Chapter 998: A Letter to My Readers for the New Year

A Letter to My Readers for the New Year

Every good work cannot do without the encouragement and support of its readers. In 2023, I reaped a full harvest.

What makes me feel lucky is that my readers are not as hostile as readers of other books; everyone is very even-tempered. If you have opinions, you raise them; if you spot problems, you point them out.

I also accept it with an open mind—good suggestions get adopted, and problems get fixed right away.

A lot of the time, comments disappear because I revised the content, so they just vanish.

Generally, if more than a third of a sentence is edited, the comment automatically disappears.

Those who flame me, I basically ignore.

My synopsis already has the warnings posted—if you don't like it, don't flame and don't read.

Sometimes I'm clearly in a great mood, but after seeing some nasty comments, my whole mindset just blows up. It feels especially awful, really kills the mood for writing, and is a huge blow to my motivation.

Writing isn't easy. You have to take the ideas in your head, the plot in your head, and weigh every single word to put it down on paper, to strike a chord.

Honestly, sometimes I do feel like my writing is pretty trash. But then I also admire myself—being able to write it out, and write it this long at that.

Haha!

But you can't call my writing trash, because that really hurts.

If you feel my writing is trash, you can just stop reading, or point out what's not good directly. I'll pay attention. Thank you.

Anyway, the ones who flame me usually flame me for padding—that's the daily routine.

Dry and bare, and I'm also afraid of choking to death on it. I've already tried my best to write it warm and fun, close to the scenes of childhood.

A lot of the children's laughter, the little details in the book, are things I experienced as a kid, because I had a lot of siblings too.

I really enjoy reading the comments, because I think most of the readers of my book are on the older side, everyone's mindset is pretty even, and some of them actually lived through the eighties, so they can give me really good suggestions.

So, generally, I read through every single message in the backend, afraid of missing any suggestions or inconsistencies you all send me.

I also love chatting with everyone in the group. When you have time, just hanging out and chatting like friends, shooting the breeze, is pretty nice. Writing a book can't do without everyone's support in the first place—it all relies on the readers, my lords, showing up.

In January, because I wasn't clear about the monthly-ticket-unlocked bonus chapter thing the site was running, it caused some dissatisfaction. Later, as compensation, I opened a monthly-ticket lucky draw, and the feedback was great—everyone hopes it continues this month.

So I'll splurge a little and keep it going this month.

This month, something that appeared in the book—the small tubes Ye Yaodong pulled up in his first trial net, dried into sea hare jerky—let's raffle that.

Group friends also had concerns during last month's draw, saying some people didn't claim their prizes. Sister Sister Baili made a promise in the group that unclaimed prizes would have their slots added to this month's draw.

So I'll foot the bill then—this month, 150 winning slots.

We'll draw from the monthly ticket numbers that were cast.

As for how to check your ticket number? On the voting page, in the upper right corner, there's a monthly ticket memorial book; every ticket you cast has a number.

When the draw is done and I post the winning numbers, just match yourself up.

For the sea hare jerky, I checked many shops and asked the one with the best quality—they sun-dry their own, and it's 130 per jin.

So one portion will be half a jin. The things are tiny, they don't weigh much, but half a jin is still a generous amount.

150 portions × half a jin of sea hare jerky!

It's already the first now, so let's kick off a new round of the February lucky draw. Same as last month—voting closes at 8 PM on February 7th.

All you have to do is cast your monthly tickets; no need to do anything else, and you can join the draw.

As usual, the draw will be at 8 PM on February 7th. Operations manager Sister Sister Baili will livestream the draw in the group.

After the draw ends, I'll post the results separately, along with the group number. If you win, just join the group and find Sister Sister Baili to claim your prize.

Wishing everyone a booming 2024, great luck in the Year of the Dragon! A fiery, rolling celebration of the Year of the Dragon!