[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-more-tragic-i-act-the-stronger-i-get-my-fans":3,"chapter-the-more-tragic-i-act-the-stronger-i-get-my-fans-the-more-tragic-i-act-the-stronger-i-get-my-fans-chapter-303":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","The More Tragic I Act, the Stronger I Get — My Fans Beg Me to Stop Killing Off My Roles",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1297967,1723,"Chapter 303: An Unreachable Phone Call, An Undrawn Circle","the-more-tragic-i-act-the-stronger-i-get-my-fans-chapter-303",303,"\u003Cp>The atmosphere on the film set the next day was more oppressive than it had ever been before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A few unfamiliar faces with solemn expressions appeared in the corners.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They wore plain clothes that stood out from the rest of the crew,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>looking neither like set workers nor visiting fans.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Wen did not roar as usual to set up the scene.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He merely nodded at those few people,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>then sat back behind the monitor, smoking one cigarette after another.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The scene was already set up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a cluttered storage room filled with discarded items inside a drug den.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The only source of light was a thick candle, more than half burned down, sitting on the corner of a table.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The candle flame flickered silently in the enclosed space.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Ci was already in position.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He wore those thin, mud-stained clothes,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>curled up in the shadow of a corner. His entire body was emaciated, as if a gust of wind could blow him over.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Action.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Wen's voice came through the walkie-talkie.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Ci moved.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He fished out a crushed and misshapen cigarette pack from his greasy pocket.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He didn't take a cigarette. Instead, he carefully opened the pack, flattening it into a rough piece of cardboard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, he pulled out the cheapest ballpoint pen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He wanted to write.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Under the candlelight, he lowered his head, trying to leave some mark on that small piece of cardboard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But his right hand trembled uncontrollably.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The lingering internal injuries from Jiang He's earlier torture, combined with prolonged hunger and dehydration,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>had reduced this young body to a broken-down machine.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That lightweight ballpoint pen felt as heavy as a thousand pounds in his hand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He couldn't hold it steady.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The tip slipped again and again, leaving meaningless scratches on the cardboard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Ci stopped. He extended his left hand, using all his strength to press down on the wrist of his trembling right hand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Veins bulged, tangled, and knotted on the back of his hand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He tried to write again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One stroke. Another stroke.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He wanted to write the character for \"Mom\".\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The pen tip moved laboriously across the rough cardboard, emitting a rasping, scratching sound.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The ink flow was intermittent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That twisted ink trail couldn't even form a complete radical.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the script, Jiang He was supposed to think of his wife and child at this moment, a touch of warmth appearing on his face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Ci tried to construct that happiness belonging to \"Jiang He\",\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>but no warm image could surface in his mind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The more he tried to smile, the stiffer the muscles at the corner of his lips became,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>finally twisting into an expression uglier than crying—a physiological spasm born of extreme pain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Upon reconsideration, what surfaced in Jiang Ci's mind was not the script's wife and child.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was Madam Chu Hong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was his sacrificed father, that similarly unfinished letter among his father's belongings.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was what his father had written in the letter, hoping he could \"live safely and peacefully, under the sun\".\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His father's image overlapped once more with the undercover \"Jiang He\" he was currently playing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He gave up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He couldn't write that character.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Looking at the tangled mess of ink on the cardboard, he suddenly laughed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A silent laugh, one that tightened the heart more than weeping.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He released his left hand, which had been desperately pressing down his right, allowing that hand to tremble violently once more.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He began to draw circles on the paper.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then another.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With an almost masochistic obsession, he tried to draw a perfect, closed circle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Representing reunion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But his hand wouldn't allow it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Every circle, at the moment it was about to close, would leave a glaring gap due to an uncontrollable tremor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One incomplete circle after another. A fragmented life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Promises that couldn't be kept.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A destiny that couldn't be reunited.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He stopped.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He stared at that cardboard covered in distorted circles for a long, long time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, he slowly, gently, began to tear that piece of cardboard into pieces.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He didn't throw the scraps away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Under the astonished gaze of everyone behind the monitor, Jiang Ci picked up a single scrap of paper.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since he couldn't write it, couldn't send it, he would eat it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Engrave this unspeakable longing, along with this destiny that couldn't be made whole, into his very bones and blood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He slowly placed that scrap of paper into his mouth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The rough edge of the cardboard scraped against his chapped lips.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He began to chew slowly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On camera, Jiang Ci was still chewing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He tilted his head back. His Adam's apple bobbed violently with the act of swallowing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He swallowed down raw all those unsendable longings, those fragmented memories of home,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>along with that destiny that couldn't be made whole.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the corner, the few plainclothes men who had been watching in silence all tensed up simultaneously.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The middle-aged man leading them watched the replay on the monitor. Something glistened in his red-rimmed eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This moment moved them more than all the previous scenes of torture.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Push in for a close-up.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Wen's voice came through the walkie-talkie again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Shoot his throat.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the monitor, that bobbing Adam's apple, each rise and fall,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>each rise and fall, struck heavily on everyone's heart.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Cut!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Wen finally called for a stop.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Ci still sat in the dark corner, motionless,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>like a sculpture whose soul had been hollowed out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No one dared to make a sound.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a long while, Cha Cai, played by Lei Zhong, emerged from the shadows, holding a cigarette.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He walked up to Jiang Ci and silently offered it to him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unlit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Ci slowly raised his head and took the cigarette.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He didn't put it in his mouth. Instead, he casually tucked it behind his ear,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>with a practiced ease that made him look exactly like a seasoned chain-smoker who'd worked on construction sites for years.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, just as Lei Zhong thought he was about to say something,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Ci spoke in a tone eerily calm, completely different from before:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Don't want to smoke. Bad for the lungs.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the periphery of the film crew.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The plainclothes police officers were preparing to leave.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before leaving, the middle-aged man leading them stopped Jiang Wen, who was about to go pack up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He looked at the frozen image on the monitor—Jiang Ci swallowing the paper scraps—and his lips moved.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"During my three years undercover,\" he said in a low voice, \"I swallowed words like that too.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Wen's body stiffened.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This comment from a real hero carried more weight than any award.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The middle-aged police officer patted Jiang Wen's shoulder, his expression suddenly turning extremely grave.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Director Jiang, that kid acts too real.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He paused, his voice dropping even lower.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"So real... that sometimes even our own people mistake him for being 'one of them'.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Wen's eyes changed sharply.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The middle-aged officer's gaze looked past him, towards the faint, hazy outline of the mountains in the distance, his tone cold and hard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Things aren't peaceful up in Northern Myanmar lately. Your film's making quite a stir. Be careful. Don't attract the wrong kind of 'audience' just because the acting is too real.\"\u003C\u002Fp>",1206,"2026-06-05T18:00:08.557Z",1,"novelbin.me","db22e21b77c29422c24901431127a4a939d50f4c3bc9f1467f9fbd5622618067","the-more-tragic-i-act-the-stronger-i-get-my-fans-chapter-304","the-more-tragic-i-act-the-stronger-i-get-my-fans-chapter-302",366,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-more-tragic-i-act-the-stronger-i-get-my-fans-cover.jpg"]