The More Tragic I Act, the Stronger I Get — My Fans Beg Me to Stop Killing Off My Roles-Chapter 169: What Does This KPI Have to Do With Whether the Kiss Scene Is Real?

After Wei Song's hoarse "Cut!", the film set didn't return to its usual bustle.

And in the center of this sorrowful magnetic field, a long-unheard system notification tone rang out in Jiang Ci's mind.

[Ding!...]

[Heartbreak Value +12 (Source: Lighting Technician Xiaohua)]

[Heartbreak Value +18 (Source: Set Assistant Xiao Liu)]

[Heartbreak Value +9 (Source: Set Assistant Xiao Jing)]

...

A dense cascade of numbers refreshed frantically on Jiang Ci's consciousness panel.

Right then, an exceptionally eye-catching golden prompt forcefully pushed aside all the other data streams.

[Detected strong heartbreak resonance from a core associate... Heartbreak Value +168 (Source: Zhao Yingfei)]

Below the golden prompt, a line of final settlement numbers slowly materialized.

[Settlement complete.]

[Total Heartbreak Value harvested this time: 368 points.]

[Reward: Life Extension Duration: 56 days.]

Jiang Ci stared at the two new numbers on the panel, falling into a brief daze.

[Remaining Life Duration: 1144 days]

[Heartbreak Value Balance: 4041 points]

He felt incredibly secure now.

"Bro! Brother! Are you okay?!"

Sun Zhou's voice pulled him back from the joy of the harvest to reality.

Several crew members rushed over, carefully helping him up from the cold "pool of blood."

Sticky "stage blood" smeared his face. Jiang Ci wiped it off somewhat dazedly, feeling as if he had abruptly awoken from a thousand-year-long, lingering dream.

The emotion isolation skill activated quietly.

The aura of the Hegemon was rapidly fading from his body.

That slightly aloof sense of clarity belonging to Jiang Ci was once again taking over this body.

Just then, Wei Song strode over.

He didn't waste words, simply reached out and gave Jiang Ci's shoulder a heavy slap.

"You kid, you really lived up to how highly I thought of you!"

Jiang Ci's gaze traveled over Wei Song's shoulder, through the agitated crowd, and landed precisely on the farthest corner of the film set.

Zhao Yingfei had already straightened up.

The tear stains on her face were wiped dry, but her eye rims were still frighteningly red.

Escorted by her assistant, without greeting anyone, she gave Jiang Ci a deep look, then turned and quickly disappeared through the set exit.

That look was too complex to decipher.

The atmosphere in the car back to the hotel was somewhat strange.

Sun Zhou sat in the passenger seat, trembling with excitement all over. He tried several times to say something but forcefully swallowed it back.

He secretly observed Jiang Ci in the back seat through the rearview mirror.

Jiang Ci had his eyes closed, leaning against the seatback.

He showed none of the excitement or exhaustion one would expect after just delivering a peak performance.

At this moment, he was taking the loneliness of being abandoned by the whole world, the despair of being powerless to turn the tide, the pride of persisting despite knowing it was futile—everything from Xiang Yu's final moments...

All of it, as the highest-grade "BE nourishment," was being carefully categorized and stored into his performance material library.

This was the ultimate tragic poignancy of a hero at the end of his road.

Just as Jiang Ci was conducting this internal review, a burst of urgent phone vibration shattered the quiet inside the car.

It was Sun Zhou's phone.

Sun Zhou answered the call, initially suppressing his excitement, nodding repeatedly.

"Mhm, mhm, hello, Teacher Gu Huai's assistant!"

"Yes, yes, we just finished filming, on the way back to the hotel."

But the next second, the expression on his face shifted from excitement to bewilderment.

The second after that, to shock.

He covered the mouthpiece, whirled his head around, his voice trembling and cracking from excitement, lowering it to a whisper.

"Bro!"

"It's Teacher Gu Huai's assistant... about 'Longing Across Time'..."

Sun Zhou swallowed hard, as if the news was too shocking, leaving him momentarily unable to find the words.

"The female lead 'A Li'... it's been finalized!"

Jiang Ci slowly opened his eyes.

Sun Zhou swallowed again, practically breathing out the name, word by word.

"Daylight Entertainment gave this role to their own double-award-winning Best Actress—Su Qingying!"

Su Qingying?

The aloof female lead in *Palace Conspiracy*, the one who helped him on set, the one whose strong recommendation got him the audition for Chu Wuchen in *Three Lifetimes Tribulation*.

An iceberg of a Best Actress with extremely strong professional skills.

Working with her again? That seems... not bad?

However, this thought only lasted for 0.01 seconds.

In the next instant, another memory exploded in his mind like a thunderbolt, striking with perfect precision!

It wasn't any of Su Qingying's award-winning works, nor was it her portrayal of the Enemy Princess in *Palace Conspiracy*.

It was that detail he saw while quickly browsing the script synopsis.

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

Kissing... Ye Chen's lips...

Kiss?!

Jiang Ci abruptly sat bolt upright in his seat!

The epic-level poignancy of "The Farewell My Concubine, The Wujiang River suicide," that sense of grand narrative destiny he was just immersed in, was instantly shattered!

Gone without a trace!

What followed was the return of the realistic awkwardness belonging to a pure, perpetually single 22-year-old male college student!

Only one thought remained, spinning wildly in his mind.

With Su Qingying?

Film a kiss scene?

This... this, this, this...

This directly relates to the core KPI for his next role!

Sun Zhou hadn't yet recovered from the shock of Su Qingying becoming the female lead.

Seeing his artist suddenly stiffen, he thought Jiang Ci was also stunned by the news.

Stammering, he added another piece of insider news that could shake the entire entertainment industry.

"And... Teacher Gu Huai's assistant said, Teacher Su Qingying is..."

"It was her... who actively recommended herself to Daylight Entertainment."

Boom!

The storm in Jiang Ci's mind escalated again.

Actively recommended?

Su Qingying herself is the pillar of Daylight Entertainment. Getting a female lead role wouldn't be difficult at all.

But everyone in the industry knows this Best Actress is famously against filming intimate scenes. The only movie she had a kiss scene in used camera angles to fake it, their lips didn't even touch.

A Best Actress who almost never films kiss scenes, actively volunteering to play a female lead who *has* a kiss scene?

What's the goal?

Jiang Ci's thinking instantly switched from the pure-hearted mode of "I'm so nervous about filming a kiss scene with a Best Actress" to the realistic mode of "how does a system worker guarantee his KPI."

Using camera angles to fake it might not affect the visual beauty of the shot.

But!

What about the audience's immersion? That real, hormonal impact from lips actually touching?

If the audience's empathy isn't strong enough, isn't real enough, then during those subsequent tragic plot points of separation, death, betrayal, and misunderstanding, wouldn't the "Heartbreak Value" they generate be significantly reduced?!

This is no joke!

This directly relates to his life extension duration!

It concerns his very life and livelihood!

On this matter, Su Qingying's personal willingness is one thing, but more importantly, it's the director!

Would the director allow this kind of "faked" filming that affects the sense of realism?

In that instant, all of Jiang Ci's anxiety focused on that director he hadn't even met yet.