LMAOOO 😭😭 okay, fair. "Thank you for thinking about TEOU" is really the understatement of the century when you've got Chengwei occupying real estate in your brain 24/7. 😂 Honestly, hearing that TEOU became something you looked forward to every Saturday is both incredibly sweet and mildly terrifying. Like, imagine me sitting here minding my business while meanwhile someone is out there planning their week around my emotional support disaster couple. 😭❤️
And the fact that it helped bring the writer in you back? That might be one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me. 🥹♡ If TEOU played even a small part in helping you reconnect with writing, then that's something I'll treasure for a very long time. Thank you for loving Chengwei this much, for sticking around, and for making me laugh with this message. Now I'm just imagining TEOU sitting in the corner of your brain with its legs crossed like it pays rent. 😂🫶🏻

Hello! 🥹🫶🏻

Honestly, I spend so much time writing and daydreaming about my own fics that I've slowly stopped reading fics the way I used to. Of course I still read—especially my fellow authors' works and anything that catches my eye when I have some free time. Our fandom has so many talented writers, and there are a lot of stories I look forward to catching up on.

That said, I'm an extremely silent reader. 😭 You could see me physically vibrating over a fic, screaming into a pillow, thinking about it for days, and still have absolutely no idea which fic I'm obsessed with at the moment. It sounds ridiculous from an author's perspective, I know lol, but that's just how I am.

A few Tianziyu/Chiwei fics that I have bookmarked and loved are (order isn't important) :

• The glasses Chi Cheng fic — nousefulpurpose
• Letter in the Wind — cefangelo (all-time favorite!!)
• Somewhere in Your Eyes — Xuzhibin
• The Understudy's Vengeance — chrstn_dms (recently bookmarked, still need to read 👀)
• Habitual Entropy — elav_exo (one of my current favorites)
• Marked in Red — slowignite
• One of Me Is Cute, But Two Though — nightlanterns
• The Rookie and the Star — melody179
• Don't Panic, It's Organic — premierace
• As We Drift, the Wind Will Carry Us Where Forever Starts — starblossom

These are just a few gems sitting in my bookmarks right now. 😆🫶🏻 I'm sure most people have already read at least some of them, but they're definitely worth checking out if you haven't.

I still have a mountain of fics to catch up on, so once life calms down a bit, I fully intend to dive back into reading too 🤍

Awww, thank you! 🥹🩷 Honestly, soc-med aus are very hit-or-miss for me. I don't read many of them, and I have absolutely no idea what the proper rules are. 😭 I usually just see my oomfs doing something, go "oh that's fun," and then make things up as I go along in my own way lol.

(And yes, I'm aware the food vlogger au is sitting there incomplete. 😔 I swear I haven't forgotten about it—I just haven't been struck by inspiration yet. One day... hopefully. 😭)

But I do genuinely enjoy building soc-med aus. They're chaotic, complicated high-stakes but a lot of fun to play around with. 😆 Also, I constantly feel like my humor is lame, so every time someone tells me they laughed at one of my aus, I'm genuinely surprised. 😭😭 I'm really happy you enjoy them so much, though. Thank you for all the love and support. Mwah! 🫶🏻

This isn't silly at all! 🥹💜 I think one of the strangest and most beautiful things about stories is how they attach themselves to little pieces of our lives. A song, a smell, a certain time of day, and suddenly you're thinking about characters as if they're old friends.

The fact that hearing a piece of music immediately makes you think of Chengwei and their life together honestly makes me want to cry! And now you've got me wondering what they're doing too. Knowing them, they're probably either being disgustingly in love or arguing over something completely ridiculous (ahem-spoiler-ahem) Sending you a big hug. Love you too, and thank you for carrying TEOU with you for so long. 🌻💜

Hello, love! To be honest, I don't think confidence came first, posted my work 'despite' being scared.

I think every writer has that moment where they stare at the upload button and think, "This is terrible. Everyone is going to hate it." 😭 And then you post it anyway as for the AI accusations, I know that's a scary thing to see, but please don't let random people on the internet convince you that your natural writing voice is somehow wrong. The truth is that people often throw around "this sounds AI-generated" when what they really mean is "this isn't my preferred writing style."

Writing styles come and go, trends come and go. If you keep chasing what other people think a writer should sound like, you'll eventually lose sight of your own voice and for what it's worth, if you're struggling to express your thoughts now, it might not be because you're a bad writer. It might be because you're becoming self-conscious about every sentence before it even has a chance to exist. That happens to a lot of writers.

My advice is that you write the story first. Let it be messy, let it sound like you. Worry about polishing it later. You can't edit a blank page.

The stories that stay with people aren't always the most technically perfect ones. They're the ones written by someone who cared enough to tell them. So if you want to post your work, post it. There will always be people who dislike it, misunderstand it, or criticize it. There will also be people who love it, connect with it, and look forward to every update.

You never get to meet those readers if fear keeps the story hidden forever 🥹

The major events of TEOU have been planned for a very long time. I've always known the general direction of the story and the important moments I wanted to reach. That said, writing a long story is a bit like going on a road trip with a destination in mind. You know where you're headed, but sometimes you discover new routes, interesting detours, or moments that feel more meaningful than what you originally planned.

So yes, even while I'm not actively working on TEOU, I'll occasionally get new ideas, notice details I want to expand on, or think of scenes that would make certain events hit harder emotionally. The overall story hasn't changed, but some of the paths leading there definitely evolve over time and before anyone panics—no, I'm not secretly rewriting the entire thing from scratch. 😭 The word count is already terrifying enough as it is. Thank you for thinking about TEOU even when it's archived. It makes me happy knowing people are still invested in Chengwei and their story 🫶🏻

First of all, I need everyone to stop talking like TEOU has died. 😭 The story is archived, not buried you guys!! Chengwei are not haunting the AO3 servers as restless spirits, they're just in storage for a bit 😆

But seriously, thank you for caring so much—not just about the stories, but about the people writing them. The internet can be a very strange place sometimes, and some people seem determined to make "being normal" their greatest enemy.

For now, I'm choosing to focus on the lovely readers who send me messages like this rather than the handful of people who need a hobby that isn't bothering strangers online 🫶🏻 and don't worry too much about TEOU. It's still sitting in my documents folder, being absurdly long and refusing to stop existing. 😂

Thank you for your kindness, your patience, and for missing Chengwei almost as much as I do mwah! 😚

This is such a lovely message, oml🥹

But honestly... I don't think there's a perfect way to come back to writing after you've been away from it for a long time. Every time I've taken a break, I've come back feeling rusty and convinced that I've forgotten how to put a sentence together.

What helps me is lowering my expectations. Instead of trying to write something good, I focus on writing "something". A scene, a conversation, a paragraph—anything! Most of it never sees the light of day, but it helps me find my footing again.

I also think we're often much harsher on our own writing than anyone else is. The fact that you still want to write after all this time means that part of you is still there. It might just need a little patience and practice to wake up again sweetheart.

And oh my god, the fact that you've reread TEOU and talk about it to your family is making me emotional!! Skdjsksksk 😭❤️ Thank you for loving Chengwei and this story so much. Thank you for your kindness and for waiting so patiently. It means more than you know.