A City, Waiting for You: Afterword – A permeating winter, with fireworks in my heart

Translated by tsuki

In the process of writing this piece, I often cried. Although the cruel aspect of this piece did not seem so obvious, I would often step into the writing and experience Song Yan and Xu Qin’s feelings of being unable to love under the pressures of reality, and my eyes would moisten unconsciously.

Everyone said that this piece was too realistic, love or bread, which is more expensive? If you were holding this book at this moment, which side would you choose?

Would you dare to take off your shoes and pursue love barefoot?

Towards the end of writing this piece, there was still no result.

The reason why Song Yan and Xu Qin were able to be together in the end was only because they were too compatible. Without each other, life would not be complete. In the face of such needs and companionship, everything else seemed meaningless.

Towards the end of writing this piece, I endowed it with some fairy-tale magic, which relieved the pain of reality a little bit. This is probably a habit of mine. Over these years of writing, once every pair of male and female protagonists I have written has gone through hardships together, they will connect with each other and become each other’s soulmate, and there will never again be any misunderstanding or difficulty to separate them. They will support and accompany each other through all thistles and thorns. Doesn’t this sound like a beautiful fairy tale!

Just like the night when Song Yan was confronted with being unable to get promoted, even Xu Qin, who was always selfish and cowardly didn’t panic, didn’t get conflicted, and didn’t fall into the fear of the future being unknown again, but supported Song Yan to do what he wanted. At that moment, in her heart, healing Song Yan’s inner pain and guilt was far more important than bread. This is love in my eyes, fairy tale love.

In real life, falling in love and getting married gradually became a kind of calculation and competition. Comparing salary, family, and the amount and severity of money invested, it seemed like it became just about finding a partner and living out your days, forgetting where the original love came from. But after thinking about it, they have their reasons. Love can’t make people full, can’t turn into a house and car, and marriage without a financial foundation is destined to wear down the love from the past.

This is an eternal debate.

As a reader commented, don’t lose faith in love just because the ending of this piece is bad,

And don’t forget reality just because this piece has a good ending.

But no matter which side you choose, love or not, work hard. Work hard for self-reliance like Xu Qin, work hard for love like Song Yan, then this life would not be lived in vain.

It was winter when I started writing this piece, and it was spring when I finished, just like their love after their reunion, after going through the cold winter, finally the warmth of spring is here and flowers are blooming.

Readers like to say that when I get towards the end of writing a piece, things will become cruel and troubles will happen. Meimei’s were afraid that I would write the male lead to death. In fact, it would be fair to write this piece as a tragedy, but from the start I never thought of writing a tragedy, because I have seen too many young faces of sacrificed soldiers, I wouldn’t be able to write it.

How much I hope that each of them, whether in this world or in another world, can be like Song Yan, experience hardships, but ultimately, live happily.

May the good people be safe and sound!

---

tsuki: And with this, my translations for this novel have come to an end! This was my first time doing a c-novel translation, and although I’m still lacking a lot, I learned so much and really enjoyed the process. Thank you to Sers for sharing the workload with me, and to m a e m for being our editor. Thank you so much to those of you that have followed along as we learned about Song Yan and Xu Qin’s story, perhaps I’ll see you again! 🤍

Sers: it was a fun ride. Hope you guys enjoyed this journey with us in their “City”.

m a e m:
And with that, this ends the second translated novel on this blog. Which reminds me, I was suppose to go back and proofread the other novel. But that is beside the point.

It’s always bittersweet when coming to the end of a project. Thankful that there’s no more schedule to follow, sad that there won’t be anything more to read.

A City, Waiting for You would not have happened without our wonderful translators, tsuki and Sers. I’m very thankful to them for translating and putting up with me chasing them, plus sometimes for my fickle-mindedness when trying to decide things. tsuki also helped proofread after I went through it. Many hours was spent trawling through Xu Qin and Song Yan’s city and I hope you enjoyed the journey too!

Now, let’s hope the drama doesn’t disappoint. See you out there sometime!

Wow I talk lots 😆 May you get your own fairy tale love and happy reading + watching! ❣️

---