The novel is finally finished.

It has been nearly a year since I registered and uploaded the first chapter manuscript at "Qidian" late at night on June 19, 2018.

The main reason for creating this book is based on three factors. First, I work and live in Shanghai. I am familiar with what I see, hear and feel. This is my first novel. I start with what I am familiar with myself. It is more convenient to say something.

Second, from 2019, Shanghai’s decade, like many other places in China, it is not an exaggeration to describe Shanghai’s huge changes as ever, and it is even bigger. From a glance, you can try to reflect this vicissitudes of the world and the huge changes in the times from this novel.

Last but not least, there are many "shanghai drifters" in Shanghai now. I think there are not many works about the work and life of foreigners in Shanghai or new Shanghai people. I am willing to make such an attempt.

So the characters and plots in the novel are all stories that happen around us. I also hope that in this book, I can see myself, more of you, and him.

Creating in the form of online novels is entirely accidental. The reason why I finally chose to publish it on China Literature Group is that I think that "Qi Dian" is the largest Chinese literature platform in China. There are many people reading books and the threshold for authors is not very high, which provides us amateur authors with a good platform to play freely.

Little people, big times. This book mainly shows the struggle of little people in Shanghai.

The novel uses inspirational stories of a family of a foreign country who worked hard for 10 years in the two specific backgrounds of Shanghai and the era of reform and opening up, and continuously transformed into growth. It shows the economic and social images of some areas of Shanghai in all aspects. It displays the life pictures with great local characteristics in Shanghai in all aspects, and describes the work and life of new Shanghai people or foreigners in Shanghai, describing the changes and developments of Shanghai since the reform and opening up, reflects the Shanghai spirit that embraces all rivers, and tells the story of sharing weal and woe with the times.

The name of the protagonist of the story is Wang Yiyuan because when I was in Shanghai, I really only had one dollar in my clothes. I hope these experiences can inspire readers.

This novel can also be said to be a microcosm of my own development in Shanghai, with at least semi-autobiographical content. I have personal experiences, but not all of them. I can only say that it comes from life and try to restore it to life as much as possible.

Fortunately, readers’ feedback is still good, especially those who have worked and lived in Shanghai, they may feel and be more impressed. There are often strange and familiar readers who meet in the background or in the book review area to contact themselves.

My personal understanding of the thinking on the realistic themes of online writing is that realism is not only a set of creative methods, but also a literary spirit and literary sentiment. Realist literature has a long and powerful tradition in our country and has created countless shining classics. Today in China, this is a beautiful era and a great and magnificent era.

The most important and valuable literature among them is still literature that faces life, points directly to people's hearts, and has a realistic spirit. We can use the mirror of literature to see reality, understand reality, and understand reality. We hope to respond to the concerns of reality through literature and express the problems of reality.

The realist literary creation in the Internet era requires writers to have a more comprehensive, profound, more accurate grasp and more exciting expression of the experience of the times.

Looking back on my writing journey, because I am not full-time, I basically use the fragmented time of amateur scraps to write. The biggest motivation still comes from readers.

One day, because I was really busy with work, I arrived home at nearly 1:30 in the evening and was preparing for the chapter update. At this time, a reader left a message asking why I didn’t update yet. I was shocked and asked, it was already half past one, and I was still waiting for the update. The other party replied, "I have now formed a habit of chasing your novels. I will not be able to sleep well before going to bed, and it seems that I always feel that I have lost something."

I was particularly impressed by this incident, which made me feel the deep encouragement from readers. I think that writing a novel, some people read it, some people affirm it, can just express some of my thoughts and ideas about the world, objectiveness, people and things. This is the most important thing.

The biggest difficulty in writing may be one's own expression ability. Because you are not from a professional background and have not received systematic and professional training, you lack writing methods and skills. In addition, you have a short time to write, and there are many places to learn. For example, the tension of structure, the grasp of rhythm, the setting of character images, etc., in a sentence, what you write by yourself is far from keeping up with what you want to express and embody, and the pen in your hand cannot keep up with the thinking in your mind.

Fortunately, this book won the special prize in the third online original literary realism essay competition, and was also thanked by East China Normal University Press to publish the physical book in August this year and participate in the Shanghai Book Fair. This is my honor, it was something I never thought of when I first submitted it, and it was also a major encouragement to my writing. Personally, winning this honor and publishing is both a surprise, and I feel that my talent is a shallow and intimidating, and I am afraid.

I want to thank you deeply, as well as editors Hu Shuo, Bohan and Qingning; thank you all the judges; thank you to China Literature Group; thank you to Shanghai Press and Publication Bureau; thank you to East China Normal University Press. Your enthusiastic and generous affirmation and help to this book gave me endless motivation to continue writing, and that I returned from the stories in the book to the people who created these stories.

Finally, I have to thank my family, my wife and children deeply. It is their selfless dedication and silent support that gives me the opportunity to realize the "literary dream" I had when I was young. Really, I sincerely thank them from the heart.
Chapter completed!