On-Shelf Announcement!

I was missing for a year.

The first half of that year, I was recovering from an illness.

A normal person's facial paralysis usually recovers within half a month, but I had a severe case.

Months later, when I went to the hospital for an electromyography, half of my face still had no signal. My eye couldn't close completely, and I had to rely on eye drops every day to relieve the dryness.

After consulting with the doctor, I learned that if this condition doesn't show any signs of recovery after such a long time, it would be difficult to recover later.

So, I quickly prepared myself mentally for lifelong facial paralysis, then directly gave up on treatment and just let things be.

While I was letting things be, hey, it actually started to recover little by little on its own.

For a while, I was used to only using half of my face. When I made expressions, I would still only use half of my face. Every time I realized the other half of my face could move, I would then consciously move it, creating a delayed symmetry.

Although there are still some lingering effects now, they no longer affect my daily life and are basically unnoticeable.

In the first half of the year, besides facial paralysis, my body had many other problems. I used to think I was invincible because I was young, but I pushed my body to its limit and it finally gave out.

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

When you truly understand "I wish you good health" and no longer consider it a perfunctory greeting, it proves that you have at least lost it.

At that time, a friend in the same profession fell ill. He told me, and I comforted and encouraged him to maintain an optimistic and positive mindset. He did just that, and habitually added smiling emojis to our chats from then on.

Then, one day, I suddenly received news that he had passed away.

Actually, we weren't that close. We were both homebodies and had only met a few times in person. The last time we met, I remember when the waiter came to present the bill after dinner, I subtly stepped back half a pace, leaving him in the spotlight to pay it.

Thinking about it now, ah, I deserve to die.

During the final period of his life, he still appeared very open-minded and optimistic, but his passing had a huge impact on me. Coincidentally, my own health was also failing at that time.

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

I think I was depressed during that period. At its worst, I would wake up nightly with heart palpitations. My daily state was either a lack of interest in everything or inexplicable anger and a desire to lash out.

Every time I thought about "writing" during that time, I felt disgusted and fearful, a chilling dread. The psychological trauma I had inflicted on myself was too great, and I even thought my career was over.

After recuperating for half a year and my body recovering somewhat, I thought about how I never had time before and had been cooped up at home for months without going out. So, I decided to go out and relax a bit.

Then, I drove the 318 National Road. After returning, I drove the G331 National Road around the Northeast. After returning, I drove to Hainan. After returning, I drove to Urumqi and circled Northern Xinjiang...

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

Eventually, when there was nowhere left to go, I actually started to resent our ancestors for not conquering more territory back then.

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

Truly, going out more often is indeed beneficial.

I had an epiphany. In literary terms, it's realizing one's own insignificance; in common terms, it's finally discovering that you're nothing.

Then, my fingers itched, and I found the urge to write books again.

Although I said last time that I would use the downtime to study hard, improve my shortcomings, and elevate myself...

I have to apologize and tell you all that I truly haven't improved at all.

As an author, I haven't read many books in years. Not only that, but I've also found myself increasingly out of touch.

In the previous chapter, Liu Yumei's comment about middle-aged people losing the motivation to learn new things was describing me.

I tried to read books. I could feel that the authors of many books wrote very well, were very interesting, and were brilliant, but I just couldn't get into them. Some with trendy styles weren't suitable for me.

Then, I was unwilling to force myself to study the bestseller lists or analyze them. Reason told me that this is a slow death for a creator, and I am destined to be eliminated by the times. But my emotions told me to just let it be.

Because the experience of my previous mental and physical breakdown taught me that it's uncertain which would come first, elimination by the times or my own demise.

I've known for a long time that my style isn't suited for writing hit books; I'm only good for niche audiences.

So this time, I simply want to write something that interests me.

Nantong is my hometown, and I've incorporated my hometown dialect into the book. I know this might increase the difficulty of reading for you, but it's okay; I have a strong sense of immersion.

The character's home in the book is actually my relatives' home. I have them all located in my mind: who lives in my maternal uncle's house, who lives in my great-aunt's house, and even Li Sanjiang's family, who runs a paper crafting business, is which relative of mine. When I was little, I often went to his house with kids his age to watch Ultraman.

So when Little Yuanhou and the others are running around the village, I have a God's-eye view, thinking, "Oh, they're visiting relatives again."

I'm over thirty now, and I've finally reached the threshold where I can write a period novel.

Actually, I've wanted to write one for a long time, but it wasn't suitable because I not only had to wait for myself to get older, but I also had to wait for my readers to get older.

Fortunately, everyone has gotten older.

We can happily indulge in some nostalgic writing.

My interest in writing this book largely stems from the fact that I suddenly thought of an old object from the past, and then I wrote it in. I'm waiting to see the chapter comments, waiting for old readers like me to comment, "Ah, yes, yes, yes, my old home used this too."

However, it's inevitable that there will be some cognitive biases due to geographical factors or the uneven development of rural areas during that era.

For example, when I wrote that Li Weihan's house was right behind a small river, I remember a reader from Shaanxi province came to criticize me for making things up, saying, "Wouldn't houses built by the river be washed away by floods!" I see their IP is from Shaanxi.

This is very normal. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed that towns could be built on cliffs. I can only say that our country is truly vast, and its geographical features are incredibly rich.

In fact, often, supernatural elements are like a thread running through the book, while the beads on that thread are individual stories and people.

My understanding of traditional supernatural stories is that they don't follow a pure leveling-up route. It shouldn't end with breaking through barriers and ascending to godhood.

So, the pacing of this book will be very slow, with many things written in great detail, becoming very wordy, overflowing with words, to a crazy extent.

When I showed the manuscript's opening to the editor-in-chief, they already warned me that the pacing was too slow and could easily deter readers.

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

If you're going to slack off, you have to have the attitude of slacking off. Readers who aren't used to this style will be turned away early on. Those who stay... and have read all the way to the on-shelf announcement here are ones who have endured hardships.

Now that I don't have high expectations for the book's performance, I feel I can also actively choose my readers. Therefore, this should be called finding those who resonate on the same frequency.

Our country has a large population, and I'm not a freak among millions. I've always believed that if I like things I find interesting, there will definitely be a group of people with the same taste as me.

After deterring some readers early on, once the word count increases, everyone who remains in the chapter comments will be good friends with similar preferences. We can interact and have fun more harmoniously, which helps create a more comfortable atmosphere.

Here, I want to thank my editor-in-chief Yisou and commissioning editor Zhusha, because I've never been an obedient author. Their tolerance and help towards me have always been immense.

I also want to thank Yintian, pp, Ya Shao, Fanfan, Miao Sang, and Sisi. I suddenly announced I was publishing the book, and then I called them over at the last minute to help me set up the operations team.

Even more thanks to the readers who have been constantly sending me private messages over the past year asking when I'll be back, and to all of you who quickly gathered after the book was published.

I've realized I'm really getting lazier and lazier now. I really can't say sentimental things anymore. See, I'm even too lazy to come up with chapter titles.

Of course, it's also because each chapter is too long, making it difficult to come up with a title.

During the entire new book period, the only author's words I've spoken are "There's one more chapter before midnight."

Besides that, I haven't babbled another word. Because I feel it's unnecessary. Communicating with everyone through the chapter content is enough. Adding my own words or thanks below would, I feel, disrupt everyone's reading experience.

Alright, I've said enough, it's time to wrap up.

The next chapter will be the on-shelf chapter, released tonight at midnight (there might be a few minutes delay).

Don't say I'm being lazy and skipped today's update. In fact, I only had 3 chapters saved when I published the book, and since the third day, everything has been written on the fly. If I had more saved chapters, I wouldn't be so crazy as to post daily updates in the dynamic section, and even later and later.

Old readers are well aware of my writing habits.

Also, due to some reasons, the on-shelf plan was temporarily moved up.

So, today's update can only wait until midnight for the on-shelf chapter. Because if I were to painstakingly write today's update tonight, what awaits me is not having the on-shelf update ready in time. The higher-ups have arranged an on-shelf event for me, and then everyone will see, "Oh wow, this guy doesn't even have VIP chapters!"

Finally, I'm very fortunate to have your company on my life's journey. Everyone, please post more in the chapter comments and brainstorm together. You might not be better than me at writing long novels, but when it comes to creative ideas, I'm not as good as you.

Lastly, Don't panic, Hug the Dragon!