Today was the first day of my break.
I went to get my teeth cleaned, and like everyone else who goes in for a cleaning, I ended up getting three fillings while I was at it.
I spent all day yesterday reading reviews. The chapter comments broke a thousand within half an hour, and they're at 3,800+ now.
Praise was pouring in like a tide.
Hahaha.
I felt relaxed.
Before starting this arc, I said I hoped everyone would enjoy its story. Of course, that was my highest expectation and the direction of my greatest efforts.
But I also said that I would write in a Buddhist fashion, write for my health—
What I'd originally expected was four thousand words a day, taking breaks whenever the mood struck, being a happy good-for-nothing, a carefree handsome lad, rather than a swollen fat man or a depressed shut-in.
So I kept telling everyone, let the chapters build up, let the chapters build up.
But I never expected I wouldn't be able to talk anyone out of it. The number of continuing subscribers kept hovering between eighteen and twenty thousand, and by the time the arc ended, it had peaked at twenty-four thousand.
Every day when I opened my eyes, there were twenty thousand legitimate readers waiting for an update.
It was as though twenty thousand pairs of eyes were watching me from the void, telling me, Ashen, you have to hold on.
I could more or less understand how Wang Changji felt... "From that moment onward, he had been watching the gods."
Whenever I wanted to indulge myself, I would shamefacedly open my computer again.
I hadn't managed to become a good-for-nothing in this arc.
But overall... I was probably happy.
I was extremely nervous while writing this arc, because the exhaustion