Thoughts on the Featured Promotion

Tomorrow, the novel would be getting a major featured promotion. By old custom, I had to write something before one.

As for what to write, I had no idea. I'd just take it as a casual chat with everyone.

First, I thanked China Literature for giving me such a great platform. I really didn't ask for much—as long as I could quietly write my books properly, that was enough. I was too lazy to concern myself with anything else, and too lazy to bother with it.

Second, I thanked my editors: chief editor Yi Suo and responsible editor Yuan Zheng. They had always responded whenever I needed something. Even when I bothered him during holidays or his rest time, he never got angry. I thanked him here for his support.

Lastly, everyone said this book was a little too heartbreaking. I took a careful look, and the beginning really had been pressed down too hard. Coupled with my temporary shift in style, perhaps that was what had led to its current neither-hot-nor-cold flop of a performance.

If not for the old readers from my previous books who had kept supporting me, perhaps I would have abandoned the pit and stopped writing long ago.

To be honest, I had never truly felt that authors and readers had such a close relationship. It was simply one where readers hoped the author would work hard to write a good book, without being affected by the clutter of daily life, and so spent money subscribing.

But then came this book.

Truly, when I was at my most disappointed, when I was almost about to abandon a book for the first time, everyone in the group merely asked for votes once, then showered it with tips, recommendations, and monthly votes. With only thirty thousand favorites, it actually held its ground at the same level as other books with forty or fifty thousand, or even more, favorites.

There were clearly so few of you, yet you still managed to do this much. If I had given up then, I truly would have felt guilty. So I told myself: hold on a little longer and see. Finish writing what I wanted to write, what I wanted everyone to see. It would count as an explanation to those friends who had always supported me. It would mean I had not let everyone down.

And so I kept going until now.

That was why this book had been able to continue: because of your support. So I would not say any more nonsense. I only wanted to express my thanks once again.

I also especially thanked several great authors in the group who had always encouraged me, including Wu Wai Jiangshan and Eternal Fire.

I was not someone good with words—or rather, good at expressing myself. Writing this much was already rare for me. As for the rest, let it be this way.

As I always said, this book was no longer my persistence alone; it also carried everyone's efforts. So writing it well was my only thought now.

To my dear readers.

—January 24, 2016. (To be continued...)