Chapter 77: Launch Message

Another book goes on the shelves, and I'm still a bit uneasy.

*Dreaming Back to the Great Ming Spring* let me feel out some approaches to historical transformation; this book, *Zhen*, is something of an ambitious work. I had a rough idea by the end of last year and talked it over with my editor, who said it might be a thankless effort.

Because the late-Ming stories out there right now either have the transmigrator become the Emperor, the Crown Prince, or a prince of the blood; or they become a son of an old established family, a scholar, a military officer, or a common soldier.

As everyone has probably seen from the recent chapters, I'm taking the bottom-rung route with this one. A household slave, a refugee, a mark that lasts a lifetime — it's not that late-Ming stories like this don't exist, but they're extremely rare, and I haven't seen any that performed well.

To be honest, I wrote it with my heart in my throat; my mental calculation was that if it didn't do well, I'd go back to writing urban fiction.

Fortunately, my friends really came through, and the new book's performance has climbed steadily, with support from countless new and old readers, many Alliance Masters, and even a White Silver Alliance from Big Boss Penguin.

The better the performance got, the slower I wrote. Starting from Chapter Five, I deleted all the backlogged drafts because I wasn't satisfied with them.

Big Boss Penguin said he'd give a Gold Alliance, but Old Wang here really couldn't deliver. After saving up drafts for so long, I still had to write through the night yesterday. Every time I'd save up a chapter or two the night before, the next day I'd find them unsatisfactory and keep deleting and revising, until the revisions basically became a complete rewrite.

Last night I drank too much Red Bull, lay down and couldn't fall asleep, and my head's still groggy now.

This launch message doesn't even know what it's saying, written in a daze — if there are typos, please bear with me. I can't be bothered to check it over; once I upload the paid chapter, I'm going to eat and catch up on sleep.

I hope you'll give me a first subscription and monthly tickets. I beg you, I thank you.

(End of chapter)