After eavesdropping on my thoughts, the food lovers all over the country were shocked

As I typed the last word on the keyboard, I felt a mixture of emotions.

While I breathed a sigh of relief, a feeling of loss came over me.

After taking a look, I was shocked to find that this book has a total of more than 1.2 million words.

I never thought I would write such a long novel.

I haven't responded to some of the comments yet, so I'd like to take this opportunity to share my thoughts.

When I wrote this book, my thoughts were simple.

It is to integrate the delicious food in life into the novel and show the food culture to readers through warm and pleasant stories.

After deciding on the character and background of the heroine and her family, I started writing.

I didn’t think about anything else, I just wrote about food.

Although the theme seems to be food, I actually want to express the cultural and historical background hidden behind the food.

In my opinion, delicacies are not just food, there is a lot of human history and folk heritage behind them.

In fact, according to the original plan, this novel was going to be about a lot of delicious food.

If I only write about food, I can write until the end of time.

At least this book will cover all four seasons, with specific foods from each season and festival appearing in turn.

But for various reasons, I decided to end this novel at this point.

Don’t be sad if you are reluctant to put down this book. I will make up for some of the plots that were not developed in the main text in the extra chapters.

Here are my responses to the novel readers’ comments:

1. About the female lead CP

From the beginning to the end of this novel, people have been asking me whether the heroine has a CP.

It’s not that I don’t want to answer, but I don’t know the answer.

When I first started conceiving the novel, I wanted to give the heroine an official partner.

But as I was writing, I suddenly didn’t know what kind of official match to give the heroine.

I used to hear people say that when authors write novels, they would put themselves in the shoes of the protagonist. I don’t know why, but as I wrote, I automatically put myself in the role of the old mother.

Some male characters originally seemed pretty good, but when I thought about having them be the official partner of the female lead, I suddenly could pick out a lot of flaws from them.

This is what being a parent must feel like.

Worrying that someone with bad intentions will appear around the child, and worrying that the child will be too far away from me.

I worry that my child won’t grow up, but I also worry that he or she will grow too fast.

Worry that the child is not having a good life.

I really can’t imagine how difficult a mother-in-law I would become if I really gave birth to a daughter.

╮(╯_╰)╭

In this way, the worried old mother was picky and left the heroine alone until the end.

The heroine will have a special story, and I should be able to arrange a more reliable official match for her by then.

If you insist on not having a CP, you can skip the heroine's extra story and just watch others'.

Second, why is the computer science major such a great cook?

Some people questioned why the heroine, who was a computer major, could cook so many delicious dishes and was even better than a chef.

In fact, the heroine’s character has a prototype. A computer girl can also be a foodie who can eat and cook.

Maybe a chef can only cook the dishes he is good at, but foodies can’t help but want to try everything.

What major you study does not conflict with being good at cooking.

Maybe this foodie is just stubborn and must thoroughly understand the food he likes and try every possible way to reproduce it perfectly.

3. Do you get hungry when writing a novel?

A reader asked me if I felt hungry or greedy when writing novels.

The answer is no, hahaha.

Because most of the time, whatever the protagonists are eating, I am either eating at the same time or have just finished eating.

Or maybe it's the food I usually eat.

Only food appreciation written in this way is the most authentic.

4. About the food in the novel

I often see readers asking why the book mostly describes Southern cuisine, especially Cantonese cuisine.

Why is there so little northern food?

It's very simple, because the author is from Guangdong.

Novelists cannot create a world beyond their own cognition, and it is difficult for them to write well about food that they have never seen or tasted.

There are also many delicious foods in the north, but I prefer to start writing about the food that is familiar to me.

5. About the various ingredients in the book

At first, I was quite happy writing.

Sometimes when I don’t have time, I will think about the plot on the high-speed train or plane, and then write it down.

Start writing as soon as you get home or to the hotel.

But gradually, I started to feel lost, and even fell into a common misunderstanding among new authors. (If any new authors see this, I hope you can avoid this.)

For a time, the book attracted many different types of readers.

Even though I emphasized at the beginning that this is a fictional story, there are always people who give it bad reviews, saying that my writing is fake and illogical.

For example, beef was not allowed in ancient times, there was no such thing as this sauce or that sauce, and cream and gelatin were impossible to appear in ancient times...

Some even say that even the emperor in ancient times could not eat live seafood, let alone other people.

(￣▽￣)"

In fact, I really want to say that among so many dynasties, not every capital was located inland.

Even inland, the emperor could eat live seafood if he wanted.

Some people were afraid that I wouldn't see it, so they went to the author and criticized me for not being rigorous enough and being fake.

I was surprised when I saw those comments.

Shouldn't fiction be about the logic of the writing? Why should we look for historical logic in the book?

Even if they treat it as a historical novel, they do not use any authoritative documents to support their arguments.

The basis for those people's denial is that they think it is impossible.

In fact, many readers believe that various mushrooms and sauces that were introduced to my country later have already existed in ancient times.

Take curry sauce and enoki mushrooms, which some people have emphasized as examples of modern appearances.

In fact, as early as the Southern Song Dynasty, it had been introduced as a spice and colorant, but no one made it into curry sauce.

The "Records of the Island Barbarians" also records that Quanzhou merchants imported berberine, cinnamon, cardamom, pine nuts, coconut and jasmine from the Arab world as medicinal plants and food seasonings.

The cultivation and consumption of Flammulina velutipes has a long history. The "Shennong Bencao Jing", "Nongshu" and "Si Shi Zong Yao" have long recorded the edible value, medicinal value and cultivation methods of Flammulina velutipes.

It just hasn't been widely promoted.

There are many more like this.

Besides, eating beef was not completely prohibited in ancient my country.

Beef can even be bought and sold, but ordinary people are not allowed to slaughter it privately.

Take the record in Volume 1106 of the History of the Song Dynasty as an example: "I beg you to follow the instructions given in the fifth year of Chongning () and go to various places to buy ox horns and kilograms of tendons."

This means that in the fifth year of Chongning during the reign of Emperor Huizong, the military purchased 400,000 ox horns and 100,000 kilograms of ox tendons at one time in order to make bows and arrows.

400,000 horns require the slaughter of 200,000 cows. The horns and tendons are sold to make bows and arrows, so what happens to the remaining beef?

It's impossible that the seller digested it himself or disposed of it harmlessly, right?

It has definitely flowed into the market.

At that time, some local state governments even set up a beef tax in order to increase revenue.

In other words, after paying a certain amount of tax, you can kill cattle and eat meat.

Why do some people always think that the powerful and wealthy heroine and her family can’t eat anything?

Besides being shocked, I began to emphasize that most delicacies do not require any high-tech at all. As long as you have the ingredients and know the method, you can make them.

I also wrote in detail in the book how to make various sauces and ingredients, and emphasized that they are authentic and reproducible.

At this time, a reader caught up with the latest chapter, clicked on the update request, and then gave a bad review.

They said my whole novel was a recipe and they couldn’t read it at all.

I felt so upset after watching it that I even had a nightmare that day.

( ╯□╰ )

New author babies, you must take this as a warning.

When writing a novel, you really can't be too serious.

Otherwise you will tire yourself out and might even get a bunch of bad reviews.

6. Regarding the Imperial Edict

There are several places in the text about the beginning of the imperial edict. Some readers have always said that the beginning must be "The Emperor, by the Mandate of Heaven: decrees that" and if it is not written like this, it means being uncultured.

I, a rebellious person, said that you must put the imperial edict in front of me.

Otherwise I will never admit that you are right.

There have always been readers who regard the content they see on marketing accounts or in other novels as the truth, and use these to find faults in my novels.

In order to verify the authenticity, I went to the Imperial Edict Museum and a Palace Museum to look for pictures.

There are two types, one without the words "冯天承运" and one with it.

The imperial edict in this book will be based on this picture. (Image attached here)

As a side note, it was only after I visited the Imperial Edict Museum that I learned that there were actually many imperial edict plaques in ancient times.

It’s also “献”.

Then start another column——"Tian Chengyun"

Another column - "The Emperor's decree says..."

Regarding the character “??”, it is a variant of “敕”.

I couldn't find this character in the Xinhua Dictionary, so I looked it up in Han Dian. However, when I typed it in, it didn't show up, only a question mark, so I used the character "敕" (imperial decree) instead.

7. About foodies

While novel readers are screening works, different works are actually screening different readers.

I think I will definitely be able to find a group of foodie babies through this book.

It’s so fun to share eating and drinking experiences with everyone.

As it turned out, it really attracted a group of very cute and gentle foodie babies.

To all the foodies out there, I want to say that this book exists because of you.

When I wanted to give up on this book countless times, you kept me going.

In February, something happened and I was in a very bad state.

I seem to still exist in this world, but also seem to no longer exist.

I feel frivolous every day and cannot get down to business.

Even though I was obviously depressed, I had to write a lighthearted and happy story.

I feel so torn and uncomfortable.

At that point, I wanted to give up on the novel.

Updates are almost sporadic.

One day, I suddenly realized that most of my readers were quietly waiting for me to update, and some would click to urge me to update as soon as I updated.

Even those who can’t stand the frequency of my updates just leave quietly without yelling at me.

During that time, I kept an eye on the backstage and became familiar with the IDs of many people there.

Some people would urge me to update my work every day, some would comment from time to time, some would insist on correcting my typos and grammatical errors, and some would send me gifts every day.

One of the readers’ baby’s ID has no words, just a string of numbers, ending in 369.

She doesn't post comments or ask for updates, but she sends me a flower every day.

During that time, I forced myself to keep writing almost every day with the mentality of "as long as there are still people who want to read what I write, I have to finish it."

Now that I've started, I have to write a good ending.

And so I made it until spring.

The characters in this novel also saw spring.

Sometimes, even one positive feedback from a reader can make an author who is about to give up finish the book seriously.

Thank you to every reader who read this novel carefully.

8. The ratio of plot and food in the book

Many readers have mentioned that the ratio of the plot to the food in the book is 2 to 8.

I haven't calculated this ratio, but my purpose when I wrote this novel was very clear, which was to introduce delicious food.

I think of it as a food guide.

At least, it is possible in Guangdong.

When writing this novel, I repeatedly emphasized that the food and taste in the book are real.

Some people think I am exaggerating, most likely because they didn't eat authentic food.

My advice is to only eat at restaurants or brands recommended by locals, so you won’t be easily disappointed.

Finally, I want to say to all the babies -

Eat well and love yourself well.

Live well.