2023.

Time flies. Unconsciously, I'm 18 years old. I also wish the readers to be 18 years old forever.

Growing up is actually a painful thing. In the past year, I have experienced the departure of elders, the damage to my body, the marriage of my buddies...

A married man can no longer play games with you, go out to play, climb trees to pick bird eggs and go into the water to catch crabs, because there is a woman between you.

Gradually, there are fewer and fewer friends around who can play.

I think everyone is the same. If you have any, let's be sad together.

Looking back on last year's experience, it was very fulfilling. I was imprisoned in front of the computer every day by readers urging updates, and I recalled the pain of being stuck when writing Da Feng, and the shame of not daring to open the chapter comments (poor updates).

Da Feng finally reached 200,000 in the past year of slow climbing.

The listening on Himalaya reached a terrifying 4.2 billion, less than a year, 4.2 billion. I asked the audiobook anchor and was told that it was the highest data in the history of Himalaya audiobooks, just like Da Feng's average order on the main site.

People who don't pay attention may not be clear, Da Feng's exposure index is very terrifying.

Next, I look forward to anime and film and television.

In the past year, The Way of the Extraordinary was published, and the average order is currently 189,000. It should reach 200,000 during the serialization period.

When writing this book, I was actually a little unsure, because I had never written this kind of subject matter.

Now that half of The Way of the Extraordinary has been written, the results have settled. For the author, a book has a life, especially for authors who like to change subjects.

After all, the author is not a god. For subjects that they are not good at, they only have more writing skills than a new author, that's all.

Readers are the most loyal and the most fickle, loyal to the book and fickle to the person. If the book is not well written, no one will read it. If the book is well written, people will read it. It's very pure and simple.

No one will continue to subscribe unswervingly because you wrote a good book last time, even if this book is rubbish (a small number of readers will). I remember when I started the book, I asked the editor with anticipation, what is the overlap rate of readers of The Way of the Extraordinary and Da Feng?

I got a very disappointing answer: less than 20%.

So The Way of the Extraordinary has this result, which shows that it still has a little bit of merit. This is the greatest comfort for me, who is experiencing a new subject.

At the end of the year, I got infected with COVID-19, and I caught a cold and got infected again (probably not completely healed).

After reinfection, my sense of taste and smell disappeared, and I had severe brain fog. Even today, it is still difficult to think of plots and to find the right words. Sometimes I can't even write a complete sentence.

Don't scold me, everyone. At least I got infected with COVID-19 twice, but I never stopped updating for a day.

I am actually silently bearing huge pressure and pain, but I didn't say it...

Now my sense of taste and smell have recovered, but the brain fog is still there, and my sense of smell and taste are not very sensitive anymore, worse than before.

It seems to have suffered permanent damage.

I don't want to experience COVID-19 again in my lifetime. For authors, COVID-19 can really severely damage their careers.

But opening up also has its advantages - everyone's life can return to normal, and they don't have to be locked at home every day.

I sincerely hope that everyone's life can return to normal and that it will flourish in the new year.

Time will smooth out all the trauma.

Love you all!

Newspaper Boy!

— January 16, 2023.

The Way of the Extraordinary