Sixth Volume End Summary and Some Words (Free to Read)

First of all, I want to express my gratitude to everyone for using your monthly votes to kick me into third place. This was the tensest end of the month since the new book launch. I've been in the top three before, but never with such tension and excitement as yesterday. Perhaps people only truly value a goal when they start wanting something.

I heave a sigh of relief. Last month's goal was achieved entirely due to everyone's support. Thank you all so much. 7949 votes is a record for Qing Yu Nian. The May surge doubled that, but it was only a little over 8,000 votes. I really can't imagine pulling in so many votes... Maybe it's because I'm asking for votes more frequently and shamelessly now?

Perhaps this excessive begging for votes has made some of my dear readers unhappy. I apologize for that, but there's nothing I can do. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. It's like the little girl on the bridge, instinctively reaching out her hand... "Handsome, buy a flower for your girlfriend."

You're all handsome, so I'm reaching out for your votes. I must admit that the ranking on the monthly vote chart is related to prize money, but it's not just about the money. There's also a sense of validation and vanity – and I'm definitely vain, no denying that.

Speed and passion are all there is. A fat man can only burn fat, not ignite his little universe, so I can only say thank you again and promise to write more diligently in the future.

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Now that I've finished expressing my thanks, let's get to today's main topic. Since breaking the ice with the third volume, I've written an end-of-volume summary for each volume, like a debriefing where I chat with everyone about the content of that volume. I announced this to everyone the day before yesterday, so please take a moment to read it.

The sixth volume, "Hall Before Joy," is the longest volume, totaling nearly a million words. It's truly vast, boundless, rambling, and as long as the Eldest Princess's foot bindings.

It's clear that the sixth volume is the most important volume of Qing Yu Nian, because in this volume, the pits buried earlier are basically stripped of their camouflage, the built-up momentum is fully unleashed, the people hidden in the darkness all jump to the forefront, and those characters, whether vivid or extras, die one after another.

When I wrote those two poems, "Hall Before Joy," before the first chapter, "The Son-in-Law of Wuzhou," I was very excited and couldn't help but shout, "Something big is about to happen!"

At least ten thousand people died in this volume. Even if you only count those with names, it's still a lot. It really has a bleak and desolate feeling. Since I started writing, I've never written about so many deaths. In *Zhu Que Ji*, Yi Tianxing's massacre of celestial soldiers always felt like waving light points and calculating numbers, so it doesn't count.

With so many people dying, I had to arrange different ways for them to die, to die in a way that suited their personality. It was a really painful thing to write, and it made me very tired. Especially for those who died unusually, I couldn't just give them a simple two-sentence explanation. The dead need to be respected, especially characters like Ku He and the Eldest Princess.

As for the tricks and the big pits, filling them in wasn't tiring, because this was content that was already prepared from the very beginning of the first volume of *Qing Yu Nian*.

Speaking of which, I want to explain something, because a small number of readers think that the Emperor transforming into a Grandmaster is a cheat, a too sudden change. Some even harshly commented that I'm too lazy to write an outline, just write as I go, and when I can't solve something, I just let the Emperor undergo a Saiyan transformation.

Scratching my head, no, I really do write an outline, and even a detailed one... Haha.

My ability might be questionable, but my attitude toward writing *Qing Yu Nian* is not. I carefully consider every step before continuing, such as the Emperor's true face, and the arrangements made over the years, even decades.

In fact, before the mystery was revealed at Mount Dong, even as early as half a year ago, some readers had already guessed that the Emperor was a Grandmaster, and had basically caught all the clues I had hidden. For a storyteller, it's a very happy thing to hide something in the story and then have it caught by the reader.

For example, when Emperor Qing discovered Lin Wan'er's movements in the Qing Temple before Gong Dian, such as Wu Zhu and Fan Xian entering the palace after the poetry meeting, the Emperor's strange behavior in the imperial study, such as the source of his powerful confidence, such as the play at the Xuankong Temple, such as how he knew about the Eldest Princess's and the Crown Prince's secrets, thus confirming Fan Xian's and Ping Ping's plot, such as...

I'm very satisfied that, whether it's Qing Emperor or Ye Liuyun, the two biggest mysteries, I actually pointed out the things they were hiding the first time they appeared. Qing Emperor first appeared in the Qing Temple, Ye Liuyun first appeared in Danzhou, and saw Wu Zhu... The world is so big, how did he go to Danzhou?

I haven't been narcissistic in a long time. Let me be narcissistic today. I'm very satisfied with these two threads that lead all the way to the end.

Of course, the deepest hidden clue about Emperor Qing's identity as a Grandmaster is the section mentioned in the final dialogue between Chen Pingping and Fan Jian. During the Northern Expedition, Emperor Qing was seriously injured and his whole body was stiff and unable to move.

I've mentioned this story many times before. The more important ones are Chapter 28 of the fourth volume, and Chapter 50 of the fifth volume, "Autumn Woods," "Whispers," and "Result." At that time, Chen Pingping said to Fan Xian faintly, "Your Majesty was injured at the time, and his body was as hard as a piece of wood. He couldn't move at all. Those things like wiping his body and dealing with his bowel movements... Someone meticulous had to do it."

Later, on a stormy night, the Eldest Princess also mentioned that the Emperor's brother was seriously injured that time and his whole body was stiff. What does this resemble? It's exactly the same as Fan Xian's domineering Qi after it reached its peak and exploded.

In that Northern Expedition, Emperor Qing, who had cultivated his domineering Qi to the peak, fought bloody battles, and the Qi spewed out wildly, just like Fan Xian's fight with Shadow. He finally... exploded.

And he exploded even more severely than Fan Xian. He didn't have two Heavenly Circuits like Fan Xian, nor did he have the freakishly thick meridians that Fan Xian had. He had even worse luck than Fan Xian. In the backwoods, there was no doctor, no medicine, no Fei Jie, and no Haitang. All there was was Chen Pingping and Consort Ning, so Emperor Qing's meridians were shattered, he couldn't move at all, he had internal bleeding, and he almost died... But he survived after all.

Only those with great perseverance and great luck can reach the realm of Grandmaster, and as for perseverance, there's no doubt that Qing's great Emperor is the undisputed No. 1. No one can compare to him.

The story of that Northern Expedition, how the Emperor advanced to the realm of Grandmaster, and the impact of this experience on him, will be described in more detail in the next volume, "朝天子 (Chao Tian Zi)." I won't continue here.

But since I've mentioned Emperor Qing, I'll say a few more words. Perhaps because I knew from the beginning what kind of ruthless character I was writing, I've always secretly invested my emotions in him. Even now, I still think this Emperor is remarkable.

When a person is cold-blooded, ruthless, or a bastard to a certain level, you have to admit that this is another form of greatness. And we always think from the perspective of Fan Xian or Ye Qingmei. Sometimes we might forget that Emperor Qing also made many sacrifices for a goal.

In other words, he's also an idealist.

Among that generation of people, there were three idealists, one was Ye Qingmei, one was the Emperor, and the son of those two people is a thorough realist, a petty citizen with a little compassion, a little generosity, and small tricks, a hypocrite, a cynic...

Of course, this is also what I like about Fan Xian, because he's still like a person after all, while his parents really aren't like people anymore.

Readers often say that Qing Yu Nian has two lines, one bright and one dark, one about Fan Xian and one about Ye Qingmei. Actually, when I was writing, there were basically three lines, and there's a line that's always been in my heart, and that's the Emperor – which shows how much I value and admire this person.

Admiration doesn't mean I like him, please be clear, sisters. I swear to the ***.

The ultimate woman is Ye Qingmei, and the ultimate man is Emperor Qing. These are just some of my personal thoughts, not necessarily correct, and I've always thought that things that are too extreme are always very cruel, both to oneself and to others.

Fan Xian is so good, so moderate... So now he's so troubled, so miserable.

Emotions always come from getting along, there's no innate emotion, like his feelings for Fan Jian, like his feelings for Chen Pingping.

As Gege Pig said, before the Xishan cave in Northern Qi, Fan Xian mainly regarded Ye Qingmei as an unattainable peer, a friend connected by blood and kindred spirits, intimate but unfamiliar.

It's just that her legacy is in the world, every breath of air has that woman's scent, and everyone around him will retell the stories of the past, gradually soaking him in it. Fan Xian finally defined himself: he's already in Qing, he's a part of this world, and Ye Qingmei is his mother.

This is a process of brainwashing.

And Fan Xian has distance from the Emperor, but he must admit that the Emperor is good to him. Gratitude is a good virtue.

Blame it on the fact that this orphan was reborn and ended up with such a pair of parents.

But Fan Xian has also made progress, great progress, progress in his values. This is a very remarkable thing. He's already middle-aged in terms of age, but he can still constantly correct his ideals, especially his ideals, which have been washed by death and appear extremely stubborn.

In the meadow, he stood up. In life, he should also stand up, and he should gradually understand that life will always end, and that some existences in life may be more important than life itself.

Many people died in this volume, which is a very sad thing, but I won't write anything to commemorate those poor people, because I've already written it in the book. A few days ago, I saw a blog post, written by a girl (probably a girl?) After Mount Dong, she wrote a long review. I remembered it at the time, and later I saw someone forwarding it in the book review area. Thank you very much. I'll move it to the public area later for everyone to read.

Sighing again, this volume was really tiring to write, especially the last few dozen chapters. I wrote so many words in August, which was really beyond my expectations. Sometimes I find that some old platitudes are true. After writing for a long time, it's no longer me who's controlling the story, but the story that's controlling me.

The people in the story have their own thoughts, completely beyond my control, and then they have the desire to act and speak, so they used my hands to type it out... So I wrote so fast last month, based on this point. I couldn't help it, I had to finish a paragraph once I started.

Perhaps it's also because I have feelings for the characters in the story. Fan Xian has been in that world for a long time, so he has love. I've been writing about this world for a long time, so I also have love.

Whether it's *Zhu Que Ji* or *Qing Yu Nian*, the later parts are better than the earlier parts. For the work on the seventh volume, I took some time these past two days to carefully read Qing Yu Nian from beginning to end, and I've confirmed this again.

It's not because I didn't put my heart into the earlier parts, but because the earlier characters were unfamiliar and distant to me. It's only after writing two million words that I'm very familiar with these people's faces, just like the little girl selling noodles downstairs, I feel happy and familiar with them.

The level is better in the later parts, but the level of writing has never improved, especially after rereading, I found many verbose, sticky, and redundant words. This is really a shameful thing.

My writing is sloppy, but it's never been clean. The cleanest writing in Qing Yu Nian still appears in the chapter where Fan Xian killed the assassin at the age of twelve, but the problem is that I wrote that chapter for a full four hours, and the word count is still very small.

I can't solve the problems with my writing for the time being, please bear with me.

But I still like the chapter names I come up with. After writing several thousand words every afternoon, I worry about what name to give them. Basically, it's nonsense, but sometimes the nonsense is quite tasteful.

In the last dozen chapters, many readers have also pointed out that there are many names of foreign masterpieces. Some friends even asked in the book review area if I've been studying foreign literary history recently.

Actually... you're right.

The process of writing *Zhu Que Ji* was a learning process. I was still full of energy and my mind was full of information until the very end. But writing *Qing Yu Nian* is a digging process. My head is almost empty, so I decided to read and wanted to read world masterpieces to fill my empty head.

Unfortunately, I still couldn't read any of them to the end. I just sadly remembered many book titles I looked up, such as *The Grapes of Wrath*, *Fathers and Sons*, *The Winter of Our Discontent*, *One Hundred Years of Solitude*, and *The Catcher in the Rye*.

Hey, don't even mention it, these masterpiece titles really fit the content of the chapters. It's really a coincidence. My luck seems to be similar to Fan Xian's.

Although I can't read masterpieces to improve myself, stealing so many names is also helpful.

If I'm not reading masterpieces, what am I reading? Of course, I'm reading Qidian novels. I read a lot of novels. I'm basically reading the ones you can see on the charts, because I like to read them. This was originally my starting point for writing.

Yes, this is the time for the usual end-of-volume book recommendations. Of course, we won't talk about the old books, because everyone in the world knows them. Let's just talk about the books I've been enjoying reading recently.

The first book is called *平凡的清穿日子 (Pingfan De Qing Chuan Rizhi)* [Ordinary Days of Transmigrating to the Qing Dynasty]. This is my favorite in half a year. Warning, this is a female-oriented book, so if you don't like it, don't read it. But I want to strongly recommend it to everyone, not just for its light tone, not just for the irresistible initial ridicule, not just for the embroidery-like detail, but the key is the character shaping, the fluency of the writing, and the underlying, most attractive essence of wish fulfillment...

Shu Ning is the most suitable character to be a daughter, so Fan Xian's daughter is named Shu Ning, because I hope Little Flower is like Shu Ning.

Wan Ning is the best character I've seen described since I started reading books on Qidian. Who is she like? Like Ting Hai, Li Shimin, Master Fairy, Li Xiuning, these predecessors in the long river of history... There are very few characters in Qidian novels that make you feel so... I can't say, anyway, she's just good.

And I've always thought that the boy who was doing gags at the beginning who wanted to make a grand plan for time travel... didn't die. This is what I firmly believe.

My friend, "Particularly White," insists that Shu Ning is best paired with Fourth Master, and even went to post about it, but I think, unless this Fourth Master is not that Fourth Master, it's better to avoid it.

Coincidentally, the second book I'm recommending is the new book by my friend "Particularly White." He's written about Shaolin warrior monks and *Evil Ming*, and now he's writing *拳罡 (Quan Gang)* [Fist Aura]. He always takes a hardcore route, which makes me, a sour scholar, feel a little painful. I want to see urban-style things like love and ambiguity, but he insists on being so manly.

*Quan Gang* should be released today. This story is really hard-hitting. If you want to see something straightforward, read this book and temper your spirit.

The third book I recommend is *崩云乱 (Beng Yun Luan)* [Collapsing Clouds Chaos], a new work by classmate Cui Hua. Quality is guaranteed. Cui Hua is Ning Cui Cliff, this fellow is finally back.

Well, of course, this book has very few words so far. Recommending it will definitely cause controversy, but I have to confess, because I started reading this book from the beginning when it was written, and I kept reading it until his stockpile ran out. Of course, the stockpile is more than the words released now.

If I remember correctly, *Beng Yun Luan* should have started writing more than half a year ago, but it's only started being published after writing for so long – Little Cui has put in a lot of effort, even too much, so the writing is too hard, which is really admirable.

It needs to be read carefully.

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Now that I've finished talking about the sixth volume and recommended the books, let's talk about the seventh volume, which is the final volume of Qing Yu Nian, 朝天子 (Chao Tian Zi). This volume is very troublesome, quite troublesome. I'll try to finish it before the end of the year and put a relatively satisfactory end to it. Don't worry about it being a bad ending, because 猫腻 (Niao Ni) cares most about its tail. People who raise cats know that.

The seventh volume, 朝天子 (Chao Tian Zi), has three time periods. Of course, it's still the traditional way, it's impossible to suddenly start inexplicably. It's just some things that started in Qingli eight years. I can't be specific, please unfold it with me.

Hall Before Joy is not joyful, and 朝天子 (Chao Tian Zi) might look a little depressing, but I want to twist it into a bright young man. You see how happy I am writing this summary, and you know what kind of emotions I'm cultivating.

It's just because the seventh volume is too troublesome, so I need time to sort out my thoughts and detailed outline. I'm asking everyone for a day off so that I can re-tension my brain, which was emptied by the end of the sixth volume. Besides this summary, there's no main text today, please understand.

But the summary is also more than five thousand words... I'm really as verbose as ever.

There was no update on the first day of the month, which is really something, but I still can't help but urge everyone to vote for me.

As the saying goes, it's easy to go from frugality to luxury, but hard to go from luxury to frugality. Once you've seen the vast sea, other waters don't seem like much. Once you've seen Mount Wu, other clouds are not worth seeing. I'm too lazy to look back on the flowers I pass by, half because of monthly votes and half because of you, my readers. I raise my cup to invite the bright moon, and look to the shadows to make it three. Since the moon doesn't understand drinking, my votes follow my body in vain. Go back, alas...

I don't want to be scolded, so I'll quickly stop being so cheesy. Finally, congratulations to Teacher Wang Haidong for having offspring... Mother and daughter are safe. The mother's stomach was cut open, but the father's feet hurt. What's this all about? Haha, congratulations again. Hmm, the time is about the same as when Fan Xian became a father.