I turned reality into a romantic comedy.

Chen Xi nodded, then casually picked up her bowl and continued eating, mumbling a little indistinctly:

"My mom wants me to stay here with you for a while."

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"Speaking of which, does Qianqian really think that investment is doomed to fail? It looks really delicious. If Guoning really had hand-held pizzas like that, I might buy it, since there's no pizza here at all..."

After dinner, on the way home, Chen Junqian heard Mu Mu ask the same question again.

Guoning is indeed a small, third-tier county town. Even the first KFC only officially opened in the last two years. McDonald's, Burger King, and Pizza Hut, which specializes in pizza, are out of the question. Their impression of pizza, apart from cartoons and advertisements, is probably limited to the name "dalu naan" in jokes.

"But Mu Mu can only try it out of curiosity, because the price is what it is. One costs about eight or nine yuan. If the portion and taste don't meet the cost-effectiveness, it feels like it can't compete with hand-pulled pancakes or savory pancakes at all."

As the only reborn person in the small county, Chen Junqian's eyes always revealed something that his peers lacked...

Okay, even if it's not a reincarnation, this is obviously unreliable.

"Mumu, have you seen another food cart similar to this one? It claims to be a food cart that replaces a store, making big profits with small investments. It integrates hot pot, grilling, steaming, boiling, and frying, and can sell grilled skewers, fried skewers, teppanyaki, oden, takoyaki, xiaolongbao, fried noodles, fried rice, stinky tofu, and ice cream at the same time."

"...Although I haven't seen it, I'm already drooling from Qianqian's description."

"But if you think about it for a moment, you'll realize that this is just an idealized scenario. Anyone who has worked in this industry knows that the more types of goods you sell, the higher the requirements for the number and ability of your staff will be. At the same time, the pressure on inventory and storage will increase exponentially. Mu Mu herself often buys snacks with me outside, so she should know very well that almost all snack stalls are divided into categories and only do one type. A stall that sells fried skewers sells fried skewers, and a stall that sells jianbing guozi sells jianbing guozi."

"And like I said, if there really were an idea that everyone could get rich from, they wouldn't just openly advertise it on TV. Is that charity?"

After Chen Junqian patiently explained it again, Lin Mu nodded in understanding.

"But Qianqian always succeeds. She even mentioned the business of hand-pulled pancakes and savory pancakes before. She's really amazing. Dad always says that you have a better eye than them."

It can only be said that Mu Mu's thinking logic is indeed like this. She never thinks about asking her childhood friend why he is so amazing. She just stays at the level of exclaiming that he is really amazing.

After safely and smoothly taking Lin Mu home by bicycle, Chen Junqian rode his bicycle back to Yunqi Jinyuan Community. When he opened the door with his key, he bumped into his younger sister who was carrying a change of clothes and seemed to be going to take a shower.

Chen Xi's mother left yesterday, and Chen Xi himself moved into his house yesterday as well. He and Wang Hongling are temporarily sleeping in the same bed, since they originally bought a double bed for the couple, and there is plenty of room.

Because he would spend a short period of time living under the same roof with his sister during the Lunar New Year every year, Chen Junqian didn't have any particular emotional fluctuations about Chen Xi's temporary stay this time. After greeting her, he went back to his room first.

Wang Hongling went to the family's chess and card room to mind the shop that evening, so it was just him and Chen Xi at home. After taking a shower one after the other, Chen Xi, wearing pajamas and slippers, ran into his room to talk to him.

"Did you argue with your mom about this recently?"

Actually, Chen Junqian had noticed that his younger sister's mood was a bit off during the meal, so he took advantage of the fact that it was just the two of them and asked her with concern.

"Because I think this is really unreliable, but she insists on going. It's not a big deal, though. If my opinion can't change her mind, then she shouldn't have asked me in the first place."

She looked like she was throwing a tantrum, so Chen Junqian patted her head again to comfort her.

"It's alright, it's alright. Once Auntie finds out that this is unreliable, she'll understand how smart her daughter is. Maybe she'll clear her head after she comes back from headquarters."

"...I hope so."

It seems that she has indeed been exhausted both physically and mentally by her mother's affairs these past two days. Even though she always loves Chen Junqian's cat Senmu, she doesn't really want to pet the cat that comes to her. It's as if she has become a cat herself, curled up there being stroked on the head and having her brother pet her.

"By the way, I'd like to ask Xiaoxi for a favor."

Although he has not yet been officially included in the system, Chen Junqian felt that he needed to make arrangements in advance, just like he had done with Lin Mu.

"Go ahead."

"Since Xiaoxi is currently staying at my house, could you please come to my room to wake me up every morning starting tomorrow?"

"Every...every day?"

"Yes! It's every day, because I want Xiaoxi to wake me up. Isn't there a saying that the first thing you see at the beginning of the new year determines your fortune for the whole year? I see Xiaoxi every year, so I've always had good luck. So, this saying should be even more effective if applied to every day, right?"

When he said those words, Chen Junqian hadn't yet grasped one crucial point.

It's never the case that the female lead comes first, and then the achievements that can be made together with her come later.

Instead, the heroines who are willing to achieve those accomplishments with him are the ones who will be included in the system.

At the end of the summer vacation in 2013, a vague and nascent crush, which the person involved was not even aware of, was finally brought to life.

In this respect, he is indeed the well-deserved choice for the male protagonist of a romantic comedy.

P.S.: Thank you for reading and subscribing.

PS2: Come to think of it, I did want to eat that hand-held pizza before...

Chapter 67: An Muxi's Exclusive Achievement (Two Chapters Combined)

The system's achievement list includes two exclusive categories specifically designed for certain types of characters.

This refers to the so-called childhood sweetheart and younger sister type.

The former can only be achieved by Lin Mu, who is recognized by the system as a childhood sweetheart. The starting achievement of that series, or rather the prerequisite, is also the name of the first achievement that Chen Junqian unlocks: [Childhood Sweetheart (Childhood Friend)].

As we all know, a childhood friend is an indispensable character in romantic comedies. Since it's become a fixed trope that the childhood friend easily loses to the newcomer, a subversion of that trope has emerged: allowing the childhood friend to consistently win.

Condition for achievement: Successfully establish a childhood friendship with a female protagonist who is suited for romantic comedies.

The latter, however, has a starting achievement name: "Sister's Life".

My Sister's Life

"I may not have the ability to achieve great things, but I was born to be this girl's brother, something that no one else can take my place—Iruma Hitoma."

Condition for achievement: Successfully establish a sibling relationship with a female protagonist who is suited for romantic comedy.

Chen Junqian knew Iruma Hitomi, a Japanese light novel author. He had previously read Hitomi's serialized work, "Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko," which was even successfully adapted into an anime. However, he did not recall this sentence, nor could he find it in Hitomi's currently serialized work, "Adachi to Shimamura." It was probably not officially created yet.

If he's not mistaken, the name of this initial achievement might be the same as the name of the other person's next light novel. If that's the case, he could try to translate it into Chinese himself as soon as it's officially published, to see how this light novel author, known for her delicate writing and sincere emotions, would depict the sibling relationship, and how it differs from the sibling relationships that Chen Junqian has seen countless times in romantic comedies.

After all, compared to purely fantastical relationships, he would naturally prefer to read more realistic descriptions in this regard. His sister is neither a famous model who secretly plays adult games in her room, nor a chuunibyou loli who wears colored contact lenses and pretends to be a vampire queen, nor does she carelessly leave her changed underwear in front of him, nor is she a spoiled, brother-complex girl who clings to her rabbit doll and refuses to go out. She is just a normal girl who calls him "brother".

Yes, now even 'brother' has been shortened to the single word 'brother'.

Chen Junqian felt distressed about this.

However, after he actually had a very close younger sister, he began to understand why his good friend Jiali had left such a long admonition to future generations at the beginning of his own story.

So, where can one join the Mutual Aid Association for Men in Real Life who are experiencing distress?

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Chen Xi remembered the scene of first looking up at the creature called "brother" very clearly. Perhaps it was because at that time she had just started learning how to say "dad," "mom," "brother," and "sister" with the kindergarten teacher and the alphabet chart on the wall. She still couldn't fully understand this complicated family relationship, so she naturally filtered out the explanations about godparents in her mind. After all, no one would call someone else what to do, not even her parents, her grandparents named Chen Junqian, who were still called Dad and Mom.

Within a family, the terms of address used between relatives are undoubtedly more frequently used than names. For example, what Chen Xi heard most often was that after her parents finished talking to her grandparents, they would naturally ask her older brother to take her, their younger sister, to play nearby.

Therefore, names may never be the only thing that can distinguish one another in this world. After all, we also have to consider the factor that some people have the same name. In fact, there are two boys in Chen Xi's class who share the same name, Junjie.

However, if a specific title is used by a specific person, it will certainly elicit a specific response.

Just like when she calls out "brother," the person who turns around to look at her will definitely be that person.

At this moment, names and surnames seem to lose their function and necessity. The kinship creates a unique bond, something that is given to a person from birth.

It wasn't until she grew a few years older that she finally grasped the concept of age and realized that she called someone "brother" because they were a year older than her.

If that's the case, then in another year, won't she be the same age as him?

A year later, it turned out that the other person was still a year older than her.

It was only then that she realized her brother would always be a year older than her, and therefore would always be her brother.

After realizing this fact, Chen Xi was initially a little frustrated, but later felt that it wasn't so bad.

After all, in the environment called family, the other person is often the only one who will respond immediately to one's behavior.

But now that I think about it, maybe they were just two simple kids who didn't know how to stay with adults, huddled together and did their own thing.

It was probably around the third grade of elementary school that I felt our relationship suddenly improved. Then, about six months later, the other person protected me in a crowded stairwell.

Around that time, Chen Xi developed the habit of calling the creature known as "brother" whenever she went there. She even started to look forward to meeting him. Whether it was reading together, playing games, or watching cartoons, there were always too many things to do and too little time. She even thought it would be great if she could skip a grade or if her brother could repeat a grade.

Perhaps because she was in elementary school, Chen Xi's mind was filled with all sorts of random thoughts all day long.

However, she felt that she was still a relatively smart child, because even though she spent most of her time every day thinking about all sorts of wild and unfounded fantasies or reading miscellaneous books that had nothing to do with the main subjects, she could still easily get good scores in the end.

"Chen Xi is really smart."

The teachers at school always praised her like that.

But her brother was even more outstanding than her, and he was getting to know more and more girls, making him busier and busier every day.

He started having less and less time to play with me like before, even during the Lunar New Year, when relatives should be together for a family reunion.

Actually, Chen Xi felt a little sad when Chen Junqian went to Lin'an to find Shen Nianqiu last year, so she went to tell her mother about it:

"I feel so sad."

But the mother's answer was:

"Children don't have any heart."

"Winter break is almost over. Have you finished your homework? Have you previewed the textbooks for next semester?"

For children, it seems that only their brains are important, while their hearts are irrelevant.

As Chen Xi thought this, she drew a heart on her draft paper.

She clearly felt that the two were the same thing, both places where feelings arise.

Children not only have no heart, but they also have no waist.

Every time she came back from PE class feeling a sharp pain in her back, her mother would say the same thing.

However, her brother later told her that it was because the word "waist" and the word "premature death" are homophones. In the past, people would always refuse to let children say "waist" in order to avoid the taboo or to keep a good wish. So they would always say, "What waist does a child have?" It was the same reason why her mother wanted to recognize Chen Junqian's grandmother as her godmother decades ago. They all hoped that the child could grow up healthy.

But according to this logic, the mother shouldn't have said that she had no heart.

Although Chen Xi himself is not like Bi Gan from "Investiture of the Gods" who collapsed and died after being told "How can a person live without a heart?", he still felt very concerned.

"Xiaoxi won't say that anymore when she's a little older."

Her brother comforted her in this way.

Of course, by this time, Chen Xi rarely called Chen Junqian "brother" anymore, because she felt that such two-word reduplicated words were only for children. No adult would call their parents "Dad!" or "Mom!", so she naturally reduced it to one word.

However, this only happened when he was talking to Chen Junqian.

When chatting with others and addressing Chen Junqian, she actually uses two words.

It's not 'older brother', but 'my brother'.