The More Tragic I Act, the Stronger I Get — My Fans Beg Me to Stop Killing Off My Roles-Chapter 288: The Tyrant’s Suicide on the Screen
At the banks of the Wu River, the wind howled.
On the screen, the action of Xiang Yu weighing the sword in his hand,
was a single frame stretched into an infinitely magnified slow-motion shot, deeply branded into the minds of everyone in the theater.
The internet's carnival of jokes, that "quality inspector" pose photoshopped into countless memes,
in this moment, overlapped with the blood-stained, despairing man before their eyes.
The next second.
Xiang Yu, played by Jiang Ci, swung the sword.
The action had no hesitation, it was fast, precise, and ruthless.
The feeling of resistance as the blade cut through skin.
The brief, muffled *pfft* sound as blood gushed from the carotid artery.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye.
Then.
Xiang Yu's body fell.
It slowly went limp,
and fell, with no dignity whatsoever, into the cold, muddy water at the banks of the Wu River.
"Thud!"
That dull thump, transmitted through the theater's top-tier sound system,
was a heavy hammer, solidly smashing into the hearts of every audience member present.
A generation's Hegemon.
Thus, his curtain fell.
The screen plunged into complete darkness.
The movie was over.
Everyone was still imprisoned on that wind-and-snow-swept bank of the Wu River,
watching that corpse lying in the mud, unable to tear themselves away.
Until, in the dark theater, the first suppressed, tear-choked sob sounded.
"Wah..."
In a corner, a young female reporter could no longer hold back,
covering her mouth, she let out a wail.
This wail was like a signal.
The grief suppressed to its extreme in the entire theater was completely ignited.
Immediately after.
"Clap."
"Clap clap clap clap—"
No one knew who started clapping first.
The applause went from sparse, to dense, finally converging into a thunderous roar.
Mixed within the applause were uncontrollable cries, sobs, and shouts.
Everyone stood up, clapping with near-manic fervor.
They weren't applauding for a movie.
They were paying tribute to a hero's curtain call.
They were venting the emotions that had just been utterly crushed and then reshaped.
First row.
Director Wei Song sat in the darkness, listening to the mountain-shaking, sea-roaring applause and cries around him.
He didn't move, he just closed his eyes.
It's done.
Jiang Ci.
Tonight, he ascends to godhood.
The theater lights came on amidst this frenzied atmosphere.
The light was somewhat glaring, making many audience members with red, crying eyes instinctively raise their hands to shield themselves.
The figures of the creative team appeared on the stage.
Jiang Ci, Zhao Yingfei, Qin Feng...
When the audience saw that Jiang Ci on stage, wearing a dark red velvet suit,
tall and straight, clean and neat, an intense sense of unreality seized everyone.
Was it the same person?
That Hegemon who had just ended his own life in the most tragic way in the muddy waters of the Wu River.
And this aloof, detached young man standing outside the world before them.
The host walked onto the stage, the microphone in his hand even trembling slightly.
He too had just struggled out of that ultimate tragedy, his eyes rimmed red.
"I... I think, right now, any words are pale."
"Thank you... thank you, Director Wei, thank you to all the creators, for bringing us such a... great work."
His voice carried a heavy nasal tone.
Below the stage, the cries and applause gradually subsided, but the thick, lingering air of grief in the space remained.
"Next is... the audience Q&A session."
The host handed the microphone toward the audience.
Almost instantly, dozens of hands shot up high.
The host spotted the bespectacled young man in the third row at a glance.
He had cried the hardest, his glasses still fogged with moisture now, his whole person a complete mess.
"Let's... let's have that gentleman."
The bespectacled young man was handed the microphone by a staff member, he stood up trembling.
The entire venue instantly fell silent, all eyes in the theater focusing on him.
He looked at Jiang Ci on stage, opened his mouth, but due to excessive excitement and grief, couldn't utter a single word.
Finally, as if using all the strength in his body, he choked out the sharpest question swirling in everyone's minds.
"Tea... Teacher Jiang..."
"I want to ask... at the Wu River bank, at the end... why did you weigh the sword like that?"
As this question left his mouth, the entire venue once again fell into a breathless silence. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎
Everyone stared at Jiang Ci on stage.
They needed an answer.
An answer that could put a final period on this tragic tragedy.
Jiang Ci took the microphone from the host.
He stood under the spotlight, his handsome face showing no extra expression.
He was really thinking about this question very seriously.
After a few seconds.
He raised his head and answered.
"Because the film crew prepared two swords. One was used for the previous fight scenes, it was lighter, they were worried it would affect the effect."
"The one I weighed was solid carbon steel, its weight distribution was a bit biased toward the tip."
He paused, then continued in that same flat, matter-of-fact tone used to explain physical phenomena.
"I was afraid my hand would slip."
"If the angle was wrong when cutting, or the force wasn't enough, the blood effect wouldn't come out, and we'd have to do it again."
"That would be too troublesome."
"..."
The entire theater fell into a silence more eerie than when the movie ended.
Everyone was stunned.
The bespectacled young man's mouth hung open, staring dumbly at Jiang Ci on stage, even forgetting to wipe the tear tracks on his face.
Troublesome?
Afraid... of trouble?
After a brief silence.
"WAAAAAH—!!!!"
The bespectacled young man suddenly seemed to have the last shred of his sanity ripped away, covered his face, and burst into loud, unrestrained sobs.
Those sobs were even more heart-wrenching than when he was watching the movie.
The audience, who had been stunned just a second ago by Jiang Ci's overly blunt, 'straight-man' answer,
were in this moment struck by a thunderbolt, and they "understood"!
Oh my god!
What were they listening to!
Afraid of his hand slipping? Afraid the effect wouldn't be good? Afraid of trouble?
He wasn't acting!
He was using the most rigorous, coldest method to pursue the most perfect "death"!
"Oh my god... how can he act like this..."
"He's using his life to tell us that even in death, Xiang Yu died with such pride, not allowing the slightest bit of hesitation or failure..."
"I was wrong... I was really wrong! I shouldn't have made jokes about his performance! I deserve to die!"
A girl cried so hard she almost slid off her chair, her companion held her, the two of them crying together.
The entire theater's grief, after Jiang Ci's statement that could be called an "atmosphere destroyer",
not only wasn't dispelled, but was pushed to an even more frenzied climax.
On stage, Wei Song, Qin Feng, Zhao Yingfei, and the others all looked at Jiang Ci with horrified expressions.
They were dumbfounded too.
They also thought Jiang Ci would say something profound, some artistic insight.
And the result... was this?
Zhao Yingfei looked at the man beside her with that innocent face,
who seemed to completely not understand why everyone was crying even harder,
the corner of her mouth twitched uncontrollably.
She had an impulse to pry open his brain and see what exactly its structure was.
And amidst this deafening cacophony of crying.
Only Jiang Ci heard another, completely different sound.
[Ding!]
[Detected group-level destructive heartbreak resonance! Triggered epic-level Heartbreak Value storm!]
[Heartbreak Value +188!]
[Heartbreak Value +128!]
[Heartbreak Value +168!]
...
