The More Tragic I Act, the Stronger I Get — My Fans Beg Me to Stop Killing Off My Roles-Chapter 291: A Fashion Spread with an Old Cadre Vibe

The atmosphere on the top-floor soundstage of Spark Media was oppressive.

This was the photoshoot location for Vogue magazine, and also Chen Man's territory.

Chen Man, a "genius maverick" in the photography world, was famous for her eccentric temper.

She pursued a kind of unadorned realism,

Anyone who put on airs in front of her lens would be torn apart by her.

Today's photoshoot theme was "Deity in the Ruins." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The set was constructed from real construction debris, with twisted rebar and concrete rubble interlocking.

The styling team was busy bustling around Jiang Ci.

"This sheer-cut suit was specially airlifted from Milan; the tailoring is very bold."

The head stylist whispered an introduction while helping Jiang Ci adjust his collar.

The suit fabric was very thin, with large sheer-cut designs on the waist and back.

The air conditioning on the soundstage was turned up high. Jiang Ci only felt a chill run down his back,

and he instinctively hunched his shoulders slightly.

The movement was very subtle.

But Chen Man, behind the monitor not far away, caught it.

On her face, heavily made up with smoky eye makeup, impatience had already been brewing.

"Don't hunch like that, like someone who's never seen the world..."

The words reached her lips but got stuck.

Chen Man stared at the young man in the monitor feed.

He had instinctively hunched his shoulders slightly,

a physiological reaction against the cold, but it made him seem momentarily dazed.

His gaze swept over the surrounding real rebar and concrete rubble, and a sharp, stabbing sensation abruptly pierced his mind.

Wasn't the border safehouse occupied by drug dealers in the "Icebreaker" script also a ruin of humanity just like this?

He lowered his head slightly, trying to suppress that discomfort,

but the light in his eyes involuntarily dimmed.

Chen Man's brows furrowed even tighter, her mouth already shaped to start cursing.

But the next second, the impatience on her face suddenly froze.

What did she see? That wasn't a rookie's timidity in front of the camera; it was a kind of... emptiness, as if the soul had been completely stripped away.

"Wait a moment..." Chen Man's voice trembled.

Immediately after, she grabbed the walkie-talkie and growled an order: "Don't move! Everyone! Don't you fucking move! Just stay in this state!"

The stylists, frightened, immediately stepped back. The scene fell silent.

"Jiang Ci, you keep that exact look from just now." Chen Man's voice carried excitement. "Yes, just like that."

The shoot began in a bizarre atmosphere.

Jiang Ci stood amidst the ruins made of rebar and concrete.

He did nothing.

He was just thinking about the script.

Thinking about how the undercover agent codenamed "Ice Chisel" in "Icebreaker" was doubted, tested, and tortured day after day in the drug den.

Thinking about how "Ice Chisel," to pass on intelligence, personally sent his own comrade to their doom, then faced that gnawing guilt alone in the dead of night.

Thinking about how he was finally exposed, injected with an overdose of drugs, and saw his long-dead lover in the ensuing hallucinations.

Just thinking about these things, the muscle memory from the role began to reawaken.

That weariness, despair, and numbness originating from the character slowly seeped out from his bones, enveloping his entire body.

"Click!"

"Click! Click!"

Chen Man's finger became a blur on the shutter button,

her breathing grew heavy, occasionally squeezing out a few fragmented words through gritted teeth.

"Don't move... look at me...""Eyes... make them emptier..."

Her eyes held the fervor of discovering a rare treasure, muttering to herself: "...a god with broken wings."

The staff didn't dare breathe loudly. Looking at the figure amidst the ruins, they only felt a chill rising from the soles of their feet.

Mid-shoot break.

The moment Chen Man called cut, Jiang Ci immediately snapped out of that state.

Jiang Ci walked to the rest area and, from the backpack Sun Zhou handed him,

deftly pulled out a massive army-green thermos cup.

He unscrewed the lid, steam wafting up,

blew on it, then took a sip.

The scene fell into an eerie silence. All eyes were fixed on that thermos cup, expressions complicated and hard to describe.

The interview segment was scheduled during the break.

The Vogue reporter was already prepared. Seeing Jiang Ci sit down holding the thermos cup, she also felt a bit dazed,

but quickly adjusted, putting on a professional smile.

"Teacher Jiang Ci, hello. First, congratulations on the astonishing success of The Legend of Han and Chu."

"Thank you." Jiang Ci put down the thermos cup and nodded politely.

"There's a lot of discussion about you right now. Many people call you a 'phenomenon-level' actor, having gained massive traffic overnight,"

"What's your view on the term 'traffic'?"

This question was standard, but also easy to step into a trap.

Jiang Ci answered calmly, "Traffic is a double-edged sword."

The reporter was ready to record his following lengthy discourse.

But Jiang Ci abruptly changed tack.

"Just like Brother Kun, who went through being blacklisted by the entire internet, isn't he still a top star upon his return?"

He continued with the earnest attitude of discussing an academic problem.

"This proves that as long as one's professional skills are solid and the work can stand on its own, so-called traffic is just the icing on the cake, not the decisive factor."

"..."

The reporter's hand holding the pen froze mid-air.

She hadn't expected Jiang Ci to answer the question from such a uniquely bizarre angle.

And, to seriously use that "legendary man" as an example.

The entire rest area was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Sun Zhou, standing to the side, facepalmed internally, wailing.

Brother, can we not be so brutally honest?

The final set of styling.

As per Chen Man's request, the Props Team delivered a red rose in full bloom.

"Hold it." Chen Man's voice came through the lens. "I want you to destroy it."

Jiang Ci took the rose.

It had thorns.

What he thought of was the scene where "Ice Chisel," at the final moment,

to avoid leaking any information, used a shard of glass to end his own life.

His face showed no expression.

In those eyes was a barren wasteland, scorched earth.

In that instant, Chen Man pressed the shutter.

In the photo.

The rose was delicate and dewy, its color a vivid red.

Jiang Ci's hand was pale and slender, blue veins clearly visible beneath the skin.

Half of his face was covered in shadow, those eyes gazing coldly at the void beyond the lens.

"Cover! Use this one!"

Chen Man threw down the camera, rushed over, and grabbed Jiang Ci's hand.

"You are my muse! Absolutely my muse!"

Her grip was strong, making Jiang Ci's wrist ache. "I predict this issue will sell out! Completely sold out!"

The shoot ended.

Jiang Ci changed back into his own clothes and walked out of the soundstage amidst a mix of awed and curious stares.

Just after getting into the entourage van, Sun Zhou handed over a phone.

"Brother, a text from Screenwriter Yan Zheng."

Jiang Ci took the phone. On the screen was only a brief line of text.

"Kid, stop wandering around outside. The film crew needs you."

Outside the car window, an assistant jogged over and knocked on the window.

Sun Zhou rolled down the window.

The assistant, holding a black bag, was panting.

"Brother Sun Zhou, this is what Teacher Jiang forgot in the studio... the thermos cup."

Inside the car, Sun Zhou turned his head and saw Jiang Ci looking down at his phone, expression focused.

The entourage van slowly drove away.

At the soundstage entrance, the assistant stood holding the massive army-green thermos cup, utterly bewildered in the wind.

Beside him, another staff member leaned over, looking dreamy.

"Tell me... was that really him just now?"

"Who else could it be?"

"But why do I feel like he could shatter at any moment?"

"Maybe... it's an artist's common affliction."

At this moment, on Weibo, an anonymous account leaked a candid backstage photo.

In the photo, Jiang Ci was wearing the stunning sheer-cut suit that had captivated everyone,

but in his hands, he was holding an extremely mismatched army-green thermos cup, looking down and taking small sips of something.

The photo caption read: "LMAO, who gets it? One second a shattered deity, the next a retired old cadre."

The comments section instantly exploded.

"This sense of contrast, hahaha! Mom's precious son knows about health preservation now!"

"I declare, I'm getting a matching thermos cup immediately!"

"Am I the only one who noticed his waist? *drooling sounds* Who can resist this!"

Inside the car, Jiang Ci was looking down at his phone, searching for information about the Yunnan province border.

On the screen, a bold, black local news pop-up notification jumped out:

"Latest News: In a Yunnan border narcotics enforcement mission, one of our undercover narcotics officers has heroically sacrificed their life."

Jiang Ci's hand holding the phone tightened.