Chapter 386: This Reverse Healing is a Bit Punishable
Chu Hong didn’t ask another word.
She released Jiang Ci’s icy hand, stood up, and threw off the checkered wool blanket.
She walked straight to the kitchen.
“Mom, don’t bother, I’ve eaten…”
Jiang Ci’s voice sounded somewhat lacking in confidence in the silent living room.
The sound of a gas stove being turned on came from the kitchen, blue flames danced, illuminating Chu Hong’s calm profile.
“Those were the capital’s dumplings, given by the Spring Festival Gala.” Chu Hong spoke while expertly scooping flour from the flour bag, “Those were for the whole nation to eat. This bowl, is for you.”
In less than ten minutes.
A bowl of steaming shredded pork noodles was placed before Jiang Ci.
Slender noodles, neatly sliced lean pork shreds, topped with two poached eggs with slightly browned edges and still-runny yolks.
Beside it, a small plate of pork skin jelly.
Jiang Ci sat down at the shaky old wooden table, grabbed the bamboo chopsticks, any semblance of Film Emperor grace completely gone.
He lowered his head, slurping the noodles in big mouthfuls, the steam fogging up his eyes.
Chu Hong sat opposite, watching him eat.
Her gaze swept over the military coat, her eyes trembling slightly.
As Jiang Ci swallowed the last mouthful of soup, he reached into the inner pocket of the military coat.
“Thud.”
A bank card was slapped onto the table.
Jiang Ci wiped his mouth, deliberately lowering his voice, putting on a “your son made it big out there” bragging air:
“Mom, keep this card. The PIN is my birthday.”
Chu Hong stared at the card for two seconds.
“Keep it.” Chu Hong stood up, reaching to pull at Jiang Ci’s coat, “Take it off, let me see that hole.”
“Hey, Mom, no need, this is a prop, gotta return it later…”
“Take it off.”
Jiang Ci was silenced.
Before hundreds of millions of viewers online, he could remain composed.
In front of Feng Gang, he dared to slam the table, but under Madam Chu Hong’s gaze,
he could only obediently comply.
Chu Hong took the coat, walked to the five-drawer cabinet, and took out her reading glasses and needle and thread from the sewing kit.
She threaded the needle against the light, her fingertips gently rubbing over the hole that was deliberately worn for the close-up shot.
In her eyes, this was ironclad proof that her son had suffered grievances and endured cold winds outside.
“Don’t wear clothes like this in the future.” Chu Hong said, head bowed, the needle tip glinting under the light, “Our family isn’t short of the money for a couple of strings of firecrackers.”
Jiang Ci opened his mouth, a sense of helplessness rising in his heart.
He wanted to explain just how much of a sensation he had caused at the Spring Festival Gala, wanted to explain that his current appearance fee was already an astronomical figure.
But watching his mother meticulously sewing up the hole,
he suddenly felt,
all those things felt as light as a feather compared to this bowl of shredded pork noodles.
He stood up, walked to the bedroom, and flopped onto the hard bed with the blue checkered bedsheet.
The quilt smelled of sunshine.
He closed his eyes and fell asleep instantly.
…
The next day, the first day of the Lunar New Year.
Jiang Ci was jolted awake by a burst of firecracker sounds.
His phone beside the pillow, its screen flashing wildly, dozens of missed calls, all from Lin Wan.
He swiped the screen open, and Lin Wan’s voice, calm yet tinged with madness, exploded.
“Jiang Ci, you’re hot. No, you’ve exploded.”
Jiang Ci rubbed his messy hair, still not fully awake: “Sister Wan, it’s the first day of the new year, can we say something auspicious?”
“This is the most auspicious thing.” Lin Wan was on the other end, the background noise the rapid clatter of keyboard typing, “The Lurker’ has moved up its release date. Riding the heat from last night’s ‘Return’, the Production Company and the cinemas hammered it out overnight, moved the release to 10 AM today, nationwide premiere.”
“Moved up?” Jiang Ci’s heart skipped a beat.
Before he could speak, Lin Wan continued:
“The current momentum of public opinion is completely out of control. The entire nation’s audience is looking for the ‘disappearing Jiang Ci’.”
“They think your performance last night was too heartbreaking, and they urgently need a movie to ‘heal’ themselves.”
“The Publicity Team changed the promotional slogan overnight, pushing the angle of ‘After moving China at the Spring Festival Gala, Jiang Ci crafts another silver screen tearjerker’.”
“Tearjerker?”
Jiang Ci was fully awake now, an image flashing before his eyes: Shen Qingyuan in the interrogation room, humming a nursery rhyme while peeling open a target’s ribcage.
“Sister Wan… didn’t you tell the Publicity Team what kind of person Shen Qingyuan is?”
“I did. But the audience now only recognizes Jiang Ci.”
“They think, since you can play the son waiting for his mom to come home well, you can play a deeply devoted, persistent special agent.”
The call ended.
“Bang bang bang!”
A cheerful knocking sounded at the door.
“Auntie Chu! Ci-ge! Happy New Year!”
It was Li Li.
The young girl was wearing a new pink down jacket, her hair in a neat high ponytail, waving three movie tickets in her hand, her eyes sparkling.
“Ci-ge! Get up! I snagged tickets for the earliest showing at the county cinema!”
She was so excited she was spinning in place, her voice loud enough to travel through three floors even through the door crack:
“The whole internet is buzzing about The Lurker’! They’re saying it’s this year’s most moving spy blockbuster, you’re the ‘Shen Qingyuan’ in it, the ‘White Moonlight’ who guards his beliefs!”
Jiang Ci looked at Li Li’s eyes, filled with “pure wishfulness,” then looked at Chu Hong who had walked out of the kitchen, a glimmer of expectation in her eyes.
He knew, it was too late now to say “Shen Qingyuan is actually a psycho.”
He could only fully gear up, put on a black face mask, snap on a baseball cap, and follow this old-young duo out of the house.
The county town’s cinema only had three screens, not large, but it was currently packed to the brim.
In the most prominent spot in the lobby hung a giant poster for The Lurker’.
Jiang Ci’s name was enlarged and bolded, printed right in the center.
The promotional slogan was blindingly red: [Jiang Ci: This Spring Festival, have your tissues ready, watch him tear your heart apart once more!]
In the crowd, a few girls who had just bought tickets were whispering.
“I cried through a whole pack of tissues watching the Spring Festival Gala last night, definitely crying today too.”
“Of course, which character Jiang Ci plays doesn’t break your heart?”
Listening to these discussions, Jiang Ci felt a chill run down his spine.
The three of them took their seats, the theater was full.
The lights went out.
The dragon logo lit up.
Jiang Ci sat between his mother and Li Li, quietly slouching down in his seat,
trying to hide his old face in the shadows.
On the big screen, a close-up shot advanced.
A man wearing a well-tailored suit and white silk gloves,
with his back to the audience, elegantly cutting a plate of medium-rare steak.
“This must be Ci-ge’s Shen Qingyuan, right? So handsome…” Li Li clutched her popcorn, murmuring to herself.
The man on screen turned his head.
A face of extreme refinement, and extreme coldness.
He smiled at the blood-soaked prisoner.
“Don’t be nervous.”
The man spoke, his voice gentle and mellow.
“I just want to see if your heart is as hard as you say it is.”
Then, he raised an extremely thin scalpel.
Jiang Ci closed his eyes.
This wave, he might really “explode.”