I turned reality into a romantic comedy.

After witnessing Chen Junqian disappear from her sight, Zhu Wenyun, who was standing in the corridor, finally looked away and gazed at the clear blue sky outside the window.

In fact, she had already thought of the last sentence of her first draft for the New Concept Writing Competition.

Of course, this was prepared for myself if I had won the final back then.

From this day forward, the vast sky will be my azure crown adorned with the sun.

P.S.: Thank you for reading and subscribing. I've been quite busy lately and have been experiencing writer's block. I'll try to get back into the flow.

PS2: The last sentence is a quote from Chien Chen, an essayist I really like. Zhu Wenyun's later descriptions will likely use a lot of her passages, which are probably the kind of rural, girlish feel (?).

Chapter 82: It's very likely sexual repression (Part 2)

When Chen Junqian saw Shen Nianqiu again after more than a month, he didn't know if it was because of the long journey or because she had some unspeakable worries. He felt that his sister was a little gloomy this time. Although she came with students and teachers from the same school, she looked lonely and dejected as she walked there playing on her phone. It wasn't until she saw him that she managed to force out a bright smile and handed over her luggage to his outstretched hand without any hesitation.

"Did you just arrive?"

"Yeah, I should have arrived about an hour or two earlier than my sister. The treatment this time is much better than last time; they gave us single rooms."

"After all, there are far fewer people than last time, and it's only for a three-day stay, hmm... it's really good."

After taking her room key and opening her assigned room, Shen Nianqiu surveyed the layout. The room, though not particularly large, had everything one would expect, including a well-lit balcony. This prompted her to remark again:

"If my future home can have this kind of configuration, I will be completely satisfied."

For the past three years, she has spent most of her time living in the school dormitory. It's not the typical university campus layout with bunk beds and desks underneath. Instead, it's just a row of desks on the left, bunk beds on the right, and a narrow aisle in the middle. There's practically no private space. And this kind of life is going to continue for the next three years of high school and four years of university. Just thinking about it makes her feel a bit depressed.

Of course, compared to the student dormitory where she lived with others, Shen Nianqiu's room at home was not actually a place she wanted to go back to. After all, she was a girl with few childhood memories, and that room was like what the moral education textbook said: "That's just my house, not my home."

No, that's not even her house, since her name isn't on the property deed.

Among the photos on the wall surrounding that black-and-white portrait, you can even find a picture of the child at his first birthday party with the property certificate that his parents had specially bought for him. After the child died, the house was helplessly returned to his parents, but it had nothing to do with her from beginning to end.

"Sister's dream is too small. The room in this hotel is only 40 square meters. Since it's already a dream, let's aim for something a little bigger. Sister, you've been to my house before, right? If we're a family, we should at least stay in a house like mine that's almost 100 square meters. Of course, if you only want to live alone in the future, then just pretend I didn't say anything."

Chen Junqian never interfered too much with Shen Nianqiu's frequent expressions of wanting to leave her family. His role was that of a protector, like the last safety net, responsible only for preventing Shen Nianqiu from falling into the abyss as she climbed the ladder.

As for where she wants to climb and how far she can climb, that is her own choice. Besides, if she is at the bottom of the valley, in fact, no matter which way she goes or how far she can climb, she is going upward. After all, there is no worse ending than ending one's life in a physical sense, especially at the age of teenagers.

"Yeah, I'll buy a super, super big house in the future, but isn't it a bit too empty? I feel like I'll only really need the living room, bedroom, and kitchen."

"We can build a soundproof room specifically for my sister to practice singing, and we can also set up a dance studio, a home theater or a gym, and a large swimming pool in the backyard."

Suddenly, I felt a bit like Xu Sanguan in "Chronicle of a Blood Merchant," who cooked braised pork for his sons. But Chen Junqian was never stingy in planning Shen Nianqiu's future. After all, among the girls around him, the only ones with the most self-destructive desires and who had actually self-destructed in their past lives were Shen Nianqiu and Gu Linguo. Compared to the latter, his older sister, who didn't live in Guoning, was someone he needed to keep a close eye on. Otherwise, he wouldn't make promises to her like a scumbag every time they met.

"Hmm, that sounds good. It's even tempting me."

Sure enough, no matter how many times she heard it, Shen Nianqiu would still be willing and happy to hear these descriptions and portrayals from Chen Junqian's mouth. After all, nothing she had ever truly belonged to her since she was a child. Even the blood relationship with her parents, which she was born with, was just a transition, stuck between her deceased brother and her unborn brother. Everything else was the same. Only with Chen Junqian could she truly experience some kind of comfort. Rather, this was the initial reason why she chose to find such a person on the ethereal Internet.

If we were to use a line from the world-famous novel "Lord of the Flies," which Shen Nianqiu once read, as an example, it would be: "He was completely absorbed, and his feelings at that moment were not simply happiness, but rather a sense that he was exercising control over many living things."

It was precisely because of this thought that was always surging in her heart that she and Zhu Wenyun received the worst D rating in the system's personality adaptability rating. After all, the female protagonist in a romantic comedy can certainly have a little possessiveness and jealousy, which is a prerequisite for the so-called "Shura field" stage. However, an excessively extreme desire for control is obviously not recognized or allowed. If the system could speak, it would probably say something like, "Kids, please stop destroying our romantic comedy worldview."

But in reality, there are actually more extreme emotions and thoughts than in the world of anime. After all, the development of a story requires logic, but reality often does not require logic and has no logic. Long-standing conflicts and events will not come to a happy end after a single episode or epilogue. The scars will remain there, waiting for time to cover them up or to reopen them.

As she spoke, Shen Nianqiu walked leisurely into the bathroom with her hands behind her back. This time, the single rooms were equipped with bathtubs instead of showers. On the shelf next to them, there was a bright yellow rubber duck that made an indistinct sound when pressed with your hand. It already made people look forward to the scene of filling a tub with hot water and taking a comfortable bath there at night.

In the many romance novels that Shen Nianqiu had read, the childhood sweethearts always shared memories of bathing and sleeping together when they were young. But these obviously did not apply to the girls Chen Junqian met in Guoning. After all, she was quite clear about when her younger brother had known or become familiar with them. Although they were still considered children at that age, they had already exceeded the limit of doing such things together.

Therefore, it's impossible for them to be so naive as to say things like "I'll be the dad, you'll be the mom, I'll be the husband, you'll be the wife" when they're playing house. It's also impossible for them to playfully kiss each other's cheeks and lips when they're just a few years old, exchange their first kisses in a daze, or take a bath together and see each other's bodies naked in advance.

Zhu Wenyun's breach of defense during the summer vacation further deepened Shen Nianqiu's thoughts and understanding on this matter. This childhood sweetheart, who seemed to have appeared later in life like a counterfeit, would care more about this, which proved the saying that the less something is, the more you care.

It seemed like Shen Nianqiu had been staring blankly at the bathtub in the bathroom for a while, so Chen Junqian went over and patted her on the shoulder.

"What's wrong? Is there something wrong with the bathtub? Why can't the water fill up?"

"Ah."

Upon hearing Shen Nianqiu's words, Chen Junqian reached out and touched what was supposedly the most sophisticated instrument in the world—a bathroom water valve whose temperature would vary drastically depending on whether the water was moved slightly to the left or right. The water flowing out from there was perfectly normal in terms of both flow and temperature, and he couldn't see any obvious problems.

"There's no problem."

After turning off the water valve again, Chen Junqian checked the surroundings once more. The lighting equipment was working perfectly, and even the tiles on the bathroom walls were spotless. But when he turned around again, he found that Shen Nianqiu, who was still dressed, had already sat in the bathtub by herself. Then, she reached out and stumbled, pulling his upper body in as well, and hugging him to her chest.

Just as the fanservice achievement, which was almost tied to Shen Nianqiu, was triggered once again, a brand new achievement that Chen Junqian had never expected was also unlocked at the same time:

[The Bathtub Sharer]

Sharing a bath might be a first for childhood friends and younger sister characters, but it's never an exclusive achievement for these two types of characters. Moreover, it's more likely to happen unintentionally during childhood than the former two. When other types of heroines are willing to share a bath with you, it means that your relationship has made great strides.

When the rising steam blurs your vision, when the cramped bathtub forces your skin to touch, the sound of your heartbeats resonates with the ripples of the water, and the bubbles and steam form a natural yet fragile windowpane, all the unspoken ambiguity melts away in the warm bathroom.

Conditions for achieving this: Achieve a shared bath with any other heroine who is suited for romantic comedy, excluding childhood friends and younger sister characters.

Hey, where is the communal bathing area?

Just as Chen Junqian was about to complain in his mind, he noticed that there were indeed a few drops of water left at the bottom of the bathtub from when he had turned on the water to check if the valve was broken.

Then he heard his sister breathing in his ear:

"The problem with this bathtub... is that it's too small."

"My future super big house will also need a super big bathtub."

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

Chen Junqian still felt that his sister was acting strangely in many ways today, even to the point of being repressed.

Although the other party had always been uninhibited in their intimate physical contact during their previous meetings, the scene today where she almost dragged him into the bathtub and shared a bath was something that had never happened when they stayed in the same hotel room during winter break. Fortunately, the Zhejiang team had come together this time, and there were joint review sessions in the afternoon and evening, which barely allowed Chen Junqian to escape Shen Nianqiu's strong-willed control and return to his room with some doubts in his heart.

When he checked his phone, he saw that Xu Youwei had already settled in and had just sent him a "thumbs up" emoji made by herself. So Chen Junqian replied with the same Xu Youwei smile.

The hotel floor booked by the production team is theoretically not open to the public. The last time Xu Youwei was able to come in was because it was the last day for everyone to go home. So if Chen Junqian wants to meet with her, he has to go out on his own. However, it is indeed not good to go out before the finals. If netizens take pictures of him, it will easily cause unnecessary public opinion.

The program team of the Chinese Character Dictation Competition also wanted him to prepare well for the finals in two days. After all, it was only the day after tomorrow, and there were still three days of National Day holiday after the finals. It wouldn't be too late to go out and have fun then. Just like last time, Chen Junqian participated in the recording of the semi-finals and then took Xu Youwei to celebrate her birthday. So Xu Youwei could understand as well. After chatting for a few more minutes on QQ, the two went offline. The other person still had to do his National Day homework. There were nine subjects, and there were test papers, newspapers, and workbooks. If he didn't want to frantically catch up in the last two days, he should do more during the first two days of the holiday.

After a brief respite, Chen Junqian called his mother and the others in the group chat to let them know he had arrived safely in Beijing and was fully focused on preparing for the finals. He asked them to tune in to CCTV at 8 p.m. the day after tomorrow. Then he put his phone on silent and began to make the most of his remaining time, reviewing the various Chinese characters, their pronunciations, and common mistakes he had made, again and again, using a Chinese dictionary.

What relieved Chen Junqian a little was that Shen Nianqiu, perhaps having returned to the social context of school, had regained her composure, or perhaps she also felt that the final battle, which was so close and involved their three-way bet, was even more important. At least there was no sudden night raid, and they spent the last two days of final review in peace, until October 4th.

The live broadcast officially started at 8 pm, but the contestants naturally needed to arrive at the venue in advance. Shen Nianqiu was still wearing the Zhejiang team uniform, while Zhu Wenyun was wearing a school uniform specially designed and modified for her by Hejin Middle School in Guoning City. The school emblem and school name were printed very clearly, maximizing the advertising effect. Chen Junqian was just wearing his usual casual clothes. The main reason was that he looked good in anything and was a clothes hanger in every sense of the word.

After listening to the program team's instructions, we rehearsed the entrance ceremony twice.

As time flew by, many families in Guoning turned on their televisions while looking at the clock on the wall.

The grand finale of the "Chinese Character Dictation Competition" has officially begun.

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

Chapter 83: You Can't Just See the Bad and Ignore the Good (Part 2)

For any program, broadcasting live is a very challenging and even risky activity. After all, even CCTV's Spring Festival Gala, which has the largest scale, the most preparation time, and the most experienced production team every year, has encountered more than one live broadcast accident over the past few decades.

Besides the possibility of live broadcast accidents, whether the final program presented to the audience can meet the standards is also a concern for the production team. After all, without post-production editing, the total length of the program cannot be controlled. If it is a fierce battle that drags on for a long time, that would be fine. But if the final ends in a very short time in a hasty manner, the program effect will naturally be greatly reduced, giving people a feeling of starting strong but ending weakly.

The production team's concerns were not unfounded. Even though the eighteen finalists were all top performers selected from several rounds of competition, their mindset would inevitably differ when facing a live broadcast and the production team's filming. Therefore, the production team couldn't risk public backlash by pre-designing a script. Firstly, it would contradict the show's purpose, and secondly, they couldn't expect these middle school students to complete the script in their already unstable state of mind; it might even create a chain reaction and make a mess of things.

For the entire CCTV Chinese Character Dictation Competition production team, their most anxious focus in this final was naturally Chen Junqian. After all, even though every staff member involved in the recording knew that this boy from Guoning had never received any special treatment from the production team from the beginning, and was not related to anyone in the production team as some conspiracy theories on the internet claimed, nor was he some kind of role model artificially elevated to a pedestal, but had only gotten to where he was today through his outstanding abilities, no one could guarantee that he could remain undefeated in the live broadcast of the final.

If, by any chance, the opponent suffers a heartbreaking defeat and is eliminated in the first two rounds, then the entire process can only be described as a complete collapse.

However, there's no use worrying about these things now. The live broadcast of the finals has officially begun. The chief examiner sitting in front of the stage began to introduce today's judges and guests in a clear and articulate manner, followed by the host and two commentators. After briefly thanking the sponsor, Noah's Ark Youxuepai, they began to introduce today's contestants.

"Now we can see that there are eighteen contestants on the field. They are from the Zhejiang team and ten contestants from the Guangxi team. They are from... Of the remaining eight contestants, five of them are from the individual best qualifying round. They are from... The three are the three contestants with the highest answer rate in the 100-person group. They will launch a fierce attack on the overall champion of the first Chinese Character Dictation Competition tonight."

Finally, Chen Junqian, who was no longer sitting in the audience of the hundred-person group but on the stage, stood up after hearing his name called. He waved to the camera and the audience, then sat back down with proper posture. The contestants of the hundred-person group were grouped together, so Zhu Wenyun was sitting to his left. However, coincidentally, the Zhejiang team's seat was right to his right, so Shen Nianqiu was not far away. If the two students in the middle were eliminated, it would be even more so.

After the contestants were introduced, the entire dictation competition's final round began immediately without any delay. The first contestant called by name, from the Guangxi team, stood up and stepped forward, though his pace seemed a bit slow. This was something the production team had instructed them to do beforehand, because each contestant would have a newly filmed and edited 30-second VCR clip made exclusively for the final round during their first appearance in the first round; afterwards, they could just walk at a normal pace.

Chen Junqian sat there calmly, pondering what his VCR would be like today, while simultaneously listening intently to the first question. In his previous life, he had actually watched all three editions of the Chinese Character Dictation Competition. In fact, the first edition had the highest popularity, the best response, and the best viewing experience for him. This was mainly because the first edition focused on words that were commonly used in daily life but were easily misspelled. Only in the final round would some difficult words be included. However, in the latter two editions, whether it was because the question bank was exhausted or because they simply focused on obscure topics, they almost resorted to digging out words from a vast sea of ​​ancient books that were almost never seen or used in real life. This significantly worsened the viewing experience for the audience.

Not to mention the last two seasons, which featured a rather subtle form of publicity involving an international team. The members of the team were eliminated in the first round despite the show's producers giving them an easy time. There was also a segment where someone couldn't write anything and simply wrote "I love China" on the answer board, which was somewhat like a precursor to Vova.

Perhaps because he had gotten used to writing down every question in front of the hundred-person panel during the previous dozen or so episodes, when he heard the first question was the word "pouting," Chen Junqian subconsciously opened his left hand, preparing to use the tip of his right index finger to start writing the strokes on his palm. However, Zhu Wenyun, who was sitting next to him, seemed to have found a perfect template and directly grabbed a bit of his open left hand, starting to write on her own, as if she wanted to compare answers with him.

Although the camera was definitely filming another contestant answering questions on stage, Chen Junqian was still a little startled by Zhu Wenyun's sudden behavior. He turned around to look at his surroundings, and the other students who knew each other seemed to be whispering to each other or writing in the air. But Zhu Wenyun's intimate behavior was unique. It really made Chen Junqian personally experience the magical charm of his A-level adaptability. After all, this was the live broadcast of the CCTV finals. It seemed that when the two of them were answering questions in the 100-person group, the board was indeed blocking their view. Otherwise, the other person would probably have given him a high-five after finishing each question.

Sitting on the other side, Shen Nianqiu couldn't see their little act because of the angle and the fact that two people were blocking her view. She was still a bit tense and never expected that Zhu Wenyun, who was supposed to compete with her today, would still have such a trick up her sleeve, especially on a stage like this.

After several students stepped forward to answer the questions and passed successfully, it was soon Zhu Wenyun's turn. Lin Mu, who had been waiting in front of the TV at Guo Ning Chen Junqian's house for a long time, also raised his plastic hand again and quickly called out to Chen Xi and Gu Linguo, who were engrossed in their homework nearby:

"Wenyun is on stage, Qianqian should be next!"

As they were talking, the television screen began showing a brand-new VCR clip that they certainly couldn't see at the scene, but only the audience could see, accompanied by rousing music and rapid flashback editing:

"Zhu Wenyun from Anhui Province, a gifted girl from a small county town with a left-behind family, achieved a 94% correct spelling rate in the past thirteen rounds of preliminary and semi-final rounds as a member of the 100-person team. She correctly spelled more than one hundred difficult words and ranked second in the overall score of the 100-person team. Together with her friend Chen Junqian from the same county, she won the ticket to advance to the finals!"

After the VCR video finished playing, when the TV screen switched back to the final competition, Zhu Wenyun was already standing steadily in front of the answer board. She bowed slightly to the examiners and judges before waiting for her question.

Lost and Found Notice

This is a common word that fits the difficulty level of the first round. The only mistake might be that someone might write it as a lost and found notice. However, Zhu Wenyun certainly wouldn't make such a basic error. After hearing the explanation of the word's meaning, she started writing furiously. Seeing this, the host in the studio relaxed and began chatting with the two commentators about the narration.

"Actually, we later learned from the teachers of the Anhui team that this child and Chen Junqian, well, these two didn't originally intend to participate in this year's Chinese Character Dictation Competition. They went to Hefei No. 50 Middle School to find a mentor for the New Concept Writing Competition, and happened to run into the preliminary selection for representative team members there. So they just participated casually, and then they were selected and recommended to become members of the 100-person team to participate in the finals."

"This sounds like how many celebrities participate in talent shows. They start out just to accompany their friends, but they never expect to be selected themselves."

"Yes, yes, it's quite an interesting thing. But she and Chen Junqian proved it together, and we look forward to seeing them both shine on the final stage."

Unlike Lin Mu, who was enthusiastically clapping and shaking plastic hands to cheer on Zhu Wenyun on screen, Chen Xi was just chewing on a fig, and said with a mix of displeasure and confusion:

"Why does it feel like she's tied to my brother?"

"Because they're from the same hometown, and Zhu Wenyun's video message kept referring to her seniors, as did her own interviews. But what is this New Concept Writing Competition?"

"It was Wenyun's editor who encouraged her to participate in the competition, and that's why Qianqian accompanied her to No. 50 Middle School."

The argument that took place in the hotel during the summer vacation was known only to the two parties involved, Xu Youwei, and Shen Nianqiu. The three people present were outside the circle of knowledge, so they simply chatted briefly before looking forward to Chen Junqian's first round. However, when they looked up, they saw Zhu Wenyun, who had answered correctly, smiling and giving him a light high five before sitting down, seemingly in celebration.

"We don't feel nervous at all, neither of us."

Lin Mu obviously didn't think anything of it. She just thought it was really impressive that she could do such a thing so nonchalantly on such a stage. For a girl like her who always had to show her best side to outsiders, this mentality was definitely something worth learning.

"Tch, if my brother were watching me from behind, I wouldn't be nervous at all. If I win, I can even give him a high five."

Although Chen Xi said this, Gu Linguo was clearly well aware of her best friend's true personality. Even if Chen Junqian were there, she would probably only protect her. Right now, she was just saying it.

"The senior is coming on stage—"

Aside from when it's just the three of them, Gu Lingguo never calls Chen Junqian "brother" in front of others. Instead, she uses titles like "senior" or "elder brother." If you really want to understand her psychology behind doing this, it's probably because she wants to show Chen Junqian her more sisterly side in front of Chen Xi, and her more junior side in front of Lin Mu and the others. In short, she wants to be different from others or be a little special.

It has to be said that when Chen Junqian came on stage, the applause from the audience seemed even louder, and even the host's voice was noticeably more excited as he introduced him with a beaming smile:

"Alright, now everyone is more familiar with this face coming on stage, it's—Chen Junqian!"

At the same time, the final VCR, which Chen Junqian himself couldn't see, was also played, starting with a series of news clips: "Chen Junqian - How a Chinese Character Prodigy is Made," "A New Generation of Chinese Character Spelling Gods is Born in the Chinese Character Dictation Competition, the Word '影戤' Stumps the Entire Audience," "He Gets All the Words That 99% of People Can't Write Correctly," "Every Stroke Shows Character, the Road to Success for a Hundred-Person Team from a County Town," "Aiming for the Grand Final Championship, Can Chen Junqian Continue His Impressive Legend?" Then came the formal narration: