Calls and Shouts (Elegant Kite)

Theme: Call out for Shadow! Shout for Holy Court!

Before I knew it, I had been reading Shadow's books for many years. From the time I first started reading online, I had been reading Chronicles. But back then, I did not know how to support Shadow. Like a parasite, I only knew how to read everywhere, occasionally even complaining about update issues...

Looking back now, I really had been childish, ignorant, and shameless... I did not understand that subscriptions were an author's source of income, nor did I know that clicks, recommendations, and favorites were what motivated an author to write. I simply took things for granted. Thinking about it now, I could only blame my own youthful ignorance.

It was not until I happened to see Shadow's call, not until I learned about the Five Hundred Arhats, that I realized Shadow needed me—needed every one of us who liked his works, needed us to give him a little support that cost us almost nothing! From then on, I made up my mind: I would accompany Shadow along his writing journey!

I did not have a computer during my freshman year. By my sophomore year, I thought I could probably squeeze some money from my living expenses to support Shadow. But storms come without warning. My mother fell ill at the time, and our already struggling family was hit even harder. I could only slowly earn my own living expenses through part-time work, let alone support Shadow. But I still kept it firmly in mind: Shadow needed me!

Before I knew it, I had been graduated for over two years. From the days when my income sometimes forced me to live on instant noodles and steamed buns, to now, when my job had basically stabilized, I finally had the ability to support Shadow. Time really had flown by. It had been almost a year since my first donation. Watching Holy Court's performance rise and fall, watching new and old readers come and go, I could not help but feel inexplicably saddened.

Shadow was a good author. People always said, why had Shadow written for so long without becoming a top-tier author? Maybe Shadow had been born at the wrong time, with fate working against him... Maybe Heaven was unfair and did not reward diligence... Maybe our support had been far too little, leaving him without lasting momentum... Maybe Shadow did not understand all the unspoken rules of the literary world, and did not know how to engage in so-called planning and hype... All these reasons brought nothing but countless emotions, helplessness filling my heart, and deep reflection.

Was Shadow's writing bad? No! So many people in both legitimate and pirated book review sections called Shadow a master. Did he not update enough? That was not true either! Shadow's update volume had once ranked near the top on Qidian. Did Shadow's writing have no market? Maybe. After all, the market for online-game novels was getting smaller and smaller, and the reader base was also very young—young readers without their own income.

Every time Shadow's books were just about to get on track and become popular, all kinds of uncontrollable forces would strike his life. Maybe Shadow truly had terrible luck. One thing after another caused problems with his writing, making it difficult to continue.

Such good material, such excellent writing, yet he could never become popular? What a helpless cry of frustration!!!

Now, this bizarre, evil, inescapable curse had descended once again. Would we watch Shadow fall into the abyss again, watch Holy Court plummet, watch our hard-won and growing Shadow fanbase fall apart? Or would we burn our Cosmo, unleash our light and heat, and defeat this so-called inescapable curse? I think everyone who liked Shadow and Holy Court knew which choice to make. Now was the time we were needed. Let us hold up the sky for Holy Court, and for Shadow, for ourselves, forge an undying Holy Court that belonged to us!