1187 Afterword

For various reasons, this afterword is short and written very loosely.

1. 'If fate gives it to you, you should take it, but if fate doesn't give it to you, you shouldn't try to force it.' This is what the story of Way of Choices is about. At the start, I was prepared to write a story about a true Dragon, true Phoenix, and true person, but because I was worried that I wrote Qiushan Jun too well, I did my best to forcefully lessen his role. At the same time, this story is about the word '离' (leave), whether it's the Li Palace or Mount Li. Of course this story is also about 'thank you' and 'you're welcome', but in the last several dozen chapters, I hesitated for a long time before finally deciding to conceal these words, because I didn't want to keep thinking about farewells.

2. Why did I want to write a story about youths? Because I'm gradually getting older, and my blood is cooling. I'm very afraid that, just like I've written so many times in the book, I will gradually become a fat koi slowly sinking into the mud. I want to remind myself that I cannot decay, cannot be afraid. Even if I don't dare to fight, silence is also a sort of stance. When Chen Changsheng said to Xu Yourong that in the war with the demons he was willing to pay with his life, but he did not want to change the way in which this world interacted, and then Xu Yourong reminded him that he couldn't say this to others, that's what I meant.

3. Deleted.

4. The following miscellaneous details were not put into the main text out of length concerns, but they're rather interesting: the Black Dragon's favorite food is braised chicken wings, because she hates Phoenixes. The diets of Nanke and Xu Yourong don't contain birds. The Heavenly Tome Monoliths are shards of a world and are all connected with each other. Right now, they can transmit sound, but in the future, they can be used to traverse space. In the second-to-last chapter, when Wang Po decided to not take revenge on the Chen Imperial clan and I had Xu Yourong say 'dying for one's country…', that was something I decided on before I even started writing the book and I forced it in here. With regards to Tang Thirty-Six, other than that line about how he's rich both mentally and physically, I also wanted him to say: "I'm not targeting anyone, everyone present is…" Chen Changsheng has an illness, so this is the first thing on his mind when he sees someone, thinking that everyone is ill. This was why he was able to tell that Mo Yu, Su Li, Nanke, Xuanyuan Po, and even Tang Thirty-Six on the night that he was injured, were all sick with a single glance.

5. Reader 'Joy of Life' asks: "Daddy Mao Ni, in chapter 110, 'One Flower, One World', you said at the end that you had confirmed who Tang Thirty-Six's real-life counterpart was, and you also said that you would announce this when the book ended. I'm worried that you won't see this when the book ends, so I'm sending this to you ahead of the time." The answer: that person is my good friend Blue Butterfly.

6. A few years ago, when I was writing novels, I loved my readers. Now, I don't love, I respect them. Everyone, please take care of yourselves. This is very important.

7. I should still love this world even more and work even better.

8. In August, I will publish a new book. As for the topic, name, personality, and essence, I haven't thought of them yet. Oh, I've suddenly thought of a story. It feels very flashy…

The above are all my sincere and heartfelt words. Not one bit of it is feigned.

I wish everyone good health and that everything goes as you wish.

These words seem very cliché, but they are also sincere.