Lan WangJi, “Mn.”
Wei WuXian, “But I heard there’s a renewed version of the GusuLan Sect’s rules? Hey, is there even more room on that Wall of Rules in front of the mountain to your sect…”
A gentle breeze came, and both their robes rippled like spring water.
Facing the wind, Wei WuXian squinted at Lan WangJi’s silhouette. As he criss-crossed his legs, he shockingly found that he could somehow manage to balance himself in such an odd position on the back of Lil’ Apple.
It was only something trivial, yet he looked as if he just discovered a new and interesting occurrence. He couldn’t hold himself back from sharing this with Lan WangJi, calling, “Lan Zhan, look at me, look at me now!”
Just like before, Wei WuXian called his name with a grin, and he looked over as well.
From then on, he could never move his eyes away again.
*Insert afterword from author that I haven’t finished yet.
Although this is the end to the main story of GDC, there are still some extras we will translate. The “last” chapter will be Chapter 127. As these 14 extra chapters are relatively long, please be patient while we work on them. Thank you for reading on our site at Exiled Rebels Scanlations and the support. ??
Postscripts
New Version
Finally finished editing.
Having finally completed such an important task after such a long time, I should’ve screamed my message across three times with one exclamation mark after each word. Still, I said it this plainly.
The first version had 520k words in its main story, and the edited version 570k. To me, it was a huge undertaking. Both the writing and the editing took a couple of months. I can’t say which one was harder or which one I struggled with more, but with both there was bliss amidst the pain.
During the serialization, because of reality’s pressure on top of the rush in one update per day, I had to hurry across many places I originally wanted to expand upon. There were also many details and problems with logic I didn’t have time to go through. Now, I’ve finally written to my contentment, having added the plot and rivalry scene I wanted. For example: the uncontrollable kiss that happened at the hunt competition in WWX’s past life was one I skipped because during the serialization I didn’t have the energy to slowly think through how such a large-scale competition/recruitment fair would work; the path of how NMJ and JGY turned from friends to enemies; LWJ following WWX to Burial Mound and the battle of the blood corpses at Burial Mound in WWX’s present life were ones I skipped because I didn’t have the patience to write fight scenes; acknowledging SiZhui’s background was simply one I forgot…
The areas where I got lazy were filled up one by one during the editing process. In summary, the new version that came the edits is in my heart closer to this story’s original form. In other words, to me, this one right now is the ‘original’ MDZS.
I know too many people have read the old version and that some impressions were too deeply rooted for all of its effects to be removed without difficulty, as well as that there’d definitely be many voices of doubt. But I’ve heard my fair share of voices of doubt back when MDZS was serializing. They were there the whole way. I know there are lots of things that can’t satisfy everyone, so I chose to satisfy myself. When I look back at this story, at least I’ve written everything I wanted to write, and there wouldn’t be too many regrets.
Apparently when writing summaries and postscripts one has to reminisce the past times, so I’ll be reminiscing a bit as well. When I started to work out the outline of this story was the last year of university. Every night over at the field, I’d take a stroll listening to music, worrying about the goddamn graduation thesis as I uncontrollably made things up in my head.
What first drove me to write such a story seemed to be a blurry scene that appeared in my head: in a forest surrounded by rain and darkness, a person in black with a pale complexion and blood on his face snapped in half something in his hand, his expression cold. It was either a flute or an arrow.
I don’t remember how this scene appeared either. There was no logic to support it. I neither knew whom the person was nor why he had such an expression on his face, but I was indeed touched by an inexplicable feeling. And then I suddenly grew interested. I began to think what kind of person he’d be, what kind of journeys he would’ve come through, trying hard to create detailed, logically-complete plots for him, transform everything into words, and then attempt to touch others.
First there was an emotion, then a character, and at last a story. In the process of transformation, expression, and conveyance, the energy would naturally be shifted and lost. But with my current self, I’ve tried my best.
Anyways, there are many things I’d need to fumble and learn.
Thinking and writing about scenes with chemistry or conflict (also known as flirting and fighting) were beyond wonderful experiences. The former were like smuggling Emperor’s Smile, copying scriptures sitting across each other when they were young, Caiyi Town (yes I adore every single scene from when they were students), getting all touchy-bitey in the Xuanwu cave, as well as scenes of Forceful President HanGuang-Jun and His Mad Yet Passionate Runaway Wife (???), and so on. The latter were like Madam Yu against Wang LingJiao, Yi City’s candidates doing the you-stab-me-and-I-stab-him, Jiang Cheng attacking WangXian at the ancestral hall in Lotus Pier for being shameless gays (hey!), and so on…
All these were the biggest joys the MDZS story has brought me. They’re joys no other thing could ever compare to.
To me, MDZS was definitely an especially important story. At first, I had no idea that so many people would come across this story. Because of it, I experienced many unthinkable things and got to know many great people. It was a rollercoaster of emotions both inside and outside the story. There was a time when I seemed like I came right out of an asylum. Because it was an experimental work, it had too many immature sections. In some places, no matter how hard I try to change things, the framework was already set and it was very difficult for me to edit it until I was completely satisfied. But looking back on it now, it was another footprint of my growth.
But I really don’t want to write or edit it again. Not only does it not correspond with how online novels are read, it also brings me a second round of torture… So from now on, I’ll complete the draft and publish it after all edits.
During the first period of serialization when I tried to get used to things, I wrote with quite a lot of choppiness and caution, but the more I wrote, the deeper connections I felt with the characters of the story. While serializing and editing I felt tired to death, wondering why haven’t I finished yet, but after I really finished, typing the Enter key a couple of times at the end of the Word document and writing ‘The End’, I instead felt rather unwilling to part.
Even though I knew it was only the end of the main story and there’d be extras to come, I still didn’t want to part with it.
The day the main story was completed, in feigned culture, I originally decided to end with a line from a poem. The line was “the melody ceases and none is to be seen; the river streams beneath columns of mountains green”*. But in the end, I never ended up using it, probably because even though the poem was beautiful, sophisticated, and very meaningful, it wasn’t the ending I hoped for. It was too lonely, too melancholy.