The More Tragic I Act, the Stronger I Get — My Fans Beg Me to Stop Killing Off My Roles-Chapter 166: Longing Across Time

The next day, at a teahouse in the capital known for its extreme privacy.

Inside the antique-themed private room, incense smoke curled upwards.

Gu Huai was already waiting there.

Seeing Jiang Ci enter, he did not rise, merely raising his hand indifferently to signal him to sit.

His demeanor was not that of meeting a junior, but more like examining a piece of work waiting to be carved. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

The tea was top-grade Jin Jun Mei, its liquor golden, its aroma rich.

"'Surgical-style acting'."

Gu Huai personally poured a full cup of tea for Jiang Ci, breaking the silence first.

His voice was flat.

"Your boss, Screenwriter Lin, her methods are indeed clever."

His evaluation was direct and sharp.

"But if the jade itself is not good jade, the most exquisite carving skill is just empty talk."

Gu Huai pushed a beautifully bound script synopsis towards Jiang Ci.

On the cover were seven flamboyantly written characters — 'Longing Across Time'.

Jiang Ci did not immediately pick it up.

He lifted the teacup, his movements neither hurried nor slow, first smelling the aroma, then taking a small sip.

Immediately, a perfectly appropriate smile spread across his face, carrying a touch of a junior's humility and familiarity.

"It's all Sister Wan's favor, Brother Huai, you flatter me."

He paused, the subject shifting; the previous pleasantries were just a formality.

"However, for Brother Huai to have resources of this level and still think of me, your little brother, first thing, I must toast you with this tea."

After speaking, he drained the warm tea in the cup in one go.

Gu Huai's gaze fixed on his face, his eyes showing not a trace of being moved by the flattery.

"I saw your state on the set of 'Three Lifetimes Tribulation'."

He completely ignored Jiang Ci's pleasantries and continued on his own.

"They said you were 'mentally ill'."

"I, however, believe it was a kind of absolute sacrifice."

"You weren't performing emotions at all; you were dissecting the character, then offering yourself up as a sacrificial offering, filling the role."

Gu Huai's evaluation even surprised Jiang Ci himself with its sense of being seen through.

"For the role of 'Ye Chen' that I want, I need a youth, and also a monster who has lived for a thousand years."

"I see that sense of fragmentation in you."

As his words fell, a brief silence settled in the private room.

Jiang Ci finally reached out and picked up that script synopsis.

'Longing Across Time'.

He began to skim through it quickly.

The story tells of a love story between a half-demon, half-human named 'Ye Chen' who has lived for a thousand years, and a female college student named 'A Li' who time-travels back to the Shang Dynasty capital.

Jiang Ci's brain instantly activated its 'Bad Ending Aesthetics' scanning mode as he read.

Those sweet interactions between the male and female leads, the happy ending where they live happily ever after, were automatically filtered out by his thinking.

His attention focused precisely on those key nodes that could provide him with 'life value'.

His finger slowly traced across the page.

The first core 'heartbreak' node was found.

[In the Shang Dynasty capital, the half-demon Ye Chen was once sealed in the Divine Tree for a thousand years by his lover—the witch Ling Xi—using the Heartstring Arrow.]

In the voice-over script before the opening:

Shang Dynasty capital, humans and demons coexisted. The half-demon Ye Chen once loved the legendary witch Ling Xi, but due to a misunderstanding, they turned against each other. Ling Xi sealed him in the Divine Tree with the Heartstring Arrow, then used her soul to seal the demon army and the spirit jade, her soul lingering!

Betrayed by a beloved.

Not bad.

This is a classic BE motif, with a wide audience and strong emotional impact.

The pain of betrayal, mixed with confusion and despair, can easily move the tear ducts of female viewers.

It belongs to a high-efficiency, high-yield source of 'Heartbreak Value'.

He continued reading.

The second core 'heartbreak' node appeared.

[When A Li is controlled by a great demon, she remains conscious. Knowing she loves Ye Chen but unable to control her body, she tearfully shoots through his shoulder and nails him to the Divine Tree, watching her lover get injured with her own eyes yet powerless to stop it. Inner guilt and pain intertwine to the extreme, also recreating the trauma Ye Chen suffered a thousand years ago, maximizing the double sting.]

Harmed a second time by an innocent lover.

This... is a bit interesting.

If the first sealing was the 'pain of betrayal,' then this time it's the 'sorrow of fate.'

The one harming him is innocent, unwilling, perhaps even suffering more than he is.

This adds a layer of powerlessness beyond simple betrayal.

For the audience, they will feel sorry for both the male and female leads simultaneously.

That heartache with nowhere to vent will ultimately pour entirely onto the character of Ye Chen.

In terms of emotional intensity, this kind of 'misaligned harm' is more advanced than 'direct betrayal.'

Heartbreak potential, enormous.

He continued turning the page, searching for the next explosive point.

The third core 'heartbreak' node surfaced.

[Ling Xi, in spirit form, watches A Li and Ye Chen embrace and kiss. Her deeply hidden love turns into sharp jealousy. She both stings A Li with "the one who hurt Ye Chen is you" and forcibly separates the two. Her unrequited love and loss of composure are full of tragic sense; and when A Li is forcibly sent away by Ling Xi, her heart-rending cries for Ye Chen yet powerlessness to resist, the pain of separation strikes directly at the heart.]

Separated by time and space, never to meet again, even forgotten.

This is the ultimate Unresolved Injustice.

After all the previous harm, finally reconciliation and love arrive, only to be utterly crushed by a grander, irresistible law of fate.

Immediately after, Jiang Ci found the fourth 'heartbreak' node.

[After A Li returns to the modern world, her mind is filled with images of harming Ye Chen, his unconscious state. Knowing the great demon Chi Jie is powerful, she still desperately wants to travel back regardless. The concern, guilt, and determination under the barrier of time and space hide the extreme anxiety of "afraid I can't go back, afraid something will happen to him." The sense of torment is intense.]

The pinnacle of Bad Ending Aesthetics!

Jiang Ci almost wanted to slap the table in admiration right then and there.

The BE concentration of this role is simply outrageously high!

Just as he was inwardly rejoicing wildly over this 'manna from heaven,' his gaze inadvertently swept over a detail description in the synopsis.

[...A Li leans down pityingly, gently kissing the lips of the unconscious Ye Chen...]

...gently kissing...

Kiss?

Kissing scene?!

Jiang Ci's brain short-circuited for half a second.

As a pure-hearted male university student who had been single since birth for twenty-two years, his brief acting career had never experienced such a scenario.

This kind of intimate lip-to-lip contact... was beyond the syllabus!

This thought exploded in his mind, causing a small internal uproar.

The next second, a powerful survival instinct and an actor's self-discipline forcibly pulled his chaotic thoughts back on track.

Jiang Ci even began to seriously contemplate a brand new question.

Is there a clear data difference in the 'Heartbreak Value' generated from audience empathy between simulated filming and real filming?

If real filming could make the audience's sense of immersion stronger, thereby producing more intense 'heartbreak' effects at subsequent tragic nodes...

Across from him, seeing Jiang Ci silent for a long time, lost in thought, Gu Huai assumed he was weighing the difficulty of the role and the pros and cons of accepting it.

Gu Huai picked up his teacup and took a small sip.

"The choice for the female lead 'A Li' is crucial."

He added.

"This role needs innocence, but not stupidity; needs kindness, but also growth. There's no conclusion yet."

Gu Huai put down his teacup and looked at Jiang Ci again.

"But I hope you can give me a verbal commitment for the role of 'Ye Chen'."

"Reserve your schedule for him."

Jiang Ci finally snapped out of his academic contemplation about 'kissing scene output rates.'

He put down the script, looked up at Gu Huai, his face wearing a perfectly appropriate expression of seriousness and gravity.

"Brother Huai, the scenes for Xiang Yu in 'The Legend of Han and Chu' won't be wrapped for at least another month at the earliest."

Gu Huai nodded, having anticipated this.

"No rush."

His reply carried the certainty and composure belonging to a top-tier actor.

"The choice for the female lead isn't decided either."

"This role has extremely high demands on the actor. I'd rather wait than settle."