Let me speak from the heart with all of you!

Hello, everyone. I am the writer known as A Humble Scholar. I believe many of you, after seeing the title, already understand what this is about. I have thought about it for a long time, agonized over it for a long time, but in the end it has come to this. Every online novel must pass through this stage, because an author has to eat and drink too. I am sure many of you have heard this before, seen it before, and are tired of it already. Since this book first set sail, its performance has been far from ideal. I am not the kind of person who obsesses over numbers; I am simply an ordinary person who genuinely loves writing books.

By day I work as an auto detailing employee, and by night I return to the state of writing. My time is packed so tightly that whenever I think of taking a break to play for a while, I remember that I still have words to type, and my heart grows anxious and uneasy. After all, this book still has readers who like it, and I am truly grateful for everyone’s support and company. A single remark from you saying it is good, or asking for an update, or even just a simple “111” comment, makes me feel incredibly happy, because is that not exactly what we writers hope to hear? At the very least, it means there is some life to it, right?

I was once a reader as well. Like all of you, I became interested in online fiction back in 2014. Time has carried me from then to the present year of 2019. Perhaps that span seems short, gone in the blink of an eye. Many readers come here simply because they are bored or have some free time and want to pass the hours with a novel. I know that this boredom and free time are not things that require money to relieve. Many readers, the moment they see that a book has gone paid, give up on it at once. In the hearts of us authors, a tiny delete key can hurt more than even the cruelest needle.

I am not complaining about anything. I know I have no right to complain. I only want to say a few words from the heart to all of you. As I said, these words must have already made your eyes tired. Perhaps you are sitting on the other side of the computer or looking through your phone screen and, upon seeing this, cannot help but smile and mock me for being too naive. I used to be the same. When I saw remarks about paid books, I would also sneer dismissively and say, “Then I just won’t read it. What rubbish. It is written so badly and still wants to charge money.”

Only after I set foot on the road of online fiction did I realize that writing is not merely a matter of tapping a keyboard and clicking a mouse. The pressure involved is truly enormous. We want to present our readers with a wonderful, flawless story, so we rack our brains and scratch our heads to write every word and every sentence well. But no one is perfect. There are more than seven billion people on this earth, and we can never satisfy everyone’s appetite.

I also want to say that all of you have given me immense kindness through your constant support and companionship. I keep it firmly in my heart and have sworn never to become arrogant. Still, I must say this: thank you to those of you who have followed this book from its beginning until this very moment. It is you who made me feel that writing this book still held hope. From the start there were no comments, no popularity at all; it was almost like a book already dead. I was the only one silently persevering, typing word after word and updating day after day. As an old friend once told me, since you chose this path, you must endure it. No matter how great the pressure, life is precisely what grinds us down like this.

I am just an ordinary person who likes writing and loves literature. I want to bring the grand visions in my heart and mind to life. Perhaps ten years from now, or twenty, or even thirty, when I look back, I will be able to point to this book and proudly tell my children, my family, my relatives, and my friends: “This was the first book I ever wrote.” These characters did not simply live in the book; they were engraved in your hearts. Lin Xuan, the master, and every other character, in one way or another, became as real as living people.

That feeling is truly happy, honestly. But at this very moment, I still cannot say it with complete pride. Even when I casually mention that I am writing a book, many friends around me will only smile and say, “In this day and age, you still write novels? What good can that possibly do? You would be better off finding a steady job and living an ordinary life. Why make such a fuss?” I cannot rebut such words, and can only face them with a smile. What left the deepest impression on me, however, was my parents. When the two of them learned that my book could be read online and searched for on Baidu, they were proud of me and said their son had finally made something of himself. The son who used to only reach out for money to buy snacks, buy clothes, go out and fool around, and even hated studying, has now grown up and can support himself. Is that not how people of their generation are?

Yet I alone know that, in truth, their reaction was not all that dramatic. I am still me: forever just a worthless failure. I persist in my ideals and my beliefs, all for the sake of fighting toward the days ahead, giving her a perfect home, and repaying my parents for more than twenty years of kindness and upbringing.

By now I have said quite a lot. I know many readers probably saw the very first sentence and left immediately. I am not sure whether any of you read from the beginning and turned page after page all the way to here. To all of you, I bow in gratitude for your companionship and support. This book has now gained at least a little direction that makes me proud, and I especially want to thank the first reader who ever spoke up. Their ID was Yy1024. The comment and support they gave when they first appeared made me feel that I was not fighting alone, that someone else liked this book too. I do not know whether you will ever read this far, but I still want to thank you sincerely for your support. I also want to thank the reader with the ID Book-Loving Parrot for your support. Thank you.

And to all the other readers, I offer my heartfelt thanks as well. I am grateful for your support, though I do not even know what words can best express that gratitude. I hope you will forgive me for not having a large enough vocabulary. Here, I not only bow to thank you, but also bow to apologize. I am sorry that from the beginning until now, my updates have been very slow and I have kept disappointing you. I am truly sorry.

After the book goes paid, keeping three updates a day is already very inexpensive. In other words, one chapter costs only a little over ten cents. Perhaps if such a tiny amount were thrown on the ground, no one would bother to pick it up, maybe not even notice it. But in our eyes as writers, that is gold. The story from here on will only become more exciting, never padded or watered down.

I have said my piece. I do not know how many people will curse me, asking, “This book is so bad and still wants to charge money. Where does such confidence come from?” I ask only that you do not be too harsh in your criticism. I also do not know how many of you will leave. This book was already bleak enough, and I was prepared for that to some extent. Still, I will keep updating until the end, until the day we meet again in this vast world.

Respectfully yours,
A Humble Scholar

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