I turned reality into a romantic comedy

What Chen Junqian found a bit of a pity was that, apart from the fact that the achievement of "Shura Field" where he was still stubbornly holding on to his bottom line and refusing to admit defeat to elementary school students was still not unlocked, it was also that the weather was not cooperating and it rained on the Lantern Festival this year. Otherwise, he would have planned to go to the city government square to see if he could trigger the scene requirement of the fireworks festival. For now, he could only give up and wait until next year.

However, because everyone's free time on weekends conflicted after the start of the semester, the four-person study group also came to a temporary end. Chen Junqian returned to his familiar routine of going to after-school care with Lin Mu after school at noon, going to find Zhu Wenjun after class, and walking around with Xu Youwei after school in the evening.

As March arrived, two more important events occurred at the school that were closely related to Chen Junqian, or rather, to those around him.

First of all, the young writer, who in a sense has already written and published a book, was successfully recommended by her Chinese teacher and will soon represent her school in the city-level essay competition. It is said that if she wins, she will have the opportunity to be recommended to participate in the provincial competition.

Chen Junqian was also recommended, after all, his Chinese language scores were also among the best, and his use of words and allusions in his compositions exceeded the level of elementary school students. After each midterm and final exam, his compositions were used as model essays and circulated in the office and other classes.

Chen Junqian initially didn't want to go, just like before. However, his homeroom teacher had a sudden inspiration and went to tell Zhu Wenyun that they might have to take a bus to Xuancheng to participate in the provincial competition. Then Zhu Wenyun eagerly came to find Chen Junqian.

After all, this child looks quite big, but she hasn't really traveled far from home much. Although Xuancheng isn't far from Guoning, she would definitely prefer to have someone familiar by her side rather than go with other students she doesn't know at all. Chen Junqian is the best candidate for that.

Well, it seems that both the homeroom teacher and Zhu Wenjun are convinced that the two of them will definitely advance to the next round.

However, since Zhu Wenyun had already put it this way, Chen Junqian didn't intend to refuse anymore. He had always held a nurturing attitude towards Zhu Wenyun's writing career, and he could understand her nervousness about participating in this kind of essay competition for the first time. If accompanying her would make her feel more relaxed, then he would accompany her.

The city's essay competition was held in their school's lecture hall. As expected, Chen Junqian and Zhu Wenyun, whose writing skills were significantly superior to their peers, stood out and won the first prize in the essay competition along with three other students. They also qualified to go to Xuancheng to participate in the next round of the provincial competition, which was scheduled for May, two months later.

However, before the essay competition in May, another school event came to Chen Junqian: the 20th anniversary celebration performance of the Experimental Primary School he attended.

Actually, this matter had nothing to do with him, but it probably happened to coincide with the first anniversary of last year's stampede. When the school leaders were doing related publicity work, they suddenly remembered this brave young man and took the initiative to arrange a "poetry chorus" program for him.

As for why Zhu Wenyun wasn't included, it can only be said that little Zhu really couldn't handle this kind of performance in front of others. It was as if she was saying, "Even if you choose me, I'll still skip it to show you." Therefore, the head of the teaching department had no choice but to give up.

Poetry chorus, as the name suggests, is a combination of poetry recitation and choral singing. Chen Junqian was in charge of reciting at the beginning, followed by the school's choir. The two were interspersed. However, unlike him, who was only in charge of this one program, Chen Junqian, as the only choir in the school, was responsible for several choral programs from the beginning to the end. It looked quite tiring.

It was precisely because of this that Chen Junqian's after-school time was taken away. Starting from the next day, he had to report to the music classroom on time to participate in rehearsals. Xu Youwei, who was stood up again, originally wanted to go to the scene with him, but since she was not a member of the school choir, she was turned away again. She could only watch Chen Junqian walk in alone, feeling a little angry.

Aside from the fact that the weekly music class often inexplicably turned into other main subjects, this was the first time Chen Junqian had come to the music classroom at any other time. The students' seats—dozens of square colored blocks—had been stacked in advance in the corner, clearing a large open space in the classroom. On the wall, there was a picture of a musical score and a quote from Hugo: "Music is the sound of thinking."

However, Chen Junqian did not wait there for long. About two minutes later, twenty or thirty students from various grades and classes walked in with practiced ease, chattering as they put their schoolbags aside. They must have been members of the school choir.

Because Chen Junqian saw his sister's figure in it.

"Ah, brother, what are you doing here?"

But before he could even go to find her, Chen Xi, who hadn't even put her schoolbag down yet, had already skipped and hopped over to him, her face showing a hint of surprise:

"Are you here to perform with our choir? But I remember you singing so-so, and you like to change the lyrics, which has led me astray."

"Well, the second half of the sentence can be omitted."

Since there were a lot of people watching, Chen Junqian resisted the urge to habitually pat his sister's head. Instead, he reached out and helped his sister unpack her schoolbag while explaining something to her.

"Oh, so you're the one who's going to recite the poem, brother."

"That's right. Actually, I didn't want to participate in this program at first, but since the poetry and chorus program included a chorus, I figured I would be performing with your choir, so I agreed in the end."

Although Chen Xi knew perfectly well that Chen Junqian was just teasing her, she was clearly quite pleased and nodded confidently.

"That's definitely no problem. Our choir is very good; we've participated in city-level competitions and won awards."

"Okay, Xixi, go to rehearse first. Look, you guys are all lined up on the steps over there."

"okay."

Watching his younger sister squeeze into the third row at the top of the stairs, quietly laughing and talking with another girl next to her, Chen Junqian couldn't help but think of Shen Nianqiu, who was said to be the lead singer in the choir. He wondered if she had rejoined the choir after entering junior high school. He would ask her next time they chatted.

Although they said they came to rehearse together, in reality, Chen Junqian and the school choir only performed one song together, "Learning from Lei Feng," and spent most of their time rehearsing other songs.

For example, the song "Farewell" was probably added specifically for the sixth grade graduation season. When listening to the tune of "Outside the long pavilion, along the ancient road, the fragrant grass stretches to the horizon," Chen Junqian naturally thought of the book "Old Tales of South City" that he had read before. He remembered that when he was in the first year of junior high school, he learned the story "My Father's Flowers Have Fallen" in his Chinese textbook, and his Chinese teacher showed them the movie of the same name from that year.

That was shortly after Chen Junqian's parents passed away, so much so that when he hears that tune now, he still can't help but think of his feelings at that time and that text.

However, Chen Junqian quickly adjusted his mood and refocused his attention on the choir, especially his sister's practice.

In fact, in a choir of twenty or thirty people, apart from the lead singer who sings solo, the others are often not very noticeable. Rather, if your voice stands out, then it is your problem.

Moreover, before the third achievement milestone reward was unlocked, Chen Junqian, who didn't know much about this area, naturally couldn't tell whether it was good or bad, and was just an outsider watching the show.

But the liveliness was also quite enjoyable. After all, many familiar old songs and nursery rhymes that had been buried deep in our memories were reappearing in this form, which was a real nostalgia trip for Chen Junqian. Besides the ones that Chen Xi had sung and hummed to him before, he also heard quite a few other songs here today.

For example, when I was a child, I didn't think much of it, but when I grew up, I found the lyrics to be strange. When I heard children singing the lyrics "One is given to Antarctica, one is given to the Arctic Ocean," I even wanted to shout "Don't come any closer!" for the polar bears and penguins in Antarctica in the song "Planting the Sun."

Of course, there are still many songs with normal lyrics, such as "Little Bird, Little Bird" with the lyrics "In spring, there is sunshine, in the woods, there is fragrance of flowers, little bird, little bird, you fly freely" and "Little Conch" with the lyrics "The little conch shell blows, the waves smile gently when they hear it". They still sound very childlike and fun, which makes people feel more relaxed.

For the final song, the school choir chose "Singing and Smiling," a tune that had a lively ending but also a touch of sadness and melancholy at the close.

It must be said that when Chen Junqian saw the choir members on stage clapping and singing the lyrics, "Tomorrow, tomorrow this song will fly to the ends of the earth; tomorrow, tomorrow this smile will be a field of spring flowers, a field of spring flowers," he did feel a strange sadness.

After this song was sung, the school choir's after-school rehearsal came to an end. However, when Chen Xi came to find Chen Junqian, she seemed to still be thinking about the last song, "Singing and Smiling," and was still humming the tune, softly starting to sing the first line of the lyrics:

"Please take my song back to your home, please leave your smile behind."

"Please take my song back to your home..."

Just as she was leaving the music classroom, humming softly as she prepared to walk to the school gate with Chen Junqian, she suddenly heard a girl's inexplicable reply from beside her:

"Okay."

Xu Youwei, who had been squatting outside the music classroom waiting for the entire rehearsal to finish, stood there, unceremoniously pulling Chen Junqian, who was next to Chen Xi, closer to her, while raising the corners of her mouth in a smirk:

"I've given you a smile, and I'll take your brother (song) with me. Goodbye, Chen Xi!"

"...?"

"?"

Okay, actually, Xu Youwei just suddenly decided to use a pun she had just thought of. After all, she was Chen Junqian's sister, so she should at least get to know her. It wouldn't be appropriate to just kidnap her brother in front of her. After deliberately clearing her throat and coughing twice, Xu Youwei then proactively extended her hand to Chen Xi:

“I am Xu Youwei, who is in the same class as your brother.”

Perhaps still reeling from the other party's defensive tactics and the completely unexpected remarks, just like when she was almost unable to shake off Chen Junqian's strange lyrics, Chen Xi's mind was now filled with the shape of Xu Youwei's pun, and for a moment she even felt that she would never be able to look at the lyrics of "Singing and Smiling" the same way again, let alone sing it.

Oh my god, she doesn't want to sing "Please take my brother back to your home," what kind of nonsense is that?

Thinking of this, Chen Xi gave Xu Youwei a rather resentful look, then grabbed Chen Junqian's other arm with considerable alertness, already mentally labeling him as some kind of villain.

It can only be said that Xu Youwei really had no experience in getting along with her younger sister. She thought that she could be coaxed by giving her some food, just like a little child. She immediately took out a not-so-cheap sucking candy from her schoolbag:

"Don't stay silent, okay? I'll treat you to some candy, okay? It's really delicious."

"I'm going home with my brother. We rehearsed late today, so I'll have my mom take him home with me."

"It's not that late. Actually, your brother and I often play until later than this before going home. After all, it's spring now, and the days are getting longer."

“You know that’s normal. I still have rehearsal to talk to my brother about today.”

Completely ignoring Xu Youwei, Chen Xi simply pushed Chen Junqian's back to make him walk forward with her. Chen Junqian could only mouth "we'll talk about it tomorrow" to Xu Youwei for the time being, and then he was pushed away like that.

Standing still, Xu Youwei turned the knob on the candy and silently put it in her mouth. The sweetness that bloomed on her tongue slightly calmed her restless emotions, and she regained her composure.

I should have refrained from using that pun in the first place. I'll apologize to her in person next time.

After all, what's the point of arguing with my sister?

Chapter Ten: I Like to Lie with My Eyes (Part Two)

The next day, after finishing his exercises during the long break, Chen Junqian had just sat back down in his seat when Zhong Yu patted him on the shoulder from behind.

"Hey, Qian'er, did you upset your deskmate?"

"...What the hell? You can tell that?"

"It's obvious."

Zhong Yu sat there with a grin on his face, legs crossed, looking smug as if to say, "You two think you can hide your little schemes from me, a dating expert with years of online dating experience?"

“In the past, whenever we did morning exercises, whether it was stretching, chest expansion, or torso rotation, Xu Youwei would always move closer to me. But today, she deliberately turned away from me during the final jumping exercise when we were supposed to face each other. I could see her clearly from behind. I almost forgot to give her a couple of slaps on the butt during the leg kick exercise.”

"Actually, it's nothing. It's just that I have to participate in the school anniversary rehearsal during this period, so I can't play with her after school. We used to walk home together."

"There's really nothing we can do about that."

After listening to Chen Junqian's explanation, Zhong Yu thought for a moment, then casually took out a Rubik's Cube from his drawer. It was supposed to train children's spatial imagination and logical ability, but in reality, it was basically just a toy. He then quickly folded it into the shape of a bouquet of flowers in front of him.

"I just happened to bring this over today. Why don't you fold one that she likes and give it to her? If you think the flower designs are too difficult, you can just fold a simple heart shape. I often use this to please my girlfriend. If I hadn't forgotten to bring balloons today, I could have taught you how to make a balloon flower. You'll need it sometime."

"Then forget it. I'll find a chance to talk to her about it today. It wasn't a big deal to begin with."

Having observed and raised Xu Youwei for almost two years, Chen Junqian could clearly tell whether the child was genuinely unhappy or just pretending. Compared to the scene where he threw his umbrella away on a rainy day and waited for her to come back, Xu Youwei's little emotions were nothing now.

"Okay, as long as you know what I mean."

Seeing Chen Junqian say this, Zhong Yu put away the magic ruler again, stretched lazily in his seat, and then yawned:

"The next class is computer class, I'll catch up on some sleep there, I'm so sleepy."

Unlike the other elementary school students in his class who were very enthusiastic about computer class, Zhong Yu was naturally not interested in the computer class computer, which basically did not have any large-scale games. After all, he had played too much at home, so he basically just took a nap during computer class.

"You brought your shoe covers, didn't you? Otherwise you'll be standing at the door as punishment for the whole class again."

"I brought them. I don't use disposable plastic shoe covers anymore. I just keep the cloth shoe covers I use in my drawer. Here they are."

Pulling shoe covers out of the messy drawer and stuffing them into his pocket, Zhong Yu also stood up unsteadily, glancing at the clock hanging on the back wall:

"Let's go, let's go. The computer lab is still quite a distance from here. We can stroll over slowly and it will be about the same."

Just like the weekly pottery and music classes, computer class didn't follow the seating order. So, after walking for a short while, Lin Mu, who had caught up from behind, ran to Chen Junqian's side. After all, it was only in this kind of class that she had the chance to sit next to her childhood sweetheart for a little while.

However, unlike usual, Xu Youwei also came over today. After all, the computers in the computer class are arranged in a row, so as long as you don't sit in the corner, there are two people sitting on either side of Chen Junqian, which means there are two deskmates.

When he saw Xu Youwei coming over, Zhong Yu took a step back to protect his good brother. He sat behind the two of them every day and was used to slacking off in class, so he could see a lot of the girl's little actions. Sometimes when Chen Junqian was drinking water in class, she would secretly peek at his Adam's apple and neck for a long time, which was really a bit exaggerated.

After changing into shoe covers at the entrance of the computer lab, the group who entered first freely chose their seats. Zhong Yu, who wanted to catch up on sleep, found a corner and lay down on the table to drift off to sleep. Lin Mu, on the other hand, enthusiastically opened the Kingsoft Typing software that came with the computer in the computer lab, determined to compete with Chen Junqian for who knows how many times.

Because teachers don't allow students to freely connect to the internet on their computers in every class, most of the time students can only play the built-in single-player games such as Minesweeper and Spider Solitaire. Among these, Kingsoft Typing Tutor is considered the most fun, and it can even be played by two people.

After agreeing with Xu Youwei that they would each take one turn, Lin Mu easily chose the Kingsoft Typing Tutorial game, Speed ​​of Life, which is essentially a cops and robbers game—a simple typing speed competition. Since the computers in the computer lab were all on the same local area network, they could play together online.

Lin Mu is playing the thief who runs ahead, while Chen Junqian plays the police officer who chases after him.

It can only be said that because he had played with Lin Mu so many times, Chen Junqian knew his opponent's strength well and had even learned to go to such lengths to make a certain kid scream nervously in front of him, yet always almost manage to escape each time.

Xu Youwei, sitting on the other side of Chen Junqian, noticed this after only a couple of glances. Then she turned her head away again, focusing on the 3D pinball game on her computer screen. She idly controlled the pinball to fly around in the small battle arena while waiting for her turn to go up.

Xu Youwei was actually willing to admit that sometimes she did feel a little bit of jealousy towards Lin Mu. Much of it was indeed related to Chen Junqian, but much of it had nothing to do with Chen Junqian. It was just that she would occasionally deceive herself by thinking that if her mother hadn't passed away, would she be like Lin Mu, living every day without any psychological pressure and without any worries?

However, she wouldn't expand on this reason to have any strange thoughts like "xx stole my life," because she had already been friends with Lin Mu before she met Chen Junqian. She knew that Lin Mu's personality was simply kind and she had experienced his genuine goodwill. In fact, her interaction with Chen Junqian was because Lin Mu wanted to change her extreme thinking, so he acted as a matchmaker.

“Weiwei, it’s your turn! I managed to escape this time. This is the first time I’ve beaten Qianqian this month—I’m so satisfied.”

Lin Mu's words pulled Xu Youwei back to reality from her thoughts.

It can only be said that she did think from the beginning that a girl as innocent as Lin Mu, whose thoughts she could easily guess, would be easily deceived by Chen Junqian. However, she did not expect that she would even take the bait faster than Lin Mu.

Unlike her close friends, Xu Youwei is very clear about her true thoughts and everything she is doing.

Although she felt a little sorry, she had already thought about what she would say and how she would argue when Lin Mu asked her such questions, and she had no doubt that she could turn the tables and use sound reasoning to break down his psychological defenses.

However, Hsu Yu-Wei certainly didn't want that day to actually come. Even if it did, she hoped it would be much later.

But she also knew that this day would come sooner or later.

Because Hsu Yu-Wei herself really wouldn't give up.

She already knew it when she gave him that special nickname between the two of them.

I have not seen my lord, and my heart is filled with deep sorrow.

Not seeing my beloved, I am filled with sorrow and joy.

Not seeing my beloved, my heart is filled with sorrow.

Now that I have seen the gentleman, now that I have seen the gentleman, now that I have seen the gentleman...

How could I not be happy?

"So you're still upset about what happened yesterday?"

Since it was his first time playing a high-speed game with Xu Youwei, Chen Junqian intentionally controlled his speed at first, and took the opportunity to chat with her about what happened after yesterday's rehearsal.

"A little bit, I guess. After all, I waited for you there for so long, but in the end you still didn't come back with me."

"But I never told you to wait for me there, right?"

"……I know."

Upon hearing Chen Junqian's words, Xu Youwei paused slightly as she typed on the keyboard, then muttered to herself softly:

“I know that I am sometimes troublesome and awkward, and I sometimes think that many of my ideas are self-righteous and take things for granted.”