This year truly hadn't been easy. The trade war had dragged on for years, then came the pandemic in January. China had drawn the worst possible lot, yet proved that human resolve could overcome nature and pulled off a shocking reversal. With foreign countries in such a state of ruin, there was probably no need to elaborate further on whose system held the advantage.
This book came out of the pandemic period. In truth, the pandemic had little to do with me. Especially since I was stuck at home with ample supplies, and I had always been someone who could stay put. Other than feeling a little stifled by my parents' nagging, as a full-time writer, all I did each day was look for inspiration and polish this new book.
During the pandemic, seeing the cries of countless ordinary people—"Stay strong, China! Stay strong, Wuhan!"—really filled me with endless emotion.
I had originally intended for this book to be about revolution, and it happened to fit the circumstances and situation at the time perfectly. Once my editor went back to work, I immediately started the book.
Of course, there had been a few twists and turns. For example, there were only a handful of contract editors, so contract reviews took an extremely long time. Then there were title changes, censorship, and all sorts of other messy issues.
But I made it through in the end. I started the book on February 15, and now it was January 1: ten and a half months, 1.24 million words. I had done my best. As an old author who had genuinely been writing for over ten years, I might not have amounted to much, but my body had broken down far faster than any of you could imagine.
My lower back had practically