I thought I’d have to skip this chapter, but I ended up writing it after all..
From early December to early January, I’ve been busy all the time. I didn’t even take my weekly day off; I used it to stockpile drafts, but they got used up quickly. Pretty miserable.
The annual party ended last night. After that, I basically don’t have to go out anymore—just some overdue responses I owe people, which I can handle online or by phone.
Since I managed to write a chapter yesterday in between everything, I had a draft chapter saved. I thought today everything would get back on track and I could finally breathe. But I was too naive.
My plan was: after the party, have a late-night snack with someone, go to sleep around 1 AM, get up half an hour earlier today—that is, at 8:30—head to the hotel buffet for breakfast, then come back to think about the plot and write, aiming to finish by 12 or at least write most of it. Then check out, have lunch, go to the high-speed rail station, head home, and use my phone on the way to fill in or revise the rest.
The parts of this plan that actually worked out: checking out, going to the high-speed rail station, coming home, and having the late-night snack, breakfast, and lunch.
Well, the late-night snack lasted until 1:30 AM. After washing up, it was almost 2 AM. I figured I could still get six and a half hours of sleep, not bad. Then, at 5 AM, the hotel suddenly gave me a wake-up call.
A wake-up call? I startled awake from my dream and almost had a heart attack.
My English isn’t great, but I could tell it was a wake-up call. I wanted to curse, but I held back, unplugged the bedside phone, and tried to quickly fall back asleep while I was still drowsy.
Was that the end of it? No. One minute later, when I was just about to fall asleep, the phone rang again.
That’s when I realized—damn, there’s another phone on the desk. I rushed over.
On the way there, the phone stopped and then rang again—the third wake-up call. I was completely awake by then. I pressed “0” to call back and cursed them out. Then I grabbed my phone and asked the author group for this party what the hell was going on.
And then the group suddenly came alive. Lots of people replied to me, saying they had also gotten the wake-up call and were going crazy.
Later I found out that the hotel front desk had mixed up the Yuewen team with another team that needed to get up early to leave or do activities. So the hotel called the rooms of most Yuewen authors with a wake-up call between 5 AM and 5:30 AM..
I’m the kind of person who has trouble falling back asleep once I’m fully awake. My sleep quality is really poor. I tossed and turned in bed for over two hours and just couldn’t sleep. Thinking about the fact that I still had to write, I got up before 8, took a moment to recover, went downstairs for breakfast, came back, and tried to think about the plot. But my brain felt like mush; I had zero ideas.
So I struggled on, unable to sleep or think, until after 11. I finally recovered a bit and organized the plot. But I’d only written 500 words when I had to check out and leave. On the way, I started feeling sleepy—slept in the car, slept on the high-speed train, and didn’t wake up until I got home. When I looked at the time, I was almost out of time. My first instinct was to ask for a leave, but then I thought: since I already had the plot sorted, I could try to write as much as I could. As it turned out, my state was decent—I not only finished writing but also had time to revise and even write this single chapter.
However, I probably won’t be able to write tonight. I’m starting to feel sleepy again. That means I won’t have any draft chapters. If you see a “post first, revise later” mark tomorrow, don’t be surprised. Even if it’s a few minutes late, don’t worry.
Finally, a digression. The first time I competed for the monthly ticket ranking was during the “Aoshu” days. I think it was against “Aobiye” at the time. I was young and restless, and I said some strange things that I later regretted. After that, I set a rule for myself: when I post a single chapter, I only talk about myself and don’t mention others.
I’ve mostly stuck to that, and I hope everyone can follow my example (lol). Whether in the chapter comments or the review section, only talk about “
Of course, except for “Yi Shi,” “Aoshu,” “Wudao,” “Mieyun,” “Wuya,” and “Mazei.”
(Damn, why did this become a VIP chapter when I clearly set it as a chapter note? Is it because I changed it somewhere along the way? When I get a chance, I’ll make it up to everyone with a big chapter.)
(End of this chapter)