Chapter 404

Lin Yutang said his writing style was to treat the reader as a confidant, speaking his heart to everyone just as one would speak freely to an old friend.

Writing a novel doesn't give one the chance to speak like that.

Then let's say it in the afterword.

First of all, to all my old friends and new friends,

I don't know how many of you can grasp how much I like you. Perhaps I don't usually say anything pleasing, nor am I as passionate and unrestrained as King Lear's two daughters.

But I truly do like you this much. Just like a ship sailing in the pitch-black night, the captain, legs propped up, swirling his rum, pulls the steam whistle toward the boundless darkness in a moment of boredom.

Suddenly—

Lights rise on all sides, the sound of the whistle fills the sea!

The captain rushes to the bow, only to discover that he was not sailing alone; he has ten thousand sails resonating with him.

Xu Zhimo has a line of poetry:

"You and I meet on the dark sea, you have your direction, I have mine; it is good if you remember, but best if you forget, the light we cast upon each other at this intersection."

I don't like to forget; I like to remember, which is why I wrote on the frontispiece of the first volume of the physical book: "Seeing the light of the sun, may we never forget each other."

Of course, "never forget" refers to this book, *Pretending to be Langya*; as for the Eastern Zhou Young Master Nan, there is nothing worth remembering. For one, it is truly insignificant. For another, it is just a code name; I can change it at any time. I have never believed I have fans, which is one of the reasons why, from my last book to this one, I have never set up a fan group. The editor in charge of the physical book publication always wanted me to write a "to" autograph for her, asking repeatedly, but I never wrote it because I really don't think my name is worth signing. She said that if they are fans, they will want an autograph. But I think, if "fan" means chasing stars, then I definitely have no fans; if "fan" means liking, then I am your fan.

Song and dance on the towers scatter like cold smoke; lamps before the banquet extinguish into dying candles.

Any popularity is temporary; any vanity and self-righteousness are shallow and meaningless. It's just writing a novel, why is there so much fuss? Writing a novel is the "least fussy" thing for me, so I told the few friends who enthusiastically informed me of outside news trends not to tell me anymore; let me continue to be ignorant and ill-informed.

Liu Yong's so-called "exchange fame for low singing and light drinking." Compared to the clamor of gongs and drums, the iron clappers and copper lutes, I still prefer to hold my pen quietly and sing quietly.

At the end of the last chapter, I said I would talk about the wind and the moon; what I just said is the wind. Outside the work, this is the wind. Now let's talk about the moon.

The moon shines by itself in the sky, not contending with day or night.

Writing is an eternal endeavor; the gains and losses are known only to one's own heart.

Regardless of whether it is written well or poorly, I am serious about the words.

When I first started writing this book, I had the ambition to clarify historical rumors, but ever since AI came out, rumors have become more and more numerous, growing at an explosive rate. Once, on a whim, I flipped through the paragraph comments on the research sections, and as a result, out of eight literary and historical analyses involving AI, five were complete nonsense from beginning to end, unbearable to read, and the last three were muddled, barely half-right and half-wrong.

At the time, I chose the most intimidating AI screenshot from the comments (so-called most intimidating, meaning the most deceptively rigorous and reliable) and prepared to put it at the end of the next chapter as a typical example to analyze, but then I thought, this screenshot only wrote five paragraphs of argument, and it resulted in eight errors, so how many words would it take to clarify them one by one? My interest waned, and I just let it go.

Some people think the biggest problem with AI is the insufficient quantity and low quality of data, but in terms of literature and history, it goes far beyond that. The Western intellectual circle talks about DIKW, that is, Data to Information to Knowledge to Wisdom. We are accustomed to saying "learning" and "knowledge." Data is not equal to information, not equal to knowledge, and even less equal to "understanding."

Those with good learning must read many books, but those who read many books do not necessarily have good learning.

If there is no powerful series of information processing capabilities such as thinking, judgment, analysis, and association to transform "what is known" into "what is learned" and then into "what is understood," then no matter how many documents one masters, one cannot become brilliant. It is just like how, although both are Liu Yin, the Liu Yin in Shen Yue's *Memorials and Impeachments of Liu Zheng* and the Liu Yin who is an official under the Prince of Badong are not the same person. It is also like citing Fang Xuanling's *Book of Jin*; some people cite Fang Xuanling's *Book of Jin* as purely Tang dynasty documents, while those who understand know that the section he chose inherits part of Wang Yin's *Book of Jin* (historical materials from the Jin dynasty), so can the gold content be the same?

(Yes, investigating the era of historical materials is not simply looking at the completion date of the book that records these materials, but looking at the specific source of the historical materials within it. Therefore, sometimes the *Book of Jin* compiled in the Southern Qi dynasty is not as old as the *Book of Jin* compiled in the Tang dynasty; this must be judged on a case-by-case basis.)

Kerouac said: "We've got a long way to go. But no matter, the road is life." (*On the Road*)

Although there are more and more rumors, things must still be done. In the third volume, when I encounter historical rumors, I will still clarify them. For issues where the academic circle is blank, debated, or incorrectly argued, I will still conduct research. For those worth clarifying with documents, I will still clarify them with documents.

In plain language, I will research what needs to be researched and annotate what needs to be annotated.

I need to reiterate that my annotations do not count toward the word count of the main text. I said very early on that my main text word count is generally around 2700-3500, and the specific number of words depends on the plot and scene. For example, "Aw Wu walked on the street, bought vegetables, and went back to eat hot pot." This sentence might never be the end of a chapter for me, because I feel it doesn't look like an end.

I will definitely write until I reach a sentence that looks like an end before ending. Of course, there are also situations where there is not enough time and the plot is not finished but I have to end first, but at least it will have some appearance of an end; I won't just end it carelessly.

And I always finish the end before adding annotations; if there is not enough time to end, there is even less time to add annotations.

Therefore, whether or not to add annotations has absolutely nothing to do with the amount of main text. Bai Juyi's poem says: "One day I will be a solitary traveler, but today I am not yet a free person." This captain of mine is not a solitary traveler now, and writing is like dancing in shackles, so let my annotations dance more freely!

Let the freedom of the annotations and the shackles of the constraints create a graceful dance together! (Tagore's *Fireflies*, the original sentence is "The freedom of the storm and the bondage of the stem.")

Annotate well first, whether it is graceful or not is another matter...

I said before that the plot and characters in the book are consistent. Sometimes the chapters are long and the updates are slow, and I'm afraid everyone will forget, so I occasionally add references to the previous text in the main text, but this kind of addition can only be a small part. After all, there are many places that run through, and I can't add them all, otherwise it would be too fragmented. I can only add three and release seven; the seven parts depend on the individual. My mother sent me a screenshot of a comment calculating the value of ten thousand gold at that time from my explanation of gold value, and then connecting it to Baoyue's previous two sentences to infer Baoyue's assets, asking me if it was correct. Regardless of whether it is correct or not, I really want to give that brother a like! This is truly understanding my train of thought; this is the "seven" part, the one who knows my meaning.

There is also the issue of the butterfly effect. I said before that whenever there is a change in the historical line, there is a specific logic to follow; I won't just use the butterfly effect to fob people off. Just like the undercover Jiao Shirong in the last chapter, according to the original timeline, he should have run out of Jingzhou, but because of the variable Wang Yang, Baoyue's plan deviated, she didn't withdraw in time, and the Prince of Badong detained Little Xie. Coupled with Wang Yang's return to Jingzhou, Jiao Shirong not only didn't get the order to withdraw on this timeline, but was instead required to hold his post and cooperate with the action. It's just that I won't write out all these logical deductions, otherwise it would take up too much space. But fortunately, the readers are all very smart. In the future, I will still only leave clues for easy deductions like this without writing them in detail, and I will write the complex ones more clearly.

The second volume took more than a year to finish. This was actually hinted at in the preface of my second volume, including the final chapter of the second volume, which was also hinted at in the preface. Do you remember what the preface was? It was a line of poetry by Yu Xin—

"Hearing of the tower ship battle, the siege is not lifted this year."

The tower ship is the tower ship at the end of the last chapter, and the siege not being lifted means that for both Wang Yang and Jingzhou, the siege has not been lifted.

Actually, the first volume is the same. The preface of the first volume is Sa Dula's "Six generations of luxury, spring is gone, and there is no news. Empty sighs, the beauty of the mountains and rivers is no longer what it used to be."

So the final chapter of the first volume is Wang Yang "often thinking of the evening sun before the flowers, only getting the dreams of the past," looking at the white clouds in the distance, sighing faintly. Because for Wang Yang at this time, it is truly "empty sighs, the beauty of the mountains and rivers is no longer what it used to be."

Now let's talk about the third volume.

The third volume is titled *Jin Ling Joy*. The preface is two lines of poetry by Tang Yanqian:

"The nine-fold heaven is near, looking at Zhong Mountain, looking at Jianzhang in the five-colored clouds.

Don't refuse to be drunk today with green wine, gold is hard to buy the madness of youth."

The third volume will start updating in three days, which is the 6th, Monday.

After writing, it is night, the bright moon is in the sky, leaving a small lyric as a conclusion.

*Linjiang Xian*

The smoke and clouds on the paper are all meaning, repaying you for how many times you lowered your eyes.

For whom did Boya break his strings?

The ink is dry but the heart is not cold, the sentences are short but the meaning is hard to collect.

(Blank line)

Occasionally burying my eyes in the volume, I expect that a confidant can be found?

There is no need for a reason in the world.

Feeling that you know this meaning, it is always like the moon against the tower.

Second volume, finished.