Author's Note on Official Publication

First, let me address the plot of the public version and the update schedule.

I have seen everyone's complaints, but this book is written in this specific style. The prologue has a lot of setup, which is a structural necessity rather than me dragging things out on purpose. After all, I do not have millions of words behind this opening to explain the protagonist’s background and the world he inhabits, so I naturally have to dedicate more space at the beginning to build a believable world for you.

This is one of the reasons why I hesitated to write this story in the first place: I felt that if I told everyone at the very beginning that a Chinese football player had become a global superstar capable of winning the Ballon d'Or and ranking among the world's top three... I fear many readers wouldn't believe it, nor would they be able to immerse themselves in the story. I cannot simply use the author's voice to tell you that Wang Lie is amazing and that he is a top-three player in the world, and expect you to just take my word for it. I have to use various methods to prove that he was once truly formidable, so that you can gradually accept this rather fantastical reality.

This is the same technique I used in "The Fox of the Penalty Area," which is why there are many side descriptions and layers of setup. And this is even with me writing five to six thousand words per chapter. This is also one of the reasons why I need to change my update rhythm. If I were to stick to the previous book’s format—just over three thousand words per chapter, two updates a day—I fear the pacing would feel even slower and more dragged out. The content density of three thousand words versus five thousand words is different, and I wouldn't write less content just because the chapter length is shorter; I would still write the same way. But in that format, people would feel that two updates a day don't advance the plot much; it would still feel slow and like "filler."

I have seen people complain that this book is slower than "The Fox of the Penalty Area." My friend, the beginning of "The Fox of the Penalty Area" was even slower, even harder on the protagonist, and even more off-putting. Moreover, that slow pace is something I have consistently maintained from that book to this one. If you don't believe me, ask the readers who followed "The Fox of the Penalty Area" from the very beginning. You might think that book wasn't slow because by the time you read it, it already had millions of words, and reading it all at once made what seemed like "filler" during the serialization feel like brilliant setup, plot, and characterization. Once you catch up to the latest chapters and start following the updates, you will find it just as slow. The reason fewer people complained about "filler" back then might be because I deleted those comments... I don't consider it filler. I believe that out of the 7.66 million words in "The Fox of the Penalty Area," not a single word was wasted, so I do not accept the criticism that my writing is bloated.

This book is the same. I have written over a hundred thousand words so far, and every sentence in every chapter has been carefully polished to the best of my ability. I still do not believe there is even a single unnecessary punctuation mark. I trust that if you read on patiently, you will agree with this point of view. I even feel that if you have read "The Fox of the Penalty Area," you should have this mutual understanding with me. It is precisely because of the success of "The Fox of the Penalty Area" that I have insisted on this style for "Reversal." And this book truly requires this style.

I prefer to consider how the book will be perceived as a whole once it is completed, rather than sacrificing the overall pacing for the sake of the reading experience during serialization. This is my habit and my style. The style is different, and you may not like it, but I don't think it's "bad." It is just at a disadvantage in today's fast-paced era. Consequently, the follow-up readership data for this book is actually not great.

However, I will continue to write in this style. Whether it is good or bad, we can judge it after the book is finished. "The Fox of the Penalty Area" was accompanied by various controversies when it first started, and its performance after being listed was disastrous, but I stuck to it and finished it. I wrote it exactly as I envisioned, and in the end, I believe I delivered my best work in twenty years of professional writing.

Of course, I admit the issue of slow updates. One update a day is indeed slow and does not meet current market demands at all. As a reader, I would also love for my favorite books to have three or four updates a day. If I could, as an author, I would hope to update three or four times a day, too. That way, everyone would be happy, and if the subscriptions were high, I would be even happier. But there is no helping it; I am like Wang Lie without a cheat code—the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Wang Lie is thirty-eight; I am forty-two. Every day, after finishing one chapter, it is very difficult to write a second one. By the time I go to sleep, it's good if I've managed to write a beginning for the next chapter. I am truly exhausted, both physically and mentally, and I uncontrollably want to play and relax.

To force myself to focus on writing, I go to the library early every morning to line up and grab a seat, because my efficiency is higher there. It’s hard on my wife, who has to wake up early with me every day and spend the time waiting at the library. "Black Myth: Wukong" is so popular, but I only played it on the afternoon and evening of the 20th; I haven't opened the game since the next day. At most, I’ve watched the plot animations on Bilibili. I am just afraid of delaying my writing.

So, if you think it's slow, I agree. But I must say, this is the result of me giving it my all. Actually, I want to say: as long as I don't die and don't stop writing, I will be with you for a long time—during the past twenty-two years, now with this book, and in the future. So, there is no need to get hung up on the speed of a single day.

I have thought about whether I should have released the entire plot of Wang Lie in Soflian on the first day, which I estimate would have avoided much of the controversy. But on one hand, I really don't have that many stockpiled chapters, and on the other hand, the editor wouldn't allow it—there are word count requirements during the new book period, and if I released too much at once, the new book period would be greatly shortened, which would be extremely unfavorable for securing recommendations. In short, that is the situation. I have been honest and told you everything, and I hope you can be understanding. Middle-aged men really have it hard.

***

This is my tenth time writing a "post-launch message." In my twenty-two-year career, I have written twelve books and over forty-two million words. Only my first book, "Do You Care if I Play Football?" and my third book, "Natural Born Loser," were not officially listed, so there were no such messages for them. Thinking back to the post-launch message for "Winner Takes All," I was reviewing my first ten years of writing. Now, the second decade has passed, and I am officially stepping into my third decade. And for these twenty-two years, I have written only about football.

Thinking about it, even I find it incredible. Given the general environment of Chinese football and the trend of traditional sports being increasingly overshadowed by e-sports, the fact that I can still write about football and earn a living from it is something I am truly grateful for to all of you, my patrons.

As I approach forty-two, all I can do is try my best to write my novels well and tell you a good story, making every subscription, every monthly vote, and every comment worthwhile. Actually, I really wish I could have a cheat code like Wang Lie, where I get a year younger for every set number of chapters I update. Then I could write myself back to infancy! Unfortunately, fantasies are fantasies, and reality is reality; there is an impassable barrier between the two. Because I cannot return to my youth, the present is all the more precious.

***

Let’s talk about this book. The initial impulse for "Reversal" came from the 2022 World Cup. I won't shy away from the fact that the inspiration came from Cristiano Ronaldo's predicament. If you look at the chapter title of Chapter 6 of this book and then look at the name of the standalone chapter I wrote during the World Cup for Ronaldo's elimination in the seventh volume of "The Fox of the Penalty Area," you should understand.

But just because the prototype is Ronaldo, don't assume I am writing everything exactly as it happened to him. Because I am not simply writing about Ronaldo; otherwise, I would just write about a Chinese person possessing Ronaldo, like the soul-swapping commercial he filmed for Nike. I didn't do that because I am not just writing about Ronaldo. I just wanted to write about an unyielding soul, a paranoid monster, a professional player who, by all accounts, shouldn't exist. I took traits from many people and blended them into Wang Lie. Ronaldo is the prototype, but he is not Wang Lie. Wang Lie certainly has Ronaldo's traits—quite a few, in fact—but he is not Ronaldo. You could say Wang Lie is not one specific person, but an aggregate of several spirits.

What is a "prototype"? Every novel I write and every character I create has its own prototype. After all, I don't have the ability to imagine characters and stories out of thin air. When I first wrote "Do You Care if I Play Football?", the character prototypes were all myself and the people around me; they even had the same names, but they were only prototypes and not exactly the same as the characters in my book. This is why I said in the foreword that I hope you won't get obsessed with finding corresponding figures in real-world football; you just need to look at the characters I have written. Otherwise, it will be very jarring—what the prototype is like in reality does not mean that the character I write should be the same. What does how real-world players act have to do with the characters I write? If that were the case, why would I write fictional stories? Why not just write about real football? Do you think I enjoy torturing myself by struggling to come up with names for clubs and players?

Some people ask why I didn't continue the world-building of "The Fox of the Penalty Area" and use those club names. Of course, this suggestion is reasonable and highly feasible. But I was worried that the world of "The Fox of the Penalty Area" was too deeply ingrained in people's minds, and if I used my fictional world as a prototype, I was afraid everyone would keep associating it with the stories and characters from the previous book. That is why I went to such thankless lengths to rename everything in this book—so that everyone could focus solely on Wang Lie's story while reading.

Whether in "The Fox of the Penalty Area" or "Reversal," I have stated clearly that reality cannot contain my ambition, nor can it fully house what I want to say. Readers don't need to be obsessed with what real-world figures are like. If you are truly that obsessed with real-world figures, why not just watch real football matches? Or go read those web novels that write about real football instead of coming to read my story, which is clearly a fictional, alternate reality?

If you don't know how to immerse yourself at first, you can find some pseudo-prototypes for comparison. But that is only to make it easier for you to understand the story. For example, if you don't know which team Tyne is and can't imagine the clash between Tyne and Soflian, you can simply and crudely map them to real-life Premier League teams. That is fine. But there is no need to project your feelings and biases about real-world football onto the characters and stories in the novel. Using Ronaldo's deeds to scold me for how Wang Lie acts—saying this is wrong, that is wrong... Please, I am writing about Wang Lie, surname Wang, given name Lie, a Chinese person. Not Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, the Portuguese man. If you truly feel that Wang Lie reminds you of that pseudo-prototype and it makes you physically disgusted, then just don't read it. It's just a web novel; there is no need to torture yourself like this. Reality is already messy and exhausting enough; can't we relax a bit in the world of a fictional novel?

***

Back to the story itself. The story of "Reversal" is just as the name suggests; everyone knows what it is about at a glance. That is why I said the beginning is the most agonizing stage for the protagonist. Because what follows is the reversal! This should probably be the most satisfying novel I have ever written, and it is the kind of satisfying that is real and believable. In terms of style, I am aiming for the same as "The Fox of the Penalty Area"—to shape a world and characters that feel real and believable, and then weave them together into a good show.

The personality I designed for Wang Lie also dictates that he is unlikely to be "bullied"... Because he is not like the protagonists of my other novels who start as nobodies. At the beginning of the story, Wang Lie is already a superstar. He is the center of attention wherever he goes, so why should he care about what others think? For example, the first day I wrote about Wang Lie reporting to Tyne, the plot was very bland. Following my old habits, I wrote about him getting to know his new teammates through the captain's introduction or the coach's arrangements... But as I wrote, I felt awkward and uncomfortable; I couldn't continue. Later, I realized I had inadvertently thought of Wang Lie as a rookie. Who is he? What is his status? Why should he play nice with his new teammates? So, I rewrote that chapter into what you see now.

Wang Lie is that kind of person: "What you think of me is your business; what does it have to do with me? I only do things according to my own ideas. You have to agree even if you don't want to, and you have to accept it even if you don't like it. Who told you I’m better than you?" It is precisely because of this that those who like him will really like him, and those who hate him will really hate him; there is almost no middle ground. It is also because of this that he receives such treatment at the end of his career. Character determines destiny, after all. To put it bluntly, he brought it on himself.

But I think it is this personality that makes the character very interesting and particularly suitable as a web novel protagonist. "The Fox of the Penalty Area" gradually solidified my idea—not to write characters that everyone likes, but to write vivid, living characters. Wang Lie is the product of this philosophy. As a protagonist, he definitely won't be liked by everyone; there will inevitably be people who hate him and think he does things wrong—I have expressed this view through others' voices in the book as well. But he is vivid, he is real, and he is what I want to write. I can't help but think: What would happen if we put such a contradictory yet real person into a certain story environment? How would he respond? Thinking this way, I find inspiration and motivation. I don't want to feel timid or hesitant, fearing that writing about the protagonist's bad side will make readers hate him.

Is there a perfect, absolutely popular, and successful novel protagonist? Surely there is, but my ability is limited, and I really can't write one. So, I choose to write an imperfect protagonist, even one with flaws. Using Wang Lie as the protagonist does not mean I necessarily approve of everything he does. I will simply show the good and the bad things faithfully and unreservedly for you to see. I will leave it to you to judge. Just like the protagonists Hu Lai and Li Qingqing, and supporting characters like Luo Kai, Hu Lixin, Li Ziqiang, Xie Lan, and so on from my last book—not a single character was universally liked. Even for Li Qingqing, I specifically wrote about her height and weight; I remember that after I wrote it, many people said Li Qingqing was a "tank" and couldn't love her. But I couldn't possibly write the number-one female football player as a delicate, pale girl, could I?

So, I say that friends who have read "The Fox of the Penalty Area" should have a mutual understanding and be able to guess the style of this book. The story is different, but the style remains consistent. I have said so much, partly because I really wanted to get everything I had to say during the public version out at once. On the other hand, I hope it clears up any confusion and helps you better enter Wang Lie's world. I hope that when this story comes to an end, it will receive the same evaluation as "The Fox of the Penalty Area"—like a real parallel world; although the novel has ended, every person in that world is still living vividly and freely.

Limited by the structure of this story, this book should not be too long—at the very least, it certainly won't be like "The Fox of the Penalty Area." The total word count of this book should not exceed three million words, and the serialization time will definitely not drag on for three years and seven months. Finally, thank you for your support. Let’s be like time travelers and enter Wang Lie's world together to start a brand-new journey!

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