Chapter 434: Finished Writing the New Chapter—Coming to Offer Everyone an Apology

Finished writing the new chapter—coming to offer everyone an apology.

In yesterday's update, the chapter "Preservation" contained a very low-level plot error. While playing with a reference, my mind blanked and I set up a storyline that shouldn't have appeared. This caused a hard flaw in the logic of two main characters and gave everyone a very poor reading experience. I am deeply sorry.

As an author, having this happen in the book near its end is truly inexcusable—not only disappointing readers but also disappointing myself.

I sincerely apologize for this.

——————A dividing line for the detailed thought process——————

Let me say a few more things. To be honest, I hesitated for a long time before saying this.

The reason is simple: my communication skills are very problematic, and I often end up pouring oil on the fire.

For example, the apology last time when I stopped updating. I considered myself very sincere, but after posting it, it drew dissatisfaction from almost everyone, and everyone thought it was sarcastic.

Analyzing it afterward, I think it's because I, as a long-form serial writer, consider watching movies, reading novels, or even playing story-rich games when stuck on writing to be a form of effort and struggle. But from the reader's perspective, it's unacceptable and seen as avoidance, so writing about it came off as even more sarcastic.

It's the same this time. When I was writing yesterday, my original intention was to create structural symmetry. Zhao Jiu's part here wasn't the main focus; it was a playful passage meant to echo the Goryeo plotline, a mood-setting scene to highlight Qu Duan's improvement this time, and something hastily filled in with the criticism-and-self-criticism material I planned to write seriously later, just to meet the word count for the update.

I didn't think much about it at all, nor did I put much effort into designing it. Plus, being near the end, I was eager to update and lacked deliberation. I am very sorry.

Waking up this morning and seeing readers in an uproar, I realized there was a hard logical flaw in the plot. Even if attributed to post-war arrogance and frivolous character, the protagonist's actions here showed severe lack of consideration, and Hu Yin had no reason not to notice and stop it... This directly affected the characterization of two important roles, and also made Zhao Jiu say something like "maybe there is" and other nonsense—truly inexcusable.

So I immediately posted an explanation in that thread on NGA. I genuinely thought I was apologizing, but I might just be bad at speaking and expressing myself, and that post was again criticized as passive-aggressive...

So I didn't dare to speak anymore. I came back, finished writing, tried to fix this plot point, and posted it.

I know this result might still not satisfy everyone, but it's the best I can do within my current ability.

The apology isn't being withheld; I'm carefully drafting it. I had to put out the update first, then release the apology, to make it look somewhat proper.

As for why I didn't just change it directly and instead added a patch, this has nothing to do with attitude—it's a matter of professional ethics in a serialized format... Many silent readers haven't been following the online discussions. If I directly altered the text, it might cause them to find inconsistencies between the preceding and following plot.

Also, I want to use this incident as evidence to constantly remind myself that I once made such a foolish mistake.

In short, the previous chapter was undoubtedly my writing error. Here, I sincerely say to every reader:

I'm sorry.

And, I will definitely finish "Shao Song" properly.

Sorry for the trouble I've caused everyone.