The More Tragic I Act, the Stronger I Get — My Fans Beg Me to Stop Killing Off My Roles-Chapter 57: A Mother’s Worry When Her Son Travels Far Away
Facing Zhao Zhen and Chen Mo's gazes that were like beholding prehistoric relics, Jiang Ci simply bent over calmly, leisurely rolled up the yoga mat, and stuffed it back under the bed.
It was as if the "Jiang Ci" causing massive waves online had absolutely nothing to do with him.
He patted the dust off his hands and picked up the campus card on the table.
"I'm going to the library to look up some background information about 'Rhinoceros in Love'."
After saying that, under the stares of two pairs of dazed eyes, he pushed the door open and left, his steps steady, without a single ripple of disturbance.
Zhao Zhen and Chen Mo looked at each other.
After a long moment, Zhao Zhen finally spoke with difficulty, "He... just left like that?"
Chen Mo adjusted his glasses, complex light reflecting off the lenses.
"I understand now."
"What?"
"He no longer cares about these worldly, empty reputations."
Chen Mo's tone carried reverence. "When a person stands high enough, the praise and slander from the outside world are merely the sound of wind at the foot of the mountain. We're still on the first floor, thinking he's on the fifth, but in reality, he's already in the stratosphere."
Zhao Zhen: "..."
He thought Chen Mo had gone mad too.
Of course, Jiang Ci wasn't indifferent.
He just understood better than anyone that this so-called "heat" and "fans" were utterly worthless.
Just moments ago, he had stared unblinkingly at the system interface.
Watching the storm rage online, yet the Heartbreak Value balance representing his life remained completely unmoved.
346.
The life countdown also continued second by second.
【Life Countdown: 108 days, 10 hours, 50 minutes...】
It constantly reminded Jiang Ci that the online revelry was nothing but an empty bubble.
Only on stage, in front of the camera, using a role to tear open the audience's emotional defenses, making them shed genuine "tears" of real feeling, could that be converted into the seconds and minutes he needed to survive. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂
Stepping out of the dorm building, hit by the December cold wind, Jiang Ci shivered, took out his phone.
He didn't go to the library. Instead, he found a sheltered corner and dialed that number he knew by heart.
The phone rang twice before being picked up.
"Hello? Xiao Ci?"
Hearing his mother's familiar voice, the restlessness stirred up by the online storm in Jiang Ci's heart was instantly soothed.
He deliberately made his voice sound light, cheerful, with a hint of small triumph.
"Mom, have you gone to bed yet?"
"Just finished showering, about to watch some TV. What about you, son? How are things at the film set? If you feel tired, you should let yourself rest a bit, catch your breath!"
The string of concern made Jiang Ci's nose sting a little.
He smiled, cleared his throat, and began his "good news report" in an offhand tone.
"Mom, I haven't been at the film set lately, I'm back at school."
"Let me tell you something. I've recently achieved a tiny little bit of success in my work."
Mother Jiang on the other end was clearly happy. "Really? What success? Did you get a bonus?"
"The bonus is a minor thing." Jiang Ci deliberately built suspense. "It's just... I have fans on Weibo now."
"Fans? Is that... the thing only celebrities on TV have?"
"Yes, yes, that's the one!" Jiang Ci held back a laugh. "Not many, just... about one point five million."
The other end of the line fell into a long silence.
Jiang Ci could even hear the sound of the weather forecast from his mother's TV.
After a full half minute, Mother Jiang finally asked in an extremely uncertain, bewildered tone, cautiously,
"One point five million... how many people is that?"
"Well..." Jiang Ci was stumped. He thought for a moment and found the most intuitive reference. "Roughly, equivalent to the entire population of our county town, men, women, old, and young, all added together, and then multiplied by three."
The other end of the line fell into dead silence again.
This silence was even longer than before.
Jiang Ci could imagine his mother right now, eyes wide open, trying hard to construct that grand scene of "county times three" in her mind.
What he didn't know was that behind this silence was not joy, but deeper, unshakeable worry.
Jiang Ci had been sensible since childhood.
That year when he was ten, when the uniformed uncle delivered the casket covered with the national flag to their home, overnight, he transformed from a mischievous child into a quiet, serious "little adult."
He would proactively do housework, save the chicken drumsticks from school for his mom, and after every exam, neatly place the perfect-score test paper on the table.
Reporting only good news, never the bad, became a habit etched into his bones.
But the more he was like this, the more anxious Mother Jiang felt.
Looking at the bank card on the coffee table, which had received an extra three hundred thousand not long ago, and then thinking about the abstract, terrifying "one point five million" mentioned on the phone, her heart was a mess of conflicting emotions.
What on earth had her son experienced out there?
After hanging up, Mother Jiang turned off the noisy TV.
She made a decision.
She had to go see for herself.
See what her son's world was really like.
See how those "one point five million" people who liked him talked about him.
The next day happened to be Saturday.
Eight in the morning.
Mother Jiang, carrying a basket of fruit, knocked on the door of their neighbor across the hall.
The one who opened the door was the neighbor's daughter, a high school sophomore, Xiao Li.
"Auntie Jiang? What brings you here?"
"Xiao Li, auntie wants to ask you for a favor." Mother Jiang rubbed her hands somewhat sheepishly. "Could you... teach me how to use that... thing called Weibo?"
Xiao Li was stunned for a moment, then as if she thought of something, her eyes suddenly widened. She pulled out her phone and started tapping rapidly.
A few seconds later, she let out an earth-shattering scream.
"Ahhh! Auntie Jiang! Your son is trending! Oh my god! Jiang Ci is actually your son?!"
Facing Xiao Li's excitement, which was like meeting an idol's mother, Mother Jiang just smiled awkwardly.
With Xiao Li's hands-on help, Mother Jiang successfully created her first-ever Weibo account.
The name was straightforward: Jiang Ci's Mom.
The profile picture was an image of a sunflower.
"Alright, auntie, step one, let's follow Brother Jiang Ci first!"
Xiao Li excitedly pressed the "Special Follow" button.
The moment the follow succeeded.
"Buzz buzz buzz—"
Mother Jiang's phone vibrated frantically.
They were all push notifications about Jiang Ci.
《In-Depth Reveal! The Untold Past of New Top Star Jiang Ci in the Beijing Circle!》
《A Game of Capital? Looking at the Mysterious Backer Behind Jiang Ci Through Gu Huai and Su Qingying's Likes!》
《Scene-Hopper Get Out of the Entertainment Industry! Exposing the Insider Deal Behind Jiang Ci Signing with Spark Media!》
Mother Jiang's face gradually turned pale.
She didn't understand what "Beijing Circle" meant, nor could she grasp "capital," but the malice carried in those headlines stung her eyes painfully.
"Auntie, don't look at these!" Seeing this, Xiao Li quickly snatched the phone back, smiling to comfort her. "These marketing accounts are all talking nonsense! They'll write anything for traffic, don't take it seriously!"
Mother Jiang nodded reluctantly, but her gaze remained fixed on a highly upvoted comment she had accidentally glimpsed earlier.
The user with the ID "Microscope Drama Girl" said:
[...I'll take a wild guess, Jiang Ci himself, in real life, is a man with a story!... He's acting as himself! He is that earth-shattering, tear-jerking tragic character in person!]
Tragic character in person.
These six words slowly carved into Mother Jiang's heart.
"Auntie, look at this!" To cheer Mother Jiang up, Xiao Li skillfully clicked into Jiang Ci's super topic square. Pointing at the screen full of colorful comments, she presented it like a treasure. "Look, these are all praising Brother Jiang Ci! Everyone likes him so much!"
Mother Jiang leaned in.
On the screen were rows of text she completely couldn't understand.
[Ahhhh big brother's Broken Feeling is incredible! I'm dead!]
[This face! This aura! Big brother I can!!!]
[Wuwuwu please, give the handsome guy a good ending! Stop tormenting him!]
Mother Jiang looked at the comment pinned at the very top. With a serious expression, she pointed at the three exclamation marks and asked Xiao Li beside her for clarification.
"Xiao Li, this... 'I can,' what does it mean?"
She paused, then guessed in a tone full of hopeful anticipation,
"Does it mean... he can be an advanced worker?"
