I turned reality into a romantic comedy

So, as the second half of "The Temptation of the Man," also sung by Phoenix Legend, began, Chen Junqian, who still thought Zhu Wenyun was just being stubborn, turned his head and, as if to arrest her for not daring to sing, softly called out the same spoken title from the interlude as the intro, in front of her and Zeng Yi's male voice in the song:

"Miss?"

He saw the girl's delicate eyelashes trembling; she was clearly in a state of complete mental blankness, but still managed to force out a response to him, as if playing some shameful game of truth or dare.

"Ah-ha?"

Chapter Twelve: Okay, she takes pictures, I take pictures too (Two-in-One)

Because the lyrics are the cry of my soul.

In many situations, when people are unable to express their feelings and thoughts accurately in words, or when they are too shy to express their feelings directly, the lyrics of a song naturally become one of the best mediums for conveying their emotions.

As the saying goes, love must be sung out loud to embark on the journey to happiness. This applies whether it's playing Chopin's Nocturnes for you, or writing poems and composing works for you. The same principle applies to the idea that literature should be written to suit the times, and songs and poems should be composed to suit the occasion.

Condition for achievement: Express your feelings for each other through a duet with the heroines who are suited for romantic comedies.

The other achievement associated with this achievement is "The Longest Love Letter to You".

Regarding this achievement that had just been unlocked in his mind, Chen Junqian could only sigh that the system was indeed becoming more and more localized, using a lot of vocabulary and allusions. He also wanted to complain that he never expected that this achievement, which he had noticed long ago, would end up going to Zhu Wenyun.

If we only consider the actions, he, Chen Xi, and Shen Nianqiu had all done similar things, but when he and these two did these things, neither the former nor the latter were included in the system or recognized as female protagonists with romantic comedy adaptability, so naturally they could not trigger the achievement.

Last year's Shanghai World Expo was a perfect opportunity, and he and Shen Nianqiu even listened to the same MP3 more than once, but Shen Nianqiu's playlist didn't actually have a single song that was a duet between a man and a woman.

Unfortunately, Xu Liang, who is the most fond of playing duo queue with girls among the three non-mainstream giants, had not officially debuted at that time last year. If you were to go back to July of this year, there would be many more songs to choose from.

If we go back in time, this year's Spring Festival Gala actually featured Eason Chan and Faye Wong's "Because of Love," but unfortunately, Chen Junqian spent most of the New Year's Eve playing with his sister, only making a phone call to Shen Nianqiu before midnight, so the humming segment from last year was not included.

However, it was indeed a bit difficult for Phoenix Legend to handle the male-female duet in the end, after all, Zeng Yi only had a few lines.

What's wrong with you two?

When Grandma Zhu finished leading the group in a refreshing manner and came out of the leader's place with a satisfied sway, she happened to see the two children sitting there with their heads turned away from each other.

"Come on, Grandma will take you two to buy some delicious food."

Seeing that Chen Junqian and Zhu Wenyun remained silent, Grandma Zhu waved her hand again, taking the two children, who were already taller than her, off the ground and leading them shopping in a very generous and magnanimous manner.

As it turns out, Zhu Wenyun's own preferences and attitudes toward various foods make it easy to see what kind of taste her elders, who have lived with her for so many years, have. Therefore, Grandma Zhu certainly wouldn't lead the two of them to any roadside fried skewers stall, three-flavor chicken strip stall, or KFC. Instead, she went straight into the nearby roasted nuts and seeds shop, Shazi Melon Seeds.

“I’ve already heard from Wenyun that you’re going out to participate in some competition, right? That’s quite an achievement. Just buy something to eat on the way, don’t be shy with Grandma.”

After walking along the road and being nagged by Grandma Zhu's loud voice, the subtle awkwardness that had been between Chen Junqian and Zhu Wenyun had dissipated considerably. One could only blame Phoenix Legend.

It seemed Zhu Wenyun was a regular customer; she was quite familiar with this shop and other bread and biscuit stalls in the vicinity. First, she helped her grandmother weigh out some of her favorite roasted nuts and biscuits, then turned to Chen Junqian and recommended them:

"The corn, golden beans and glutinous rice strips at this store are pretty good. According to my grandma, they taste much better than KFC and McDonald's."

It has to be said that, while both Zhu Wenyun and Lin Mu were shopping for snacks to eat on the road, Zhu Wenyun's snacks were quite different from Lin Mu's. However, Chen Junqian didn't think it was a big deal. Rather, he thought that the snacks he ate here were the ones he used to eat most often in his previous life, because a few dollars' worth of sunflower seeds and peanuts could last him the whole way.

"Then let's weigh some out and eat it on the way."

Although both are made from corn, these golden corn kernels sold in the nut shop are different from regular popcorn. They have a harder texture and a salty and savory flavor, and they are crunchy and slightly addictive.

“Before, when my grandma had to get up early every day to sell vegetables and didn’t have time to make me breakfast, I would usually make do with the bread and biscuits from the shop next door. They were more affordable than the ones sold in the convenience store near the school, and I would finish them on the way to school.”

While shopping, Zhu Wenyun, unusually, didn't talk about books and writing anymore. Instead, she turned to herself, seemingly moved by the scenery, and chatted with Chen Junqian about things from the past as they walked and looked around.

Whether it was the honey crispy bread rolls she once served Chen Junqian at home, or the red bean ring bread rolls filled with red bean paste, these were the types she ate most often.

After eating the black sesame crisps sprinkled with sugar, she would always lick her fingertips. The double-filling cookies, which consist of two different flavors of fillings, such as dark chocolate and vanilla or chocolate and cream, were also one of her earliest impressions of sweetness.

Therefore, Chen Junqian never really regarded Zhu Wenyun as a purely literary girl. After all, she was always a simple and honest girl, both in taste and mind, just like a farmer. Books and writing were just an interest that naturally arose under such circumstances.

In reality, no one's personality can be simply summarized by one or a few attribute words. After all, it's unlikely that any literary girl would do something like clapping along to the rhythm of Phoenix Legend's rural heavy metal music with him and swaying along with the square dancing aunties.

Looking back now, this is probably why the system didn't easily define the roles of any subsequent girls after Lin Mu. Even with Lin Mu, it only gave him a rather vague and ambiguous childhood sweetheart.

This is also just a relationship, not a character assessment.

Moreover, they will continue to grow and change over time.

That's why Chen Junqian wanted to use various opportunistic methods to cheat the system's idiocy judgment mechanism and unlock most of his achievements during his childhood.

After all, some things are only suitable for children to say and do, just like the meaning of an eight-year-old girl saying "I like you" to the same person is completely different from that of a sixteen-year-old girl.

If we were to define it, what he's doing now is actually more like a certain kind of online novel trope he saw before his rebirth: "I'm only a senior in high school, and the divorce comeback system has arrived." Because the more Chen Junqian interacts with these female protagonists who have been included in the system, the more he realizes how difficult it is to create a romantic comedy where no one gets hurt among this group of girls who seem increasingly problematic, and whose problems are suspected to have been brought about by him.

So it's definitely best to start farming achievements early.

As the person who was essentially 'forced' to become the male protagonist of a romantic comedy, Chen Junqian has tried his best to fulfill the responsibilities of this role in the two years since his rebirth. However, given his past life experiences and personality, he still sometimes feels a momentary sense of exhaustion, such as 'This is so troublesome.'

It's unclear whether this is because interpersonal communication is inherently like this, or simply because he's not good at it, since the system hasn't given him any such ability yet.

Even so, Chen Junqian still remembered the system's definition of a romantic comedy when he first spoke with it:

[Of course, this refers to spending wonderful school life with all sorts of beautiful girls, interspersed with a series of additional DLCs such as cultural festivals, school festivals, sports festivals, open days, school trips, and fireworks festivals. Amidst the constant stream of chaotic and extraordinary events, you gradually build bonds with everyone, ultimately leading to a happy ending for everyone.]

Discarding all the prefixes that are basically difficult to achieve in reality, Chen Junqian would actually agree with the last sentence of this definition.

A romantic comedy must first and foremost be a comedy.

Moreover, it represents a bright future where everyone achieves a happy ending.

Although in fact, among the many romance-related anime series that Chen Junqian has watched, very few works have been able to truly achieve this, and it is visibly even more difficult to realize in the real world.

But Chen Junqian still wants to achieve it.

Because he had indeed established connections with these girls, and their lives had become intertwined, and the achievements he had made were merely a tiny, insignificant part of that proof.

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

In late April, the Experimental Primary School held its 20th anniversary celebration performance in the school's auditorium. The students were naturally quite happy to be able to skip an afternoon of classes.

"I hope we can start with various performances right away. I don't want to listen to unfamiliar school leaders rambling on for ages, with the principal speaking, then the vice-principal speaking, then the dean of studies speaking, then the student representative speaking."

"Wait, isn't the student representative you, Qian'er?"

Faced with Zhong Yu's question, Chen Junqian nodded naturally.

"Yes, so I need to go backstage early at noon to prepare."

Do you need to change your clothes?

"I'm not the host, I just read my speech from the script. I'm still wearing a school uniform, I have to change clothes later for the poetry and chorus segment."

"What kind of clothes did the school provide for you? Do you look good?"

"Don't think about it, just wear a normal outfit. The choir has quite a lot of costumes, including Republic of China-era student uniforms, military-style uniforms, and the final performance costume. I saw them all during rehearsals."

"not bad."

As the two were talking, Lu Cheng, the class monitor who had just returned from the office, wrote a notice on the blackboard: "After arriving in class this afternoon, please go to the school auditorium to attend the school anniversary celebration before the preparatory bell for the first class." Then, he casually dusted off the chalk dust on his hands and came back to join their conversation.

"What are you talking about?"

"Let's talk about how to get through those long, tedious, and empty promises."

What is a "big empty set"?

"Of course it's just empty talk, platitudes, and platitudes from the school leaders. Who knows how long that new multimedia teaching building next to our playground has been under construction? We only have one year left before graduation. I hope it won't be completed and put into use right after we graduate."

"You know what, it's actually possible."

As he spoke, Zhong Yu began rummaging through his desk drawer again:

"No, I need to find something to pass the time later."

"Don't bring any toys or game consoles with you, or our class will get points deducted if we get caught."

As the class monitor, Lu Cheng immediately offered advice.

"How could I possibly bring a game console? I'll just bring two comic books to read."

First, he pulled out the pirated "A Shuai" collection he had borrowed just last week from his desk drawer, but seeing that it was such a thick volume, it was hard to hide, so Zhong Yu tossed it aside and continued flipping through it while muttering to himself:

“I remember buying two pocket books before… I found them.”

After much effort, Zhong Yu unearthed two crumpled, small pocket-sized copies of "Hilarious Campus" from who-knows-where. He then waved them at Lu Cheng.

"This thing is safe, right? If someone comes to look at me, I can just put it away. It's convenient and discreet. There are so many students in the auditorium, how could I be the only one who sees me?"

"...You should sit a little further inside our class's formation then."

"Remember to save me a seat too, I'll be coming back to sit down after my performance."

Before Chen Junqian could finish speaking, and before Zhong Yu could even respond, Xu Youwei, who was sitting next to him, turned around and said:

"I'll save you a seat; just sit next to me."

As she spoke, she glanced at Zhong Yu again without making a sound, and he immediately declared righteously:

“Indeed, Qian’er, you are the student representative for our school’s 20th anniversary celebration, so you’re bound to be the focus of the cameraman’s attention. What if he sits next to me and catches me secretly reading comics? You should sit with Xu Youwei.”

"Oh, okay then, but what's with the cameraman?"

"Ahem... I guessed, since there are usually reporters at these kinds of school anniversary events."

"Too."

Meanwhile, an employee at Phoenix Wear-Resistant Materials Co., Ltd., who was mainly responsible for taking photos and recording important company events such as the annual meeting, and was also responsible for the operation and editing of the company's website homepage, also received a new photography assignment from above.

"The Experimental Primary School's 20th Anniversary Celebration Performance... Damn, how can our wear-resistant factory actually have any kind of collaboration with a primary school?"

Chapter Thirteen: Can an elementary school student like someone? (Two-part summary)

As the best primary school in the entire Guoning City, the Experimental Primary School held a grand anniversary celebration. As Zhong Yu had predicted, several photographers and reporters were invited, and even leaders from the municipal government came to attend. At the beginning, it took several minutes just to introduce the various guests.

However, none of this mattered to the elementary school students in the audience. They simply clapped symbolically after each name was called and each person stood up on stage, turning into ruthless clapping machines as they waited for the show to begin.

However, Chen Junqian's classmates seemed to be more involved, since the students chosen to speak on stage as student representatives were their own classmates. Therefore, when Chen Junqian's name was called and he came up from backstage, the applause was noticeably louder. Even Zhong Yu, who had started reading the pocket book, temporarily put it in his pocket and joined in the applause.

Meanwhile, a photographer who seemed a bit out of place among his colleagues from places like Guoning Daily and the Experimental Primary School's publicity office also perked up, remembering his superior's instructions before he came, and focused his lens on Chen Junqian as he went on stage.

Judging from the shooting technique and setup, it felt like they were almost shooting a personal photo album, which drew surprised glances from the other photographers around who were also setting up cameras. They almost thought that the child's parent had sneaked in.

Just like the speech under the national flag before, Chen Junqian's speech was prepared in advance by the school, highlighting a standard and stable format.

Before going on stage, Chen Junqian took a short break to memorize the entire short speech. He then decided to challenge himself by giving a speech without notes. Coupled with his energetic and confident demeanor, he was indeed much more pleasing to the eye than the group of middle-aged men with receding hairlines in front of him. This even prompted the other photographers to take a couple more pictures of him. They started thinking about using this as the cover when they went back to publish the news.

After finishing his first part of his speech, Chen Junqian, still in his school uniform, left the stage amidst applause. He needed to quickly change clothes to prepare for the upcoming poetry chorus project.

Unlike the arts performances organized by each class for Children's Day or New Year's Day, this 20th anniversary celebration was quite formal. In addition to the school's own choir, the rest of the participants were professional song and dance troupes brought in by the school leaders from various places. There was even a group chorus by the first graduating class of alumni.

When Chen Junqian returned backstage, he happened to see the school choir children putting on makeup. However, it was really just a matter of applying some foundation and lipstick to their faces, as long as they looked a little better on camera.

He himself was supposed to be dragged over for the same makeover before going on stage, but the busy makeup artist glanced at Chen Junqian, said that the kid had a good foundation and didn't need makeup, and then left.

Actually, Chen Junqian didn't have any particular impression of what he looked like at this time in his previous life. After all, he couldn't go back and find his elementary school photos to look at. After sitting in front of the makeup mirror backstage and taking a good look at himself, he even belatedly realized that he couldn't find any fault with his current appearance.

I remember Zhong Yu joking with him privately a couple of days ago that if he didn't have a girl by his side every day after school, he would probably have students from his grade or higher giving him small gifts.

As for why Zhong Yu knew, it was because some people had already come to him, wanting to ask him to help pass on a message or something, but he had refused them all.

"Because those girls around you are already quite troublesome, to be honest, but to be able to provoke them all at the same time, you're actually pretty impressive."

Just take it as a compliment.

After staring blankly in the mirror for a while, Chen Junqian took his more formal clothes and changed into the dressing room once it was empty. When he came out, it was almost time for him and the school choir to sing a poem together, since they could already hear the host reading the introductions.

"There is a spirit that shines brightly through fifty years of glory."

"There is a hymn that continues to resonate with people even after being sung for generations."

"Even after Comrade Lei Feng left us, his story continues to move us, his descendants. And last March, some of his descendants, upholding his spirit, faced imminent danger with composure and courage..."

Well, he didn't get to hear the whole introduction because Chen Xi was already waving at him, signaling him to get ready to go on stage.

I don’t know if it’s just my imagination, but I always feel like there’s a camera following me every time I go on stage. The cameraman standing behind me doesn’t have the same relaxed vibe as his colleagues. It’s like he’s afraid I might step out of the frame even slightly. He’s so focused that it makes me feel a little pressured and less camera-conscious.

Even after the performance ended, he could feel himself and the photographer in the audience simultaneously showing a relieved expression.