The More Tragic I Act, the Stronger I Get — My Fans Beg Me to Stop Killing Off My Roles-Chapter 172: Does Your Face Hurt? Come Out and Take Your Beating!

April 10th, 9:59 AM.

The air in the hotel room was tense.

Sun Zhou was pacing back and forth anxiously, phone in hand.

"Brother! One minute left!"

"It's almost ten o'clock!"

"My heart is about to jump out of my throat!"

On the carpet, Jiang Ci sat cross-legged, the screen of the tablet before him emitting a faint glow.

What was on the screen wasn't a script or a movie.

It was an academic paper titled "The Application of Fluid Dynamics in the Splatter of Simulated Blood for Film and Television Special Effects."

He was completely absorbed in reading it.

Hearing Sun Zhou's wail, Jiang Ci didn't even look up, asking calmly instead.

"How's that kiss scene research report I asked you to write coming along?"

Sun Zhou stumbled, nearly falling to his knees on the spot.

"Brother! Ancestor! What time is it! And you're still worried about that!"

His voice trembled, almost breaking into a sob.

"Millions of eyes across the entire internet are watching! Success or failure hinges on this moment! Today, you either soar to the heavens, or get blacklisted by the entire web again!"

Jiang Ci finally deigned to shift his gaze from the paper, glancing at him.

"Oh."

"Then keep your voice down. Be more composed."

Sun Zhou: "..."

He gave up on communication entirely.

He seriously suspected that his artist's mental state might genuinely require a consultation with the top medical experts.

The second hand on the wall completed its final tick.

Exactly 10:00 AM.

Sun Zhou's finger reflexively jabbed the refresh button hard.

On the official Weibo account of *Longing Across Time*, a brand new post popped up right on time.

No fancy copy.

No lengthy introduction.

Just one line of minimalist text and a single accompanying image.

[The Millennium Promise, An Old Friend Returns.]

Beneath the text, it tagged an ID.

@Jiang Ci.

The accompanying image wasn't the polished, finalized character poster everyone expected either.

It was a CG concept art piece brimming with narrative.

The night sky hung low, a waterfall of stars.

Beneath the sprawling, ancient branches of a colossal, primordial-looking divine tree, a solitary figure clad in tattered battle armor stood, gazing up at the endless starry expanse.

His face couldn't be seen.

But the sense of tragedy, of destiny, and the loneliness of being abandoned by the entire world that pierced through the screen, seized everyone's breath in an instant.

Sun Zhou's mouth fell slightly open.

He stared dumbly at the Weibo post.

"That's... that's it?"

"Nothing else?"

Jiang Ci's attention, however, was completely captivated by that accompanying image.

This composition.

This play of light and shadow.

The storytelling conveyed by this single silhouette...

It was brilliant!

This was practically the textbook example of Bad Ending Aesthetics!

Just as he was seriously analyzing the "heartbreak potential" of this image, the Weibo comments section, after a bizarre, deathly silence lasting dozens of seconds, exploded.

The screen was instantly flooded and completely buried under a tidal wave of question marks.

"?????????"

"Holy shit? What's going on? Did the official account get hacked?"

"@Jiang Ci? Who's that? Don't know him! No such person found!"

"I stayed up all night waiting for this, and this is what you show me? What kind of international joke is the production team playing?"

"Did the editor's finger slip? Did they accidentally tag some crew assistant's name?"

"Jiang Ci... that name sounds vaguely familiar... damn, can't remember."

Following the brief bewilderment came a mountain-toppling, tsunami-like wave of doubt and anger.

All the eagerly awaiting netizens, fans, and onlookers were collectively dumbfounded.

They were expecting a royal flush.

What they got instead was a dud that didn't even make a sound.

Watching those comments, Sun Zhou's heart, which had just settled, immediately leapt back into his throat. His hands and feet turned cold.

"It's... it's over..."

"Brother, they don't accept it! They all think it's a mistake!"

However, before his words even finished falling.

On the phone screen, a brand new repost notification popped up with an undeniable, forceful presence.

It was Gu Huai.

That young Film Emperor who rarely engaged on social media, had reposted this official announcement.

The accompanying text was just two extremely simple words.

"Waiting for you."

Sun Zhou's breathing hitched abruptly.

He stared at those two words, feeling like he was hallucinating.

Before he could even recover from this massive shock.

Another repost notification followed right on its heels.

It was Su Qingying.

That equally aloof, reticent Ice Queen Best Actress had also reposted it.

Her accompanying text was also two words.

"Pleased to meet you."

The comments section, which had just been frantically spamming "mistake" and "hacked" a second ago, instantly fell into a deathly silence.

Everyone was stunned by this one-two punch.

Two powerhouse actors standing at the absolute pinnacle of the entertainment industry had personally stepped onto the field.

One after the other.

One saying "Waiting for you."

The other saying "Pleased to meet you."

This completely shattered any delusion of "the official account being hacked."

A few seconds later.

An even fiercer storm swept in.

"Holy fuck! What am I seeing?! Gu Huai and Su Qingying both stepped in at the same time!"

"So... that Jiang Ci guy, he's really the male lead?!"

"I'm dumbfounded! I'm genuinely dumbfounded! What kind of magical plot twist is this!"

"Wait a minute! So the 'old friend' Gu Huai mentioned before was him? And Su Qingying's like was also for him?!"

"Ahhhhhhh! So who the hell is this Jiang Ci anyway!!!"

The Weibo trending chart refreshed at a pace that seemed to violate the laws of physics.

#WhoIsJiangCi#

This hashtag briefly appeared on the trending chart.

Then, it was immediately and mercilessly crushed underfoot by a new hashtag trailing a blood-red "EXPLOSIVE" tag.

#TheMysteriousManIsJiangCi#

At this moment, all the fans of various stars who had been fighting tooth and nail online, photoshopping images and writing ten-thousand-word essays for the role of "Ye Chen," collectively lost their voices.

Their idols, whether top-tier traffic stars or respected mid-career actors, had all become a joke in this silent contest.

The marketing accounts that had been confidently analyzing just days ago that the male lead must be some Film Emperor or another...

Their comment sections, after Jiang Ci's die-hard fans arrived, were completely overrun by one unified phrase.

"@SeniorIndustryMelonFarmer, does your face hurt?"

"@EntertainmentGossipSis, does your face hurt?"

"@FilmTVProphet, come out and take your beating! Does your face hurt?"

The entire court of public opinion completed a mind-boggling, earth-shattering reversal.

The wind was no longer blowing to question Jiang Ci's "qualifications."

It had shifted towards a near-frenzied curiosity and desire to investigate.

Sun Zhou held up his phone, dumbstruck.

He looked at the marketing accounts getting their faces slapped on the screen. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

The panic of the previous moment transformed into the ecstasy of the next.

He could no longer hold back, letting out a thunderous burst of laughter.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Brother! Do you see this! They're all stunned! They're all asking who you are! HAHAHAHA this feels so good!"

Jiang Ci didn't react much.

His brain was operating at high speed, seriously analyzing a problem.

Gu Huai's "Waiting for you" carried familiarity and expectation.

Su Qingying's "Pleased to meet you" carried politeness and distance.

What kind of emotional expectations would these two completely different attitudes create for the audience?

What kind of groundwork would this information asymmetry lay for the progression and reversal of character relationships in the subsequent plot?

Would this also affect the final efficiency of "Heartbreak Value" production?

Right at that moment.

Sun Zhou's laughter cut off abruptly as he shoved the phone right in front of Jiang Ci's face.

"Brother! Look quick! Another one!"

On the screen, a netizen with the ID "IndustrySherlockHolmes" had just posted a lengthy analytical thread.

This Weibo post had already surpassed ten thousand reposts and likes within just a few minutes and was continuing to grow at a terrifying rate.

It had ignited the entire internet.

Sun Zhou's finger was trembling as he pointed to the very beginning of the long post and read it aloud.

"Stop guessing, the clues have been there all along. Let's put the resumes of Gu Huai, Su Qingying, and Jiang Ci side by side and look."