I turned reality into a romantic comedy.

PS2: I'm back from my hometown now. I've been reading everyone's feedback, and there will be an extra update tonight.

Chapter 91: I Want This Kind of Mother, Not That Kind of Mother (Part 2)

Because the number of achievements he has unlocked is indeed close to reaching the threshold of eighty for the next milestone reward, Chen Junqian has been intentionally or unintentionally scanning the achievements he has unlocked and those he is about to unlock during this period of time. Today is no exception. Anyway, let alone daydreaming, given his current reputation with his teacher, even if he fell asleep in class, the teacher would probably give him a soft pillow.

Theoretically, Chen Xi and Gu Lingguo were the first to trigger the event, and the former could even be considered as having done it twice. However, since neither of them was included in the female protagonist's system encyclopedia when the event occurred, Lin Mu ultimately obtained the achievement called "Hero Saves the Beauty".

[Hero saves the damsel in distress]

As we all know, the hero rescuing the damsel in distress is one of the most classic opening plots in various literary and artistic works. However, unlike most situations where "the young woman has nothing to repay her benefactor but to serve him in the next life", the hero rescuing the damsel in distress in anime romantic comedies always develops in the direction of "the young woman has nothing to repay her benefactor but to repay him with her body", and various classic scenes derived from this are endless.

That's why, please set aside those boring psychological theories like the suspension bridge effect. Whether it's a coincidence or a deliberate design, the hero-saves-the-damsel-in-distress scene in romantic comedies has always been a necessary magic weapon to bring the two people closer in one fell swoop. Whether it's going missing during a school trip, disappearing during a test of courage, or being ostracized and bullied, the moment you stand up for her, the brilliance of the protagonist will shine.

Condition for achievement: Save any female protagonist with romantic comedy potential when they are in danger.

Unlike this achievement, which has a similar name and relatively serious content, another achievement called "A Mother Who Wants to Be This Tall" that started shining from noon onwards with Lin Mu's actions is undoubtedly quite abstract.

[I want a mom this tall]

Did you know that even the smartest other animals only have the intelligence of a seven or eight-year-old human, yet they can take good care of their young? In other words, even a child can become a qualified mother.

Romantic comedies are never short of female protagonists who like to take care of others. This trait is often attributed to childhood sweethearts, because only the person who knows you best can take care of you. Someone who doesn't understand you at all but does things according to their own wishes for your own good obviously cannot be categorized as such.

The "loli mother" archetype here is always a unified whole of opposites. Without the prefix, it would seem overly dull and bloated; the traditional mother figure's one-sided caregiver image, coupled with a decades-long age gap, would amplify the sense of distance between them. Without the suffix, it would seem to violate public order and morality; the unequal sense of one-sided superiority and dependence on the younger child would likely prompt onlookers to call the police. But when the two are combined, it becomes a mutual care and protection; the suspicion and coldness of sex transform into the pure warmth of love, and the distance and pressure brought by the physical and age difference vanish, replaced by a touch of divinity.

Of course, even mothers of this caliber can be divided into two types: proactive and passive. The former are mothers who are loved by the world and therefore naturally want to love the world in return. Their love may seem a little clumsy but pure. The latter are mothers who have noticed their parents' weakness and inadequacy too early and have been forced to skip the childhood stage. Their love may become mechanical and fragile. How to treat them depends on your own thoughts.

Conditions for achieving this: Feel a certain sacred attribute in any female protagonist who meets the above requirements and is suitable for romantic comedy.

Well, it feels like completely abstract, mad literature. Even Chen Junqian himself, who has been thoroughly immersed in the world of anime and manga in recent years, would never have the courage to read this stuff out loud. In every sense, it's far more embarrassing than lines from ultimate moves like 'Starburst Stream Slash'.

As for the two achievements described in the description, Chen Junqian had already felt that Gu Lingguo would lean more towards the latter when he went to the comic convention during the summer vacation. However, his thoughts at that time were completely opposite to the name: "Don't have such a tall mother." He had already explained the specific psychological reasons. He just didn't expect that it would be Lin Mu, his childhood sweetheart who was closer to the former, to achieve it.

Thinking of this, Chen Junqian gave Mu Mu, who kept glancing back at him even during class, a nonchalant look. He could only admit that in terms of appearance and personality, Lin Mu had the potential and stats in those areas. At least in terms of height, she fit the definition of 'so tall'.

Having probably realized her limits, Lin Mu no longer cares about her future height as much as she did a few years ago, or makes various efforts to grow taller. However, she is still quite sensitive about the topic of height. At least Chen Junqian rarely pats her head for no reason, as this action is sure to earn her a big eye roll from Mu Mu.

According to the other person, it was almost like he was showing off that he was much taller than her.

When school ended in the afternoon, Chen Junqian was surrounded by other girls as he walked into the club activity room. Although Xu Youwei and the others had come to visit him during the day, Zhu Wenjun had only just found out about it. Lin Mu absolutely refused to let Chen Junqian ride his bike to pick her up again today, and even paid out of his own pocket for Zhu Wenjun to take a taxi.

But it's not like Zhu Wenyun is short of money, which is why she has Chen Junqian ride his bicycle to pick her up every day. However, after hearing from Lin Mu that Chen Junqian's hand was injured and it was inconvenient for him to ride a bicycle, she immediately swiped her bicycle over and is now staring at it intently, determined to take a closer look.

Of the five girls in Guoning, Gu Lingguo has always been the one who is good at socializing and gets along well with everyone. Chen Xi has already met her during the day and even went to the hospital with her. Xu Youwei is Lin Mu's best friend. So, in the end, it seems that only Zhu Wenyun can really say a few words to Lin Mu without any psychological burden.

That is indeed the case.

However, perhaps because the events of the summer vacation were still fresh in her mind, Zhu Wenyun's aggression was much weaker now. In addition, Chen Junqian, the person involved, hadn't said much, and Lin Mu also had a good attitude of admitting his mistake, putting on an attitude of "it is indeed my fault, say whatever you want, I will accept it." So after making a couple of complaints, she moved on and started to continue working on her first draft for the New Concept Writing Competition at the table next to her.

This is her real main task this year. After finishing the long side project of "Chinese Character Dictation Competition", she will definitely have to focus all her efforts on this. After all, there are only a few days left before the deadline. So, in the case of the original screenwriter not being able to return, Chen Xi has no choice but to continue to take over.

Upon closer inspection, Chen Xi and Xu Youwei were huddled around the computer in the activity room, seemingly watching something with the music off. When Chen Junqian approached, the latter casually pulled him over.

"Qinqin, come and take a look too."

The computer screen was playing the theme songs of several animations, and the one playing right now was "Q Version Three Kingdoms". Even though the volume was turned off so as not to disturb Zhu Wenyun who was writing next to him, just looking at the screen, Chen Junqian could still feel that the rather magical 'sha ba la ba ba ba' tune ringing in his ears. It was hard to imagine that this was an animation produced in 2005. If you traced it back to its origins, it should be the earliest parody and silly animation on the Three Kingdoms theme, or even all themes, that he had ever come across.

"Because Qinqin said she wanted to make something more comedic, Chen Xi and I have been looking at this kind of thing lately."

After Xu Youwei offered her explanation, Chen Xi immediately stroked her chin and hesitated before asking another question:

"But this style... doesn't feel right."

Her earliest exposure to Three Kingdoms-themed animation was undoubtedly the CCTV version of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms." She would definitely enjoy watching the overly satirical "Q Version Three Kingdoms," but she clearly couldn't make it herself.

"I'm not really good at writing scripts in this style. To be honest, the pre-Qin period is less well-known than the Three Kingdoms period. I feel that it's best to popularize the underlying logic. After all, if the audience doesn't have enough knowledge about it, it's easy to mislead them. For example, 'New Three Kingdoms' is like that. I feel that if someone is really introduced to the Three Kingdoms story for the first time through this TV series... I can't say for sure."

Indeed, after much deliberation and consideration, Chen Xi ultimately chose to create his work during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods of the pre-Qin era. Firstly, this period produced a high number of idioms, and there was no shortage of popular stories. Many of the figures were also quite famous, unlike the purely obscure periods of the Jin and Sixteen Kingdoms and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. Secondly, because the records were relatively brief, there was more room for creation and a high degree of freedom.

"However, an interesting opening theme song can indeed easily attract attention and create a memorable impression..."

"Let me think, how about the style of 'Lucky Star Treasure Hunt'?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Junqian remembered another comedy animation that aired in 2005. After successfully searching for it on his computer, he opened the website and showed the theme song of the animation to his sister and Xu Youwei.

"Oh, I remember this one. It was quite funny. Was it the one where they recited poetry at the beginning of the theme song? There was a line in the lyrics, 'Sha Wujing, Sha Wujing, hardworking and conscientious.' I remember that he was the one who carried the white dragon horse in the show."

"Indeed, but the theme song I remember most is Pigsy's line, 'Holding my big belly, thinking of Sister Chang'e.' At least it taught me in elementary school that this character is pronounced 'pian' instead of 'bian'."

After discussing the theme song with great interest for a while, Chen Xi took the initiative to ask Chen Junqian:

"So, will our theme song also include poetry? This one uses the opening poem from the original 'Journey to the West,' what will we use?"

"I've had this idea for a while now. Since it's from the pre-Qin period, we can just use the opening poem from Feng Menglong's 'Romance of the Eastern Zhou Kingdoms,' which is: 'The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors were virtuous, the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties were famous, the Five Hegemons stirred up the Spring and Autumn period, and the rise and fall of dynasties passed in an instant! A few lines of names in the annals of history, countless desolate mounds in Beiman, the fields of the predecessors are reaped by the successors, what's the point of talking about the struggle between dragons and tigers?' Ming and Qing novels really like to write this kind of opening poem. The background and emotions of this poem are quite suitable. I'll find a professional to do the lyrics and music later."

After resolving the theme song issue for his sister and Xu Youwei in just a few words, Chen Junqian was immediately pulled away by Gu Linguo.

Since she had already defined her role in the animation production as a voice actress, Gu Lingguo had been researching or tinkering with these things these days. Then she realized that it was really not possible to do this without someone to teach her, so she set her sights on the school's broadcasting department.

If there's anything in Guoning's school that could be considered somewhat similar to campus clubs in Japan, it would probably be the school's choir and broadcasting department. The former is the main performer for every school event, while the latter is responsible for broadcasting various programs on campus after school every day. It seems to cover everything, but Chen Junqian seems to remember nothing about it.

The main problem is that no respectable person would stay at school to listen to the radio after school instead of going home immediately. It's just that occasionally when they're on duty, they might unintentionally hear a few words, or it might be a notification or praise for students. Anyway, Chen Junqian has heard his name several times.

However, there is no doubt that these two places, both related to sound, must have responsible vocal teachers. Gu Lingguo's family would naturally not enroll her in such training classes, so they had to find someone at the school.

This was the reason she came to see Chen Junqian this time. After all, compared to herself, who was completely unknown, Chen Junqian was definitely a popular figure on campus, the top student in the grade, the first national champion of the Chinese Character Dictation Competition, and someone who was said to be respected even by the principal and the dean of students. It would be easier and more convenient for Chen Junqian to speak in front of the teachers.

Gu Lingguo glanced at the gauze on Chen Junqian's right hand and couldn't help but chuckle.

"Now you can be considered a gentle king."

"hehe."

Chen Junqian, who had no intention of exclaiming "My King's Power!" while clutching his right hand, simply responded with a chuckle. Lin Mu, on the other hand, followed them outside like a little animal. She had been doing this since morning, giving the impression that the two of them had a leash attached to their wrists to prevent them from getting lost.

"I'll go with Qianqian."

For the first time in her life, she reached out and hugged her childhood sweetheart's arm in front of other girls, just like the time he had pulled away from her earlier that morning.

In the eyes of a certain anime girl.

This is exactly the same as those childhood sweethearts asserting their sovereignty.

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

Chapter 92: You are a very lovely person (Part 2)

In a psychological experiment known as the rhesus monkey experiment that took place in the last century, psychologist Harry Harlow drew the following conclusion:

After the basic necessities of food for survival are met, love consists of only three variables: touch, movement, and play. If you can provide these three variables, you can meet all the needs of a primate for the role of mother.

Physical contact is quite necessary. Just as in the experiment, the rhesus monkeys that were selected and had 94% similarity to human genes were naturally more inclined to be close to the dummy mother made of cotton cloth, instinctively hugging her and acting affectionately, wanting to gain warmth and a sense of security through such contact.

The biggest difference between childhood friend characters in reality and in anime lies here. When they are young, it's fine, but as they get older, it's highly unlikely, or even impossible, for them to openly engage in habitual physical intimacy with their childhood friend in public, like in romantic comedies. This includes things like holding hands, hugging, putting arms around each other, feeding each other, and so on. This is also the key reason why Lin Mu received a C in the system's action rating.

After all, from this perspective alone, she is not the childhood sweetheart saint of the two-dimensional romantic comedy, because she would almost never do the aforementioned actions. Even if she did, she would quickly leave amidst the gazes and subtle teasing of others around her, and then stand there blushing and her heart pounding for a long time.

It was completely different when it was just the two of them. When she spoke, she liked to cup his face with both hands, forcing him to look directly at her. She would also often sneakily whisper in his ear. When they were lying on his bed chatting, her feet would sometimes kick his back and squeeze his waist as the topic changed. But she wouldn't do that when other people were around, as if some invisible shackle restricted such behavior.

So from this perspective, Chen Junqian's injury allowed her to comfortably convince herself, as if she had found a legitimate reason to do so, allowing Lin Mu to gradually bring out their daily interactions.

After all, Qianqian was injured and needed her care.

Although the reasons and process for achieving this result were completely different from what Lin Mu had expected, and could even be said to have made her feel annoyed and regretful, fortunately, it did not cause any worse consequences in the end. Instead, by a twist of fate, the situation turned into a scenario that she had secretly imagined and hoped for in her heart long ago.

Because she genuinely wanted to take care of people, especially Chen Junqian, just like how she had witnessed her own mother taking care of her father when he was a child, who had to drink too much due to social engagements or whose stomach problems had relapsed.

If we go back even further, it might be when she was very young, watching the first two episodes of "Rainbow Cat and Blue Rabbit: The Seven Swordsmen" on TV, and the scene where Blue Rabbit went to heal Rainbow Cat who had been poisoned and fled. After all, for most of her life so far, she has undoubtedly been the one being taken care of, so the more she has been like that, the more she wants to be the other party in this relationship.

But it can only be said that Chen Junqian, her childhood sweetheart, is indeed in excellent physical condition. In the past few years, he has not even had a minor cold or fever. Lin Mu had imagined many times sitting next to him on his bed, wiping the sweat from his forehead with a dry towel, and constantly pouring hot water into two cups to cool them down as quickly as possible, but she never actually did it.

Chen Junqian could sometimes sense Mu Mu's little schemes.

Unlike Zhu Wenyun and Shen Nianqiu, whose emotions tend to lean towards extreme control, Lin Mu's somewhat adorable thoughts are entirely due to his personality. In addition, the way the two get along does allow him to often present himself as an all-powerful childhood sweetheart. However, relationships are always two-way, so naturally, the other person also hopes that he can show his relatively vulnerable side in front of her, which is the sacred attribute described in the system's achievement description of "I want a mother this tall".

After all, back when the two of them traveled together, Lin Mu had told him that if they were to use a different form of address, she would prefer him to call her "sister," the meaning of which was already self-evident.

Thinking this way, Chen Junqian didn't refuse Lin Mu's suggestion to go along. Gu Lingguo's expression management was also quite good; she only stiffened slightly for a barely perceptible moment before her original smile returned.

"Sure, Sister Lin Mu, would you like to try it too?"

In their small group of six, Lin Mu's role, or rather his professional identity, is currently the most ambiguous, feeling somewhat like a support staff member and also a mascot.

"No need, I'm not interested in voice acting. Lin Guo, you're enough."

As he spoke, Lin Mu touched the area above his vocal cords in his throat again:

"And I always feel that my voice isn't particularly pleasant, or that I don't have enough vocal range? After all, I see that voice actors have a lot of vocal ranges, but I only have this one. What do you think, Qianqian?"

Rather than answering Gu Linguo's question, it was more like he was talking to Chen Junqian next to him, and after a few sentences, the conversation turned to Chen Junqian again.

"I think Mu Mu's voice is quite nice, but it doesn't really have much variation in tone."

It should be said that girls at this age have already passed the puberty period, but it always feels like Lin Mu's voice hasn't changed much since we first met. If we were to use the slang used by various online gaming parlors to describe the different types of female voices, it would be the kind of sweet, loli-like elementary school student voice. I just don't know if it will change in the future.

Therefore, it is perfectly normal for Chen Junqian to feel that he has not had any extra thoughts about his childhood sweetheart so far, since no matter how you look at it, Mu Mu does not give him much of a female charm.

But conversely, or to put it in high emotional intelligence terms, his own childlike innocence and childlike heart were indeed gradually revived during the time he spent with Mu Mu.

For Chen Junqian, Lin Mu was his carefree childhood.

Just as Chen Junqian finished touching his own throat, he saw his childhood sweetheart reach out to his throat again. She had already touched his Adam's apple once earlier this year during the Chinese New Year, but it seemed like she wasn't satisfied yet. This made Gu Lingguo, who was clearing her throat and preparing to show the two of what it meant to have a versatile voice, hesitate to speak.

Of course, there are no professional voice-over teachers at Guoning Middle School. The teachers in the broadcasting department mainly teach professional broadcasting techniques, while the choir teaches vocal music. However, you can still learn various vocal techniques and apply them in different situations. After learning them, you won't have to worry about being called on by the teacher in Chinese class to do homework like "please read paragraph X of the text with feeling".

After gaining face, Chen Junqian successfully arranged things for Gu Lingguo. He didn't know if Gu Lingguo had the talent, but it was always good to give it a try. After all, he didn't expect her to become a professional voice actress overnight. Gu Lingguo herself didn't have that much time and energy. She had various tutoring classes and piano lessons, and she also had to take care of her studies.

After dealing with Gu Linguo's matter, Chen Junqian didn't forget to offer his warm regards to Zhu Wenyun, who was engaged in literary creation. As always, he also took the opportunity to max out her feeding achievement, which was already at its limit, and fed her shrimp chips, which should also be in the Pocky Nine-Square Grid, with crunchy crunches.

Because Zhu Wenyun still adhered to the perfectionist tradition of never showing him the final draft, Chen Junqian still couldn't see the other party's current creative progress and content. Half a month is neither a long nor a short time; writing a 5,000-word draft to participate in the preliminary round of the New Concept Writing Competition should not be a problem...

Because he felt that this sentence was like setting a flag, Chen Junqian ultimately didn't say it out loud.

Overall, today's club activities were a quiet and peaceful day.

Sitting on the sofa, Chen Junqian thought to himself, then subconsciously reached out to scratch his right ear, which was suddenly a little itchy. He then realized that his palm was completely covered up. It wasn't actually that serious, but someone was just worried.

Lin Mu, who had been closely observing Chen Junqian's every move from right next to him, quickly noticed this and pulled out a small ear pick from somewhere, showing it off to him:

"If it's inconvenient for Qianqian, then I'll do it. When I was little, my mom and grandma always cleaned my ears, and then I would clean theirs. I'm very experienced!"

Without giving Chen Junqian time to react, she moved closer to him as soon as she finished speaking.

While ear cleaning usually happens around the same time as a lap pillow, and the system even has an achievement related to it titled "Of course, you have to clean your ears after a lap pillow," if you really want to clean them thoroughly, it's actually better to do it while sitting down. Lying down only makes the person having their ears cleaned more comfortable, but it's undoubtedly more tiring and harder for the person cleaning them.