Not a detective

Page 252

"...!"

She had imagined this situation countless times, but when it actually happened, she was still at a loss.

She worried that it might be her imagination, that there might be some small animal causing trouble under the blanket, or that the warm air from the air conditioner was creating ripples.

But the commotion grew louder and louder.

Lu Chuanqian was moving, struggling, and trying to get up from under the covers, seemingly having a hard time. A heartbreaking sound of teeth grinding could be heard.

When she came to her senses, Xu Qishi was already in tears, and the pen and book in her hand fell to the ground.

She walked forward step by step, each step extremely difficult, her breathing rapid, her heart pounding, her hands trembling—

Slowly remove the white cloth covering your head.

She saw Lu Chuanqian awaken, just as she had hoped.

"I am back."

The voice was hoarse, or rather, no sound was made, but the shape of the lips alone was enough to make out the four words.

Xu Qishi covered her mouth, but she still couldn't stop the hot tears from flowing down her face.

"I...I'll go get the doctor..."

She hurriedly tried to escape, perhaps feeling a sense of trepidation at the prospect of returning home, which made her even more flustered and unable to control herself.

"No, look at me..."

Lu Chuanqian shook his head. He still looked very tired, but he still managed to lift his hands and feet little by little and slowly and painstakingly climb out of bed.

Even moving his hands and feet was extremely difficult, but after all, he had been lying in bed for so long and had suffered such serious injuries.

"The doctor... said you might be paralyzed..."

"I'm luckier."

Lu Chuan smiled faintly, but his expression still looked painful; he was just gritting his teeth and persevering.

He moved to the edge of the bed, slowly placing his feet on the ground, as if all the bones in his body were tensing up, bursting with energy: "After a good night's sleep, it feels like everything is fine again."

However, just as he was about to stand up, he lost his balance and fell forward.

Xu Qishi immediately rushed over and hugged him tightly from the front.

They were slowly helped up and embraced. Xu Qishi was sobbing uncontrollably, feeling the familiar yet unfamiliar touch, and the reunion she had been looking forward to for so long.

"A-Qian..." She finally cried like a child, as if she were still in her high school days.

A hint of relief flashed in Lu Chuanqian's eyes. Finally, he propped himself up and patted her back.

"Little Poem".

"It's okay now."

...

"The plan was a success."

As Asakawa Riku spoke, whether it was excitement or joy, at this moment, he felt more of a strange sense of emotion that was hard to express.

Through the images, he and Asu-i Shi witnessed Lu Chuanqian and Xu Qishi's reunion.

They saw the skeletal body slowly regenerate flesh and blood, gradually transforming back into a normal human form.

I also saw his eyes, the moment when relief suddenly turned back into confusion and bewilderment.

"it is finally over."

Asukai Shi's tone also seemed quite emotional.

She waved her hand, cutting off the view of the real world: "From now on, that world has nothing to do with us anymore. To prevent any accidents, we must not disturb them."

She seems to have made a decision.

As silence returned, the two stared at each other in this empty space.

The important incident was suddenly resolved, and everything was over, but the relationship between them seemed to be difficult to explain.

They could be called enemies, friends, comrades-in-arms, or adversaries... it all seems plausible, but it's also quite complicated.

Lu Chuanqian and Xu Qishi.

Riku Asakawa and Shi by Asukai.

They are neither the same person nor the same couple, and the relationship between them seems to be unclear for the time being.

"I……"

"you……"

The two spoke at the same time, then fell silent at the same time, creating an awkward atmosphere.

I feel like I have a lot to say, but after witnessing such a touching reunion scene and being bombarded with so much information, I don't know if it's appropriate to say anything at this time.

Just then, an uninvited guest broke the tense atmosphere.

"……What!"

Asu's expression suddenly changed. She seemed to sense something strange. The next second, the light in the distance was suddenly torn apart by darkness.

It was as if a sharp claw had suddenly pierced into this place and then forcibly torn it open, leaving a mark in the space.

Just like when Asakawa Riku broke into this place during the [True Martial God] era—

This time, the crack was opened by the misty sunflower.

"Finally... we succeeded."

At the forefront, she held a demonic sword shrouded in black smoke. Her eyes were weak yet sharp, and she had forcibly taken control of the power of "Ama-no-Kurakumo," achieving the effect of tearing through space.

After that, Kazamatsuri Chizuko walked in.

She wore a black haori kimono, hand gauntlets, black socks, and black clogs, with only the clog straps being red.

Even more severe than the last time the water dried up. This was the attire of the deity exorcising spirits, and the wind instantly filled the entire space, blowing everything away.

"Asukaui Shi... I will tear you to pieces."

Her icy tone was undisguised as she stared at the girl who looked remarkably like herself.

Behind Chizuko, a snow woman floated in the air, and a large red fish came with the tide... as if a thousand troops were galloping in.

Lu Chuanqian was stunned. He never expected that they would actually be able to break into this space to seek revenge.

A blizzard suddenly struck, but seeing this scene, Asukai Shi smiled.

"This is what makes it interesting."

After saying that, she suddenly pulled over Asakawa Riku, who was standing to the side in a daze, grabbed his collar, stood on tiptoe, and kissed him on the lips.

In front of those women.

Then, the fox smiled slyly and reached out to push Asakawa Riku away.

Asakawa Riku was still unaware of what had happened. Perhaps he was still savoring the brief sensation and warmth when he began to fall, fall, and continue to descend.

Finally, back in his hospital bed, he suddenly woke up.

"...This is really reckless."

He sat up from the hospital bed, and with a wry smile, slowly removed the medical instruments, monitoring equipment, tubes, and needles from his body.

At this point, no wounds could be seen on his body, and his limbs were no longer separated, but remained as they were.

Asakawa Riku dressed and picked up Shinonome Suetsuki, who was sleeping beside the hospital bed.

"Um...what's wrong?"

She groggily woke up, still asking questions in a daze.

The weather outside seemed to be warming up, the snow was melting, and the feeling of spring was growing stronger.

"It's okay now."

Asakawa Riku smiled and carried her outside, saying, "If we try to mediate now, it will be very difficult."

...

【Complete book】

Winter of Man: Author's Closing Remarks

There will be another chapter of "The Epilogue" tomorrow, so don't rush to delete it from your bookshelf.

This is a commissioned work by Xuehui, and the author is @淡定钱的春天老师. Although this book did not reach 2000 average views in the end, it is still a complete work since it has ended.

When I finished writing this book, my feelings were similar to those of Asakawa Riku; I wasn't particularly joyful or excited, but rather quite sentimental.

There's a feeling that "it's finally over."

This is not to say that writing this book was painful or torturous for me; in fact, I quite enjoyed it.

It felt like waking up from a dream, like Zhuangzi dreaming of being a butterfly; everything seemed unreal.

If you had told me last year that I would write a mystery web novel and even finish it, I wouldn't have believed it myself.

This is an extremely difficult challenge. Even though I downplayed the reasoning elements and added a lot of light novel concepts and elements of extraordinary characteristics from online novels, it was still very difficult.

These twelve incidents alone are enough to give you a headache.

In this field, I am also a beginner, a clueless newcomer, and a headstrong brute who wanted to try my luck. So I made a lot of mistakes at the beginning, including several chapters that were poorly written, some lines that caused controversy, and problems with the characterization of the protagonist. It can be said that this book almost couldn't be written at one point.

What has kept me going is the patience and enthusiasm of all the readers, as well as my own love and longing for this book.

This book only had 500 initial subscriptions, but now it has 1200 average subscriptions. For such a niche, even obscure and unorthodox, subject matter, I am already very satisfied.

Thank you to every reader, especially the group members. Their discussions and chats about the plot always inspire me and make me feel that my efforts in thinking about the plot have not been in vain.

I've loved mystery novels since my student days, and even in high school I would read one during breaks between classes.

Perhaps it's because detective novels have a strong "playability," like a series of puzzle games. After experiencing adventures, finally uncovering the truth feels like finding a treasure.

In order to write this book, I have picked up many old and new works to read during this period of time.

Includes: *The Ordinary Citizen Series*, *In/Spectre*, *The One-Eyed Girl*, *Summer of the Ubume*, *The Box of Spirits*, *The Reason of the Jorogumo*, *And Then There Were None*, *Everyone Became F*, *Elephant Head*, *Higurashi When They Cry*, *The Mystery of the Werewolf Village*, *Summer Revisited*, *Grimoire of the Landmines*, *The Liar*, *The Sacrifice of the Great Detective*, *Umineko When They Cry*, *The Scissors Man*, *The Things That Haunt Without a Head*, *Ever17*, *Remember11*, *Steins;Gate*...

Many of the tricks and methods used in this work have been modified and rewritten, and applied to this humble book.

I stand on the shoulders of giants to write this, and I don't deny that.

Of course, there are many other mystery novels that I personally read and enjoy, but I won't list them all here to save space.

These books gave me a lot of inspiration, but in the end, when I reviewed them, I also discovered a fatal problem.

In the more than half a year that I've been writing this book, I haven't actually read a single online novel.

This is outrageous.

As an online novelist, besides the fundamental task of writing, another essential aspect is absorbing and integrating information. Even without constantly scanning charts and analyzing outlines to stay abreast of current online novel trends, one should at least read the latest popular works to maintain their own writing style and develop the ability to produce online novels. Simply focusing on writing your own books will not produce anything of value.

However, in order to write a mystery novel, I read a lot of mystery works, which caused my sense of online writing style to become unknowingly skewed.

Take "light Japanese flavor" for example; it's both an advantage and a disadvantage.

My protagonist, "Asakawa Riku," has gradually been transformed into a typical Japanese light novel male lead: gentle, kind, easy-going, a pushover, and a saint. He's already quite different from the typical male leads in online novels these days, and my writing focus has shifted from him to the various female protagonists. Because in Japanese light novels, it's perfectly normal to develop the story around the characters' personalities and bonds. Like in mystery novels, everything revolves around the case, so Asakawa Riku sometimes has to suffer setbacks and even abuse for the sake of the case's development.

I just saw a comment that hit the nail on the head: as the author, I couldn't reconcile my fetish for "bad women" with the protagonist's identity as a martial artist, so I had to sacrifice the protagonist's character.

This is obviously contrary to common sense in online literature, so it's normal for me to be scolded, criticized, and disliked.

During this period of losing my feel for online novel writing, I even forgot what "satisfying moments" were. I just followed the steps to unfold the case, lay the groundwork, and reveal the truth.

This may have led to it becoming a Japanese light novel mystery published on a Chinese website, which is somewhat incongruous with online literature. This is my most serious problem and mistake.

But in any case, this book is "over".

This book may not be a good book in the general sense, but it is a work that I have written with all my might.

Especially the final "Third Year Chapter," although short, showcases my mastery of advanced gameplay techniques such as setting-based reasoning, narrative tricks, and meta elements.

It is definitely not a mediocre "hay" or "grain" book. People who hate it will hate it very much, and people who like it will like it very much. It is just that polarized.

If you persevere and read to the end, to "Winter of Man," I can guarantee that this journey will definitely not be boring.