Almost forty days now-forty straight days of updates. (First, thanks to my editor Nai Peng for picking me out of the trash heap, and then to all the readers who tipped, cast monthly votes, gave recommendation votes, and left comments. You're practically a shot of adrenaline before I start writing each day.)
Double the workload, studying for the exam to become a permanent employee, and the novel's paid release-all of it fucking landed in these same two months.
What used to be relaxed, easy daily plot brainstorming became something I could only squeeze in by strictly scheduling my time.
Sometimes I also had to go on pandemic-control duty at night. That was the downside of working at an institution: once an official directive came down, you had to go.
My family told me to choose between the exam and writing the novel. They didn't think I could manage both.
I thought it was a long shot too, but I still wanted to try having it all.
I wanted it all, sure, but over these past ten days or so, although I hadn't missed a novel update, I hadn't read a single page of study material or done a single practice question.
Wow, this was seriously hard to take. I was even hoping to pursue a girl I'd liked for ages once I landed a permanent public-sector position.
But I didn't know whether writing novels could support me. Telling people about it was basically admitting I was unemployed, and I was afraid her family wouldn't approve of me either.
It sucked.
As for my health, I thought I was doing fine. I swam for a month in August and had planned to start working out, but then the pandemic brought a month-long lockdown.
I came up with this book in September,