Jiang Ci looked at the shy girl standing at the door, and his brain instantly short-circuited.
From behind him ca his mother Chu Hong’s overly enthusiastic greeting.
"Oh, Qingyi is here, co in, co in!"
Ms. Chu shoved Jiang Ci aside and warmly grabbed the girl’s wrist.
"Don’t mind him, he’s like this. Co, let introduce you, this is my son, Jiang Ci."
Jiang Ci was still in that crumpled set of pajamas, his hair a tangled bird’s nest, radiating an aura of "who am I and where am I."
Without giving him a say, his mother plopped him down on the living room sofa.
Opposite him sat the girl nad Qingyi.
An art teacher at a prominent local elentary school.
A painfully awkward, hardcore blind date began abruptly.
Jiang Ci felt like he was sitting on pins and needles.
He wanted to leave.
He wanted to escape imdiately.
To end this torture as fast as possible, he thought of the Complete Guide to Scumbag Quotes and Techniques.
He wanted to find any excuse inside it, any excuse at all.
Suddenly the system automatically popped up before his eyes, and one section locked onto his attention.
[Special Category].
This category must have been refreshed at so point, because three brand-new, glittering skills had appeared beneath it.
[Physical Optimization LV1]
[Emotional Isolation LV1]
[Deep Sleep LV1]
Jiang Ci froze.
He opened the first skill’s detailed description.
[Physical Optimization LV1: This skill is passive. When the host engages in high-intensity physical activity (including but not limited to crying scenes, running in the rain, intense fights, screaming argunts, etc.), stamina consumption is reduced by 20%, and lactic acid breakdown is accelerated, effectively relieving next-day muscle soreness.]
Jiang Ci’s breathing stopped for a beat.
That one line was endurance security tailored for tragic-working people!
Wasn’t this custom-made for him?
He imdiately thought of all the tis he’d drained himself to earn Heartbreak Value, suspending on wires for Three Lifetis Tribulation, or crying his eyes out in the Graduation Play.
Each ti ant huge physical exhaustion.
With this, his efficiency at taking on high-expenditure tragic roles would skyrocket!
He couldn’t wait to check the second one.
[Emotional Isolation LV1: This skill is passive. After a performance, the host’s detachnt speed from a role’s negative emotions (such as sorrow, despair, depression) is increased by 50%. It effectively reduces the risk of ntal burnout or even personality confusion caused by over-imrsion in roles.]
This skill was a godsend!
From the cases Dean Liu Guodong shared to the way his boss Lin Wan looked at him, everyone feared he might go off the rails from playing too many tragedies.
He wouldn’t say it out loud, but deep down he understood the risk.
Finally, the third one.
[Deep Sleep LV1: This skill is active. Once activated, the host imdiately enters a high-quality deep sleep state. In this state, two hours of sleep equals six hours of normal sleep.]
Jiang Ci: "..."
Amazing.
None of these three skills directly affected his acting technique.
Yet each one hit exactly the pain points of him as a "life-sustaining worker"!
This was basically the system awarding him the "Employee of the Year Three-Piece Set"!
However, when he saw the prices listed after the skills, the small fla that had ignited in his chest was instantly doused.
[Physical Optimization LV1]: 1300 Heartbreak Value.
[Emotional Isolation LV1]: 1200 Heartbreak Value.
[Deep Sleep LV1]: 1100 Heartbreak Value.
He glanced at his pitiful balance.
[Heartbreak Value Balance: 1440]
Enough to redeem only one.
And if he redeed the most expensive Physical Optimization, he’d be left with just 140.
Suddenly back to square one.
He suffered from decision paralysis.
He wanted all of them, and he urgently needed all of them.
Just as he was caught in a heavenly-and-earthly struggle, the girl opposite finally mustered courage and spoke.
"Um... Brother Jiang Ci, Auntie said you’re an actor?"
Her voice was soft and timid, full of curiosity about his profession.
The word "actor" pulled Jiang Ci out of his internal battle and back into harsh reality.
He nodded.
"Yeah."
One word, frugal with speech.
He only wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible.
But Qingyi seed to have opened a floodgate, her face lit up with innocent, romantic fantasies.
"Wow, that must be so interesting, right? Are there a lot of fun things when you film?"
She propped her chin on her hands, eyes sparkling.
"I love watching campus sweet-romance dramas! You know, the kind that’s sweet from start to finish, where the leads are constantly throwing out sugary monts!"
Sweet-romance drama.
Those three words detonated in Jiang Ci’s head like thunder.
Like a monotonous siren.
A physiological discomfort rose within him.
His face visibly drained another shade of white.
He exuded a palpable aura of "please don’t co near ."
To the girl and Ms. Chu, that expression was automatically interpreted as sothing entirely different.
Qingyi’s eyes brightened even more.
"Artists really are different, they disdain talking about vulgar things."
Ms. Chu looked proud.
"Our little Ci is like that, he has artistic pursuits!"
Jiang Ci: "..."
He felt like he was suffocating.
He couldn’t take it anymore.
"I’m going to the bathroom."
He left that sentence hanging, dashed into his room, and slamd the door behind him. He leaned against it and breathed hard.
He couldn’t fathom Ms. Chu’s train of thought.
Pushing marriage on soone whose life could end at any mont?
What kind of tactic was that?
At that mont, voices in the living room ca through clearly.
It was Ms. Chu enthusiastically "selling" her son to the girl.
"Qingyi, don’t mind our little Ci’s looks, he’s just introverted and he’s very devoted."
"He actually... knows how to cherish people."
In his room, Jiang Ci put a hand to his forehead and let out a long sigh when he heard that.
Cherish people?
Yes.
He was very good at "cherishing" people.
In a physical sense.
Making people sad, breaking their hearts, leaving them in pieces.
Wasn’t that a kind of broad "cherishing" too?
From that angle, maybe what his mom said... wasn’t wrong?
An overwhelming sense of absurdity enveloped him.
Nope.
He couldn’t go on like this.
After so deep thought, he prepared to storm out and leave Qingyi with a psychological scar she would never forget.
For example, performing Ma Lu’s classic monologue on the spot.
"My eyes carry love, like my brow bears the brand of a slave!"
Accompanied by wild movents and a broken expression.
Guaranteed to send soone running.
Just as he gathered his emotions and prepared to push the door open, his phone in his pocket started to vibrate violently.
Vrrrr—vrrrr—
He grabbed his phone.
The screen showed an incoming call from an unfamiliar number.
Origin: the capital.
Who?
He swiped to answer, puzzled.
A calm, strong voice with a faint undertone of appreciation ca from the other end.
"Is this Jiang Ci?"
Jiang Ci responded.
"This is he."
There was a slight pause, then the caller gave his na.
"This is Wei Song."
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