rslcontracting Chapter 345: How Much Suffering Does It Take to Become a Star?
Chapter 345: How Much Suffering Does It Take to Become a Star?
Chapter 345: How Much Suffering Does It Take to Become a Star?
The storm around the movie had subsided for half a month.
Jiang Ci was finally living his ideal retired life, waking up only when the sun was high in the sky.
The rumors outside about him "being too deep into his role, his mental state concerning" had also finally gradually cooled down.
At this moment, he lazily yawned and summoned the system panel.
The pale blue panel unfolded, and the string of numbers at the top nearly dazzled his eyes.
[Heartbreak Value Balance: 32,800 points]
[Remaining Life Span: 19 years, 3 months, 9 days]
Jiang Ci held his breath.
He stared at this string of numbers, and the frustration of being treated like a depression patient and watched by everyone instantly vanished into thin air.
He decided to be better to his old self and exchange for some skills that could truly "enjoy life."
He clicked open the [Golden Legend] store and skillfully scrolled to the life skills section.
Those mysterious and profound acting skills were nowhere near as substantial as the daily necessities of life.
Soon, two skills made him stop his scrolling finger.
[God of Street Stalls: The Lonely Egg Fried Rice (Grandmaster Level)]
[Skill Category: Golden Legend / Life]
[Skill Introduction: Simple ingredients, ultimate loneliness. Every grain of rice evenly coated with egg liquid contains the intense emotion of "wandering alone on a foreign street late at night."]
[After tasting, diners will be forcibly awakened to the most poignant nostalgia and self-pity buried deep in their memories. The effect varies from person to person.]
[Price: 8,888 Heartbreak Points]
Jiang Ci stroked his chin.
This one's good, practical.
As for the side effect, when you're hungry, sadness is nothing.
He continued scrolling down.
[Orthopedic Massage: Heart-Wrenching Pain (Medical Edition)]
[Skill Category: Golden Legend / Life]
[Skill Introduction: Inheriting ancient methods, overwhelming force overcomes all techniques. This technique specifically treats various bruises, sprains, and chronic old ailments, with immediate results. However, due to the extremely heavy pressure applied, it will forcibly induce physiological tears during the process.]
[Price: 9,999 Heartbreak Points]
Jiang Ci's eyes lit up.
This one is even better! He could handle backaches and pains himself in the future.
Without hesitation, he placed the order directly.
[Ding! 8,888 Heartbreak Points consumed. [God of Street Stalls: The Lonely Egg Fried Rice (Grandmaster Level)] has been issued!]
[Ding! 9,999 Heartbreak Points consumed. [Orthopedic Massage: Heart-Wrenching Pain (Medical Edition)] has been issued!]
Two massive streams of knowledge flooded into his mind.
Jiang Ci felt he could graduate on the spot, practicing orthopedic massage by day and setting up a stall to fry rice by night. A second spring in his career seemed just around the corner.
To test the quality of his new skills, he shuffled into the kitchen in his slippers.
Leftover rice, eggs, all set.
Turn on the fire, heat the wok, pour oil, flip the wok.
He looked just like an experienced fried rice master.
Soon, a fragrance wafted from the wok.
That aroma seemed to hide the story of half a man's life.
Right at that moment, the doorbell rang.
It was his assistant, Sun Zhou, coming to deliver documents and, by the way, confirm his artist was still alive.
As soon as he entered, his nose uncontrollably took several deep sniffs.
Following the scent, he sleepwalked to the kitchen doorway and saw Jiang Ci walking out with a plate of perfectly separated, grain-by-grain egg fried rice.
"Brother Jiang, you... you can cook like this too?"
Jiang Ci placed the plate on the dining table and said casually, "Just learned it. Want to try some?"
Sun Zhou's gaze was firmly glued to that plate of fried rice, his mouth watering.
He had been mentally and physically exhausted by the online public opinion lately and was starving to the point of seeing stars.
Sun Zhou grabbed a spoon, eagerly scooped a large mouthful of rice, and stuffed it into his mouth.
As soon as the rice entered his mouth, he felt incredibly happy.
Delicious! So delicious his soul was leaving his body!
He wolfed it down and soon finished the entire plate of fried rice clean.
Letting out a satisfied burp, he was about to praise Jiang Ci's cooking skills.
But when he put down the spoon and saw that spotlessly clean, empty plate, the smile on his face froze.
A strange, irresistible sadness assaulted him without any warning.
He remembered his days when he first arrived in Beijing, living in a basement and gnawing on steamed buns.
He remembered that first love girlfriend who said, "You're great, but we have no future."
Sun Zhou's nose tingled, and his eyes reddened.
The next second, with a loud "wah," he started wailing at that empty plate.
Jiang Ci had just unscrewed a bottle of water and was startled into a coughing fit by this sudden outburst.
What's going on? Was this rice made of onions?
Sun Zhou's fingers trembled so much he couldn't even tap the screen accurately. Relying on muscle memory, he opened Lin Wan's chat window,
deciding to report this earth-shattering "tragedy" to the organization.
"Sister Wan... Brother Jiang he..."
"Brother Jiang has gone crazy!"
"He poisoned the food... no... the food he made is full of despair! I took one bite and felt like my life was over, wuwuwu..."
After sending the WeChat message, Sun Zhou threw his phone aside, hugged his knees, and his crying grew even more mournful.
On the other end, in the President's Office of Spark Media.
Lin Wan looked at the incoherent WeChat message on her phone, her mind going blank.
She grabbed her car keys and rushed out, her high heels clicking loudly on the floor.
She was furious.
You've got some nerve, Jiang Ci. Is acting not exciting enough for you now, so you've started researching "sadness cuisine," is that it?!
Half an hour later, the door to Jiang Ci's apartment was pounded as if by an earthquake.
Lin Wan charged in furiously, ready to give him a good talking-to first.
Instead, she only saw Sun Zhou sitting at the dining table, weeping uncontrollably in front of an empty plate.
And the "terminally ill" male lead in her eyes was holding a human acupoint model, studying it with intense concentration.
"So pressing this spot really makes people hurt enough to cry?"
Jiang Ci pinched a point on the model called "Yingxiang Acupoint," muttering to himself, his face full of intellectual curiosity.
Lin Wan rushed up to him, looking at the model in his hand, then at Sun Zhou, momentarily at a loss for words.
"Jiang Ci!" Lin Wan's voice was trembling.
Jiang Ci looked up, seeing Lin Wan looking like she was about to faint, and was somewhat puzzled. "Sister Wan? What brings you here?"
Lin Wan couldn't be bothered with explanations. She pulled a stack of scripts from her bag and slapped them on the table with a "smack."
She steadied herself and announced in a resolute tone, "Starting today, you are not allowed to touch any tragedies!"
"This is a comedy I've been planning for three months!"
Jiang Ci was taken aback for a moment, then picked up the script.
Three large characters on the cover—"King of Extras."
He flipped through a few pages. The story was simple.
It was about an unlucky extra named "Chen San" who goes crazy, makes a fool of himself, and causes hilarious mishaps in various film crews, eventually becoming a star.
The script style was extremely exaggerated, filled with silly, absurd scenarios.
However, Jiang Ci's page-turning fingers gradually slowed down.
Those exaggerated mishaps,
that servility of bowing and scraping for a boxed meal,
those long hours hiding in a corner waiting for a single line... flashed through his mind.
He saw his university self, wearing ill-fitting costumes, face painted with cheap greasepaint.
For a few hundred yuan a day, falling and getting back up repeatedly in the sweltering heat of Hengdian.
Back then, the pressure of a life countdown hadn't arrived yet. There was only the simple, persistent thought of wanting to share the burden of life's pressures for his mother.
He closed the script and looked up.
Those eyes that had seen all kinds of life and death were now as clear as if they had returned to his freshman year.
"Sister Wan," he said seriously, "I'll take this script."
Lin Wan looked at him, her heart tightening.
But there wasn't a trace of genuine joy in his eyes. That smile seemed like it would shatter at a touch.
Just as Jiang Ci's smile was at its brightest, his finger fiddling with the acupoint model accidentally got pinched by an internal spring mechanism.
"Ouch..."
Intense pain shot through him, twisting the smile on Jiang Ci's face.
He didn't want Lin Wan to think he was stupid, so he forcibly swallowed the cry of pain.
Only, that smile became uglier than crying.
This scene made Lin Wan completely lose her composure.
This bastard was forcing a cheerful front.
This comedy, for him, wasn't a career shift. It was a form of self-exile.
Lin Wan's eyes reddened.
Looking at Jiang Ci's face, which was "seemingly happy but actually heartbreaking," she secretly made a resolution in her heart.
For this drama, she would go all out. She absolutely had to pull Jiang Ci out from the Abyss!