I turned reality into a romantic comedy.

"Don't worry, after all, I've always thought Mu Mu is very smart."

Chen Junqian smiled and picked up his pen.

The lights of the evening self-study session spilled onto the overlapping shadows of the two students. Chen Junqian wrote and explained softly, while Lin Mu rested his chin on his hand, looking at the paper with his face turned to the side. The students next to them were all engrossed in their studies, or occasionally looked up to exchange a knowing, teasing look.

There are always many rumors among childhood sweethearts, so even though there are quite a few malicious ones, there are also plenty of well-intentioned teasing, especially among the students of Class 5.

Compared to those girls who were actually not familiar with Lin Mu at all, but simply regarded her as a thorn in Chen Junqian's side because of her, as a genuine witness who had seen the two of them interact for almost three years, even Zhong Yu, who had always thought that Xu Youwei was very clingy to Chen Junqian in the early years, couldn't help but think that the two of them would become a couple, or that they were already a couple.

But both parties involved were well aware of one thing.

They're just one step away from succeeding; one doesn't know how to say it, while the other knows but can't do it for the time being.

In that case, we can only leave it to time.

After all, in most literary works, the way childhood sweethearts are portrayed is always "the final layer of paper is broken through naturally".

However, it is clear that another girl who also calls herself a childhood sweetheart does not agree with this way of writing.

Waiting is always a futile endeavor. Are you waiting for the person who's getting close to give up, or are you waiting for them to come and reach out to you? Therefore, waiting is never an effort.

In fact, the beginning of a novel is always when writers are most full of vigor, just like the lyrics of the song that the beginning is always wonderful. They think that this enthusiasm will never tire, but soon they will enter the bottleneck period of "Oyster, oyster, I can't write anything anymore", and they will start to stare at the manuscript in front of them in frustration, deleting and revising the content again and again.

Zhu Wenyun was no exception.

She was initially just as confident, thinking that since she was writing her own story, she had skipped the stages of interviewing and figuring out what others were thinking, and should be more adept at everything.

But not long after, Zhu Wenyun realized something else.

That is, even she herself didn't know what kind of character 'Zhu Wenyun' should be in her writing.

After all, in many of her past books, her most common technique was to mix all the stories of other people into her own, which is what Shen Nianqiu said when he first met her: "to cut out all the female characters in the male protagonist's life and daily life until only this one female character remains." But everyone knows that reality is not like that, so if she continues to use this creative technique, then it cannot be considered her own story.

In this respect, Zhu Wenyun even felt that she was not as courageous as Shen Nianqiu was back then, because at least the other party dared to actually say those extreme and radical thoughts out loud and have her write them down, and finally show them to Chen Junqian. But now that it was her turn, it was not so easy.

Actually, it's not that Zhu Wenyun lacks courage. After all, she has long regarded Chen Junqian as the person who understands her best in the world. Years ago, she had been thinking about sharing all information, including their phone chat history, with each other honestly and sincerely. The reason she is hesitating and wavering now is mainly because she is very clear that her eccentric thinking and niche preferences are unlikely to be liked by people as a commercial work.

To reiterate, she writes books to make money; she hasn't reached the point of financial freedom where she can write whatever she wants yet.

Just imagine her readers excitedly buying her new book, only to find after flipping through a couple of pages that the protagonist's thoughts are things like, "I love you deeply, but I desperately admit that I will love you even more when you are far away from me," "Maybe that's how life is; someone suddenly appears in your life just to give you a song, and then they can disappear forever," or "My love for you has finally grown into something that is not about possessing you, but about being happy for you even when you are far away." I bet she'd be flooded with negative reviews right away.

...But Zhu Wenyun herself was also desperate, because the above were indeed her true thoughts. Just like the sentence she intentionally left for herself when writing Shen Nianqiu's book, "I hate my lukewarm and overthinking. Maybe I am a bad person, but I will be fine as long as you kiss me." In terms of her thinking about relationships, she was often a complete artsy and sick person.

However, Zhu Wenyun didn't dwell on it for too long, because as the bell rang for the second period of evening self-study, Chen Junqian had already arrived at the club's activity room.

"Is Wenyun experiencing writer's block again?"

After pushing open the door and seeing the scene inside, Chen Junqian made this judgment. Then he walked behind Zhu Wenyun and did not sit down immediately. Instead, he reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder, gently massaging her to help her relax for a while. He also glanced at her upper body, which was covered by coats but had a more prominent presence, from a somewhat condescending perspective.

"Hmm, I'm having a bit of a headache about how to write this."

"The storyline between Junqian and me is definitely enough, but the emotional tone is very strange from the beginning. If I write about that, the whole story will be very strange, and I don't think it will be approved by the editor."

Although Zhu Wenyun maintained her usual riddle-like style, Chen Junqian quickly understood her meaning. After pondering for a moment, she asked:

"But I don't think Wenyun's initial emotional tone was strange. Rather, it's more accurate to say that a person's way of thinking, which is difficult for others to understand, is closely related to their external environment and personal experiences from childhood. So, Wenyun, can you tell me the truth?"

"what?"

"If when I first met you, Wenjun, it wasn't to help Mumu, and if Lin Mu and Xu Youwei didn't even exist back then, and we were classmates, would you still have such thoughts, Wenjun?"

Faced with Chen Junqian's question, Zhu Wenyun gave her answer without hesitation, much like Lin Mu had when faced with a truth-or-dare challenge:

"will not."

Then, she lowered her head and gave a further explanation:

"...I don't think so, because if that were the case, I certainly wouldn't only spend twenty minutes with you every day."

“Then just write it like this. Wen Yun doesn’t need to feel embarrassed at all, because it was my own fault that things turned out this way, and maybe everyone thinks the same way.”

At this point, Chen Junqian paused again before adding the second half of the sentence:

"Even Mu Mu is the same."

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

Chapter 84: I'm really looking forward to high school (Part 2)

The first half of 2015 for peers: physical fitness test, physics and chemistry experiment, high school entrance examination.

Chen Junqian's first half of 2015: Going out, going out, and still going out.

Of course, although there were three consecutive outings, not only were the things they did different, but the people they accompanied were also different. However, before this series of outings, Chen Junqian had to complete his duties as a student, which was to pass the early admission exam for Ningzhong High School in the near future.

As the most prestigious high school in Guoning, Guoning High School naturally has a different class classification system, including special admission classes, key classes, regular classes, and the "Class 17" which is admitted through connections. Although the treatment is certainly not as drastically different as in "Baka and Test", the special admission class, which is only offered once before the subject division, is still quite prestigious.

Around the end of April or the beginning of May each year, the names of students who passed the early admission exam are posted in front of all the junior high schools in Guoning for everyone to "admire". Therefore, those who are qualified to participate are those who have been at the top of their grade for a long time. Students like Lin Mu and Xu Youwei, who are above average, can't even join in the fun. After all, although Ningzhong Junior High School is the best junior high school in the city, the selection criteria for participating requires at least the top 80 students, which is an achievement that the two of them dare not even dream of.

The special admissions program at Ningzhong High School has a similar early admissions period each year, usually around the end of April or the beginning of May. This year it's the former again, and it seems they plan to announce the results before the May Day holiday. Theoretically, students selected through this round of selection can skip the high school entrance exam, so most of the students participating in the selection are eager to try their best. After all, this is an opportunity to extend their summer vacation to four months, which is something that anyone would be excited about.

However, this year's situation is not optimistic for them. Even though most of their results don't yet qualify them for the "Why did Heaven create both Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang?" argument, many people still feel a bit bitter when they think that Chen Junqian and Zhu Wenyun have almost secured the few remaining spots. After all, it's not easy to have to compete for third place before the competition even starts, and top students all have their own pride.

The exam results were as expected. As everyone anticipated, Chen Junqian and Zhu Wenyun, who passed the selection process with the first and second place scores and secured their spots in this year's special admission class, could only sigh at the strangeness of these students who had struggled from elementary school to university, while consoling themselves that someone's top spot in the grade could only be held for another year.

After all, students will have to choose between arts and sciences in the second year of high school. No matter how good you are, Chen Junqian, you can only get first place in one subject at most. Then the first place in the other subject will be vacant, right?

Moreover, judging from the relationship between the other party and Zhu Wenyun, it is highly likely that they will also choose humanities in their second year of high school. This fact undoubtedly boosted the confidence of a group of science whizzes who had been competing since childhood. Many of them were even fantasizing that in three years their names would be hung after "the city's top science student" and listed alongside someone else's "the city's top humanities student" on a banner.

Thinking of this, those feelings of "Why did Heaven create both Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang?" can be quickly put to the back of one's mind. Regardless of whether it ends up being the "Northern Qiao Feng and Southern Murong" duo, at least in terms of format, it looks like the "Peerless Twins".

Unfortunately, as the most useful "other people's child (male version)" in the entire Guoning, Chen Junqian has become a psychological shadow among Guoning's peers. If reality really becomes a romantic comedy world in the future, there will probably be comments like "It feels like everyone here is a Junqian fan or a twisted Junqian fan".

Take, for example, these students crowding in front of the bulletin board at the school gate right now.

"I knew Chen Junqian would get first place in this exam."

"That's how top students are. It's only May, but they're already on vacation. They don't seem to care whether they take the high school entrance exam or not."

"So they don't need to come to school anymore."

"Damn, am I the only one who cares that this person's ID photo is so good-looking? But this line below, 'The outcome is uncertain, we are all dark horses,' definitely wasn't written by him. Dark horse my foot!"

Amidst the noisy, envious, and even slightly bitter comments, Lin Mu struggled to squeeze into the crowd.

After all, among this group of middle school students who were growing taller like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, she was the smallest of them all, like a blade of grass hidden by a big tree. She had to hold her school uniform tightly with both hands, hold her breath, and dodge the broad shoulders from side to side before she could finally squeeze to the front of the bulletin board.

However, even though she was standing in the front row, she was still forced to raise her head somewhat uncomfortably.

Chen Junqian was not the only one selected from Ningzhong Junior High School this time. The names and photos of the other students were also posted. However, in order to highlight the honor, Chen Junqian's photo and name were placed at the very top, and it was the only single line, highlighting his achievement of being admitted as the "number one in the city".

But it was precisely because Chen Junqian's photo was hung so high that Lin Mu had to straighten her back and tilt her slender neck to an almost painful angle in order to see her childhood sweetheart's eyes clearly.

Those were also the eyes she knew best.

Lin Mu had actually anticipated that Chen Junqian would pass this selection, and in fact, everyone had anticipated it. After all, this was the first time in almost ten years that a promising student from Guoning had made it to Tsinghua and Peking Universities. It could be said that everyone was waiting to hang up various congratulatory banners in 2018. The middle school entrance exam was just a preliminary task for the college entrance exam.

That's why, for Lin Mu herself, when she saw Qianqian's photo hanging like a deity at a height that all the teachers and students in the school had to look up to, besides a huge, burning sense of pride surging through her chest, she actually felt more that it was a reminder that the days when the two of them were in the same class were coming to an end. This cold and subtle sense of loss, like the tide, mixed together with the pride she had just felt, making Lin Mu feel even more sore in her neck.

So she lowered her head again and looked at her hands.

There was no intention of boasting at all. Lin Mu knew that she had already worked very hard, and it wasn't just a last-minute effort; she had been doing this for a very long time.

Of course, her grades also gradually improved from average when she entered the school to above average. According to the results of the joint entrance examination that just ended in April, as long as she can get 60% to 70% of the score in the physical fitness test, she can be admitted to the key class.

The honors class is certainly good, after all, there are sixteen classes in a grade, one special admission class, three honors classes, and the remaining twelve are regular classes.

However, the honors class is still not a special admissions class.

As the school bell shattered the tranquility of the campus once again, the crowd that had been watching scattered like startled birds, heading towards their classrooms. The chatter and sighs gradually faded away, and the once bustling school gate quickly became empty and silent.

Lin Mu didn't leave. She squatted down, pretending to tie the already tightly tied shoelace, but her gaze pierced through the gaps in her hair, staring intently at the photo on the bulletin board.

She only stood up slowly after confirming that there were no other classmates around, and even the security guard in the gatehouse had bowed his head and gone inside.

The only sound at the empty school gate was the rustling of camphor tree leaves in the wind.

Sunlight slanted across the glass of the bulletin board, refracting large patches of dappled light that made Lin Mu's eyes feel inexplicably salty. It was as if that unique sense of disorientation and melancholy associated with graduation, which he hadn't really felt when he graduated from elementary school, had suddenly descended upon him across time and space.

She unconsciously recalled the scene from two months ago during the Chinese New Year when she played Truth or Dare with the other person. By the time Lin Mu came back to her senses, she had already extended her right hand towards the photo.

It was a pair of very delicate hands, with neatly trimmed nails, and the palms still held the sweat from clutching the school uniform. Lin Mu could feel this very clearly because her lips were already close to them.

It's strange, really. She can do it when she's in front of the person, but when there's just a picture of the other person in front of her, she hesitates, as if she's afraid of being seen by others. After a long time, she suddenly tiptoes.

Stretching her arms outstretched, the girl's petite body stretched out in the air, her palm piercing through layers of air before finally landing precisely and gently on the glass panel, where Chen Junqian's face in the photo was positioned.

Actually, the school's bulletin board didn't have glass panels to cover it at first, but once, when Chen Junqian represented Ningzhong and won the first season of the "Chinese Character Dictation Competition", the school posted his photo on the bulletin board.

As a result, it was declared unusable after only one day.

It wasn't that someone poked the eyes of the photo with a cone or made any disgusting graffiti with a paintbrush. If that were the case, a check of the surveillance footage would suffice. But the situation is that many girls have turned this place into some kind of mysterious photo spot, leaving school leaders dumbfounded at the methods these young girls use to follow TFboys and EXO.

So a glass partition was added on top of it after that.

The glass in your palm is initially cold and hard, but after a while it feels slightly hot, like the lingering warmth of the early summer sun.

It felt like a long time had passed, but perhaps only a few seconds, before Lin Mu put his hand down and turned to leave.

The sun was still blazing, and on the glass of the bulletin board, near the face of the photo held high above, there was a faint, small, blurry handprint that was quickly evaporated by the heat.

However, her childhood sweetheart is unaware of this.

Chen Junqian is preparing for his first time going out.

And another person who was also on vacation at this time.

Zhu Wenyun also gave her own response to the point raised by Chen Junqian after the start of the semester:

"Then please give me more time that is just for me."

It has to be said that, as the female lead who has the best relationship with Shen Nianqiu, she learned from him very early on the importance of opening up battlefields outside of Guoning. After all, this small county town is full of hidden talents in every sense of the word. It is a super final circle where even childhood sweethearts want to take care of someone, but they have to worry about whether they are among the top three to get the news and come to take care of them.

But it's different outside.

Like Gu Lingguo, who had planned this all along but whose plans have remained just that so far, Zhu Wenyun changed her status to 'in a relationship' the moment she pulled Chen Junqian away from Guoning. However, she did have a legitimate reason for doing so, since Chen Junqian was already officially working in the editorial department. In fact, without him as her boyfriend, Zhu Wenyun would have had many more troubles at work.

Just like the recurring posts on Tieba (a Chinese online forum) where people fantasize about how a female esports player with an 8 out of 10 appearance could achieve a certain level of success and gain immense popularity, physical appearance is often a huge plus. As long as the ability is sufficient, a little hype can turn it into a fantastic topic. This principle applies to every field, including literature.

After all, they would never have compared themselves to or claimed to be traditional literature. In this era where traffic is gradually becoming king and print media is visibly declining, the editorial department will naturally seek transformation, such as the idea or gimmick they suddenly put forward this year.

"To put it simply, it means I have to write and star in a web series? They said I could test the waters with a music video or a short film first, since the copyright is about to be sold."

On the plane to their destination, Zhu Wenyun somewhat bewilderedly brought up this topic with Chen Junqian, which was also one of the reasons for their trip.

Since the 2013 film "So Young" pioneered the large-scale adaptation of domestic youth-themed literary and artistic works, films, TV series, web series and micro-films of this genre have emerged one after another in the past two years. Compared with completely original works, directors also prefer popular novels that already have a certain popularity base and have been proven by the market. Therefore, with the promotion of the editorial department, and with the continued rise in popularity of the author's pseudonym "Wen Yun", investors who want to discuss cooperation have finally arrived.

Which one should we modify?