I've already replied to many, many readers of this book: I will write about the China National Football Team, there will be a small amount of national team content, and the title will make that clear.
Ever since moving here from another platform to What Is a Destroyer Midfielder?, I've written many, many "foreign" protagonists. I don't want to write "foreign" protagonists anymore. (This isn't meant as criticism of foreign protagonists; Destroying the Midfield has a foreign protagonist.)
Before starting this book.
I asked myself several times.
The answer I got was: this time, write a Chinese player.
Many readers said: Number Nine and a Half turned out like that? Blah blah blah, and the China National Football Team storyline was written until it got dropped.
I just checked the data again:
Number Nine and a Half occasionally stopped updating even during its free period. During serialization, it often updated only twice a week, sometimes only monthly. Yet whenever I wrote China National Football Team storylines, the follow-up subscriptions rose to five or six thousand. Even when I came back after a six-month hiatus to finish the final FIFA World Cup ending, there were still more than two thousand follow-up subscriptions. (Sorry, I don't mean anything else by this. I've apologized many times already. I won't disappear like that again in the future. I really don't dare anymore. Sorry to the readers who subscribed.)
For What Is a Destroyer Midfielder?, the European Championship chapters titled "Sunlight Kisses His Fertile Soil" were, in my own opinion, the best twenty thousand words I'd written in my life up to that point. Yet the final subscription count was only a little over four thousand. (Once the European Championship storyline ended, subscriptions for the club storyline rose again, though updates were still very slow.)
I poured all my heart and soul into those chapters, so why were the subscriptions so poor? The chapter comments were all praise, too.
Number Nine and a Half only had a little over six thousand average subscriptions, while What Is a Destroyer Midfielder? had thirteen thousand. Their overall results were vastly different.
But for the national team storylines, the former really did far better than the latter.
I'm not stubborn.
Nor am I getting hung up on this.
Setting the data aside and ignoring the results, I asked my own heart:
"I've really written so, so many 'foreign protagonists.' I don't want to keep writing them. I've written the plot of leading foreign teams to win the FIFA World Cup seven or eight times, amounting to several million words. I really don't want to repeat that cycle anymore. It hurts so much, it really hurts so much. It's an endless cycle with no end in sight."
"Even if someone held a knife to me and forced me, I still couldn't write it."
This isn't meant as criticism of "foreign protagonists." Destroying the Midfield has a foreign protagonist, so I couldn't possibly criticize my former self.
Now, it's my own problem.
It has nothing to do with anything else.
I used to be immature. I wondered, why were there so many readers who acted so aggressively over a book?
So as I wrote, I would add notes to chapter titles like, "Daily-life transition, proceed with caution if you mind."
Those were happy days. I didn't want so many people reading my book.
Especially when What Is a Destroyer Midfielder? had poor results early on. During that time, I wrote the chapter outline during my lunch break at work every day, then wrote the main text after getting home at night. Once I finished, I watched matches and movies.
How happy that was.
Every now and then, a few readers would pop up and say, "You need to write it this way and that way, or I'll drop the book." "Hardly anyone is reading this, the author should properly reflect on their experience." "Still not changing it? This mute writing style is doomed to fail."
Back then, I was incredibly proud and didn't care at all.
Later, there were gradually more and more readers.
Why did that book require a speaking score of 500?
Because Destroying the Midfield was constantly getting cursed at. I felt like I was being "cyberbullied." Hundreds of people would suddenly curse at me without reason, like a raging storm, and they literally cursed that book's fan title into existence.
They literally cursed that book's fan title into existence.
How did the fan title come about?
It was cursed into existence.
I'm sorry to Red Flag, who handled operations back then. He had to endure so much negativity every day, and it affected his mood.
No matter how this new book performs, I'll keep updating it properly and write it seriously through to the end.
You don't need to worry that poor results will make me drop it.
Because Destroying the Midfield also performed poorly at first, but I still steadily wrote it to the end.
The hiatuses, weekly updates, monthly updates, and half-year updates for Number Nine and a Half weren't because of its results. They were caused by other things in real life.
There's also no need for everyone to argue over the "China National Football Team" and ruin your moods. (I deleted every chapter comment I saw that involved arguing or cursing. Please don't be angry, everyone. You read books to relax, after all. If you really have to, curse me a few times instead.)
Let me repeat this one last time:
"This new book will write about the China National Football Team, and there will be a small amount of national team content."
One reader pointed out that Manchester United Crown Prince, this new book, lacked intense emotions and strong short-term anticipation. It didn't have the revenge and face-slapping of Li Kang facing MSN's Barcelona for the first time in Destroying the Midfield, nor Gao Qi's high spirits and heavy burden in the Asia arc of Number Nine and a Half. This new book would probably perform worse than the previous two.
There's no revenge and face-slapping, no burden of fate, no deep misery and hatred, no strong short-term anticipation.
You're right.
But I write very easily every day.
The protagonist of Manchester United Crown Prince will also have a much easier time than Li Kang and Gao Qi.
No matter how poor the results are, I'll still write it easily all the way to the final ending.
Before you continue