Chapter 30: Launch Remarks!

Chapter 30 On-Shelf Speech!

Missing for one year.

The first half year was spent recovering from illness.

For most people, facial paralysis recovers in about half a month, but I ended up with a severe case.

Several months later, I went to the hospital for an electromyogram, and half of my face still showed no signal. My eyes couldn't close completely, and I relied on eye drops every day to alleviate the discomfort.

After consulting with the doctor, I learned that if this illness doesn't show signs of recovery for so long, it will be difficult to recover afterward.

So I quickly mentally prepared for the rest of my life to have facial paralysis, and then I just gave up treatment and let it be.

As I let it be, surprisingly, it slowly started to recover little by little on its own.

For a period of time, I was so used to using only half of my face for expressions that I would consciously realize the other half could move and then catch it up, resulting in a delayed symmetry.

Now, although there are still some aftereffects, they don't affect my life and are basically not visible.

Besides facial paralysis, the first half year also saw quite a few other problems with my body. Before, I felt young and fearless, but then I pushed my body to its limit, and it directly collapsed.

When you start to appreciate youth, it proves youth has already left you;

When you truly understand "wish you good health" and no longer treat it as an indifferent polite phrase, it proves you have at least lost it before.

At that time, a friend in the same industry fell ill. He came to tell me, and I comforted and encouraged him, telling him to maintain an optimistic and positive mindset. He did so, and in our later chats, he habitually added smile emojis.

Then, one day, I suddenly heard the news that he was gone.

Actually, our relationship wasn't that close. We were both homebodies and hadn't met many times in reality. I still remember the last time we met; after everyone finished eating, the waiter came to present the bill, and I silently took half a step back, exposing him to pay.

Thinking back on it now, ah, I really deserve to die.

During the last period of his life, he still appeared very open-minded and optimistic, but his departure had a great impact on me, especially since I was also unwell at that time.

Originally, I, who encouraged him to be optimistic and positive, was a coward.

I think I was depressed during that time. At its worst, I would wake up every night with heart palpitations. My state every day was either completely uninterested in anything or inexplicably irritable and wanting to lose my temper.

Every time I thought about "writing" during that time, I would feel disgust and fear, a shiver. The psychological shadow I gave myself at that time was truly too great. I once thought my career should end.

After resting for half a year, my body recovered somewhat. I thought about how I had no time before and always stayed home for several months without going out. So, I decided to go out and walk around a bit to relax.

Then I took a self-drive trip along 318. After returning, I took a self-drive trip around the Northeast along G331. After returning, I drove to Hainan. After returning, I drove to Wulumuqi and circled Northern Xinjiang again...

I was like an ant, crawling all over the map of the motherland.

Later, I actually started complaining that there was nowhere left to go, and my heart even began to grumble about why our ancestors didn't conquer more land.

The Broken Bridge of the Yalu River, the magnificence of Changbai Mountain, the boldness of Qilian Mountain, the tranquility of Sayram Lake, the sandstorm of Inner Mongolia...

Truly, going out and walking around more is indeed useful.

I became enlightened. In a literary sense, it means I felt my own insignificance; in a popular sense, it means I finally discovered I was originally a nobody.

Then, my hands got itchy, and I found the desire to write a book again.

Although I said last time that I wanted to make good use of the window period to learn and improve my shortcomings...

But, I am very sorry to tell everyone, I really haven't made any progress at all.

As an author, I haven't read much for several years. Not only that, I also find myself becoming more and more out of touch.

In the previous chapter, Liu Yumei said that middle-aged people lose the ability to understand new things; she was talking about me.

I tried to find books to read. I can feel that many authors write very well, very interestingly, and wonderfully, but I just can't read them. Some of the styles are new and trendy, and they are not suitable for me.

Then, I'm not willing to force myself to scan lists to learn and analyze. Reason tells me that as a creator, this is a slow death, and I am destined to be eliminated by the times. But emotion tells me to let it be.

Because the experience of both my body and mind collapsing last time tells me that whether the times eliminate me or I collapse first, I'm not sure which will come faster.

I've known for a long time that my style doesn't produce books with explosive results. I am only suitable for a niche.

So this time, I simply want to write about things I'm interested in. Nantong is my hometown, and I've written in the dialect of my old home. I know this will likely increase your reading difficulty, but it doesn't matter. My sense of immersion is very strong.

The homes of the characters in the book are actually the homes of my relatives in my old home. They all have a specific location in my mind. My uncle's home is where so-and-so lives, my great-aunt's home is where so-and-so lives, including Li Sanjiang's family doing the paper offering business, which is one of my relatives' families. When I was a child, I often went there to watch Ultraman with kids the same age as me.

So when Xiao Yuanhou and the others are running around the village in the map, I have a bird's-eye view, saying, "Yo, going on a 'cloud visit to relatives' again."

Over thirty years old, I finally touched the threshold of being able to write some era literature.

Actually, I wanted to write it a long time ago, but it wasn't suitable, because not only did I have to wait for myself to get a bit older, I also had to wait for my readers to get a bit older.

Fortunately, everyone is older now.

We can happily do some memory kills.

The point of interest for me in writing this book is, to a large extent, that I suddenly think of some old object from the past, and then I write it in, waiting to see the comments, waiting for readers who are the same age as me to post comments saying, "Ah yes yes yes, my old home also used this before."

However, some cognitive deviations caused by geographical factors or the uneven development of rural areas in that era will inevitably appear.

For example, when I wrote that there was a small river behind Li Weihan's home, I remember one day a reader came to scold me and say it was nonsense, asking if building a house by the river wasn't afraid of being washed away by water! Looking at the IP, it was a reader from Shaanxi.

This is very normal. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe there are towns built on cliffs. I can only say that our country is truly too vast, and the landform features are truly too rich.

Actually, many times, the supernatural elements are more like a thread running through this book. As for the beads on the thread, they are the individual stories and individual people.

In my understanding of traditional supernatural, it doesn't follow a pure upgrade path. It doesn't end up breaking through barriers and ascending.

So, the rhythm of this book will be very slow, many things will be written in great detail, it will be very watered down, it will flood Mount Jin with water, and water it mercilessly.

I showed the beginning of the manuscript to the editor-in-chief, and my editor-in-chief just reminded me that the rhythm was too slow and could easily make people quit.

I said it doesn't matter, I intended it that way.

Let it be, just have the attitude of letting it be. Anyway, readers who are not used to this style will be persuaded to quit early, and those who are left... those who have persevered and read all the way to the on-shelf speech here are all tough enough.

After I no longer have high expectations for the book's results, I feel I can also actively choose my readers. So, this should be called finding people with the same frequency resonance.

Our country has a large population, and I'm not some one-in-ten-thousand weirdo. I always feel that for things I like and find interesting, there will definitely be a group of people with the same taste as me.

After persuading some readers to quit early, when the word count increases, everyone left in the comments will be good friends with similar preferences, and we can interact and play more harmoniously and happily, which is helpful in creating a more comfortable atmosphere.

Here, I want to thank my editor-in-chief, Yi Suo, and editor, Zhu Sha, because I have never been an obedient author, and their tolerance and help towards me have always been great.

I also want to thank Yintian, pp, Ya Shao, Fanfan, Miao Sang, Si Si, and the others. I suddenly said I wanted to publish a book, and then I temporarily called them to help me set up the operation team.

Even more, I want to thank the readers who kept sending me private messages asking me when I would return over the past year, and all of you who quickly gathered after the book was published.

I find I'm becoming more and more lazy now. I really can't say anything sensational. You see, I'm even too lazy to come up with a title for every chapter.

Of course, it's also because each chapter is too long, making it difficult to title.

During the entire new book period, the only author's words I said were "There's still one chapter before 0 o'clock."

Besides that, I didn't say a word. Because I felt it wasn't necessary. It's fine to interact with everyone based on the chapter content. If I added a string of my own words or thank-yous below, I felt it would ruin everyone's reading experience.

Okay, I've said so much, it's time to end.

The next chapter is the on-shelf chapter, which will be posted at 0 o'clock tonight (may be delayed by a few minutes).

Don't say I'm lazy and blacked out today's update. The fact is, when I published the book, I only had 3 chapters of drafts. After that, everything from the third day of publishing onwards was written on the spot. If I had drafts, I wouldn't have been so crazy as to post updates every day, and post them later and later.

My old readers are all clear about my writing habits on this point.

Additionally, due to some reasons, the on-shelf plan was temporarily advanced.

So, today's update can only wait until 0 o'clock to post the on-shelf chapter, because if I furiously write the update in the evening, what awaits me is not having the on-shelf update written in time. The arrangements above have me for the on-shelf activity, and then everyone will see, oh, this guy actually doesn't have a VIP chapter!

Finally, I am very lucky to have all of you accompanying me on the journey of life. Everyone, please send more comments and gather more wisdom. You may not be as good as me at writing long pieces, but I am not as good as you all when it comes to brainstorming.

Most importantly,

Don't panic,

Hold tight, Dragon!

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