Chapter 30: Release Remarks!

Missing for a year.

The first half of that year was spent recovering.

Normally, facial paralysis recovers in about half a month, but I pulled a major one.

Months later, when I went to the hospital for an electromyogram, half of my face still showed no signal. My eye wouldn't close completely, and I had to rely on eye drops every day just to cope.

After consulting a doctor, I learned that if there were no signs of recovery after such a long time, things would be difficult moving forward.

So, I quickly prepared myself mentally for a lifetime of facial paralysis, then gave up on treatment and decided to just let things slide.

As I was letting things slide—hey, it actually started to slowly recover on its own.

For a while, I had become so used to having only half a face that I would still only use half my face to make expressions. It wasn't until I realized the other half could move that I would "patch it back in," resulting in a sort of delayed symmetry.

Now, although there are some lingering side effects, it doesn't affect my life and is basically unnoticeable.

During that first half-year, besides the facial paralysis, many other health issues surfaced. I used to think I was young and invincible, pushing my body to the limit until it finally collapsed.

When you start reminiscing about your youth, it proves that your youth has already left you;

When you truly understand the meaning of "wishing you good health" and no longer view it as a meaningless platitude, it proves that you have, at the very least, lost it.

Back then, a colleague and friend of mine fell ill. He came to tell me, and I comforted and encouraged him, telling him to maintain an optimistic and positive attitude. He did exactly that, and in our subsequent chats, he made it a habit to include smiling emojis.

Then, suddenly one day, I received the news: he was gone.

In truth, our relationship wasn't that close; we were both homebodies and had only met in person a few times. I still remember the last time we met, after we finished eating, when the waiter came to settle the bill, I silently stepped back half a step to let him step forward and pay.

Thinking back now, ah, I am truly a piece of work.

Even in the final period of his life, he continued to appear open-minded and optimistic, but his passing hit me hard, coinciding with the time my own health was failing.

It turns out that the "me" who encouraged him to be optimistic and positive was actually a coward.

I think I was depressed during that time. When it was severe, I would wake up with heart palpitations every night. My daily state was either a total lack of interest in everything or inexplicable bursts of temper.

Back then, every time I thought about "writing," I felt disgust and fear; it sent shivers down my spine. The psychological shadow that incident cast on me was so large that I once felt my career should be over.

After half a year of recuperation, my body recovered somewhat, and I thought that since I hadn't had the time before, I had been cooped up at home for months without going out, so I should go out for a little stroll to clear my head.

And so, I drove a trip along the 318 highway; after returning, I drove a loop through the Northeast via the G331; after returning, I drove to Hainan; after returning, I drove to the WLMQ to loop around Northern Xinjiang...

I was like an ant, crawling all over the map of my motherland.

To the point where, when I eventually ran out of places to go, I actually started complaining in my heart about why our ancestors hadn't conquered more land back in the day.

The broken bridge of the Yalu River, the magnificence of the Changbai Mountains, the heroism of the Qilian Mountains, the tranquility of Lake Sayram, the sandstorms of Inner Mongolia...

Truly, going out more is indeed useful.

I realized it. The poetic way to say it is that one feels their own insignificance; the colloquial way is that one finally discovers they are actually a nobody.

Then, my hands grew itchy again, and I found that urge to write a book to vent my feelings.

Although I said last time that I would use this hiatus to study hard, make up for my shortcomings, and improve myself and so on...

I am sorry to tell you all that I have truly made zero progress.

As an author, I haven't read much for several years. Not only that, I've found myself becoming increasingly out of touch.

In the previous chapter, when Liu Yumei said that middle-aged people lose the motivation to seek out new things, she was talking about me.

I went looking for books to read. I could feel that many were written very well, were very interesting and wonderful, but I simply couldn't get through them. Some of the more trendy styles just didn't suit me.

Then, I was unwilling to force myself to scan the charts to learn and analyze. My rational side told me that as a creator, this is a slow death and I am destined to be weeded out by the era, but my emotional side told me I should just let things slide.

Because my experience of total physical and mental collapse last time taught me that between the era weeding me out and me "GG-ing" (dying) first, it's hard to say which would come faster.

I knew long ago that my style wouldn't produce massive hits; I am only suited for a niche audience.

So this time, I simply want to write something I am interested in.

Nantong is my hometown, and I have written the local dialect into it. I know this might increase your reading difficulty, but it's fine; my sense of immersion is very strong.

The homes of the characters in the book are actually the homes of my relatives back home; I have the locations mapped out in my head—who lives in my uncle's house, who lives in my great-aunt's house, even which relative Li Sanjiang belongs to that does the paper-crafting business. I used to go to his house as a kid to watch Ultraman with children his age.

So, when Xiao Yuanhou and the others are running around the village, I have a God's-eye view: "Oho, off to 'virtually visit the relatives' again."

Having passed thirty, I have finally reached the threshold where I can write a "period piece."

Actually, I wanted to write this long ago, but it wasn't suitable, because I didn't just have to wait for myself to get older; I also had to wait for my readers to get older.

Fortunately, everyone is old now.

We can enjoy some nostalgic kills.

The interest in writing this book stems largely from the fact that I suddenly think of an old object from the past, write it in, and wait for the "Chapter Comments" to see readers like me posting: "Ah, yes, yes, my hometown used to use that too."

However, it is inevitable that some cognitive biases will occur due to geographical factors or the uneven development of rural areas in that era.

For example, when I wrote that there was a small river behind Li Weihan's house, I remember a reader came to bash me for writing nonsense, saying, "Aren't they afraid the house will be washed away by the water if it's built by the river!" Looking at the IP, the reader was from Shaanxi.

This is normal. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe towns could be built relying on cliffs. One can only say our country is truly too large, and its topographical features are truly too diverse.

In fact, many times, the supernatural elements are more like a thread running through this book; as for the beads on the thread, they are individual stories and individuals.

The traditional supernatural genre as I understand it does not follow a pure "leveling up" route—don't end up writing your way through breaking barriers and ascending to immortality.

Therefore, the pace of this book will be very slow. Many things will be written in great detail; it will be "watery"—it will be so watery it's insane.

When I showed the beginning of the manuscript to my editor-in-chief, he warned me that the pace was too slow and would easily drive people away.

I said it's fine; I'm doing it on purpose.

If you're going to "let things slide," you have to have the attitude to match. Anyway, readers who aren't used to this style will be deterred early on, and those who stay... those who read all the way to the "Release Statement" are all those who have endured hardships to get here.

Once I stopped having high expectations for the book's performance, I felt I could actively choose my readers. Therefore, this should be called "finding those on the same frequency."

Our country has a huge population, and I am not a one-in-ten-thousand freak. I have always believed that if I like things I find interesting, there will surely be a group of people with the same taste as me.

After weeding out some readers at the beginning, once the word count grows, those who remain in the Chapter Comments will be good friends with similar tastes. We can communicate and play more harmoniously, which helps create a more comfortable atmosphere.

Here, I want to thank my editor-in-chief, Yisuo, and my editor, Zhusha, because I have never been an obedient author; their tolerance and help toward me have always been immense.

I also want to thank Yintian, pp, Ya Shao, Fanfan, Miaosang, Sisi, and the others. I suddenly said I was releasing a book, and they rushed to help me set up the operations team.

And most of all, thank you to the readers who kept sending me private messages over the past year asking when I would return, and to those of you who gathered quickly after the book was released.

I find that I am truly becoming lazier and lazier; I really can't bring myself to say sentimental things. Look, I'm even too lazy to come up with chapter titles.

Of course, it's also because the chapters are so long that it's not easy to title them.

Throughout this entire new book period, the only "author talk" I have said is "one more chapter before midnight."

Aside from that, I haven't babbled a single word. Because I feel it's unnecessary; communicating through the chapter content is enough. I feel that adding a string of my own words or thanks at the bottom would disrupt everyone's reading experience.

Alright, enough talking, it's time to wrap this up.

The next chapter is the VIP release chapter, which will be posted at midnight tonight (it might be delayed by a few minutes).

Don't say I'm being lazy and skipping today's update. In fact, when I released the book, I only had three chapters in reserve, and from the third day of release onwards, everything has been written in real-time. If I had reserves, I wouldn't be crazy enough to post updates via "Status" every day, and even later and later.

Old readers are well aware of my writing habits regarding this.

Additionally, due to certain reasons, the VIP release plan was moved up temporarily.

So, today's update can only wait until midnight for the VIP chapter. Because if I were to grunt and puff through writing the update tonight, what would await me is being unable to write the VIP chapter in time. The higher-ups arranged a release event for me, and then everyone would look and say, "Oh wow, this guy actually doesn't have a VIP chapter!"

Finally, I am very lucky to have your company on my life's journey. Everyone, please post more in the Chapter Comments and brainstorm together. You might not be as good as me at writing long-form, but I am certainly not as good as you at coming up with wild ideas.

Lastly,

Don't panic,

Hold onto the Dragon tight!

(End of Chapter)