Chapter 276: A series of activities including grand prize draws, alliance leader rebates, and red envelope giveaways; a series of ref

A series of activities including grand prize draws, alliance leader rebates, and red envelope giveaways; a series of reflections on the Twelve Heavenly Kings, the New Year, and requests for monthly votes.

A series of activities including grand prize draws, alliance leader rebates, and red envelope giveaways; a series of reflections on the Twelve Heavenly Kings, the New Year, and requests for monthly votes.

Written at the very beginning:

Recently, I secured the title of one of the Twelve Heavenly Kings and gained quite a bit of traffic. I also saw many awkward, malicious comments—claims of marketing, "selling my ass" to editors, vote-padding, and so on. There are too many to list. I find them laughable and am too lazy to respond to even one.

I can only say that honor is always a recognition of facts. This Heavenly King title is one I took as a matter of course.

Alright, next are many activities and many reflections.

I. The official-style acceptance speech for the Twelve Heavenly Kings.

"The foolish child has finished his public duties; leaning against the evening sun in the pavilion, looking east and west."

Outside of work, having a bit of leisure time to expand one's hobbies has always been a commendable thing. My hobbies, aside from the non-productive ones like gaming and fishing, are nothing more than writing, history, and remonstrance.

Obviously, the latter three are the origins of the creation of this book, *Ming Monarch of Wanli*.

Precisely because it combines my hobbies, the sense of immersion and empathy during writing is full, which perhaps became the reason why this book has achieved some slight success.

To put it another way, my expertise seems to lie more in the clashes between people. Peering into the motivations of characters within the cracks of history; deducing the behaviors of characters from the background of the society of that time; parrying and thrusting amidst the entanglement of interests from all sides; and then, supplemented by my daily work and life experience, performing a dramatized interpretation in a way that is familiar and popular with the masses.

Of course, for a historical novel, this is far from enough. "Literature to convey the Dao"—dramatized interpretation is naturally just the shell; the core still needs to be the spirit.

Four years ago, when I was still a reader, I wrote such a book review:

"... Transmigrators always need to have aspirations. Some novels strive for hegemony just for the sake of hegemony, which is meaningless. The recent XX is like this; the writing and plot are above average, but it lacks some backbone. *Shao Song* is relatively very good; wanting to turn the tide, carrying the national spirit in one's heart, the country and the world... I still remember the touch *Red Dawn* gave me, or later, *Humanity's Paradise* by Jing Ke Shou; they all count as literature conveying the Dao. Whether one agrees or not, it makes one's heart surge and is captivating.

To put it this way, transmigrators always need to have aspirations. Why do so many novels like to ignore objective laws and engage in strange systems, making reckless technological innovations, like XX, XX? Because transmigrator novels are the easiest to smuggle in private goods; one can express one's expectations for society in an all-around way, as if personally building a utopia, regardless of whether it is real or not.

... I want to see the transmigrator's stance, viewpoint, and aspirations. Actually, I want to see Qiyue write one where the protagonist is an emperor, because then one can see what kind of world he wants to build..."

Unsurprisingly, I was criticized. After all, web novels are not one-on-one services; each has its own audience. If you want to eat something, you should go find it yourself, rather than ordering dishes here.

Thus, on April 10th of this year, 2024, I created this *Ming Monarch of Wanli* that fulfills all my expectations—saying "all" is not quite accurate; at first, I wanted to call it *Ming Monarch* as a double entendre, but unfortunately, it was taken.

Only after writing did I know what "knowing is easy, doing is hard" means.

Once an author really writes out an emperor protagonist with aspirations, they will lose many readers who do not agree or simply do not love to read it. This is unavoidable. Just like that section on debating the classics, it was written with particular difficulty, yet instead, people said I was "padding the text" and working hard.

However, personal self-expression, when placed under the eyes of the public for scrutiny, was never going to be accepted by everyone.

Therefore, these are still acceptable.

Regardless of whether readers agree or not, I still stubbornly believe that my literature conveys the Dao and my aspirations cannot be taken away.

But compared to the loss of readers, in terms of writing difficulty, it is an even greater challenge. For this reason, even on the completion of the protagonist's aspirations in this book, many compromises were made.

On one hand, limited by objective reasons—not everyone has the ability to dance in shackles—and on the other hand, it is also limited by insufficient personal ability—both the shallow creative ability and the physical fitness of being sick for many years.

The ambition is too big, and the requirements for technique and energy are really too high.

In front of the male lead is the thorny and bumpy road to the revival of the Great Ming Dynasty. I must let him walk smoothly, while also taking into account the rationality of the plot, and considering the comedic conflict of the article. The further I write, the greater the challenge, the higher the difficulty, the more energy is consumed, and the greater the pressure on the author himself. The bloodshot eyes in the photos cannot even be photoshopped away.

Speaking of this, I want to thank some people. Without their support, I alone would not be able to withstand these pressures at all.

Here, I must first thank the readers, my masters, for their support. You are my bread and butter; I have no words to express it. I bow and thank you again and again.

Secondly, it is my editor, Qingzhou. Aside from the merits of official business—such as the discerning eye for my manuscript, the extraordinary professional ability demonstrated during writing method guidance, and the significant recommendation resources brought by being promoted to a gold-medal editor—we also have a good personal friendship. Especially when I have insomnia, she has almost become my life assistant, mainly providing psychological counseling for comfort and encouragement, and secondarily releasing pressure through banter. Although it is not very useful for improving sleep quality, I am a "little fairy boy," and an attitude is enough. Anyway, not to mention anything else, I am very moved and hereby thank her.

And my chapter review duo—an anonymous author friend and a relative. One from the author's perspective, one from the reader's perspective, complementing each other, bringing great help to the optimization and polishing of every chapter of mine. Aside from the credit, the hard work goes without saying. The author often finishes writing at two or three in the morning, and the two of them have suffered no less with me. It is fortunate that our relationship is not bad; otherwise, they would have surely asked me for mental damages.

In addition, there is my operations manager. As everyone knows, the author does not look at comments anymore; they are all entrusted to the operations manager to handle. Not only did they see many eye-searing comments, but they also took a lot of blame for it. There are also other prize draws, activities, book circle data, book friend group operations, etc. Both credit and hard work are present; they can be called a capable general. Ranking them third is because the operations manager is a "spirited young man"—the credit is enough, but the seniority is not. It is a matter of seniority.

There are also many friends and elders who have helped me in my personal life. Due to limited space, I will not mention them one by one here.

In short, the difficulty of this book certainly exists, but with everyone's help, the quality has finally been polished, and it has received a great deal of praise.

It even helped me secure the honor of being one of the Twelve Heavenly Kings of Yuewen. I am deeply honored.

"The long river of history flows leisurely; the winds and clouds of a thousand years are gathered in one stroke."

This *Ming Monarch of Wanli*, whether in terms of results or improvement in writing, is a milestone for me personally. However, it is still far from the finish line, and the author's self-expression has not yet reached its end.

I will also bring more stories, plots, and characters to readers, and I hope there will be more readers willing to follow me to see all the scenery under my pen.

II. The following are down-to-earth reflections.

First, this Twelve Heavenly Kings title actually exceeded my expectations.

Because the application was half a month earlier than usual, at that time my average subscription was only about 33,000 or 34,000, while the threshold for the Twelve Heavenly Kings started at 40,000 average subscriptions. I felt that I had missed it, and I had even expressed regret in previous chapter reflections because of this.

I just didn't expect that Qidian did not end at the application, but at the voting... With the half-month time difference in between, I rushed directly to 40,000 average subscriptions. Plus, the editor used all her strength to pull votes for me, so I managed to sit in the last-place spot.

However, after the results were released, they could not be disclosed to the public. It is precisely because of this that I did not timely correct the statements made when expressing regret earlier. I will take this opportunity to clarify the previous statements. Also, the photo is photoshopped, the photo is photoshopped! Everyone must be wary of the four major Asian sorceries!

You can imagine that the author is already thirty years old; how could I be as tender as in the photo? Please do not send me any strange words or unsightly organs in private messages.

By the way, if there are readers who tipped or ranked just for the face, it is really unnecessary. The author is just someone who writes books. If it is written well, everyone subscribes; if it is not written well, everyone just runs away.

Extra halos are extra burdens. The author respectfully declines.

III. New Year reflections.

This book started in April and has been written for eight months now, and the conception is far from over.

Being able to see it reach this step is truly gratifying. Next year, relying on this one book to become a god is perhaps not even a dream.

"At thirty, one stands." I stand a lot when tossing and turning in the morning. In terms of career, I really don't know if this counts as standing as well.

I hope next year will be better.

Speaking of which, there was a small interview with Yuewen before, asking me what my small wishes and small goals for 2025 are.

I blurted out: The goal for 2025 is to update 1.5 million words; the wish is that if I don't achieve the goal, I won't be mocked or criticized by readers.

Laugh.

【In the process of looking one by one】

I also wish everyone a smooth 2025, good health, and that the novels you read all update fiercely.

IV. Alliance Leader half-price activity.

This is something I promised before, but because I was recuperating last month, I didn't have the energy to do it.

Now that I have recovered some vitality, plus the double monthly votes next month, the timing is perfect, just right for January.

The following is the operations copy. If there is anything you don't understand, I don't understand it either. Just tag the operations manager directly.

【

Starting from January 1st, in order to impact the "out-of-circle" level, we are specifically holding an Alliance Leader rebate.

To avoid problems, remember to contact the group management before tipping to become an Alliance Leader to confirm if there are still spots left. After verifying the account information with the group management, you will receive a rebate of 500 yuan (tipping an Alliance Leader is 100,000 coins, which is 1,000 yuan, so half is returned) by the next day at the latest (there is a one-day redundancy to prevent the group management from being busy that day).

To prevent black card theft and cashing out, this rebate activity is limited to the Alliance Leader tier; Silver Alliance and Gold Alliance are not included. In addition, to prevent iOS refunds, the rebate scope is limited to the first Alliance Leader tipped by Android book friends during the activity period.

The Alliance Leader group has also been opened; see the end of the chapter and the book introduction page. You can contact management before becoming an Alliance Leader. (Limited to new Alliance Leaders and Android device tips.)

Those who don't know how to tip can poke the group management to ask.

Book friends who are willing to support and those who want to reach high VIP status can consider it. (High VIP requires spending 360,000 coins within 12 natural months, which is 3,600 yuan. High VIP subscription is 60% off; it is very cost-effective for book friends who read for a long time.)

】

The quota is limited to 100 people, first come, first served (the "skimming" actually doesn't cost much money; it's mainly that the working capital can't handle too many spots. If there is demand later, it will return).

Note: The Alliance Leader group outside the book friend group will also be built simultaneously. Later, when the book is finished, some souvenirs of varying value will be given away.

IV. Monthly vote prize draw activity.

Not being energetic for the New Year has a bad implication, so I am prepared to "bleed heavily" once, grabbing both updates and monthly votes.

Prize draw content:

First prize: Mobile phone or computer worth 5,000 yuan, one winner.

Second prize: Daoist robe with the *Classic of Filial Piety* embroidered, three winners (I heard everyone likes it very much, limited-time return, the source is still Taobao, embroidery, customized, value 998).

Third prize: Consolation prize worth 20 yuan, 500 winners (because there are many people drawing, the author is also a bit more well-off, so 300 people were added here.)

Prize draw time: 1.1–1.7 (Deadline 00:00 on 1.8)

Prize draw method: Readers cast monthly votes, and the software randomly selects monthly vote stubs.

Prize collection method: The single chapter announcing the winners on the 8th will have a prize draw group; enter the group and contact the operations manager.

V. Finally, asking for monthly votes.

The updates in December were slow, quite in the style of the ancient Wanli era.

But now that the New Policy (Year) is imminent, I will definitely sweep away the decadence and coax the monthly votes out of you sages.

Actually, come to think of it, I have never heard of anyone becoming a king at Qidian by dragging out updates. Today, starting from me, isn't it all relying on the heaven-like virtues of you sages?

It is as the saying goes: "Send the Buddha to the West; investment must be exhausted."

Next year, when I become a Platinum author, wouldn't it be able to achieve a beautiful story between me and you all?

You sages, if the updates next month are acceptable, please bring up your monthly votes.

I bow my head again and again.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 277 =====