I turned reality into a romantic comedy

"...It hasn't come to that point yet, let's just stick to the facts."

To prevent Xu Youwei's thoughts from spiraling further into some strange direction, Chen Junqian quickly called a stop.

"If we're talking about the matter at hand, then I was wrong. I shouldn't have suddenly made a joke and tried to pull you away at that time. After all, I know that you two siblings have a good relationship. Otherwise, she wouldn't have made a point of climbing up a flight of stairs to find you every few days after class. I'll apologize to her next time."

Just as Chen Junqian had thought, Xu Youwei realized after their meeting yesterday that she had indeed taken things for granted. However, since it was Chen Xi who had spoken up against her, she wasn't actually in a bad mood at first. After all, why would she be jealous of her sister clinging to her brother? They might even be family in the future.

She originally wanted to pretend to be depressed as before, but after Chen Junqian exposed her, she immediately surrendered and obediently admitted defeat.

"But please don't be angry with me, okay? At worst, I won't go over there and will wait for you to finish rehearsals. I'll just go back by myself."

Well, as it turns out, when Xu Youwei switched to her well-behaved and sensible form, honed through countless trials at home, and pitifully blinked her eyes while begging him for forgiveness, Chen Junqian's attitude couldn't be hardened anymore. Controlling his police officer persona, he apprehended the thief who had stopped resisting and brought him to justice, while unconsciously averting his gaze:

"Yes, it will be fine once this rehearsal period is over."

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After this little incident, which was honestly not even a misunderstanding, ended, Chen Junqian and Xu Youwei's relationship returned to normal, except that they could no longer walk home together after school and stroll around outside. Every day, they would see each other pull out all sorts of magical gadgets from Doraemon's pocket and play with each other in different ways.

Today, Hsu Yu-Wei pulled out a new gadget: the God of Cookery's paintbrush.

It's basically a jam pen with glutinous rice paper. Kids can draw all sorts of things on it and then eat it. The main difference between this and another jam snack that can also be squeezed out is that the container has been changed to a more convenient pen shape, making it much more comfortable to draw or write.

However, unlike Chen Junqian, who would just scribble aimlessly as a child and then get bored and start sucking jam directly into his mouth, Xu Youwei, who has a foundation in drawing and is currently learning to draw, can really make the most of this snack that can be both eaten and used for drawing.

For several days afterward, she didn't even touch her favorite magnetic drawing board. She spent her days researching how to use it to draw more beautiful and intricate patterns on glutinous rice paper, and then fed them to Chen Junqian or ate them herself.

After class that day, Chen Junqian had just finished chatting with Zhu Wenyun in the corridor about the essay competition and decided to visit her home in a couple of days to explain to her grandmother that participating in this thing required going out. As soon as he returned to his seat, his eyes were covered up again from the side.

However, this time Hsu Yu-Wei didn't play any 'guess who I am' games. Instead, she simply and directly asked him to open his mouth.

It can only be said that the other students around them were indeed used to their interactions, but the homeroom teacher did not seem to care, and they would not go so far as to tattle on them. After all, although Xu Youwei was not popular, Chen Junqian was quite popular.

"Class is about to start..."

"So if you don't want the teacher to see, Qinqin, hurry up and open your mouth. It's just to feed you something."

"It's not going to be that jam-filled glutinous rice paper again, is it?"

"Yes, yes, I spent a long time drawing this pattern."

Chen Junqian wanted to ask again what it was and what it looked like, but the next second something was stuffed into his mouth. It turned out that the teacher's footsteps were coming from outside the classroom.

He subconsciously chewed it, and it was still the familiar taste of glutinous rice paper mixed with that slightly cloyingly sweet jam. Although he was still a little curious, he couldn't spit it out to see anymore, so Chen Junqian had no choice but to swallow it.

"So what exactly is being drawn?"

"secret--"

Xu Youwei simply winked playfully at him with her eyes, which were always best at lying, before turning her head away.

There was nothing she could do. During this special time when Chen Junqian couldn't accompany her home, she could only try to find some solace in this way.

Writing your favorite words on a snow-white wall with red blood looks like a curse on someone in a ghost story.

However, writing the same words on transparent rice paper with orange jam is simply a way of expressing affection.

The former must be seen by others, while the latter must not be seen by others.

She was always the boldest and the most fearful person.

After all, all the true feelings and thoughts of the girl named Xu Youwei could only be hidden in the name she called out when only the two of them were present, in the invisible pen, on the magnetic drawing board that could be erased and cleared by dragging it left and right, and in the jam that the other person had just eaten.

Chapter 11: Phoenix Legend Wins MVP (Part 2)

In April, Chen Junqian accepted Zhu Wenyun's invitation to visit her home again, mainly to explain to her grandmother that they would be participating in a writing competition the following month.

Although this matter should theoretically be handled by the homeroom teacher, Zhu Wenyun's grandmother actually prefers to believe Chen Junqian, who comes to her house every few days and even celebrates her granddaughter's birthday, rather than seeing the teacher only once a year at parent-teacher conferences.

In Zhu Wenjun's own words, as long as he goes over and says, "Grandma, don't worry, Wenjun and I will go together this time. It'll only be a day, and we'll take care of each other," his grandma will smile and say that there's no problem. This is much more effective than explaining to her about some essay competition.

However, because he usually had to rehearse after school, Chen Junqian specifically chose a weekend. But it was still quite unfortunate; he was still on his way when Zhu Wenyun called, and her tone was quite helpless:

"Hey, Junqian, are you here yet?"

"On my way, just got on the bus."

"There's still time. Don't take me to my house. Just come to Yangning Park. My grandma and I are here."

"Why did you go to Yangning Park again?"

“I forgot to tell my grandma yesterday that you would be coming today. As a result, she habitually came over to do square dancing with the older ladies she knows first. I just came over here myself.”

"Okay, I'll get off at that stop."

After hanging up Zhu Wenyun's call, Chen Junqian adjusted his route again, skipping a few stops on the bus and getting off at the stop closest to Yangning Park, then walking in that direction.

It's around six o'clock in the evening, and it's the weekend when children don't have to go to school and adults probably don't have to work either. So everywhere you look, there are crowds of people who have just finished eating and are out for a stroll, especially in Yangning Park.

However, amidst the bustling noise and commotion, the volume of the square dance speakers in the open space at the entrance continued to rise, and even from a distance, one could hear a high-pitched female voice singing the familiar tune of "The horse-taming man, you are mighty and strong, the galloping horse is like a swift wind—".

After crossing the road, Chen Junqian quickly found Zhu Wenyun sitting on a bench in the crowd, waving to him. He walked over in a few steps and sat down next to her, subconsciously glancing at the book Zhu Wenyun was holding.

"What are you looking at?"

"I borrowed Mark Twain's short stories from the little bookshelf just the day before yesterday."

Just like in Chen Junqian's previous life, around the last semester, the school launched the "Little Bookshelf" activity within each grade, and each class even selected a librarian to be responsible for borrowing and returning books.

However, since Chen Junqian was already familiar with Zhu Wenyun after his rebirth, and they had shared and borrowed books from each other's homes, they no longer needed this channel of communication that they had briefly and only had in their previous life. But it was still nice to occasionally borrow some good books that other classmates had put in.

In fact, Zhu Wenyun initially had high expectations for this event, but the reality was that the books that the elementary school students crammed in were either ones she had already read or ones she wasn't interested in. After all, the school didn't manage this area very strictly; as long as the book titles were changed to some kind of world classic in the librarian's register, a large number of thick pirated novels and comic book collections could quickly circulate.

Just two days ago, Chen Junqian saw Zhong Yu borrow a pirated collection of "A Shuai" comics and reading it with great interest.

"This one is pretty good."

After receiving the book from Zhu Wenyun, Chen Junqian briefly flipped through the table of contents. Although he didn't know who had put this book in, it was quite comprehensive. Classic stories that left a deep impression on him, such as "The Million Pound Note," "The Famous Frog of Ka County," "Running for Governor," "The Cannibalism Incident on the Train," "The 30,000 Yuan Inheritance," and "Stories of Good and Bad Kids," were all included.

"Hmm, I plan to finish this book and then borrow Maupassant's 'Boule de Suif'."

"Boule de Suif is also very good. If you can get into it, it will be very helpful in how to shape characters and personality traits in writing."

"So you've seen it too."

Although Zhu Wenyun was already well aware that Chen Junqian's reading volume far exceeded that of his peers, she still felt a deep admiration for him every time she heard that he had read and remembered all the famous works he was going to read.

"But is it easy to borrow the copy of 'Boule de Suif'? Do you want me to borrow it for you in advance and leave it with me, so that it won't be borrowed by someone else when you want to read it later?"

Faced with Chen Junqian's suggestion, Zhu Wenyun simply shook her head:

"That shouldn't be the case, because not many people in the grade would borrow this kind of book. The most borrowed books right now, let me think... besides comics and pirated novels, it should be 'Ten Deadly Sins' that someone put in there."

When the other person mentioned "Ten Deadly Sins," a series that was widely circulated during his sixth grade and junior high school years, Chen Junqian was also a bit speechless. He could only say that children are indeed naturally inclined to have a strong desire to read about such novelty, suspense, and horror elements, but he felt that this book was too much for a child. It was the kind of book that could scare Mu Mu just by looking at the table of contents.

Even though "Detective Conan" had been reported several times, every time he went to the bookstore in those years, the series was always openly displayed in the category of best-selling books for teenagers, which really puzzled him.

"I flipped through a few pages myself, but I felt that the style and subject matter were not quite right for me, so I didn't borrow it."

"Well, after all, what you're writing now, Wenjun, is the complete opposite of this. By the way, how's the new manuscript coming along?"

After nearly two years of practice, Zhu Wenyun has now overcome her past bad habit of overthinking, which would lead to her being unable to write a single word for a long time and ultimately causing her to miss deadlines. Upon hearing Chen Junqian's question, she nodded confidently:

"I've already written the outline. I want to write a longer story and see if I can submit it to magazines like 'Fireworks' or 'Sunshine Sister's Extracurricular Life' for serialization. I hope to finish the first two chapters before we go to the writing competition next month."

"Good."

Although Chen Junqian really wanted to ask Zhu Wenyun about the specific content of the story she had written this time, he knew that she wouldn't tell him until her submission was successful, just like last time. So he didn't ask any further questions and instead turned his gaze to the square in front of him.

The main reason is that Zhu Wenyun's grandmother not only dances in the square, but she is also the lead dancer in the whole group of square dancing aunties, so the two of them really couldn't just go over and call her down when she was in the middle of dancing. So they simply sat there chatting and waiting.

"But then again, your grandma is really energetic and in good health."

Looking at Grandma Zhu, who stood out among the group of middle-aged women dancing in the square, with her coordinated movements and even full of energy, Chen Junqian couldn't help but sigh.

"Well, she always says that she feels younger and younger after dancing in the square, so she comes over every night as soon as it gets a little dark. Sigh, I forgot to tell her in advance."

"That's alright. It's good for Grandma to relax and get some exercise."

After giving that answer, Chen Junqian shifted his gaze away from the square dancing area and looked at the area next to it, which was still filled with various game stalls such as ring toss, basketball shooting, and balloon popping, which he, Lin Mu, and Xu Youwei had all played.

The other row of open space next to it is the domain of roller skating and skateboarding.

However, calling it a skateboard doesn't quite fit. Chen Junqian rested his chin on his hand and watched for a while. At this time, what children played with more often was a dragon board, or snake board, or drift board, which consisted of two independent pedals connected by a torsion bar. It was mainly driven by twisting the body and shifting the center of gravity. You could see many children riding it twisting and turning on it in exaggerated movements.

Although he was a little envious and wanted to try it himself, there were only stalls renting roller skates and not skateboards, so Chen Junqian turned to Zhu Wenyun and suggested:

"Since we're just waiting here anyway, why don't we go rollerblading for a couple of laps? There's a place to rent skates over there."

"...I've never played that game."

As a proper literature major, Zhu Wenyun had a height that would make anyone ask, "Do you play basketball?", but her sports experience was indeed quite limited. She looked up at the children who were speeding by on roller skates on the court, and even though she was a little tempted, she still honestly admitted it.

"It's alright, I'll teach you. It's already dark, reading under the streetlights isn't good for your eyes. Let's go."

Seeing Zhu Wenyun's interest, Chen Junqian grabbed her hand without hesitation and walked over to rent two pairs of roller skates with built-in light-up effects from a roller skate rental stall. Then, he sat on the curb by the roadside and started changing his skates.

It must be said that the athletic talent given to Chen Junqian by the system truly endowed him with extraordinary physical qualities and excellent control. After getting used to the roller skates on his feet for a while, Chen Junqian stood up steadily and then began to help Zhu Wenyun, who was still swaying and trying to get up, to find her rhythm.

"Don't be afraid, come on—you can try to hold onto the wall next to you to maintain your balance and slowly stand up."

Although Chen Junqian said he was holding onto the wall, Zhu Wenyun still subconsciously supported him. It's only because Chen Junqian isn't an ordinary boy that he stumbled and was pulled to the ground by the force.

"Relax, bend your knees slightly, and lower your center of gravity."

After standing up, Chen Junqian began to try to slide forward slowly with Zhu Wenyun. The other person's hand gripped his arm tightly, and their shadows, cast on the ground by the streetlights, swayed and intertwined in a somewhat chaotic manner as they worked.

"It doesn't seem that difficult."

"Because it wasn't that difficult to begin with."

After being guided around a lap by Chen Junqian, Zhu Wenyun seemed to be slowly getting the hang of it. She tried to let go of the hand that was gripping his sleeve and arm, but she lost her balance again and quickly tightened her grip. She took a deep breath, looking quite tense.

"But we still have to be careful, after all, he's still a novice."

"Yeah, I know."

"So? Does Wenjun like playing this?"

"It's alright, but you always need to be exposed to all sorts of new things, otherwise you won't have enough experience and material to support your writing. If you experience something like this once today, you can add a scene like this to your story later, just like you learned how to cook because of the previous story."

Feeling the cool evening breeze on her face and watching her companion gliding alongside her, Zhu Wenyun, who rarely looked up from the world of books, truly felt a sense of exhilaration. It was as if all her troubles were being left behind as she glided along.

"That's why we have the term 'source material,' although sometimes it's also a legitimate excuse for writers to delay their work."

“That makes sense. Next time you ask me about the progress of the draft, I'll tell you that I'm currently gathering materials.”

As Zhu Wenyun was speaking, a badminton shuttlecock, presumably blown by the wind, suddenly flew over from the open space beside her. Instinctively wanting to dodge, she was just about to lift her foot to the left when she suddenly realized that she was wearing heavy roller skates. The two skates tripped over each other, and she cried out in surprise and fell to the side.

Fortunately, Chen Junqian reacted quickly enough to grab her waist in time, managing to keep her from falling and lifting her up in the air, preventing her from crashing to the ground. Instead, she collapsed to her knees.

"Are you alright? Can you get up?"

"Yeah, it's nothing. It was just a little scary when a badminton shuttlecock suddenly flew over."

With Chen Junqian's help, Zhu Wenyun quickly stood up again, but seemed a little embarrassed as she pulled away from his hand and slid forward several steps:

"I'll go check if Grandma's done yet."

Actually, this was an answer they knew without even going over there, since the speakers over there were still playing Phoenix Legend's "Above the Moon" over their ears.

However, Chen Junqian did not intend to expose her. Instead, he followed her at a leisurely pace and soon caught up with her again. He and Zhu Wenyun stood there watching Grandma Zhu, who was still dancing in the square.

To be fair, Phoenix Legend's songs are indeed a perfect match for square dancing. At first, the two of them were just watching, but as they watched, they started humming along to the melody. From "Above the Moon" to "Lotus Pond Moonlight" and then to "The Most Dazzling Ethnic Style," no one could hear the slightest sound they made in front of the super loud speakers that drowned out all other sounds.

However, this tacit understanding ended somewhat awkwardly in the next song.

Only after the chorus, "It was the temptation from my lover that made me sing a love song," did Zhu Wenyun secretly nudge Chen Junqian's arm, but she still didn't dare to look in his direction, only muttering softly:

Why is this song no longer being sung?

To this question, which he already knew the answer to, Chen Junqian simply clicked his tongue and gave her a quiet reply, shifting the responsibility back to her:

"...Tch, I dare to sing it, do you dare to take it?"

"It's just a square dance song...you sing it."