A few words of casual conversation.

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I have replied to many readers in this book: I will write about the Chinese national team, there will be a small amount of Chinese national team plot, and it will be noted in the title.

Because from my previous work "What Is a Disruptive Midfielder?", I have already written many, many "foreign" protagonists, and I no longer wish to write about "foreign" protagonists. (I do not mean to criticize foreign protagonists; the disruptive midfielder was a foreign protagonist.)

Before starting this book, I asked myself several times. The answer I received was: This time, I am writing about a Chinese player.

Many readers have said: "What happened to the way 'Number Nine and a Half' was written?" and so on, and that the Chinese national team plot led to the book being abandoned.

I just double-checked the data again:

"Number Nine and a Half" experienced sporadic breaks since its free period. During serialization, it was often updated twice a week, occasionally once a month, but whenever I wrote about the Chinese national team, the follow-up subscription would rise to five or six thousand. Even when I returned after a six-month hiatus to finish the World Cup finale, the follow-up subscription was still over two thousand. (I am sorry; I mean no disrespect. I have apologized many times. I will not break updates like that again in the future; I truly dare not. I apologize to the readers who subscribed.)

In "What Is a Disruptive Midfielder?", the European Cup chapters, where "the sun kisses his fertile soil," were, in my opinion, the best twenty thousand words I have written in my life so far, yet the final subscription was only over four thousand. (As soon as the European Cup arc ended, the club plot subscriptions rose back up, even though the update speed remained slow.)

Why were the subscriptions for those chapters, into which I poured all my heart and soul, so poor? The chapter comments were all full of praise, weren't they?

"Number Nine and a Half" only had an average subscription of over six thousand, while "What Is a Disruptive Midfielder?" had an average of thirteen thousand. The overall performance is quite different. However, the subscriptions for the national team arcs in the former were truly much, much better than in the latter.

I am not being stubborn. And I am certainly not splitting hairs.

Setting aside the data and performance, and asking my own heart: "I have truly written many, many 'foreign protagonists,' and I don't want to continue writing them. I have written the plot of leading a foreign team to win the World Cup seven or eight times, totaling millions of words. I really do not want to repeat that cycle; it is so painful, truly so painful, an endless cycle."

"Even if someone held a knife to my throat, I couldn't write it."

I do not mean to criticize "foreign protagonists." "Disruptive Midfielder" has a foreign protagonist; I cannot criticize my past self.

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Now, it is my own problem. It has nothing to do with anything else.

...

In the past, I was naive and wondered why there were so many fierce readers. So, as I wrote, I would add notes to the chapter titles like, "Daily transition, proceed with caution if you mind."

Those days were happy; I didn't want so many people reading my book. Especially when "What Is a Disruptive Midfielder?" had poor performance in its early stages, during that time, I would write the chapter outline during my lunch break at work, write the main text after returning home at night, and then watch matches or movies after finishing. How happy that was.

From time to time, a few readers would pop up and say: "You have to write it this way, otherwise I'll drop the book." "Not many people are reading; the author needs to summarize the experience well." "Still not changing it? A silent, slow-paced book is destined to flop."

Back then, I was very arrogant and didn't care at all.

Later, the number of readers gradually increased. Why did that book require a fan value of 500? Because "Disruptive Midfielder" was often scolded; I felt like I was being "cyber-bullied." Hundreds of people were scolding me unreasonably all at once, like a violent storm, and the book's fan title was literally born out of being scolded.

How did the fan title come about? It was scolded into existence.

I feel sorry for the moderator at the time, Chiqi, for having to endure so much negative energy every day, which affected his mood.

...

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For this new book, regardless of how it performs, I will continue to update it diligently and write it earnestly until the end. Everyone does not need to worry about poor performance leading me to abandon the book.

Because the performance of "Disruptive Midfielder" was very poor in the beginning, yet I still wrote it to completion, step by step.

The breaks in "Number Nine and a Half"—whether weekly, monthly, or half-yearly—were not due to performance, but due to other real-life circumstances.

There is no need for everyone to argue over the "Chinese national team" and affect your mood. (I have deleted the chapter comments where people were arguing and scolding; please do not be angry, dear readers. Everyone comes to read books to relax. If you really must, just scold me a few times.)

Finally, I repeat: "This new book will write about the Chinese national team, and there will be a small amount of Chinese national team plot."

...

A reader discovered that this new book, "Manchester United's Crown Prince," lacks intense emotions, lacks strong short-term expectations, lacks the vengeance and slap-in-the-face of Li Kang's first match against MSN Barcelona in "Disruptive Midfielder," and lacks the high spirits and heavy burdens of Gao Qi in the Asian chapters of "Number Nine and a Half." The new book's performance will likely not be as good as the previous two.

No vengeance, no slap-in-the-face, no heavy burdens of fate, no deep-seated grudges, no strong short-term expectations.

You are right.

But I feel very relaxed writing it every day.

The protagonist of "Manchester United's Crown Prince" will also be much more relaxed than Li Kang and Gao Qi.

No matter how poor the performance is, I will write it to the finale with ease.