The More Tragic I Act, the Stronger I Get — My Fans Beg Me to Stop Killing Off My Roles-Chapter 207: The Self-Cultivation of a "Foodie"

The entire film crew was frozen in place.

Hours of continuous high-intensity emotional filming had swept through everyone on set.

The wrap-up call had already been given.

But no one was making noise, no one was rushing to pack up.

All the crew members moved slowly, stealing glances at the two figures in the rest area.

It didn't feel like they were looking at two actors who had just finished filming.

It felt more like they were watching a real couple who had just experienced a devastating separation, their life force completely drained by tears.

In the corner, Su Qingying sat on a chair.

Her assistant had already helped her remove all her makeup and change back into her everyday clothes.

She held the thermal cup she always carried with her, her fingertips unconsciously tracing over the smooth surface of the cup, over and over again.

It was a muscle memory.

The kind of desperate futility "A Li" felt when she was swept away by the torrent of time, trying with all her might but still unable to grasp "Ye Chen's" blood-stained sleeve.

The cup wall felt cool to the touch.

Unable to grasp it.

That torn, blood-soaked sleeve was just as impossible to hold onto.

The assistant watched from the side, opening her mouth several times but unable to squeeze out a single word.

She felt that Su Qingying's body had returned.

But her soul was still trapped under that damned Divine Tree.

On the other side.

After confirming the long string of pleasing numbers on his system panel, Jiang Ci completed the switch in the state of his soul's depths.

He seamlessly switched from "BE Aesthetics tragic male lead" mode back to "Staying Alive is Priority, Foodie" mode.

Life safety was a long road ahead.

But the stomach was always innocent.

He was just about to call Sun Zhou over to have an extremely serious discussion about tonight's late-night snack.

Should it be the boiling, scalding nine-grid spicy hotpot, or the tender, smooth, and fresh-sweet Chaoshan beef hotpot.

A gaze fell upon him.

Jiang Ci looked up.

Su Qingying stood up.

She told her assistant to stay where she was and walked toward him alone.

Her steps were steady, each stride uniform in distance.

But Jiang Ci noticed.

Her walking path deliberately avoided an empty patch of ground.

That was exactly where "Ye Chen" had fallen after being "killed" by A Li earlier.

Jiang Ci understood now.

His Best Actress partner was trapped.

Trapped quite deeply.

Su Qingying stopped in front of him, without any unnecessary small talk.

She took a piece of paper from her pocket.

The paper was slightly crumpled, the corners curled up, betraying the owner's true inner turmoil.

It was the variety show notice for "The Yearning for Mundane Fireworks Daily Life."

She handed the notice to Jiang Ci.

"Are you sure you're taking this?"

Her voice was a bit dry, a lingering effect from the heart-wrenching crying scene earlier.

She looked at Jiang Ci, her gaze full of inquiry.

Beneath that inquiry, there was a tension she herself hadn't even noticed.

Jiang Ci took it.

To go, or not to go?

From a life-extension perspective, his life span was temporarily safe for now, but living off past gains was a major taboo in strategy.

Thinking long-term, maintaining exposure would create opportunities to access more good scripts, and more chances to harvest Heartbreak Value.

Moreover...

Jiang Ci scratched his head and chose to be honest.

"I'll probably go."

He looked at the paper, analyzing very seriously.

"After all, the appearance fee they're offering is quite high."

"And I've heard the food at that place is really good."

Jiang Ci looked up, a pure light flickering in his eyes, and added.

"I heard Teacher Huang Yulei's cooking makes every guest who goes gain weight each episode."

He was speaking purely from the ultimate yearning of a foodie.

But when these words fell into Su Qingying's ears, her brain automatically decoded them into another, completely different meaning.

Appearance fee?

Food?

These two overly mundane words were automatically filtered out by her.

What she caught was the inadvertent yearning for "mundane daily life" on Jiang Ci's face when he said those words.

So, he was the same.

He also needed to escape from that tragic, suffocating world.

He also needed the most real, down-to-earth aspects of life to heal the soul hollowed out by "Ye Chen."

Those seemingly flippant reasons were just a layer of disguise he wore to cover up how deeply he had immersed himself in the role.

A kind of understanding, shared between fellow actors, struck her.

She nodded gently. All her previous hesitation and uncertainty were blown away by the wind in this moment.

"Alright."

"Then I'll go too."

Her reply was plain but firm.

Jiang Ci was taken aback.

He had just said it casually; why did it feel like the other party had made some major resolution?

Out of basic courtesy, he asked in return.

"Did Teacher Su come to ask me specifically because you're worried that a newcomer like me... might say something inappropriate on the variety show and affect the movie's publicity?"

He thought this was a senior giving professional guidance to a junior.

Su Qingying didn't explain.

She just looked at him deeply.

That look held complex emotions.

There was relief, resolve, and a sense of security she herself hadn't realized.

She turned and waved to her assistant in the distance.

The assistant hurried over, holding a document and a pen.

Su Qingying took the pen.

Right in front of Jiang Ci, on the variety show contract she had never considered before and had even instinctively resisted, she neatly signed her name.

Su Qingying.

Three characters, with elegant, forceful strokes.

The assistant beside her almost had her eyes pop out.

She signed it?

She really signed it?

That Su Qingying, who hadn't accepted any variety shows for ten years, who had "focus on acting" engraved in her bones, signed it just because Jiang Ci was going?

After signing, Su Qingying handed the contract back to her assistant.

She turned and looked at Jiang Ci again, adding.

"Get a good rest tonight."

"Tomorrow's scene is a major one."

Listening to her words, Jiang Ci felt something was off.

He naturally replied.

"Teacher Su, you should rest early too."

He paused, adding sincerely.

"After all, for tomorrow's scene, you are the protagonist."

That confrontation of destiny spanning a thousand years, that war between the two souls of Ling Xi and A Li—she was the absolute core.

Su Qingying's body stiffened slightly.

Looking at Jiang Ci's sincere face, the words at the tip of her tongue were swallowed back.

She didn't say anything more, nodded gently, and turned to leave.

Jiang Ci watched her retreating back, still somewhat confused.

This Best Actress's way of doing things was really... swift and decisive.

He didn't know.

The reason Su Qingying signed that variety show contract,

was because the moment she turned around, the image of "Ye Chen" nailed to the Divine Tree, blood and tears streaming from the corners of his eyes in her mind,

overlapped and then separated clearly for the first time with the Jiang Ci before her, seriously discussing hotpot flavors.