gave them two flashlights, gave them a few instructions, and then went back inside the guardhouse, sat down with a teacup, seemingly not planning to go up with them.

Although Chen Junqian never expected that this old man with gray hair could protect them if anything really happened, he couldn't help but roll his eyes at this extremely relaxed attitude of "better to avoid trouble" and pulled Lin Mu along to walk into the teaching building where their class was located.

It's only in elementary school that the lights and electricity are turned off at this time. If you put them in middle or high school, it would be 7 o'clock, just as the first evening self-study session starts, and everywhere would be bustling with noise and brightly lit. So there would be no need for the two of them to be here with two flashlights, groping their way upstairs in the dark.

As it turns out, the school at night truly lives up to its reputation as a place where it can rival hospitals in the sheer number of terrifying tales and legends. Despite the familiar stairwells, corridors, and classrooms, the darkness still gives off an eerie feeling, sending chills down your spine.

Their footsteps amplified infinitely in the empty corridor, each step feeling like a thud on their heartbeats.

From the moment the two stepped into the teaching building, Lin Mu was already clinging to Chen Junqian's arm like a little koala. Luckily, the other person was smaller than him; if it were Xu Youwei or Zhu Wenyun, they probably wouldn't have been able to hold on.

It was clear that he was extremely nervous; he was practically waving the flashlight around like a lightsaber from Star Wars, trying to shine it in every nook and cranny. But the effect was the opposite; the flickering light and shadows only made the whole corridor look even scarier.

Chen Junqian had no doubt that if he suddenly held a flashlight to his chin and turned around, he could definitely scare the other person into screaming at the loudest decibel in history. However, he didn't have such a bad taste. After all, even if childhood friends do like to tease each other, it was better not to provoke the other person's already taut and fragile heartstrings at this time.

After much hardship, they finally arrived at the door of Class 4, Grade 4, where the two of them were. The two "4"s, which usually didn't seem like anything special, now seemed a bit dazzling. However, this was indeed reality, not a scene from a horror movie, so there was no supernatural scene like walking past Class 3 and directly arriving at the door of Class 5.

However, it must be said that the classrooms at night are no less impressive than the corridors, especially with the desks and chairs arranged neatly. The space feels even more enclosed, and many corners are therefore in blind spots, making one wonder if something strange might jump out of those places at any moment.

"My desk... is over there."

He heard a loud swallowing sound, and seeing that Lin Mu, though saying something, seemed to be rooted to the spot, showing no intention of moving, Chen Junqian also tried to pull himself away:

"I'm helping you get it... so why are you hugging me so tightly?"

"Because I don't want to be left alone at the classroom door."

So Chen Junqian had no choice but to bring this little burden along. Considering that it was Lin Mu's desk drawer, which was his private space, and since he had dragged Lin Mu over, and he didn't know where the homework was, he gestured for Lin Mu to go and find it himself.

"I always feel like there's something unknown watching me."

"Is it possible that it's just your English textbook, although it is indeed quite unknown to you?"

Do you think there might be mice in the classroom?

"That depends on whether the student on duty this Friday cleaned the classroom diligently. But even if they did, the chances of them appearing near my seat are definitely higher than near yours. After all, Zhong Yu's desk drawer is a favorite happy home for mice."

After much effort to lighten the mood with jokes and banter, Lin Mu finally managed to pull out his homework notebook, which he had forgotten to bring home, from his desk drawer. Once he confirmed it was correct, he nodded.

"Found it, found it! Let's get out of here quickly."

Just as the two turned to leave, a loud crash suddenly came from behind them. The sound wasn't loud, but in the otherwise quiet environment, it still startled them. They turned around and shone their flashlights on the floor, only to find that it was the sound of a broom that had been lying in the corner at the back, which had apparently been blown over by the wind coming in through the window.

Since the students were not home on the weekend, the students on duty opened all the windows for ventilation. Just then, a gentle evening breeze blew in, causing the light-colored curtains to sway and rustle. Combined with the faintly visible crescent moon on the horizon and the soft moonlight streaming through the windows, it even had a touch of romance.

To be honest, it was probably at this moment that Chen Junqian understood why classrooms at night, besides frequently appearing on the sets of horror movies, also had a fairly high screen time in suspenseful films. This act of stepping into a place that is usually bustling but now silent, outside of a familiar time of day, can indeed give people a different kind of thrill, and even make their heart beat several beats faster than usual.

Unlike Chen Junqian, whose heart suddenly raced because of thinking about strange topics, Lin Mu felt much calmer. After all, the silent and deserted environment could be interpreted as something unexpected jumping out from somewhere at any time, or as if the whole world now consisted of just the two of them, especially when shifting their gaze from the dark places to the person so close to them.

"Let's go, we've got the stuff."

Finally, Chen Junqian, who was the first to come to his senses, took the initiative to break the quiet atmosphere. He grabbed Lin Mu's hand and led her out of the classroom, through the long, silent corridor, and downstairs from the entrance of the building, where they saw the lights of the guardhouse again.

After saying goodbye to the security guard who was still watching TV to pass the time, the two left the school that evening and took out Lin Mu's homework again.

"Today is truly special! Thank you so much."

The shops on both sides of the street in front of the school were still brightly lit, and the streets were still bustling with traffic. You could hear the noisy chatter of pedestrians taking a walk. Lin Mu, who felt like she had returned to the human world, finally let go of Chen Junqian's arm and said thank you to him in a somewhat formal manner while holding her homework, emphasizing the syllables as if to stress it out.

"That's fine, but if I don't come tonight, you won't be able to get your homework at all, right?"

"Then I'll just have to go to school early tomorrow morning to make it up. That's why I wanted to say thank you so much. I definitely wouldn't dare go into the classroom at this hour by myself. It's actually a little scary with just the two of us. It's only at first, though. Once I get used to it, it's not so bad... but it's still just the two of us."

As she spoke, Lin Mu pursed her lips again and looked back at the still dark building inside the school gate. It seemed that she could hardly believe that she had just walked through it.

Indeed, for a child who is only ten years old, walking alone at night is sometimes a terrifying thing, let alone venturing into an empty school building and classroom with only a flashlight.

After all, she wasn't like Xu Youwei. Even with the Adventure Tigers series that Xu Youwei liked, she would only pick and choose a few with non-scary covers.

Although she knew she wasn't very brave and wouldn't actively watch horror movies, the most popular thing on QQ Space these days is those scary GIFs with jump scares. Before she discovered her homework was missing today, she had already been scared twice by several of these ghost pictures. Otherwise, she wouldn't have embarrassingly called Chen Junqian from her home phone. Luckily, she had asked for his home phone number beforehand.

However, now that everything has settled down, Lin Mu belatedly realized that she hadn't actually asked Chen Junqian what he thought at all.

"...Chen Junqian, you seem really brave. You're not afraid of the dark or ghosts."

"Because I can sense that you're a little scared. If there are two of you, one of you has to be fearless, otherwise it's all over. So even if I'm really scared, I have to pretend I'm not scared in front of you."

"...I still can't tell whether you're scared or not."

After Lin Mu muttered this to himself in a low voice, the two of them took the bus back.

Incidentally, since little Mu Mu is currently penniless, Chen Junqian had to temporarily pay for her ride today, which would only cost one yuan for the round trip. However, Lin Mu stubbornly claimed that Chen Junqian's own ride fare was on her own.

"I'll pay you back the two dollars I owe you when Mom and Dad come home tomorrow."

"Okay, see you at school tomorrow."

When the bus arrived at the Green Gull Garden stop, Lin Mu got off, waved goodbye to Chen Junqian, and then jogged home alone.

After hurriedly finishing the homework she owed, she opened the diary Xu Youwei had given her under the warm light of the desk lamp.

A good memory is not as good as a bad writing.

Even though Lin Mu was so certain that she would remember today's events no matter how much time passed, she still recorded everything truthfully.

Then, at the end of this page of her diary, she left these words.

I want to change my online name.

Lin Mu loves her name very much, and even proudly told Chen Junqian the origin of her name, saying that her parents told her this affectionately when she was a toddler who had just begun to learn to read and write.

Her name can be written as 木木氵木, with the two "木" representing the two big trees that sheltered her from the wind and rain, and their love being the source of water that irrigated her.

But just like that public service advertisement that CCTV's children's channel often airs, Lin Mu is well aware that his parents will also grow old one day. They cannot protect him from the wind and rain forever. This is something that cannot be changed or prevented. After all, there is no real dog charm in the world.

[Mom and Dad, I think I've found someone who treats me as well as you do. Although he's still a sapling like me, this might be a good thing, because we can grow into a big tree together and grow old together, without worrying about who will leave us first.]

Since registering her QQ account almost a year ago, Lin Mu's online name has always been the simple "Mu Mu". For many elementary school students who can change their nicknames several times a day, a year is already a long time.

But she would use that username for a longer period, until a more specific time when she would change it again. However, Lin Mu was unaware of this at the moment. She simply turned on her computer, logged into QQ, and typed out her new nickname:

Senmu.

He was the third tree she found and recognized.

Chapter 20: Love Isn't Something You Can Buy Just Like That (Bonus Chapter for Monthly Tickets)

Happy weekends are always short-lived, and before you know it, it's another brand new Monday. However, unlike last Monday, Chen Junqian had to get up a little earlier. He even just bought a simple bowl of fried noodles for breakfast and ate it while waiting for the bus. At this time, the disposable lunch box was still made of foam-like material. If someone was eating and scraping the bottom or sides of the food with their chopsticks, the ear-piercing noise was no less than sitting in the front row listening to chalk scraping the blackboard.

As one of the newly appointed discipline committee members who just took office this week, Chen Junqian briefly explained the situation to the gatekeeper before entering the school before the gate officially opened. He put down his schoolbag in the classroom before returning to the school gate.

Xu Youwei arrived much later than me, so there was no time for her to run back and forth to the classroom to put her schoolbag down before coming back. She could only temporarily leave her schoolbag at the guardhouse and carry it back to the classroom after her morning shift ended.

Today, the students from Class 5 and Class 6 were in charge of checking the gate with Class 4. However, Chen Junqian and Xu Youwei were not familiar with each other, so they did not intend to talk to each other. They stood upright in front of the school gate, separated into two lines as required by the teacher, with their chests out, stomachs in, and heads held high, and then waited for the school gate to officially open.

Because the arrangement was based on the boys and girls being separated and facing each other, Chen Junqian was facing Xu Youwei. Since the school gates were not yet open, there was no one in the aisle between them. They could only look at each other like this, as if they were playing a game where whoever looked away first or laughed out loud would lose.

If it were Lin Mu, he would probably have started to look away uncomfortably after a few seconds of eye contact, but Xu Youwei just stared intently at Chen Junqian, as if she wanted to see a flower bloom on his face.

Completely different from the wild girl I saw on Saturday, once back at school, she dressed up again in that rather deceptive way. Her hair and even her eyebrows seemed to have been deliberately styled. The cuffs and hems of her school uniform and trousers were all neatly rolled up, and even the red scarf fluttering on her chest was a standard, meticulous style. She was the perfect template for a disciplinary committee member that no one could find fault with.

Although Chen Junqian had no doubt that she was already carrying a bunch of unruly toys in her pockets or the gaps in her backpack, after all, it was a fact that he and Lin Mu had witnessed with their own eyes.

A short while later, as the time came, the tightly closed school gate slowly opened from left to right with creaking sounds. The groups of children waiting in front of the gate began to walk in in an orderly manner. Since it wasn't time to be late yet, no one ran in randomly, which made it convenient for the discipline monitors.

To be honest, although their main responsibility is to check whether students entering the school are wearing their red scarves properly, in reality, unless there is really no other way, most students who forget to wear their red scarves will do everything they can to relieve themselves right there at the school gate. There are very few students who knowingly try to force their way in without wearing their red scarves.

The same applies to school uniforms. While it's true that some people might forget to bring their red scarves, it's practically impossible for anyone to forget to wear their school uniform when going to school. However, their school isn't particularly strict about uniforms, especially now in autumn. Basically, as long as you wear a jacket when you enter the school, you can wear whatever you want underneath. Once you get to school, you can pretend to be hot and take off the jacket. It's very easy to manage.

Finally, there's the most abstract issue of appearance and demeanor, which is mainly the responsibility of the teachers from the academic affairs office who are standing here with them. However, elementary school students are not yet at the age where they learn to dress up deliberately. At most, they will only pick on a few students whose hair is too long, who have tattoo stickers on their wrists to show off, or who have manicures.

Of course, as I said before, elementary school students have always had a hidden talent for this. Unless their acting is too clumsy or their behavior is too outrageous, they will generally not be stopped in front of the school gate and get into trouble.

In conclusion, Chen Junqian's first duty as the discipline committee member ended smoothly and without incident. After the bell rang for the start of the morning reading class, everyone dispersed.

Accompanied by Xu Youwei, they went to the guardhouse to retrieve the schoolbag they had left there. The two then slowly walked towards the classroom. After standing still for so long, they really needed some time to stretch their limbs. Besides, the morning reading class could definitely be postponed as much as possible, which could be considered a small perk for the discipline committee member.

"How's the throne you made the day before yesterday? (Referring to after it's assembled)."

"It looks pretty decent, it's just a pity I can't bring it back to the city, I can only leave it at my hometown for now, otherwise I could sit on it and do my homework every night, it feels a bit like the emperor reviewing memorials in a TV series?"

"If you want, you can make a different one, so that you have a throne in both your city and country homes."

"...Let's forget about that. After all, there's only my grandma in the countryside, so it doesn't matter what I do, you know that?"

As she spoke, Xu Youwei turned her head again and continued to stare into Chen Junqian's eyes:

"There's no way I'm going to bring that kind of thing back."

"But you can keep them in your secret base, right? Didn't you just tell me you have a whole bunch of secret bases?"

"Tch, didn't someone just tell me that a secret base for one person doesn't really count as a base?"

After exchanging a few sharp words, Xu Youwei tightened the strap of her backpack, unusually showing a hint of weakness or seeking help in front of Chen Junqian:

"There are so many things I want to do that I just can't do here... you know that, right?"

In just a few words, this was the second time the other party had asked Chen Junqian a similar question, as if they desperately wanted to hear a definite answer from him.

However, Chen Junqian still did not answer with "I know" because he still felt that he did not truly understand Xu Youwei. Unlike Lin Mu, who was simple-minded and had been inseparable from her for the past week, he had not had much interaction with Xu Youwei so far, and much of his information came from Lin Mu or the homeroom teacher.

So he simply avoided the question and answered:

"If there's anything I can do to help, I definitely would, just like when we're in the countryside on weekends."

"Okay...so, are you planning to subscribe to extracurricular magazines this school year?"

Upon hearing Xu Youwei bring up this topic, Chen Junqian also recalled some memories from his elementary school days.

When he was in elementary school, at the beginning of each school year, the school would organize students in each class to subscribe to extracurricular magazines that they were interested in. This was a free act based entirely on personal preference, and it didn't matter if they didn't subscribe to any of them.

However, in Chen Junqian's memory, even many students who were not interested in the content of the magazines would still choose to subscribe to one or two of them, because in order to attract elementary school students to subscribe, each type of magazine would come with a toy gift pack closely related to its theme, which was more attractive to children than the magazine itself.

After all, the parents pay for the magazine subscriptions, but the toys are theirs, so they definitely can't miss out on such a good deal.

If Chen Junqian remembers correctly, he himself had once ordered many magazines such as "Little Copernicus: Military Science", "Science Exploration", "Little Nobel: Popular Science", "Military Fan World", and "Happy Detective" just for the toys.

Incidentally, around 2024, before his rebirth, when Chen Junqian came into contact with these contents again due to work, he discovered that many of these magazines had been operating and publishing to this day, but the gifts they gave away had also evolved to an absurd degree.

For example, the subscription gifts for "Happy Writing and Reading" have become Anya's Playhouse figurine, Egg Party water jet, and Black Myth Golden Cudgel figurine. Other gifts include Peace Elite paratrooper, League of Legends water gun launcher, Kapibal transparent notebook stickers, and Honkai Impact 3 water jet. Chen Junqian was stunned and could only sigh that each generation has its own trend.

"I will order, but I haven't decided which one yet?"

“My family wants me to subscribe to ‘Interest-Based Chinese Language’ and ‘Fun Writing’, but I don’t want to subscribe to or read these… Well, since you haven’t decided which one to subscribe to yet, Chen Junqian, could you subscribe to them for me?”

Which one do you want to book?