The More Tragic I Act, the Stronger I Get — My Fans Beg Me to Stop Killing Off My Roles-Chapter 181: Two Consecutive Deadly Matches

Sister Wang's words stunned Su Qingying.

The hardest?

Wasn't that precisely what she and Jiang Ci had just analyzed, Ling Xi and A Li, those two deaths of the heart spanning a thousand years?

Su Qingying held the white paper in her hand, her fingertip unconsciously rubbing back and forth along the crease, the paper whispering a faint rustle.

On the other side, Jiang Ci had just returned to the hotel and hadn't even had time to change his shoes when Lin Wan's call came through.

Lin Wan's voice on the other end had none of her usual teasing half-jokes.

"Just got the notice. For the script reading session the day after tomorrow, Zhang Mouyi specifically wants you and Su Qingying to act scenes opposite each other on site."

Jiang Ci made a short "hmm."

This was within his expectations; that was Zhang Mouyi's style.

"This isn't just a simple line read," Lin Wan spoke quickly, "he wants you two to perform two scenes back-to-back."

"A thousand years ago, Ling Xi seals Ye Chen."

"A thousand years later, A Li mistakenly injures Ye Chen."

Jiang Ci held the phone, silent.

Lin Wan continued, "That's giving you two levels of intensity right from the start."

When the call ended, Jiang Ci didn't think about pressure.

He thought about consecutively performing two ultimate tragedies.

Two completely different heartaches, in the same space, by the same set of actors, seamlessly connected.

The emotional impact would not be a simple addition, but an exponential explosion.

In both of these scenes the protagonist is Su Qingying — whether she could hold up under that, he wondered.

The next day, Jiang Ci didn't go out; he stayed in his room all day.

He spread out the Longing Across Time script and immersed himself in it again.

The story begins in the Shang Dynasty, where humans and demons coexist.

The half-demon Ye Chen, invincible in battle, falls in love with the legendary human shaman Ling Xi.

Their love is blazing and pure, unable to tolerate even a grain of sand.

Until the rupture.

Mistaking Ye Chen for a traitor, Ling Xi, in extreme pain and despair, draws the Heartstring Bow and, with an arrow steeped in hatred, nails him forever to the Divine Tree.

Love at its extreme becomes possession; when denied, it destroys.

Afterward, she uses her soul as the price to seal the demon army. Her spirit does not dissipate; she stays by the Divine Tree, guarding the lover she personally imprisoned, for a thousand years.

Jiang Ci's finger tapped lightly on the script.

The first layer of tragedy: established.

Lovers turned enemies, a sealing done by hand — this is the most classic motif in Bad Ending Aesthetics.

He turned the page.

A thousand years later, in the modern city, the shaman's descendant A Li accidentally travels back through a family heirloom, a moon-patterned bronze mirror.

At the Divine Tree she awakens the one who slept a thousand years, Ye Chen, whose soul and body are both riddled with wounds.

An arrogant, sharp-tongued ancient half-demon and a clever, kind modern girl.

They accompany each other through a perilous journey, and feelings quietly grow.

Ye Chen is moved by A Li's warmth and resilience; the heart frozen for a thousand years begins to crack.

A Li, too, falls for the half-demon who is all tough mouth and soft heart, who awkwardly pushes away the rice ball she offers yet silently throws his jacket over her when she falls asleep.

Yet fate's noose tightens again.

The son of the demon army's leader, Chi Jie, is resurrected and takes control of A Li's body.

Under the colossal tree of returning ruin, she is forced, in front of the man who has just opened his heart to her, to draw that Heartstring Bow she knows so well.

"No—!"

A Li weeps, fully conscious, yet her body becomes a puppet.

She watches, helpless, as the black arrow in her hand flies toward the man who approaches her without a shred of defense, who tries to wake her with tenderness.

The arrow pierces Ye Chen's shoulder; the tremendous force pins him fast to the massive tree behind him.

The posture mirrors Ling Xi's sealing of him a thousand years ago, not a degree different.

Fate's tragedy is perfectly replicated.

Jiang Ci closed the script, chest heavy.

The second layer of tragedy is harsher than the first.

Clearly they love each other, yet are forced to harm one another by hand.

The script's latter half raises the emotional intensity to a suffocating zenith. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

A Li breaks free of control and kisses the unconscious Ye Chen goodbye, only to be violently pulled back to the modern era by Ling Xi's jealous spirit;

then, driven by their profound love, she breaks the barrier of time, returns battered and bloodied, joins Ye Chen to defeat the great enemy, and finally they stay together.

The ending is HE.

But the process is enough to hollow out the audience's hearts.

Jiang Ci set the script aside, and a strange sense of anticipation rose from within him.

He was very curious how Su Qingying would portray these two diametrically opposed kinds of heartbreak.

And how he himself should receive those two lethal wounds that spanned a thousand years.

...

On Friday, the day of the script reading session.

Lin Wan personally drove to pick him up.

"Nervous?" Lin Wan kept her eyes on the road, voice steady.

"Not really." Jiang Ci watched the cityscape speeding past outside the window.

"A reminder." Lin Wan tapped the brakes lightly, letting the car glide smoothly into traffic. "It's not only the Creative Team who'll be there today."

"Daylight Entertainment's higher-ups, Su Qingying's company, will send people to oversee."

"Representatives from several major investors will also attend."

She turned the wheel and the car merged onto the main road leading to the film studio.

"So today isn't an internal workshop."

"It's a formal presentation aimed at capital."

The car arrived at the studio and stopped at the entrance of the largest screening hall, Hall 1.

Lin Wan killed the engine and patted Jiang Ci's shoulder.

"Show them the skills you used in The Legend of Han and Chu."

"Go on."

Jiang Ci opened the door and stepped inside.

The huge screening hall was dimly lit but full of silhouettes; a suppressed buzz filled the air.

He immediately spotted Gu Huai in the front row.

And beside Gu Huai, quietly sitting in a plain long dress, was Su Qingying.

As if by tacit understanding, Su Qingying lifted her head, her gaze cutting through the dark and the clustered heads to land precisely on him.

They locked eyes for an instant.

No words were spoken.

But from her extreme calmness, Jiang Ci read the same message.

This was a decisive battle that had to be won.

He found his seat and sat down, leaving an empty seat between him and Su Qingying.

With the attendees assembled, Zhang Mouyi stepped onto the temporary dais at the front of the hall, the huge screen behind him black as pitch.

He didn't touch a microphone, yet his measured voice cut through all the noise.

"Ladies and gentlemen, time is precious, so I won't waste words."

"You all read the script. But words are pale."

"To let all collaborators more directly feel the emotional core of this film—"

Zhang Mouyi paused and scanned the audience.

"I've decided to have my male and female leads perform, live, the two most important turning points from the script."

At his words, the murmur in the hall detonated; countless gazes instantly turned into spotlights, all focused on Jiang Ci and Su Qingying.

Curiosity, skepticism, expectation — more than anything, a relish for spectacle.

Everyone present knew Su Qingying's standards, and they were curious to see how this somewhat well-known young man would catch the scenes opposite a top actress.

Two back-to-back, killer scenes.

Under the heat of all those eyes,

Jiang Ci and Su Qingying rose from their seats together.

Side by side, they walked to the center of the area that had been cleared for them.

That was their stage.

In the silence, Zhang Mouyi's command sounded, opening the performance.

"Start with Ling Xi."