The Eastern Emperor's Realm

This is actually a long-abandoned story. I'm truly sorry for leaving it unfinished for so many years.

A couple of days ago, I happened to see a young reader's The Eastern Emperor's Notes on Weibo, and I was moved in a way I'd never been before.

I'm just someone who likes writing for fun. I've written a few stories that I thought were pretty good at the time, but now I can't bear to look at them for fear of embarrassment. The Eastern Emperor's Realm, in particular, has been sitting unfinished for years.

I never imagined anyone would still remember it after all this time. I never thought anyone would write tens of thousands of words of commentary about it.

This young reader is a wonderful writer. She quotes sources and draws on a wide range of references, with clear and well-organized ideas. She can analyze characters from the tiniest details and infer the plot from a single line of description. She points out both what she likes and what she doesn't, and ended up writing as many as eighteen posts. Every one of them is excellent, and I can only feel humbled.

The Eastern Emperor's Realm was originally written as an extra story. More than ten years ago, I was just writing for fun and didn't take it very seriously. Trends were different then, and I was younger. I wasn't careful, and it turned into a piece of writing that was mostly an outlet for my feelings. When I realized something was wrong, I stopped, and that was the first time I abandoned it.

Five years later, I happened to see a young reader discussing the ending of The Eastern Emperor on a forum. I suddenly felt that I owed everyone an apology, so I picked it back up. Returning to the story made me happy and miserable at the same time. It was a joy to have ideas pouring out and to feel everyone's support, but it was painful to find myself unable to develop the plot because of what I'd written before. The immature ideas, distorted expression, out-of-control plot, and limited scope in the earlier chapters were impossible to fix. The first-person narration, which worked better as an outlet than as storytelling, also made me feel that I couldn't express so many things. Frustrated, I couldn't keep writing, and that was the second time I abandoned it.

I'm picking it up again because of that young reader's The Eastern Emperor's Notes, and because of the lovely readers who check in from time to time on the super topic. But so many years have passed that I've forgotten a lot of the plot, so I need to get familiar with it again. I'll change it to third-person narration while doing my best to preserve its original flavor.

In the end, those who are meant to find it will.

Theme: I just want to finish telling a story and have no regrets.