First, let me talk about this book's situation.
This is currently the second version. The previous version had reached over 110,000 characters.
The reason I rewrote it and abandoned the first version wasn't because the results were bad. At the time, the read-through data was excellent across the board, peaking at over two thousand.
It was because I analyzed the creative techniques in Paperclip.
Some readers said it was deconstruction. It actually wasn't—it simply stated the real situation.
I said in my previous book that films involve countless processes. Nothing is accidental; everything is intentional.
And then there was no then.
I won't go into the specifics. I explained them in the comments using my author account, but the posts got swallowed.
Sometimes, I still saw readers in the backend saying that certain chapters were from the previous version. They probably hadn't refreshed.
I felt helpless. I couldn't even explain myself, but that was simply the situation.
It was my fault too. My previous book also touched on topics that couldn't be touched. Why did I always end up falling into ditches? ε=(ο｀*))) Sigh!
That was also part of this book's situation: it had two versions.
If you hadn't read the first version, it wouldn't affect the current content.
Readers generally said the second version was better.
So I supposed that counted as a blessing in disguise.
The rewrite was probably half a month ago. Looking back now, it somehow felt like a lifetime ago.
At the time, I was running entirely on one breath. This version was my original idea for the opening, so I stayed up late and wrote it down.
Then, I caught COVID in the first week.
It took about ten days to recover. Just after I got better, I ordered takeout and ran into an assassin—then came the vomiting and diarrhea. It took several more days before I recovered.
As of today, my body had only been well for less than a week.
Good things really did take time.
Once again, thank you to all my readers. Thank you to both new and old readers for your support. Without you, this book couldn't have made it this far.
I also wanted to thank my editor, Ye Xiao.
My books really did have a few too many incidents, O(∩_∩)O
Tomorrow's premium launch still felt very sudden.
I wasn't prepared either—in other words, I had no saved chapters.
And after rewriting, it had only reached 110,000 characters. That was relatively short. Writing more free chapters would make the data look better, but I still chose to launch premium.
First of all, the mental exhaustion had been immense.
It might sound melodramatic, but to an author, a book was like a child. Rewriting over a hundred thousand opening characters like I did was no different from Da Yue suffering a miscarriage. It was a severe blow to my vitality, and I had held on entirely through willpower.
And what made me feel a little... whatever... was that I could still persevere while I was sick.
But after my body recovered, it was like I had gotten my man period—I didn't want to write anymore.
Beyond the fatigue after overexertion, there was also a sense of weariness. Or perhaps fear.
When I wrote, I couldn't avoid censoring myself first.
I really had trauma in this regard. Readers who followed my previous book all knew that.
So I thought it was better to launch premium.
After launching premium, with sales data, my editor could fight for my legitimate interests with greater confidence.
Otherwise, with my style of writing, it would be far too easy for this book to die young.
Finally, let me talk about this book itself.
After the rewrite, my only pursuit was survival.
I had no other thoughts.
Although I believed my perspective was perfectly normal—I simply looked at issues through the land where I lived, the basic education I had received, and my common sense—it seemed that, for one reason or another, I came across as completely out of place.
I didn't want to analyze the reasons either.
How could reality have so many reasons to find? When you ran into something, you ran into it.
I simply wanted to keep existing.
To exist as well as possible—that was my greatest wish.
Beyond that, as an online novel, I felt it should still pursue satisfaction. I couldn't make everyone feel miserable.
So in terms of plot, it would still be invincible—the satisfying kind.
I had an outline and a direction.
I had also gathered a great deal of material, but I wouldn't read it anymore. There was too much material, and it was easy to get lost in it. It was better to focus on the plot and the story.
That was also one of the lessons from my previous book.
For those who felt the plot was slow, it would speed up after the premium launch.
Once it entered the VIP chapters, it would be a little safer than the free chapters.
Of course, the survival I pursued wasn't merely scraping by. It was continuing to fight.
Please walk on with me!
The books I wrote were my thoughts and ideas. Although they represented only myself, they had still gone through a great deal of consideration.
Before Nezha 2 was released, I judged in my previous book that for our film market, it actually wouldn't be difficult for a movie to gross over ten billion.
Thank you, Nezha 2! Thank you to the Nezha creative team!
You made what I wrote less embarrassing. There were people who mocked me before, and I had no way to explain my bitterness.
My judgment was based on the fundamentals, but many people said I was bragging. Thankfully, reality validated my judgment.
I also wrote in my previous book that after Nezha 2, it wouldn't be like Wolf Warrior 2 or Nezha 1, where any movie could make money. Because Nezha 2's box office explosion would bring a period of adjustment.
Although it was only a short night, what it revealed was that people no longer believed any promotion. They only trusted their friends around them.
I wrote about that at the beginning of this book as well.
Audiences weren't interested in films now. First, a film had to break through the stereotypes manufactured by the film industry itself before it could attract viewers.
Therefore, passable commercial films needed to be released alongside strong films.
In other words, if there hadn't been Nezha 2, Detective Chinatown wouldn't have achieved its current results. It would likely have made one billion less, perhaps even been cut in half, because it couldn't break out of its circle.
Reality once again validated my view. Nanjing Photo Studio took off, and The Stage's box office rose with it.
Without films with this kind of normal perspective breaking out, something like The Stage—which was passable but niche—would have been ignored by no one.
Photo Studio also proved that our audiences had taste. For a film with such a heavy subject matter to achieve these results showed that Chinese audiences were the best audiences!
Some readers also said the narrative perspective was the same as my original 1937 from my previous book. Let me say this again: I was only a novelist. I knew my own limits. I was merely theorizing on paper.
But it also proved my judgment once again. What was lacking now were films with a "normal" narrative perspective. Even a "normal" narrative perspective seemed rare. Probably because "abnormality" had become rampant.
I hoped the film industry would thrive, and that I could write with confidence too—at least people wouldn't think I was talking bullshit.
All in all, real authors dared to make judgments. Fortunately, my judgments had turned out alright.
Please keep going with book famine!
Thank you!