The More Tragic I Act, the Stronger I Get — My Fans Beg Me to Stop Killing Off My Roles-Chapter 312: The Darkness Hidden in Fairy Tales

Those words, "specifically prepared for those who don't behave," echoed for a long time in the damp cave.

After saying that, Lei Zhong did not look at Jiang Ci again, he turned and walked out of that den of sin.

That night, Jiang Ci (Jiang He) did not sleep.

The phrase "they spiked them" kept twisting through his nerves.

Right now he lay in the deepest darkness, sharing a bed with a devil.

It made him sharper, and it strengthened his resolve to remain undercover.

The next day.

Before dawn, the crew's coach rumbled again up the rough mountain road.

Jiang Wen thought the two leads had been excellent yesterday,

that taut, ready-to-snap tension was exactly what he wanted.

He immediately decided not to let the actors rest and to shoot a scene considered the turning point of the whole drama.

The bus stopped, Lei Zhong was the first to get off.

He did not look back, he walked straight ahead.

Jiang Ci followed silently.

The two walked single file through a field swaying in the morning mist.

Scarlet flowers bloomed all over the hills, eerily beautiful, and a strange sweet scent hung in the air.

Poppies.

Jiang Ci walked with an unreadable face, but the sweet smell in his nostrils made his stomach churn.

At the end of the path beyond the flower field, a building appeared that looked utterly out of place among the village's decay.

A two-story house painted snow-white, so clean it hurt the eyes.

More bizarre, a clear voice of children reading came from inside.

"Grass on the plain grows, then withers every year…"

A childish voice echoed through the sinister village camp, giving the scene a hair-raising, absurd quality.

Lei Zhong stopped in front of the small building, and surprisingly, a softness appeared on his face.

"This was built with my money."

He pointed at the white building and said to the man behind him.

On the sign by the door, a few gilded letters were stamped: Red River Hope Primary School.

"The children here are all orphans."

Lei Zhong's profile looked a little blurred in the morning light, 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

"They either lost their parents fighting, or their parents died from using. I felt sorry for them, so I took them in."

His tone was calm as he said it.

Jiang Ci (Jiang He)'s heart sank piece by piece.

They entered the little building.

In a bright, spacious classroom, dozens of children wearing crisp, neat uniforms

sat at desks reciting with a young female teacher.

When Lei Zhong entered, the children, far from being afraid, all stood up in unison.

"Hello, Uncle Cha Cai!"

On dozens of innocent, trusting faces, joy and admiration shone as if greeting a family member.

But to Jiang He, those clean smiles were more chilling than the lifeless reaction vessels in the drug factory.

He froze in place.

This school was not a front for money laundering at all.

This was a breeding ground for Cha Cai's death squads. The deepest pit of the den, an Eden cultivated with children's innocence.

These kids would grow up to be Cha Cai's most loyal dogs, the sharpest blades.

They would willingly kill, traffic drugs, do anything for the man who "adopted" them.

And they would think they were repaying a kindness.

Jiang He, playing Jiang He, watched Lei Zhong surrounded by the children and felt his blood run cold.

Lei Zhong, like a benevolent principal, patted each child's head and even took a few candies from his pocket to hand out.

Then he led Jiang Ci down the corridor to a supply storage room.

"Come in."

The storage room door was pushed open.

Inside were stacks of brand-new "charity supplies."

Backpacks printed with cartoon characters, brand-new pencil cases, and dozens of instrument cases in varying sizes.

Lei Zhong walked to a neatly stacked pile of books and casually picked up the top one.

It was a beautifully bound Andersen's Fairy Tales, a thick hardback with a colored illustration of the Little Mermaid and her prince on the cover.

He handed the book to Jiang Ci.

Jiang Ci reached out and took it.

The book felt absurdly heavy in his hands.

That weight was not something ordinary paper and a hard cover could produce.

Lei Zhong (Cha Cai) wore a smile that said he was immensely proud of his masterpiece.

He extended a rough, callused hand, and in front of Jiang Ci,

dragged his fingernail hard along the layered edge of the fairy tale book's cover.

Shrrrk—

The exquisite colored cover was slit open.

Underneath the tear, there was not the gray-yellow cardboard one would expect.

Instead, there was a layer of pure white sheets pressed flat and tight.

Behind the monitors.

The young female clapper loader, who had been responsible for props, instinctively covered her mouth,

her eyes full of horror.

The veteran makeup artist beside her turned deathly pale in an instant.

Thinking that this was adapted from real events, combined with the two lead actors' masterful performances,

this was more physiologically nauseating and terrifying than any prior bloody torture scene.

[Ping! Strong Heartbreak emotional fluctuation detected…]

[Heartbreak Value source: female crew on set (makeup artist, clapper loader)]

[Emotion assessment: utter evil, violated innocence… rage and heartbreak.]

[Heartbreak Value settlement: +221 points.]

[Remaining lifespan: 15 years 10 months 28 days.]

"Pretty, right?"

Lei Zhong smiled, enjoying the stiffness on Jiang Ci's face.

"This is my new invention."

He leaned in and whispered the introduction of his "masterpiece" to Jiang Ci.

"Through the charity donation channel, these 'lessons' are packed into love-school buses or taken out when students' art troupes go to perform, and shipped to cities inland."

"Who would check inside a group of children's backpacks, who would open a fairy tale book donated to a poor mountain school?"

His words were soft, but each one landed heavily on Jiang Ci's heart.

Jiang Ci's fingers stroked the fairy tale's beautiful cover.

On the cover, the little mermaid gazed up at the handsome prince with sorrow yet full of hope.

His fingertips trembled slightly without his control.

He had to respond.

A reaction that fit the role of "Jiang He."

He had to show astonishment, praise, even fanaticism toward this genius-level evil.

But inside, just like the Jiang He in the script, his world was already churning into hell.

Behind the monitors.

Jiang Wen sprang up from his chair, leaning forward toward the screen.

He watched the young man on screen clutching the Andersen book,

a mixture of shock and admiration slowly forming on his face.

This image—perfectly stitching absolute purity together with absolute evil…

this violent aesthetic!

Jiang Wen trembled uncontrollably with excitement.

In the storage room.

Jiang Ci lifted his face and looked at Lei Zhong.

At that moment there was nothing in his eyes but adoration.

"Uncle Cha Cai, you really are a genius."

That praise provided a perfect period to this lesson of evil that had just been taught in the supply room.