The Librarian and the Fox Princess: a Donghua Dijun and Bai Fengjiu story, V.I

Author's Note

Hey guys! 

This is for my new/prospective/and faithful regular readers, so basically everyone. I've been meaning to write this for a couple of weeks now but have been organizing my thoughts.

When I started writing this story in early-mid March 2020, I had just finished watching Eternal Love of Dream. I had already finished reading Three Lives, Three Worlds: The Pillow Book just before that, and in early January watched Eternal Love for the first time (yes, I know I'm late to the party).

Needless to say, I was on a DongFeng kick but I was so naive and innocent then, I didn't even know "DongFeng" was a thing. I then read some fan-fiction over at Archive of Our Own, and then on Wattpad but really had no exposure to fandoms prior, had never written fan-fiction and really didn't know what to expect. I really grew to love Dong Hua and Xiao Bai's story from ELOD and The Pillowbook (not so much in Eternal Love, that made me too sad) and thought I'd write something about them for fun. Really, I was no different from a drug addict just trying to make her own drugs at home as an experiment as opposed to just buying them off the street :)

When I first posted Chapter 1 - And So It Begins, I was very nervous and thought maybe 50 people will read it? And I hoped maybe half of them would like it? As it stands, as I'm writing this, my story has had a little over 40K views and 1,757 votes. I'm completely overwhelmed and thankful that somehow, some people out there in the world like my story. 

But, like I said, I was super naive. At first, I was that person who was like "oh, I don't care about votes." I tried to convince myself that no matter how many votes I get or don't get, I shouldn't use it as any kind of measurement of the worth of my story. While I admit I was trying to be honorable and really I wasn't wrong by thinking that, thankfully, I've also turned a more realistic corner. My writing isn't sustained by votes, but it's definitely encouraged by them. I found out that I actually love votes and there's nothing wrong with that! Everytime I get a notification that someone has voted for a chapter, it's like those dog treat dispensers where owners can send a treat to their dog by pressing a button on their phone or computer and it spits out a dog treat for the dog. 

I'm that dog, completely overjoyed, so thank you to anyone who's fed me a treat. Greatly appreciated :) Don't even get me started about when I get a notification about someone choosing to follow me! Especially, by those who are brilliantly writing their own DongFeng fan- fiction. You know that emoji with the yellow face and the three hearts all around it? That's me. Except I have hair ;)

Something I've also learned about fandoms is that fans are really really passionate and engaged. Makes sense, I get it. I'm part of DongFeng community now, too. Obviously, because people care so very deeply about these characters and storylines there's a lot of emotion involved. It gets intense. People become highly invested in certain outcomes which is the reason I thought to write this long A/N. 

Everyone comes with their own emotional baggage when they start reading a story. We all have our own perspectives, hopes, fears, heartaches, and deep needs that are shaped by our own life events. This affects how we read a story and informs us of what we want from that story. I feel it is only responsible that I write a disclaimer that this story will not meet all of your emotional needs. Not because I don't want it to, but because it just simply can't. I can't write the story that you want to read, I can only write the story I want to write and if you enjoy any bit of it, that makes me very happy. 

Think of it like this, try to approach my story like a trip to a garage sale or yard sale. I know a good chunk of my readership is from Asia (I'm from The States) so I don't know how you may call it, but basically someone is selling their used/old stuff, usually in front of their yard. One doesn't expect to get all their basic necessities as a garage/yard sale. One also doesn't expect to find the fanciest Louis Vuitton purse they've been coveting for that past six months for only 5 dollars. Sure, occasionally treasures and great deals are found. But, at the end of the day, it's usually just someone's old quirky stuff. So, when you read my story, I hope you know that I'm just some weird person and this story is just some of my old stuff I'm selling or giving away. If you find something you like, or is helpful to you, I hope it'll be good to you as it was once good to me :)