It is with deep regret that I must inform you all.

I regret to inform you all that this book will be officially published starting tomorrow—yes, from tomorrow on, you will need to pay to read.

I have never really written a formal launch announcement before, but I feel compelled to write one for this book. This is because I am not even certain if I will continue writing after this story concludes. This does not mean I am abandoning web novel writing entirely; rather, by this point, I have poured out everything in my mind. Once this book is finished, my creative well will likely have run dry.

From starting "Dead Fire" in late 2018 to writing "Nanshan Park" in 2022, four or five years of sustained, high-intensity creation have completely drained me. There is not a drop left. The accumulation of over a decade of life has been condensed and distilled into about four or five works; any more would simply be repetition. If I must place blame, it is on being too young. Being young is both a blessing and a curse in literary creation: the blessing lies in the passion, energy, and intense desire to create, while the curse is the shallowness of one's accumulated experience and wisdom. If I were thirty-five instead of twenty-five, perhaps I could have squeezed out two more books.

After "Nanjing" concluded, I said I would write a summary, but due to laziness and procrastination, I never did. I might as well take this opportunity to chat with everyone. Old readers who are familiar with me—especially those who have followed along since "Dead Fire"—know that over the past few years, I have focused on depicting small stories and ordinary people, trying to build a grand world within a tiny shell. This approach may run counter to the typical direction of web novel writing, but my goal has always been to broaden the boundaries of web literature, particularly within commercial genre fiction. Thus, every book in this stage has been a textual experiment to test my ideas. Looking back, these attempts have yielded certain results, so my work going forward should be about analysis and synthesis rather than repeating old patterns.

If everything goes as planned, "Defending Nanshan Park" should be the final book in this direction and the closing chapter of this stage of my career.

Looking back at my years in web writing, it has been over eight years. When I published my first book on Qidian, China Literature Group had not yet been formed, and Qidian was still under Shanda. That was a long period of solitary cultivation. I spent four or five years writing in a vacuum, with no contract, no readers, and nothing at all, yet I still buried myself in writing millions of words. I remember a rule on Qidian back then (I am not sure if it still exists)—if a book was not picked up by an editor, an author could apply for a contract after reaching 300,000 words. If rejected, one could apply again for every 100,000 words written. Consequently, I diligently had one book rejected seven consecutive times.

I have not yet considered which direction I will explore after "Nanshan Park" concludes. My goal remains to push the boundaries of web literature—perhaps by going shorter or much longer. I might experiment with publishing short story collections on digital platforms, or perhaps I will write an expansive space opera, or perhaps I will take a long break to accumulate more material. Of course, all of that is a conversation for another time.

Finally, thank you to all the readers who have supported me.

(How did this launch announcement end up sounding like a concluding afterword?)

Regardless, I still need to shout it out: please support the book with your subscriptions! I beg of you!