I turned reality into a romantic comedy.

If I had to give a real-life example, it would probably be the difference between Mu Mu and Lin Guo.

Unlike the former's idea that "the world loved me first, so I can't help but love the world," the latter was simply aware of her parents' powerlessness and fragility at a young age, even when she was in elementary school, because of her family background. When she felt sympathy or even pity for her parents in reality, the tragedy began.

Lacking the independent personality and self-esteem that develops in a good environment, they are replaced by precociousness and a distorted sense of responsibility and self-awareness. Instead, they lose their original personality and thoughts, becoming a shadow that their parents want to project into the public eye, possessing only a utilitarian personality.

So-called precociousness and maturity are nothing more than the perfect carving of a doll. Often, the inner essence is missing a crucial link and memory due to the absence of childhood, turning into nothingness.

Fortunately, Gu Lingguo still has things he loves and is passionate about, which means there is still a chance for things to turn around, and it is also the direction he should try to work towards in the future.

Of course, at the end of this summer vacation, he will also go to eat at Xu Youwei's grandmother's birthday banquet.

Now that Yoyo can't hide from me anymore, right?

And at this fleeting moment, just like after rolling a hundred dice and finally getting the "pass" result, the system finally officially added someone's name to the list as the female lead.

Gu Linguo

[Appearance adaptability: A, Basic ability adaptability: A, Personality adaptability: A (tentative), Action adaptability: A (tentative), Speech adaptability: A (tentative), Current romantic comedy adaptability: A (tentative)]

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

PS2: Thank you to the reader 'Yihaifeng' for the golden treasure chest. My sister is indeed the best childhood sweetheart!

Chapter 72: Attending Another Wedding Banquet (Bonus Chapter 4/40)

The five A's in appearance, basic abilities, personality, speech, and behavior create an A-level adaptability for romantic comedies. If you ignore the 'temporary' in parentheses, it is indeed a rather frightening personal panel, and you might even wonder if such a girl really exists in reality, or if she is a character who has traveled from some two-dimensional romantic comedy.

After all, the system's evaluation criteria follow the worldview of romantic comedies. In other words, the higher the evaluation in this aspect, the more likely the child is to be out of touch with the real world. If it is too low, it means that there are major problems with the person's personality or other aspects. Therefore, in Chen Junqian's eyes, he has always felt that a B or C in the middle is the best, especially in the three key factors of personality, speech and action.

However, Gu Lingguo's rating precisely corresponds to these three items, as well as the romantic comedy adaptability calculated from the five combined data points. According to Chen Junqian's understanding of her, at certain times, it is entirely possible for these three ratings to drop to D in a second. After all, from another perspective, Gu Lingguo's attempt to investigate Xu Youwei's room without permission and Zhu Wenyun's theft of the phone are essentially no different. They are both extreme behaviors born from extreme thoughts. The only difference is that the former did not succeed in the end.

Personality A, Speech A, Actions A.

This means that Gu Linguo can now do everything perfectly in line with the female protagonist's actions, expressions, words, and even thoughts in the world of romantic comedies. In a sense, Gu Linguo in this state is the female protagonist of a romantic comedy who has descended into the real world.

If I had to give an example, it would be something like Mu Mu suddenly moving in next to him one day, walking into his room every morning to wake him up, and then making breakfast while saying things like, "Oh dear, I don't know what Qianqian would do without me." When he goes out, she'd fix his clothes, tie, and oh, shoelaces. And when people ask if they're dating, she'd proudly declare that they've only known each other since childhood, their parents have a great relationship, they're used to being together, that's why they're not dating, and who would want to date him, etc. In the end, she'd lose to a certain new girl and burst into tears...

Well, just thinking about it for a moment, I feel that this kind of romantic comedy worldview, which is like a traditional opera, isn't that great. It's probably only good for making rapid progress in terms of achievement grinding.

But just like the real princess in fairy tales who can feel a pea poking her even through thirty layers of quilts, encountering such a person in real life would seem strange, abnormal, odd, or even disgusting. Today, when Chen Xi sees those cosplayers, she can't help but imagine their awkwardness on their way to the comic convention. In a sense, Gu Lingguo is even more unusual than those cosplayers, which is what makes Chen Junqian worried.

However, perhaps Gu Lingguo herself was also aware of this, so for most of her life, or even all of it, she had always hidden this side of herself very well, even flawlessly. Because in the real world, being a chuunibyou (middle school syndrome) doesn't get the gentlest ending like in Kyoto Animation's romantic comedy; rather, it's more likely to cause isolation, exclusion, or even bullying.

It is precisely because of this that Gu Lingguo is very clear that the reason she has made up her mind to only cosplay in front of Chen Junqian is not only because she wants him to see it, but also because there is still a fear in her personality. People who are afraid of being seen by others, including their parents and classmates, cannot openly admit that they like anime or even cosplay.

After all, Guoning is only so big, and there's only so much news every day. Even at so-called anime conventions where like-minded people gather, you can see so many people who don't fit in, let alone in the small county town where they live.

Like a short-acting stimulant that gradually wears off over time, on the road back to Guoning, Chen Junqian watched Gu Lingguo's data slowly drop, half asleep and half awake, from the initial A to the very bottom, until they parted ways in front of their homes, and after she entered her own home, it settled at C.

At least it didn't become a D.

Chen Junqian thought to himself.

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At the end of this summer vacation, Chen Junqian returned to his grandmother's house in the countryside after a long absence. In addition to letting his grandparents, who had not seen him for a summer vacation, see their grandson, he also went to celebrate Xu Youwei's maternal grandmother's seventieth birthday banquet.

In his thirty years of life, both past and present, Chen Junqian had attended countless rural banquets. However, unlike other children his age who only knew how to eat at banquets, he had also had a lot of experience personally participating in the preparations as an organizer. But this was indeed his first time doing so in his reborn life, mainly because in his previous life, his first time personally participating was at his parents' funeral banquet.

Of course, this time he was going to participate in a wedding that he had personally prevented, not a funeral, but the old man's seventieth birthday banquet, a lively and joyous occasion.

As the son-in-law, Xu Zhiling initially wanted his former mother-in-law to go to a professional hotel in the county town to hold a grand wedding. Although the wear-resistant factory's performance had been declining in the past two years, it was still a powerful force. The wealth accumulated over the years made him one of the top Brahmins in this small county town. However, the old lady herself was determined not to go to the city again.

To put it bluntly, it's much more lively when people from the village gather together. Going to his house in the city, staying in a fancy hotel and eating there, would feel like shortening his lifespan, let alone a birthday banquet.

Since things had already gone this far, Xu Zhiling naturally couldn't insist any further. So, the birthday banquet was set up in the countryside. However, he hadn't organized such a rural banquet in many years, so Chen Junqian stepped in himself. He used his grandparents' familiarity with the area to not only contact a team of highly-regarded chefs from the surrounding villages, but also to handle all the other preparations in an orderly manner. This was a huge relief for Xu Zhiling, who had become accustomed to business entertainment in recent years.

Ever since that day she confessed her feelings, Xu Youwei felt like she had been hit by some kind of soft and sweet debuff. Even when Lin Mu took the initiative to buy her a gift—a small and exquisite music box—she didn't dare to contact Chen Junqian on her own initiative, and she always read but didn't reply to the messages Chen Junqian sent her.

But there's always an inescapable time. On the day of the birthday banquet, the two inevitably met, and quite early at that.

Chen Junqian yawned and glanced at the time on his phone. It was just past five in the morning. Even during the school year, let alone summer vacation, neither of them had ever gotten up this early. Xu Youwei, also rubbing her sleepy eyes, looked groggy and not fully awake. However, upon seeing Chen Junqian, she seemed to wake up considerably. A little uneasy, she crossed her arms and walked to his side, casually starting a conversation:

"When will the head chef arrive?"

"The chef is right in front of you."

Taking a deep breath of the fresh morning air in the countryside, Chen Junqian made a small joke:

"But I don't count as such for Youyou, right? After all, someone has been avoiding me ever since they ate the cake I made last time. It must have tasted awful, making you not even want to see me anymore."

"Uuuuuuu..."

Not knowing how to refute, Xu Youwei just kept her head down and kept drawing circles on the muddy ground in front of her with her toes, making some kind of incomprehensible chirping sounds like a small animal. Chen Junqian saw once again the tips of her earlobes, which were particularly easy to blush and easy to see.

Soon, the chef of Today's Feast arrived in an electric tricycle loaded with equipment, breaking the somewhat awkward yet romantic atmosphere between the two. The middle-aged man named Lao Zhang jumped out of the vehicle, greeted them warmly, and then drove the vehicle directly into the gate that they had opened in advance.

Master Zhang came to find a place to put the stove. The earthen stoves in the countryside are all for burning firewood, which is obviously not enough for a large banquet like this. If there are too many dishes, there will not be enough time to cook them. Therefore, a charcoal stove is needed. Other miscellaneous steamers and gas stoves were also brought in. He found a place with a good wind direction and where the ash from burning would not cause hygiene problems, and began to set up the equipment in an orderly manner.

On the other side, the team supplying the greenhouse arrived even earlier than Master Zhang. Xu Zhiling naturally couldn't let his mother-in-law's 70th birthday celebration be held with just two pieces of colorful tarpaulin as a greenhouse, so he specially ordered the most high-end kind. It was more like a tent than a greenhouse. There were even temporary power lines inside, several seated air conditioners were brought over, and there were even several inflatable rainbow arches outside the greenhouse. It was both tacky and stylish, and it certainly went all out in terms of appearance.

In the past, when there were too many people eating at banquets and the tent wasn't big enough, they would clear one table after another and then set up a new one. But Xu Zhiling waved his hand and temporarily booked the entire area. The tent stretched from one end of the village to the other, emphasizing that everyone should come to eat and have fun. They also prepared as many tools as possible, such as tables, chairs, turntables, and tablecloths. Right now, the people hired to help are mostly local villagers, in addition to the contractor's staff. They will need to help wash, pick, and prepare the vegetables later. But that's how it is in the countryside. You help me this time, and I'll help you next time. In the past, people even borrowed tables and chairs from each other. Chen Junqian had once moved his family's long bench to his neighbor's house for a banquet when he was a child.

Around six o'clock, the supplier of the vegetables arrived in an electric tricycle to deliver the goods to our door. The vegetables, poultry, meat, fruit and dried goods were all delivered in one go. They also brought over tableware wrapped in plastic film, as well as a large number of disposable packaging boxes.

There's no way around it; the elderly folks at rural banquets always have an instinctive enthusiasm for packing leftovers. It's common for them to pack up leftovers right after eating and drinking, so it's essential to prepare takeout containers in advance. Otherwise, they might end up taking the pots and pans back with them.

After the tables, chairs, and tablecloths were set up, the women, led by Chef Zhang, took all sorts of ingredients from the car and began to process them on the spot.

Xu Zhiling offered a standard of 800 per table, but the rural banquet was always much more cost-effective than the big hotels in the city, after all, it saved a lot of other costs. For the same standard of 800 per table, the dishes were much more abundant, with all kinds of main dishes. Chen Junqian simply followed Chef Zhang and helped him deal with those big pork knuckles, preparing to throw them into the pot to braise them before serving them.

When Chef Zhang first thought of refusing Chen Junqian, a middle school student, who wanted to "join in the fun," he quickly realized that the boy was indeed quite skilled in cooking. He could easily help him out. Unlike decades ago, when there was a strong sense of treacherousness regarding the inheritance of skills, with New Oriental's advertisements playing on TV every day, Chef Zhang didn't refuse Chen Junqian's request to learn how to cook large pot dishes. He cooked while also sharing his experience and techniques with Chen Junqian.

Around seven o'clock in the morning, the villagers who were helping in the kitchen made breakfast for themselves. They cooked noodles with braised shredded pork in sweet bean sauce as a topping, and then added a spoonful of tomato and egg sauce. Chen Junqian sat there and slurped down a whole bowl with Xu Youwei. Then the former went back to help in the kitchen, while the latter went to the room to wake up her grandmother and change into a specially prepared outfit.

In the two years following the death of Xu Youwei's biological mother, Xu Youwei's maternal grandmother was somewhat superstitious, believing that she had caused her daughter's short-lived happiness to die. However, as time passed and with the constant companionship of her two grandchildren, this feeling gradually subsided. Especially as Xu Youwei, her own granddaughter, grew up, the old woman increasingly wished to live a few more years, at least to see her daughter's happiness.

"Yo yo".

The elderly woman, who had been helped out, looked at the lively scene inside and outside her yard for a while, then suddenly called out her granddaughter's nickname, and then turned her gaze to the young man who was already skillfully starting to work, standing out among the group of elderly women and middle-aged chefs around her.

It's rare for a person to reach seventy, and compared to academic performance, she was always more concerned about Xu Youwei's marriage.

"Before I had my child when I was eighty..."

"Can I attend your wedding banquet first?"

"It's not about taking the college entrance exam."

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

PS2: As the title suggests, this bounty is 40 chapters short.

Please take one day off.

This is my first day off this month to organize the detailed outline for Volume 3.

The title of Volume 4 has been decided, and I'll also share the new cover that will be released soon.

Thank you for your continued reading and support. I wish all readers and their families and friends good health and all the best.

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Chapter 73: What you fear most is what comes to pass (Part 2)

Whether it's a prime-time urban romance drama or a romantic comedy in the world of anime, being urged to find a partner by grandparents or even older generations is a very common occurrence, which drives the plot forward and leads to commonplace scenarios like marriage before love or pretending to be a couple.

But for Xu Youwei, the person involved, hearing such a sentence from her grandmother out of the blue still made her subconsciously freeze. After all, she was just a middle school student, and the most intense and repressed fantasy in her mind was to date Chen Junqian, like the content written in those youth literature magazines such as "Firework" and "Sprout," holding hands and maybe kissing. Getting married and having a banquet seemed like the most distant thing in the world.

But these words acted like a hook, instantly bringing back memories of Xu Youwei and Chen Junqian cleaning out that old house two years ago, using it as their secret hideout. The washbasins embroidered with mandarin ducks, the pairs of thermos flasks, and the various items printed with the bright red double happiness symbol flashed before her eyes once more, making Xu Youwei unconsciously feel her face burning. She expressed her 'condemnation' of her grandmother's blatant encouragement of her granddaughter's early romance:

"I'm still young, Grandma."

"Time flies so fast. Grandma is seventy this year, and your mother has been gone for four years. It feels like just yesterday. In four more years, you'll be taking the college entrance exam. You can date for two years and then get married. It's not too early at all."

In a sense, Xu Youwei's maternal grandmother's thoughts were not much different from Xu Zhiling's. After all, their family's wealth was what it was. So compared to things that other parents would care more about, such as academic performance, both of them were more willing to think about their daughter/granddaughter's mental health and lifelong happiness. They also adopted a laissez-faire attitude, or even indulgence, towards Chen Junqian and Xu Youwei's relationship. If we only talk about the degree of matchmaking, these two were even more direct than Lin Mu.

After Hsu Chih-ling remarried, he was well aware that his relationship with his daughter could never be the same again. Therefore, outside of his original family, he naturally hoped that Hsu Yu-wei could start a new family. Chen Chun-chien was the result of his long-term observation and also Hsu Yu-wei's own choice. Her grandmother felt the same way. So, if one day the two of them were called in by their parents because of their early relationship, both Hsu Chih-ling and his grandmother would probably just laugh it off and cover it up for them. It would sound like they were being allowed to have an early relationship by imperial decree.

"I understand, um... I'll go help now."

After hesitating for a long time, Xu Youwei was too embarrassed to tell him that she had already had two failed confessions, but she could sense that Chen Junqian's attitude towards her was different from before. Even if it was just a little progress each time, she thought that if she continued like this, she would eventually achieve her goal.

After saying that, the girl helped her grandmother to sit down on a chair in the hall, and then ran over to the side of Chen Junqian, who was swiftly and decisively disposing of him, and curiously leaned over to watch.

Children who grow up in the countryside are always very accepting of the sight of killing chickens, fish, and eels. After all, the two of them would see the pig slaughtering up close several times a year before the end of the year. After hearing the earth-shattering noise a couple of times, they could feel their psychological threshold rise considerably. Although they still couldn't do it themselves, they wouldn't make strange remarks like "Why do we have to eat XX when XX is so cute?" while watching the food being prepared.

"Is Grandma awake yet?"

With practiced ease, Chen Junqian carefully removed the veins from the shrimp he was about to cook for 'boiled shrimp'. As Xu Youwei approached, Chen Junqian casually asked her the same question.

"Yes, I'm sitting in the lobby now."

"I feel like people are coming soon. Have you put dried goods like sunflower seeds and peanuts on every table? And cigarettes and alcohol too?"

“I just saw my dad arrive. He must be dealing with these things, including the money for the wedding gifts.”

As she spoke, Xu Youwei gestured towards the door again, then suddenly seemed to remember something, slipped away for a while, and when she returned, she had a bag of wedding candy wrapped in a red gift bag in her hand.

"Wow, Yoyo is stealing from her own workplace."

"Tch, taking things from your own home doesn't count. Let me see how the wedding candy is this time."

It's fair to say that even after all these years, Youyou still has the same personality: she always checks out what's in the wedding favors before going out to a banquet. Even though it was her own family's banquet this time, she was no exception. She fiddled with the favors for ages before finally coming to a conclusion:

"Nothing special, it's pretty much the same as before."

"It's good enough to have some, since many places have stopped giving wedding candy these days and just give a small red envelope with sixty yuan or something. But for kids, this might be even better?"

"I don't know, but I prefer wedding candy. It feels like a lottery, you see."

Xu Youwei tore open the outer wrapper of a Golden Monkey milk candy inside, reached out and held it to Chen Junqian's lips, and then explained in a serious manner:

"Your hands are too dirty right now, I'll feed you."

"Thank you so much."

It can only be said that as the first and only achievement in Chen Junqian's mind to be completed a thousand times, the number of times the feeding play was triggered is probably more than all other achievements combined. As a result, Chen Junqian no longer holds the childish idea that people will stop doing such childish things when they grow up. Feeding each other has almost become one of the underlying logics of his interactions with several girls, especially the childhood sweetheart trio with Guo Ning.