This book would go on sale on the 23rd—that is, today. I had to say, it was a truly absurd thing, so bizarre it could easily be classified as fantasy.
Of course, I had my dear readers to thank. The feeling of being read had sustained this book up to now, whether it was being "the second person to read up to the latest chapter" or receiving a precious comment. It was deeply encouraging, and lifted my spirits whenever I felt tired.
I also wanted to offer my sincere thanks to Ru Tongguan, author of Mysterious Martial Arts World: Record of the Knight-Errant Waving the Rhinoceros, for his kind recommendation, and strongly recommend his work in turn. It featured excellent prose, extremely thorough research, and meticulous craftsmanship, blending fact and fiction. It had done a wonderful job localizing the Lovecraftian style, and nearly a million characters were already available to read.
So, to mark this special day, I wanted to invite my dear readers to the path where I often went for walks.
I had loved coming here at dusk since I was very young, walking along the riverbank and chatting. Below the embankment lay a shallow-water zone, thick with aquatic plants, usually coated in stirred-up silt. During the dry season, it could smell strongly of fish. Sometimes there wasn't much to talk about, and then I would watch the river.
The vast, misty river.
To a child, it really did seem boundless. It was so wide that crossing the bridge at its narrowest point took a long walk, and the rippling, glittering surface reflected the clouds spread across the sky.
Since I went walking at dusk, I often saw their colors change, from white edged in gold and red to great swathes of furnace-like crimson. Then, as their