I turned reality into a romantic comedy

Even Chen Junqian himself didn't officially start borrowing these kinds of magazines from the library until around the sixth grade. He read them around the same time as "Story King," and it was from then on that he began to come into contact with more outstanding children's literature creators and their works in China. For example, Ge Bing, who wrote "Blue-skinned Mouse and Big-faced Cat" and "Little Confused God," and Zhang Zhilu, whose other works are also very good, but most people probably only learned about his "Antelope Wood Carving" in their Chinese textbooks, etc.

However, one or two of these names could be found on the list that Zhu Wenyun gave him at this moment. It was hard not to feel a sense of regret for not having met a kindred spirit in Chen Junqian, who had worked hard in this industry in his previous life. After all, neither Lin Mu nor Xu Youwei knew much about this.

It's more accurate to say that even some of the most popular children's literature authors today have only seen the adapted animated works on TV, such as "The Adventures of Shuke and Beta," "Naughty Boy Ma Xiaotiao," and "Magic Cube Building." It's unrealistic to expect them to buy and read the original works.

Of course, Chen Junqian wouldn't force them to have completely identical hobbies with him, but he didn't expect that there would actually be a peer who was almost identical to him in terms of reading volume and interests.

If it weren't already close to afternoon class time, he would have even had the urge to run over to the neighboring Class 3 and have a good chat with Zhu Wenyun about this topic.

For a long time, Chen Junqian himself had also pondered this question:

Did books make him lonely, or did loneliness prompt him to embrace books?

But now, he has a completely new answer.

Perhaps he simply hadn't met someone back then who had read the same books as him, liked the same books as him, and was willing to talk to him about those books.

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

Before we knew it, it was time to leave school again. However, because the blackboard newspaper wasn't finished yet, the four of them had to stay until the very end with the students on duty. But there was some good news: at least they avoided the artificial evening rush hour in front of the school gate, and their view was much wider.

It was precisely because of this that Lin Mu was able to easily find his mother and the Chery QQ she was driving, which looked quite stylish at the time.

"Your dad suddenly had something to do this afternoon and couldn't come pick you up, so he asked me to drive over. You must be Chen Junqian, who's in the same class as Mu Mu?"

Lin Mu's mother was about forty years old. Because of her good family background, she was very well-maintained and looked radiant. She also wore a pair of very fashionable sunglasses on her forehead. However, she was not at all pretentious. When she saw the two of them, she took the initiative to reach out from the car window and handed them two hot dogs that she had probably just bought at the school gate.

"Well, thank you, auntie."

Since the food had already been bought and handed over, Chen Junqian had no reason to pretend to refuse anymore. He simply reached out and accepted it, and politely thanked the other party.

"Mumu really troubled you last week. I've heard the whole story from her. She's so young and already knows how to cook. Your mother must have a lot less to worry about. I'm so envious."

After showering Chen Junqian with praise, Lin Mu's mother took the initiative to extend an invitation:

"How about coming to our house for dinner this Friday night? I'll let you try Auntie's cooking. Remember to come visit often. Look, Mumu specially asked me to buy you all the shoes. I'll wash them clean and put them in the first row of the shoe cabinet when I get back. Oh my, it's like I've suddenly gained another big, obedient son."

Perhaps realizing that her mother's words were becoming increasingly absurd, Lin Mu quickly interrupted her and spoke up to Chen Junqian herself:

So are you free this Friday night?

"Well, I'm fine. I'll just tell my family I'm going to a friend's house for dinner tonight."

After receiving Chen Junqian's affirmative answer, Lin Mu happily took a bite of the hot dog she had almost given up for a week, smiled and nodded at him, then opened the car door and got into the back seat.

"I'll head back now, see you tomorrow."

"Well, see you tomorrow."

"Oh, right, son, what's your favorite dish?"

"I'll ask myself tomorrow! Let's drive, Mom—"

Feeling that he had overheard some strange conversation along with the engine sound, Chen Junqian's lips twitched slightly. He quickly finished his hot dog and threw the remaining skewer into the trash can. Turning around, he saw Xu Youwei standing there with a sly, subtle smile on her face.

Chapter Twenty-Three: A Fireworks Party for Two

"It seems Lin Mu's mother likes you a lot too. Does this mean you've passed the hurdle of meeting the parents ahead of schedule?"

"What are you talking about?"

"It's nothing, it's just that the other person was so warm and friendly. I felt like if you had said something back then, she probably would have let you get in the car and personally driven you to your doorstep, instead of having to walk with me here."

As she spoke, Xu Youwei glanced again at the bus stop map on the roadside platform, stroked her chin thoughtfully, and asked:

"I remember you take bus number one and get off near the wear-resistant factory, is that right?"

"Yes, what's wrong?"

“It’s okay. I’ve been to that area many times before. Hmm… If you’re not in a hurry, we can take this road home.”

"Even if you randomly click and connect on the route map, I still won't know which road you're referring to. Although I'm not in a hurry, if your house is in the opposite direction from mine, there's no need to force us to go the same way."

"It's okay, the places aren't far apart, and I'm definitely not in a hurry as much as you. We can get back before it gets completely dark. Okay, okay, come with me, I definitely won't lead you astray."

After saying that, Xu Youwei grabbed Chen Junqian's arm without any sense of distance. Compared to Lin Mu, who was slightly shorter than Chen Junqian, she was almost exactly the same height as him, and even looked a little taller because of her hair. She took Chen Junqian across the road in front of the school gate in a few quick steps and went straight into a small alley.

As a byproduct of the early, undeveloped urban development, these messy and winding alleys or old streets always exist between the high-rise buildings and bungalows, which are usually only a few stories high. Chen Junqian, who had been taking the bus home for six years, had never ventured deep into them. On the contrary, Xu Youwei seemed to know them very well, and even took the time to remind him which entrance had a step that was easy to trip over.

"Actually, I really love the way home from school."

"That's like saying which elementary school student doesn't like going home after school."

"It's not just about leaving school, it's about the road home after school."

Xu Youwei meticulously corrected Chen Junqian's grammatical errors.

"When going to school, people usually choose the most time-saving and effortless route because they are in a hurry. But it's different after school. There's a saying that all roads lead to Rome. If you're willing to look and explore, there are many routes and connections between school and home."

As she spoke, she pointed to a corner of the eaves extending from a house at the edge of the alley:

“In winter, many icicles will form here.”

"If we leave school a little earlier and the stall closes a little later, we can see an old man selling all kinds of desserts and pastries. His glutinous rice strips and popcorn are delicious."

"And here, you can see a lot of little toads when it rains. Once, a very big toad blocked my way, and I ended up going around it."

According to Xu Youwei's description, the entire alley seemed to be her own territory, and considering that this was just one of her many routes home, even Chen Junqian began to wonder how late she would linger outside each time before finally going home.

"Right, here you go."

Although he had guessed in the morning that the disciplinary committee member who was solemnly checking the appearance of students entering the school must have something bulging in his bag, Chen Junqian still felt a sense of awe when he actually saw the other party pull out a box of Black Spider firecrackers from the gap in his backpack.

"Aren't you afraid of being caught bringing this to school?"

Chen Junqian, who hadn't played with this thing for over ten years, took the box. He remembered that the last time he saw it before his rebirth was when netizens jokingly photoshopped the printed 'black spider' into 'black mamba'.

"It's not like a firecracker that explodes if you accidentally press it. It's nothing serious. There aren't many people living in that alley ahead. Come on, let's go play there."

Seeing that Chen Junqian did not show any particular resistance or stern refusal, Xu Youwei enthusiastically led him into another alley.

Just as she said, this alley, which was dirty and messy in every way, was completely devoid of human interaction. Only a garbage can that was almost overflowing with trash on the side of the road had any presence.

Xu Youwei casually picked up an empty mineral water bottle from the top of the trash can. She skillfully, even nonchalantly, rubbed two firecrackers along the dark red coating on the side of the box. After the sparks sizzled, she calmly and unhurriedly stuffed them into the bottle.

The next second, with a loud bang, the empty plastic bottle was blown up and bounced several times in the air, and a faint smell of gunpowder filled the air.

"Where did you buy all of these? I usually only play with them during winter break and Chinese New Year."

After playing with Xu Youwei for a while, throwing firecrackers, blasting puddles, and blowing up bottles, Chen Junqian asked her a question out of curiosity.

"That would be a small shop that's quite far away. If you're interested, I can take you there next time. But I'm the opposite of you. I don't get to have much fun during the Chinese New Year, so I want to have as much fun as I want during the regular season."

Seemingly feeling that throwing them one or two at a time wasn't enough, Xu Youwei pulled out a one-yuan lighter from somewhere and quickly dragged Chen Junqian to a secluded corner to squat down. She poured out all the remaining firecrackers from the box and then gestured for Chen Junqian to gather them into a circle with the lit end pointing towards the center, stacking them layer by layer to form a shape like a bonfire.

After everything was successfully completed, she reached out and handed her lighter to Chen Junqian.

"How about it? Want some?"

As the pillar of the household who would later be responsible for lighting five hundred strings of firecrackers during the Lunar New Year, Chen Junqian was certainly not afraid of such a small scene. After asking Xu Youwei to step back a little, he lit the lighter and steadily lit all the firecrackers before jumping up and covering his ears with her.

The noise from the twenty or so firecrackers exploding together was indeed much louder than the one or two that had exploded earlier. As soon as they finished, you could hear the dogs from the neighboring alleys barking in fright at you. But Xu Youwei seemed to be used to this scene. She even had the leisure to quickly pull out two more firecrackers from her bag, which looked like incense sticks with red ignition strips at the tips.

This firework was one of the things Chen Junqian played with a lot when he was a child, but it had different names. Girls seemed to call it a fairy wand, while others called it a morning light flower or a fun firework. However, Chen Junqian preferred to call it a paintbrush because after it was lit, you could use the light left behind when it burned in the air to outline lines that lasted a long time but were quite beautiful. If you were fast enough, you could even write one or two simple words.

With a touch of nostalgia, Chen Junqian took a cigarette from Xu Youwei's hand, lit it with a lighter, and tried to leave a mark in the air, just like when he was a child. However, his name was indeed too long and had too many strokes. By the time he finished writing the first character "Chen" and got to the second half of "Dong," the left side of "Gua Er" had already disappeared without a trace.

After a brief pause, the firework in his hand had burned to its very end, leaving only a small, charred stick at one end.

Unlike his method, Xu Youwei held the lit sparkler above her head like a real fairy wand, and as the sparkler burst into bloom, she began to spin it around her from top to bottom like a gymnast waving a ribbon.

Burning magnesium powder drew luminous spirals in the air, and several shooting stars streaked across the wall by the alley. Her body spun around with the trails of fireworks, the hem of her school uniform jacket fluttering with her movements. The remaining traces of light and sparks wove her from head to waist into a cocoon-like shape, as if wrapped in golden thread.

Facing the last flickering flame, Chen Junqian seemed to see countless glittering starlight clinging to the other person's eyelashes and pupils.

Although he had never seen a fireworks display or festival that the system had mentioned countless times, at this moment, he felt as if he had already seen it.

Even if it's just a celebration for two people.

Chapter Twenty-Four: We Can Have Stories

Unlike Zhu Wenyun, Chen Junqian did not feel any psychological pressure about going to the other person's class to find them.

Gu Cheng once said in his poem "Avoidance":

You don't want to plant flowers, you say: 'I don't want to watch them wither away little by little.'

Yes, to avoid the end, you avoid the beginning.

Indeed, repeating the same things day after day, following the same routines as yesterday, if one can avoid intense ecstasy, then naturally there will be no sorrow to follow. Chen Junqian did the same thing in his previous life.

But he has been reborn after all.

Even though he still doesn't fully understand what the male protagonist of a romantic comedy should be, after all, even if the system tells him to become more 'gentle', he can probably only sing back, 'Your damn gentleness makes my heart ache and my tears flow.'

However, Chen Junqian knew very well that most male protagonists in stories generally possessed a common trait: extraordinary drive.

If there are no events, create them; if there are no stories, create them. Often, the connection between people does require taking the initiative to take a step, just like his relationship with Lin Mu and Xu Youwei, and just like it is now.

Perhaps because the number of students in the class was an odd number, and Zhu Wenyun herself was very tall and sat in the last row, Chen Junqian, who came to the door of Class 3 to familiarize himself with the location today, found that the other party actually did not have a deskmate. She looked like a little tail hanging there at the back of that group.

It was the break between the first and second classes of the morning, and many elementary school students who looked like they had stayed up late the night before were sleeping on their desks. However, Zhu Wenjun was not one of them; instead, she seemed to be absentmindedly thinking about something.

Chen Junqian asked a student from Class 3 who was passing by to call out to the other person again. He felt that he would have to agree on a secret code with Zhu Wenyun, otherwise it would probably be long before rumors spread that a boy from the next class came to see the same person every day.

She probably expected Chen Junqian to come again, since she had written such a thing on the bookmark she returned yesterday. This time, Zhu Wenyun seemed much calmer than when she was suddenly asked to borrow a book. However, she still didn't seem to want to talk to him in a place like the classroom door, and instead gestured for the two of them to go to the stairwell at the end of the corridor a little further away.

Are you here to borrow a book from me?

Once they arrived at this quieter place with fewer people around, Zhu Wenyun seemed to calm down considerably, although she was still a little nervous, constantly rubbing the ends of her long hair with her right hand.

"Borrowing books is one thing, but I also wanted to talk to you about my thoughts on those two Pipilu books. I was very curious when I first lent them to you, but you hadn't read them yet, so what do you think now?"

"The book 'The Germ Boss' is very good, and the book '419 Deadly Sins' is very useful."

Faced with Chen Junqian's straightforward question, Zhu Wenyun also spoke her mind without hesitation.

"it works?"

"Yes, it's very useful to me. It's like the Legal Time and Space program that Anhui Science and Education Channel broadcasts every night at 7 o'clock. I feel like I've learned a lot of useful things that can protect me."

"Oh, I see... That's good then."

Since the two weren't particularly close yet, Chen Junqian didn't ask any further questions. However, considering that the other person seemed to be a left-behind child living alone with her grandmother, it wasn't too hard to understand.

After all, the safety education that their primary schools currently carry out is just having them sign a responsibility agreement related to drowning during summer vacation. There is indeed a lack of popularization and publicity in terms of law. When he was a child, the first time he learned about so many specific crimes under the criminal law was from this book of 419 crimes.

"And then there's the germ boss. If Yuan Lie Lie (the germ boss in the story) really existed in the world, that would be great. With just a word, he could make germs leave anyone's body, and even bring the dead back to life."

Perhaps genuinely captivated by these two stories, before Chen Junqian could ask again, Zhu Wenyun naturally shared her feelings:

"Of all the long novels by Teacher Zheng that I've read, the protagonist's 'special abilities' in this one are among the ones I most desire. As for the golden thumb... well, I don't understand what stock trading is at all; the five-pointed flying saucer... even if I actually built one, I wouldn't have Shuke and Beta to help me pilot it; a superhuman who gains abilities by downloading computer software into their body—I don't even have a computer at home yet; and then there's cloning, doppelgangers, remote-controlled teachers, Hua Tuo with a heating system, robotic monkeys..."

"You've really read a lot of Zheng Yuanjie's books, haven't you?"

"I've probably watched most of them several times, haven't you?"

"Yeah, me too, and I've probably seen even more and more of it than you have. But fairy tales are fairy tales, and reality is reality. Don't try to replicate many of the plots in the stories, like putting a pony sculpture in the microwave hoping to make the Phantom come out."

Faced with Chen Junqian's unhesitating act of destroying the child's dream, Zhu Wenyun could only feel deeply hurt, with a sense of defeat, as if saying, "Even a child your age would betray Ultraman Tiga and refuse to believe in the light?"

"Of course I know, after all, I wouldn't be like Pipilu talking to the germs on my body and saying things like, 'I want to see Yuan Lielie, can you help me find it?' But sometimes I just think, if these things really existed in the world... they could fulfill so many wishes that can't be fulfilled in reality, right?"

Since he himself was a reincarnated individual, and possessed a subtle system, Chen Junqian didn't completely deny it, nodding in agreement:

"That's true, but I thought if you liked 419 Deadly Sins, you'd be more inclined towards a realistic personality."

"I've read a lot of realistic children's literature. Lately, I've been feeling a bit down, so I've been reading more books by Sunshine Sister Wu Meizhen, especially her 'My Deskmate is My Nemesis' series. It made me want to have a deskmate."

Upon hearing the other party mention Wu Meizhen, Chen Junqian casually offered a suggestion:

"Since you've read so many books, have you ever thought about trying to write a novel and submitting it for publication? I remember that Wu Meizhen's Sunshine Sister website has a special section for submissions from young readers, and outstanding works are even selected for publication in her own 'My Deskmate's Rival' series."

"I do know that. After all, each book of 'My Deskmate is My Nemesis' does publish several such works at the end, and the last page is a call for submissions. But whether it's 'My Deskmate is My Nemesis PK Arena' or 'Sunshine Family Headquarters' that you mentioned, they are only soliciting stories about deskmates or campus stories."

At this point, Zhu Wenyun glanced up at the crowds coming and going in the corridor, then lowered her head again, slowly sliding her upper body down against the wall and sitting down with her knees drawn up to her chest.

"...I don't have a story like that to write."