I won't make excuses. The fever had broken, and aside from a bit of lingering nasal congestion, I was basically back to full health.
But because my head had been muddled these past two days and my train of thought had broken, my writing condition had dropped quite a bit. So although I got up early this morning, I was seriously stuck—I wrote, deleted, deleted, wrote, and wasn't satisfied with any of it.
On top of that, time was limited this morning. I had to work today due to an adjusted day off, so there was only one chapter. I didn't think it would be good to drag it out until midnight, so I posted it early.
This book had reached one million words now, and the plot was gradually moving into its middle phase. I had to admit that I needed more time to plan and reorganize the outline and my thoughts.
Including today's chapter and the ones I owed from being sick, I now owed exactly ten chapters. Put it on the tab: on June 1st, I'll do ten updates, which will make up six chapters. I'll try to make up the remaining four next week.
My credibility is backed by a record of nearly three straight months without missing a single day of four updates, as well as ten updates at the start of each of those three months. I think I'm still worth trusting.