A new year had arrived, and this book was nearing its end. It now stood at over 6.1 million Chinese characters, a length I had never imagined reaching.
I started writing web fiction on and off in 2005. Of course, my early results weren't worth mentioning-which is to say, I had no results to speak of. My first book reached 700,000 characters without getting a contract. Compared with many of today's so-called flop authors, I had it much worse.
Of course, looking back now, I was just writing whatever I wanted, absorbed in my own world. All I wanted was to write a story that made sense, without paying any attention to the logic and style web fiction called for. It was only natural that I didn't get a contract.
I was never someone blessed with talent. Last year, when I went to Shanghai for a Qidian awards event, I saw a seventeen-year-old award winner in their second year of high school, and an overseas student in their twenties who never showed their face, whose every book got a contract and sold its rights, taking the top prize again and again. That was when I knew that the existence of absurdly talented people in this world really was infuriating.
But last year, because of this book, I achieved some success, fulfilled some wishes, attended the annual gathering, and became a "big name" in some people's eyes.
Of course, I knew perfectly well that, as far as this book was concerned, I was nowhere near being a big name. I had simply caught a wave, and I was writing about Southern and Northern Xinjiang, which many people didn't know much about but wanted to understand. That was why it was so popular.
In other words, I caught a wave.
Of course,