Meu Tio, o Imperador Song Taizong

This book almost never came to be.

Last year, as my illness worsened, I was forced to abandon the book set in the Qianlong era. My original intention was to recuperate properly and then begin anew. Unexpectedly, by July last year, my condition deteriorated further, and I had no choice but to be hospitalized.

After a series of examinations and treatments, I felt I could endure it and, considering financial difficulties, I resolutely declined the doctors’ recommendation for surgery and chose to return home, hoping to recover slowly with medication. But once again, I miscalculated. Not long after, while attending my child’s parent-teacher meeting, I was suddenly seized by severe angina. The fright it gave the teacher and other parents prompted them to call an ambulance at once, and I was rushed to the hospital for emergency care, where they had to use electric shocks to stimulate my heart—it went on until past two in the morning.

In those days, I was truly plunged into utter despair. The severity of the illness was one thing; on top of that, I was already deeply in debt from medical expenses. All I could do was divide my last bit of cash between my children, urging them not to repeat my mistakes and warning them not to let my stepmother take it. At one point, I even considered pulling out the IV and oxygen tubes myself, wishing for a swift end so as not to burden my children further.

I am deeply grateful to all the enthusiastic readers and fellow writers, to the Guizhou Online Writers Association, and to the editors at Qidian. At that critical moment