Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 79 Remarks on the launch
It’s finally coming to the shelves…

Thank you all for your support. As a niche book in a niche category, it is not easy for it to reach the stage of being put on the shelves in Sanjiang.

After all, if you open the new book list in the entire suspense category, you won’t even find ten signed books. It’s simply... hard to describe.

When I first started writing this book, I had a lot of concerns. I was worried that no one would read it, that it would be blocked, that it would fail. But it was the editor who comforted me, gave me guidance and confidence, and that’s when I decided to publish the book.

I am also very grateful to my editor Lu Ming.

The original intention of writing this book was to try a subject that I am familiar with and good at.

I haven't written a book in years. I returned to Qidian at the beginning of last year and dove headfirst into it, only to have a major setback. To keep up with the latest trends, I chose systems, cultivation, and fairies... all areas I wasn't particularly good at, and the end result is hard to describe.

So for this new book, I decided to write about something I am good at.

The southwestern mountainous areas of the 1990s were impoverished, backward, isolated, and primitive. It is a period that remains vivid in my hazy memories.

Gloomy, backward, and barren, there is no brilliance in my memories, as if it were filtered through the BBC's underworld filter.

But those rough and broken memory images are as deep as if they were carved by a knife or an axe.

The town where I live didn't get electricity until 98, and the village even later. Back then, we used kerosene lamps after dark, and it was pitch black outside our doors at night.

There is no asphalt on the bumpy road, and even the provincial road is just a dirt road. Once it rains, the road surface becomes bumpy and there are puddles of water everywhere.

But fortunately, there were not many cars at that time. Apart from the minibuses that were full of the stench of diesel, the most common thing seen on the road was the Red Star tractor with a hand-cranked engine and a truck bed.

The world is divided by steep, towering mountains. People travel to visit relatives or go to the market on foot, often taking three or four hours.

My grandmother's town is only separated from the town I live in by a mountain, but it takes almost five hours to walk from my home to my grandmother's.

There was an elder in my family who had just finished her confinement and it was snowing heavily in the early twelfth lunar month. She had a quarrel with her husband and walked for eight hours in the heavy snow to return to her parents' home, from dawn to dusk. From then on, she suffered from a lifelong illness.

Back then, there was no such thing as going south to work. Everyone was poor and destitute, living in the valleys, rolling around in the dry, yellow earth every day. They ate coarse, dry cornmeal. In the barren, water-scarce mountainous areas, rice was a rare commodity only city dwellers could afford; growing rice was impossible.

The Miao, Buyi, and Shui peoples wore colorful skirts. Their skirts weren't as bright and colorful as the ethnic costumes you see in scenic spots today. Theirs were all grimy, their once white skirts having turned dark and yellow over time, a muddy color that could never be washed clean.

The mountains are full of strange-looking insects and animals. The monkeys on the cliffs by the Beipan River often run into the fields to grab corn and steal fruit. When walking on the roadside, you can sometimes see colorful poisonous snakes passing through.

The style of that era was truly primitive and ignorant, yet it carried an indescribable mysterious charm.

So for this book, I decided to write about something that I am familiar with and good at, such as folk customs, strange stories, and suspense.

Due to the limitations of Hexie, I cannot restore or even write about many sensitive things, but I will still try my best to present to you the rough and primitive style of the era and the mysterious atmosphere in my memory.

This book will be written very carefully and meticulously.

I am not a meticulous person, and I am even a bit lazy and rough. I don’t like to write too many details.

But if I want to restore the style and features of the era in this book, I have to be detailed enough.

Each chapter, with 2,000 words, required at least five revisions. Besides deleting and revising sentences, I also had to control my impulsive and unrestrained nature.

As I write this, I've just finished revising Chapter 79. I finished the first chapter, which was just over 2000 words, last night, but I revised another 1800 words today, effectively rewriting it.

But the most tiring part is actually when writing to the climax of the plot.

The relationships between Ran Qing and his characters are somewhat melodramatic.

My personal writing habits also tend to be emotional. When the foreshadowing is finished and the climax is reached, I always want to write something more passionate and touching.

But sometimes, being too passionate is just brainless, and being too sentimental is just heart-wrenching and melodramatic.

This problem is most evident in the plot that begins with the reunion of father and son.

I wrote those ten chapters almost in two days, almost in one sitting. But the subsequent revisions took another five days, with me writing at least 8,000 words every day, but adding almost no new chapters.

I kept rewriting and deleting it just to keep it touching and passionate, but with just the right amount of restraint to avoid being melodramatic and brainless.

The immense pressure was almost suffocating me, terrified that some overlooked detail or inadequate handling would cause the entire plot to collapse.

Fortunately, despite being written with such caution, the effect of this book is still very good.

Whether it's the arrangement of the plot, the conclusion of the foreshadowing, the development of the world view, or the era style that I want to present... I have done almost everything to the best of my ability.

I did write about the flavor of the 1990s, rather than simply adding a decade number that would make it no different from an ordinary city.

But the perfect start also kept the pressure on me.

It can’t start strong but end weakly, it can’t be too wild, it needs to be restrained, exciting, passionate, and touching…

In short, let me complain to you and share my thoughts with you.

This book will be written slowly, but I will try my best to keep it updated.

After all, besides the pressure of the plot, I also have a lot of financial pressure. Now my grades are pretty good, maybe they can really improve my life after three years of poverty.

If the updates stop, become less frequent, or are abandoned, then it's over.

I will try to update more every day while ensuring the quality, and present more exciting stories to everyone.

Thank you all for your support. I would like to express my gratitude here.

VIP chapters will be updated in the early morning. I hope everyone will continue to support the subscription and ask for monthly tickets.

Your support is my motivation.

thank you all.

(End of this chapter)