The King's Courtesy

*** A/N: Written for bluecalcite (@myeongyeolls).
Thank you so much and I hope you enjoy it. ^^

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A story being concluded does not mean the life of all characters involved in it also comes to an end. Though there are no more pages left to be read, the persona that has been brought to life, accompanying the readers from the beginning to the finish line, will continue to live on in the mind of the readers for as long as they aren't yet to be forgotten.

It is why a happy ending creates a smile on the reader's face, because they can imagine how the characters' life will become after the final resolution, how they will continue from the fate that has been written for them in the story.

It is why a tragedy leaves a bitter feeling in the reader's heart, because they can imagine how the characters are expected to cope following the devastating fate they have been made to receive, whether they will try to move forward or crumble to despair.

It is why an open ending fuels fan theories to sprout within the community, because every reader will come up with their own understanding of the story and outlook on the most probable way for it to continue, as well as the most logical conclusion to everything so as not leave the characters' fate hanging forever.

As an author, Airplane Shooting towards the Sky already had his fair share of experience seeing his readers on Zhongdian Literature coming up with all sorts of "opinions" on what would happen to the characters in his novels, especially when the story was still in progress and the latest chapters ended in cliffhangers. Some only went as far as casually wondering, some spent days and hours coming up with theories that could almost make up a whole new book. Some others chose to channel their imagination through various types of fanworks. It was quite fun to see, regardless of what takes those readers had to share with the community; Airplane-juju often found himself scrolling down on those fan theories while slurping on a cup of instant noodles, reading how they would ask, respond, and even fight to defend or attack each other's stance.

Naturally, none of those theories would affect him. He was the one who penned those stories; even if he had put down the final punctuation mark, he already had his own plan on what would happen to which character after the ending despite not writing it down for everyone to read.

But at the end of the day, neither the almighty author who birthed the fiction nor the readers who consumed said fiction would know how the characters they were so fiercely discussing felt about their life after the last page's conclusion. The author, especially, wouldn't even think about it since what he decided for those characters was something he deemed as the best course of action, considering everything that had happened in the story.

Which was why he wondered now whether the life he experienced at the moment could be some sort of karma after all the sufferings he had caused his novel characters to go through.

***

Shang Qinghua stumbled into the side chamber of his residence on An Ding Peak, letting himself crash face first onto the floor. There were a lot of things to blame and a lot of people to curse, but first and foremost he wanted to curse himself—or to be more precise, the him from his previous life who was Airplane Shooting towards the Sky.

Out of all the twelve peaks on Cang Qiong Mountain Sect, why must he make the life of those at An Ding Peak the most miserable?!

The Qiong Ding Peak led the sect. The Qing Jing Peak produced great scholars and the Bai Zhan Peak produced great warriors. Not one sect member could get their important sword elsewhere but the Wan Jian Peak and not one sect member never knocked on the door of Qian Cao Peak to get medical help. And would you look at all those graceful and strong beauties from Xian Shu Peak?