Summer afternoon sunlight was blinding, the air thick with stifling heat that wrapped around people like an impenetrable shroud.
Yang Zanxing was stocking up at the supermarket downstairs. Just before leaving, she noticed Wahaha drinks were on sale and casually grabbed a pack of calcium milk to add to her shopping cart.
Today was Children’s Day.
As she was leaving, the cashier auntie slipped a lollipop into her pocket: “Happy holiday!”
Zanxing smiled cheerfully and thanked her, carrying two heavy bags of rice and groceries home.
By the time she got home, it was nearly four o’clock – too late for lunch, too early for dinner. Zanxing took out some noodles from the fridge to cook and went to wash her face in the bathroom.
It was a rare weekend with both days off. After staying up until six in the morning yesterday, she had finally finished reading that ancient male-oriented cultivation power fantasy novel “Nine Heaven Summit” to its conclusion.
How to put it – it was completely not worth it. The male protagonist had been kicking sects and punching demon clans in the early parts, but at the end, a meteorite struck the cultivation continent and the entire world inexplicably collapsed. Except for the male protagonist and his wives who ascended, all the supporting characters died.
It was written like a joke.
Actually, she had felt something was wrong halfway through. The author kept opening new maps and grinding dungeons, expanding the world-building bigger and bigger, making the plot more and more watery, character development increasingly collapsed. Many readers angrily abandoned the story, but only Zanxing persisted to the end, mainly determined with the attitude of “I want to see just how bad this book can get.”
As it turned out, it really did get bad enough to make even someone as good-tempered as Zanxing want to curse.
The water in the pot was “gurgling” with steam. Zanxing added an egg and a handful of vegetables, and while cooking the noodles, she received two phone calls.
They were from her parents, wishing her a happy birthday today.
After her parents divorced and each started new families, Zanxing had always lived with her maternal grandparents. Friends often said her slow, never-in-a-hurry, elderly person’s personality was cultivated by her grandmother and grandfather. Zanxing didn’t think there was anything wrong with that. Her relationship with her parents was distant, but her grandparents were very good to her. During all those years growing up, she was never lacking in ‘love’.
After her grandparents passed away, she had been living alone.
Living alone was lonely, but free – like this kind of weekend.
After hanging up the phone, the noodles were almost ready. Zanxing scooped them out, carried the bowl to her desk, and opened the comment section of “Nine Heaven Summit”.
She had stayed up too late reading yesterday and went to sleep right after finishing. Now she had time to see if there were any unfortunate readers in the comment section who, like her, had finished the entire novel and felt emotionally unsettled.
“Nine Heaven Summit” had been completed for many years, and the author hadn’t published any new works since, but the comment section was still as lively as ever. After all, however refreshing the early parts of this book were, the ending was equally badly written.
【Karin Jiao】: Did the author not want to write anymore? This ending???
【Peach is Not Peach】: The male protagonist was written so awesome in the beginning, but this is the result??
【Big Mao Peach】: Tipped 10,000,000 reading points. This book is fantastic! Encouragement, hope the follow-up will be even more exciting!
【Wandering Innocent Girl Heart】: The person above is so rich, rich lady, let’s stick together.
【bliss】: Only read halfway through. Male-oriented authors who can’t write emotional lines shouldn’t write them. The emotional lines are really terrible [smile][smile][smile].
【chake Tea】: When will the author come back to fill the plot holes?
【yoursk1106】: Laughing to death, the author said in the afterword that his family’s house was demolished for development, didn’t want to write anymore and ran away.
【Vanga1202】: ???? Good guy, turns out I’m the poor one.
The discussion gradually went off-topic. Zanxing thought for a moment and also commented a few lines in the comment section.
【From the Stars to You】: The beginning was written very well, every chapter hit the satisfaction points, even had some silly humor. Later too many plot holes were dug that couldn’t be filled, so the author just gave up. Mu Cengxiao ascended and still brought eight wives with him, but the other buddy supporting characters just died like that? Don’t supporting characters have rights? PS: I have the same name as that cannon fodder female supporting character who appeared for two thousand words then went offline [crying].
This comment had barely been posted for a minute when someone immediately responded.
【I Like the Moon】: Suggest sister memorize and recite the full text, transmigration warning!
There were also people who came to argue with her.
【Xie Jinghang’s Wife】: Different flowers enter different eyes, radishes and vegetables each have their preferences. The author writing it this way is already pretty good, serialized for three years without collapsing the main plot. If you’re so capable, here’s the pen, you write it [dog head].
Zanxing thought for a moment and replied: The protagonist is already cheating to this extent, why couldn’t he also save the world? If I were to write it, I’d write the protagonist cultivating a peerless heart method, then changing the ending, everyone gets a beautiful happy ending.
【Duke Oh Yeah】: That would be too cliché, BE aesthetics yyds!
【From the Stars to You】 replied to 【Duke Oh Yeah】: I want cliché, I’m a basic person who loves watching [dog head].
After typing this sentence, Zanxing closed the computer and finished eating her noodles.
She had just finished washing the dishes when thunder started outside. On a summer evening, heavy rain dripped down from the dark clouds, soaking the entire city.
Pedestrians hurried past on the street seeking shelter from the rain. The sound of claws scratching the wall came from the balcony.
A white cat was crouching by the flower stand, tilting its head to look at her.
“Mimi?” Zanxing opened the balcony window, and the white cat skillfully jumped in.
The white cat would appear here every few days to mooch some food. She didn’t know if it belonged to someone else, but its fur was very clean and its behavior was elegant. After eating dried fish and bread slices, it would leave without lingering.
Zanxing opened a pack of dried fish for it. The white cat ate leisurely. Zanxing pulled the screen closed – there were too many mosquitoes on rainy days.
She went back into the room and walked to the side cabinet under the TV. The fish tank had been changed with fresh water in the afternoon. The ink-black bulging-eyed goldfish swam back and forth in the water.
This was a free gift from buying eggs at the supermarket. Zanxing had decisively chosen between a chick and a goldfish, picking the latter since goldfish were much easier to raise than chicks. Zanxing still remembered the enthusiastic uncle in work clothes who had stuffed the plastic cup containing the little goldfish into her hands: “This is a lucky koi! Make a wish to the koi and your heart’s desires will come true!”
He completely ignored that these two things weren’t even the same species.
She picked up a few fish food pellets from the box nearby and dropped them into the fish tank. The little goldfish puffed its mouth and charged at the food bit by bit. Zanxing tapped the fish tank and said softly, “Make a wish?”
She thought for a moment and spoke: “Then I wish that tomorrow I could transmigrate into this badly-written power fantasy novel, kick away the useless male protagonist, steal the protagonist’s halo, capture peerless beautiful men, and reach the pinnacle of life.”
“If I were to write it,” she sighed, “I’d definitely write a good ending.”
Her phone buzzed with a notification. Zanxing opened it to see a message from her team leader in the group chat: “Team members please note, the file format sent yesterday was wrong and needs to be redone. The new format has been sent to the group. Please finish it tonight and submit it Monday morning. Thanks everyone for your hard work [rose][rose][rose]. File.pdf”
Below was a string of ‘ok’ and ‘received’ responses.
Zanxing sighed and changed her [This job is not worth doing.jpg] to [ok]. Romantic and magical adventures could indeed only exist in novels, while in reality, she still had to rush back to the company to work overtime.
She closed the balcony door, changed clothes, grabbed the umbrella by the entrance, and went downstairs.
Street lamps on both sides of the road lit up one by one. The city’s neon lights reflected in puddles, creating a hazy scene.
She stepped through the dim yellow night, walking into the summer night’s curtain of rain.
Completion Statement:
Zanxing’s main story and main couple extras are complete! There are still a few parent love stories to come~ The easter egg chapter borrowed several reader IDs~ Thank you all for accompanying me along the way!
These past few years have been filled with the pandemic, so I wanted to write a book with mountains, seas, deserts, and snowy plains – to relax in the novel world!
Compared to previous female protagonists, Zanxing’s personality is more “calm.” I think she’s more like water – emotionally stable, gentle and resilient, slowly solving problems when they arise, never engaging in meaningless internal conflict. I wanted to write this fictional world through her perspective. Actually, Zanxing had always been walking through the plot from a “reader’s” perspective in the early stages. Only after the Extreme Ice Abyss did she begin completing this story with a “creator’s” mindset.
As for Gu Baiying, he was my first relatively inexperienced male protagonist I wrote – a very gentle and sincere person with obvious strengths and weaknesses, quite down-to-earth, occasionally quite comedic. Like a big dog wearing a red ribbon?
This book has a relatively classic and simple white style. There are many characters I love throughout the story. I was happy every day during serialization – this was probably the most relaxing book I’ve ever written.
“In a play, there are countless names, but ultimately they are all supporting guests. The original intention was only to create one person.”
But we supporting characters also deserve the best endings, right?
Anyway, another book is complete – it’s the HE that common people like me love most. Writing this genre for the first time had many shortcomings, but I was very happy. Thank you all for your companionship this summer.
May young people stay pure and brave, never changing their original hearts. May Duzhou have love year after year, with evening stars always present.
Also, early wishes for everyone’s good health and Happy New Year!
See you in the next story!