When you handsome readers see this single chapter, it means that *Da Tie* (打铁, "Hitting Iron") is entering its official ending. Originally, I wanted to wait until the book was finished before opening a single chapter to chat with you all, but you know, A Qiao is the kind of author who has to say what's on her mind and values reader feedback a lot, so today, taking advantage of the opportunity of the plot entering its finale, I'd like to share my last five cents' worth of thoughts with you before the end.

First of all, there's still the old problem of "aesthetic fatigue."

To be honest, Qiao really can't do anything about this problem, or rather, for basketball novels, it's a bit unsolvable. Why? Because basketball novels are different from other sports novels where you can change maps. As we all know, basketball novels only have the NBA map. Therefore, as I explained to the reader "Lan Dun de Zhu" (蓝盾の猪), in basketball novels, one comeback is a classic, two comebacks are the finishing touch, but what about three, four, or five comebacks?

In addition, as the reader "Guangdong Liang Kun" (广东靓坤) said, it's like playing a game in the early stages, where getting ten or twenty points gives you a great sense of accomplishment, but in the late stages, even getting forty or fifty thousand points becomes a pile of cold numbers. And as the reader "Bing Tian Xue Di 4869" (冰天雪地4869) said, as the plot enters the later stages, because the content of the first four million-plus words has raised the threshold of expectations, therefore, in terms of Su Feng's current strength, in fact, many people will feel that whatever Su Feng can do is "a matter of course," just like in reality, after Messi and Ronaldo have raised various goals to a higher level, hearing about a league's top scorer with 20 goals in a single season won't even cause half a ripple in your heart.

So, it's not just a casual remark when I say that the closer I get to finishing *Da Tie*, the more my head hurts. Because as I said, setting aside other chapters, if you randomly click into a chapter of *Da Tie*, the fluency of the writing and the quality of the chapter are basically consistently maintained. So, I can even shamelessly say that there may be aesthetic fatigue as *Da Tie* is written, but there has definitely been no drop in quality.

Because in every chapter, I have always kept the original intention of *Da Tie* in mind.

Therefore, if I want to write another basketball novel after recovering from the completion surgery, to be honest, in the next one, I will definitely focus on writing about three to five seasons, putting the emphasis on the protagonist's growth and the most suspenseful parts of the content.

However, even though I myself have felt aesthetic fatigue in the later stages of *Da Tie*'s story, I will still follow the original intention and complete Su Feng's full career.

Because this is not a matter of correcting mistakes, but rather, in terms of making money, *Da Tie* would indeed be more successful if it could increase the description of certain content and dilute the impact of aesthetic fatigue in the later stages. But if that were the case, then when you reread *Da Tie* after a few years, or even a long time, the feelings that Su Feng or *Da Tie* bring you would be different.

Why is it that now everyone feels a sense of fatigue, that whatever Su Feng can do is a matter of course? Actually, thinking about it the other way around, isn't that precisely because the Su Feng in A Qiao's book is already reasonably capable enough to make you believe that he can defeat all the opponents in this world?

When explaining to "Lan Dun de Zhu," I said... in terms of Su Feng's current strength, coupled with these teammates, he really isn't afraid of any of the universe teams in my book.

Of course, some people may say that in that case, wouldn't the sense of suspense be gone?

Hey! Now that we've reached this point, if I were to deliberately be sentimental for the sake of so-called suspense, wouldn't that be ending the story for the sake of suspense, rather than ending it step by step, according to a predetermined idea and policy?

In online novels, why are there so many novels that "peter out"? In fact, isn't a large part of the reason that the authors wanted to outsmart billions of readers, but ended up falling behind? Therefore, from the moment I decided to stick to my original intention, the final chapter of *Da Tie* could not serve the purpose of suspense. To put it bluntly, what I want is Su Feng's complete career.

As for aesthetic fatigue and suspense =. =, I can only say that I will try my best to use my humorous writing and commentary to dilute and weaken this part of the impact. (Well, this paragraph has a hint of self-praise, just listen to it)

In fact, comparing the endings of *Wai Gua* (外挂, "Cheat Plug-in") and *Da Tie*, you can easily see that the reason why *Wai Gua* still had a lot of highlights at around 2.6 million words was because Lin Yi was only in his sixth or seventh season at that time.

But what about *Da Tie*? Now Su Feng has played a full eighteen seasons.

And among them, except for a total of three and a half seasons that I fast-forwarded, you should know that I basically wrote the rest of the seasons completely.

Therefore, after leaving Miami, careful readers can also find that in fact, many chapters in the latter half of *Da Tie* can be used as a complete chapter to mark the end of *Da Tie*.

In fact, many readers have left comments at the end of certain chapters in the later stages of *Da Tie*, saying, "It would be good to end it here."

Because as I said, although I am still in the stage of writing to pay off debts, writing and reading are two-way things. I don't want many readers to support me just for the sake of supporting me, but I hope to be able to give you a choice at different stages.

If you're tired, when you reach those chapters where you can stop, you might as well put *Da Tie* aside and focus on life, work, or read other novels. If you're not interested in the later plot, you might as well put *Da Tie* aside and choose the content you like to read. If you don't want to read it at all, why not carefully savor the joy that *Da Tie* once brought you, and then, after a knowing smile, scold, "This dog author," and then delete *Da Tie* from your bookshelf.

Yes, you read that right. I should be the first author in the online literature world to teach readers how to delete books, abandon books, and even explicitly tell you which chapters you can stop at in the later stages, right?

Because I know that choosing this writing style for *Da Tie* will inevitably enter this period of fatigue.

In addition, player novels are not like coach novels, which can regain expectations by changing teams and reorganizing the team. Therefore, rather than saying that the results require *Da Tie* to end somewhere, it is better to say that *Da Tie* needs a complete ending.

Because this is not only a promise I made when I started writing, but also the original intention of *Da Tie*'s design.

In terms of a simple *shuangwen* (爽文, "refreshing novel"), *Da Tie* is definitely not refreshing enough.

Because in the early stages, in order to dilute the impact of easy fatigue after the climax, I chose to dilute the climax in some parts that could have been heavily padded.

In the mid- and late stages, in order to allow *Da Tie* to still have a certain vitality before it is finished, I even chose to skip the Lakers dynasty.

And in the later stages, when someone asks you why you are still writing about the media and haters=。=, I also want to say that because the media really can't find anything to criticize Su Feng for, and because the last part of *Da Tie* is about explaining Kobe's historical status, therefore, referring to reality, do you think I can avoid mentioning these media and haters? To mention Kobe's historical status, there must be convincing evidence. Just like in reality, Curry and James are still being criticized every day, I must provide both the positive and negative viewpoints in order to make Kobe's career summary in the future convincing.

In fact, to put it bluntly, for a basketball novel without a map, and especially for an author like me who doesn't feel comfortable without adding some famous scenes, a length of three to five seasons is more conducive to ensuring the suspense and excitement of a book.

But since I stubbornly chose the way I am least good at, and still achieved some results, then no matter what, I will continue to write down this path.

Fun fact, actually, I prefer a thorough *shuang* (爽, "refreshing") to being reasonable.

Because novels are just for fun, aren't they?

In short, *Da Tie* not only allowed me to gain a lot in the process of writing, and improved my writing skills and ability to control long-form writing, but it also gradually made me feel that in order to write a good book, you must treat it like a child and treat it seriously and carefully.

Currently, there are about 100,000 to 150,000 words left until the end of *Da Tie*.

Then in the epilogue, in addition to completing the content that I skipped in *Da Tie* before, I will also design some interactions between Su Feng and Lin Yi.

As I said before, when naming the protagonist, I referred to the "Wind, Forest, Fire, Mountain" in *The Art of War*.

Lin (林) is Lin Yi. Feng (风) is Su Feng.

And from the protagonist's name, it is not difficult for everyone to see the differences between Lin Yi and Su Feng.

When writing Lin Yi, I referred to a lot of designs related to Duncan. Because Lin (林), a tree that stands out in the forest, so I gave him a height of 221 centimeters and the story of ending his career in New York.

When writing Su Feng, Su Feng often has his own capricious side. Therefore, Su Feng changed teams four times in his career, and according to geographical location, a storm happened to sweep across the east, south, west, and north of America.

It's just a pity that with my current body, I really dare not say whether I will write the next book or whether Shui Qie will help me complete it.

Because with a constitution of -1 and a tendency to get injured, even walking now may cause me to fracture, which is really outrageous.

But if there is another book, I really want to combine the strengths of "Cheat Plug-in" and "Hitting Iron" in "Wind, Forest, Fire, Mountain" and use a thorough *shuangwen* to end my career as a basketball novel author.

It has both the layout ability and rationality of *Da Tie* to disrupt the overall situation, and the suspense and *shuang* (爽, "refreshing") feel of "Cheat Plug-in" to focus on describing 3-5 seasons.

Tsk!

To be honest, I have already thought about the beginning of the next book.

And whenever I think of the wonderful parts, it even makes me feel like, what the hell did I write in "Cheat Plug-in" and "Hitting Iron"?

But whether the next book can come out depends on fate.

Because now it's not just me who is worried about my own body, but my family is also particularly worried that I will "die young."

Now, let's focus on returning to the ending of *Da Tie*.

For readers who are currently following the book, the ending and later stages of *Da Tie* are definitely not the best.

But I believe that when the three words "The End" are dropped, *Da Tie* will definitely be an outlier as a basketball novel that completely explains the protagonist's story from his rise to his end.

Maybe it is not as magnificent as some novels. Maybe it is not as exciting as those novels that focus on explaining the protagonist's career peak. But in *Da Tie*, the memes that you and I created together, those famous scenes that we witnessed together, I believe that many years later, they will still make you smile knowingly. And then you will curse, "Dog author, why did you write so slowly back then."