[{"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-354":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},1297652,1723,"Chapter 354: The Movie Emperor's Breakthrough Kill","the-more-tragic-i-act-the-stronger-i-get-my-fans-chapter-354",354,"\u003Cp>Chapter 354: The Movie Emperor's Breakthrough Kill\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Ci didn't move, not even a twitch of his eyebrow in response to those words.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He remained the calm intruder, slowly and deliberately tearing open the greasy paper bag.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Under Gu Zhiyuan's nearly broken gaze, he picked up a youtiao and took a bite.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Crunch.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The crisp sound was especially jarring in the silent trash-filled room.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gu Zhiyuan watched Jiang Ci.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That radiant young Film Emperor was standing amidst a pile of rotting garbage, expressionlessly chewing on the cheapest fried dough stick.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His face held no emotion whatsoever. He didn't look like he was in a loser's doghouse,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>but rather, standing in his own bright, clean kitchen, enjoying an utterly ordinary morning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This posture gripped Gu Zhiyuan's throat tighter than any pity, making him feel more ashamed than ever.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Ci ate very slowly. After finishing the entire youtiao, he even pulled out a tissue and meticulously wiped his fingers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only after doing all this did his gaze shift from the paper bag, casually sweeping across the dilapidated room.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Finally, his eyes settled on a dusty coat rack in the corner.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hanging there was a suit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A cheap suit, old-fashioned in style and yellowed in color,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>its cuffs frayed and its shoulder cut laughably oversized.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was the battle armor Gu Zhiyuan had worn ten years ago, when he went to collect the only trophy of his life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had haggled for half a day at the wholesale market to buy it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gu Zhiyuan followed his line of sight, his heart clenching violently.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was the last shred of dignity he had sealed away in the deepest recesses of his memory, unwilling to touch it again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Under Gu Zhiyuan's stunned gaze, Jiang Ci walked over.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He took off the expensive windbreaker he was wearing and casually tossed it onto a pile of miscellaneous junk nearby.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, he reached out and took down that old suit, reeking of mold and dust.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"What are you doing?!\" Gu Zhiyuan instinctively roared in a low voice, his voice hoarse.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Ci paid him no mind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He put that oversized old suit on over his own clothes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The fit was utterly wrong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He didn't start performing immediately.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He closed his eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One second, two seconds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When he opened his eyes again, those clear eyes were already veiled with the dust of life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Immediately after, his originally straight back seemed to be crushed by an invisible weight,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>slowly slumping, becoming slightly hunched.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His center of gravity lowered, his knees unconsciously bending slightly, revealing a posture of fatigue from long-term standing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The clean, bright luster instantly faded from that pristine face, replaced by a desperately forced, ingratiating expression.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was no longer Film Emperor Jiang Ci.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was Chen San.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was every small person at the bottom, trampling their dignity into the mud for a single opportunity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gu Zhiyuan stood frozen in place, watching the Jiang Ci before him who seemed like a completely different person, momentarily speechless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Ci didn't look at him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Facing the empty space ahead, he forcefully squeezed out a sycophantic smile,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>rubbing his hands together, continuously bowing and scraping,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>clumsily adjusting the collar of the ill-fitting suit, his movements comical and ridiculous.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Director Wang, Director Wang, look... do I... do I work?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His voice had changed, carrying a plea and a tremor of fear of rejection.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Just one line, really, just one. I don't want money, just a boxed meal will do...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As he spoke, he used his sleeve to wipe sweat from his temple that didn't exist,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>his smile forced even deeper, the muscles on his face somewhat stiff.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gu Zhiyuan watched him, his breath catching.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This scene was too familiar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was precisely the scene in the script where Chen San humbly begged the Assistant Director for a role with lines.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But what Jiang Ci performed was a hundred times more cruel than the written description.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That feeling of tearing one's self-respect to shreds and offering it to someone else, still fearing they might disdain it,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>filled the small room with suffocating oppression.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Right then.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Ci's performance to the empty air suddenly halted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His head, without warning, jerked violently to the side.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As if he had really been slapped hard across the face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The room was abnormally quiet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gu Zhiyuan's heart tightened.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He saw Jiang Ci's smile stiffen for only a second.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, that smile uglier than crying was forced out again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Ci slowly turned his head back, even actively leaning the other side of his face forward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Director.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He spoke, his voice even softer, even more humble than before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Calm your anger.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"This side of the face, the lighting is better. Hit this side for a louder sound.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These words struck his mind like a thunderbolt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His brain went \"buzz,\" exploding into blankness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This wasn't a line from the script!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was his own memory!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Five years ago, at that business dinner, trying to secure investment,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>this was something he personally experienced when that greasy, obese Producer publicly humiliated him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had never told anyone about it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a scar he buried in his heart, left to fester in his gut.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now, Jiang Ci had dug it out alive and displayed it before him in a way so calm it was cruel.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gu Zhiyuan shuddered all over.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Looking at Jiang Ci's face that \"seemed to be smiling but was actually bleeding,\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>he felt as if his soul had been violently torn open.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this moment, Gu Zhiyuan finally understood. Who was Jiang Ci playing? It wasn't Chen San at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was clearly playing that failed idealist he had personally buried long ago—Gu Zhiyuan!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The performance ended.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Ci put away that posture of humility ground into dust, straightened his hunched back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The suffocating murkiness and cowering clinging to him vanished without a trace.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He became that calm young man again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gu Zhiyuan trembled, hugging his head, his shoulders shaking violently.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Suppressed sobs leaked from between his fingers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Right then, a piercing cell phone ringtone shattered the oppressive atmosphere filling the room.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was Jiang Ci's.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gu Zhiyuan froze, lifting his bloodshot eyes to look at Jiang Ci.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Ci, however, didn't even glance at the phone. He just looked at him calmly, then reached out, gently swiped the screen, and pressed mute.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gu Zhiyuan trembled, his hands groping on the cigarette butt-strewn floor, finally picking up a pencil that had been stepped on and broken in half by someone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He lunged at the table, grabbing that crumpled script.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, using all his strength, he viciously drew a circle in the selected director column.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Shoot!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A roar suppressed to the extreme burst from Gu Zhiyuan's throat,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>hoarse, desperate, yet carrying a kind of reckless madness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I'm going to film this damned world for them to see!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The roar echoed in the cramped room, vibrating painfully in the eardrums.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After roaring, Gu Zhiyuan breathed heavily, gasping.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Ci watched him quietly, waiting until that frenzied energy subsided slightly and his eyes refocused.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only then did he leisurely take out his phone, glance at the missed call, and dial back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lin Wan's nearly hysterical voice exploded from the receiver:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Jiang Ci! Have you lost your mind? Someone online leaked that you're in that Gu Zhiyuan's residential area. Paparazzi have the stairwell completely blocked now!\"\u003C\u002Fp>",1225,"2026-06-05T18:00:08.557Z",1,"novelbin.me","699107deb410063b3180ead3127e96baca87e2b037d7a764cc355b35db661581","the-more-tragic-i-act-the-stronger-i-get-my-fans-chapter-355","the-more-tragic-i-act-the-stronger-i-get-my-fans-chapter-353",366,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-more-tragic-i-act-the-stronger-i-get-my-fans-cover.jpg"]