Chapter 389: If Dawn Comes Too Late
In the darkness, two lines of white text appeared:
【Two days later.】
The screen split in two.
On the left was a sun-drenched Shanghai street, filled with the clamor of gongs and drums and fluttering colored flags.
People ran about spreading the news, “We’ve won!”
Children’s faces beamed with a radiance never seen before, their eyes brimming with hope.
On the right was a stinking ditch flowing with black water.
Flies circled above an unmarked mass grave. A corpse, its face long since unrecognizable, curled up in the mud and filth.
The white suit he had once worn for respectability became his final shroud, now crawling with ants and insects.
A passerby covered his nose as he walked by and spat a thick glob of phlegm at the corpse.
“Pah! Damn traitor, even in death you’re polluting this land.”
The image froze on this scene.
Jubilation and desolation were crudely spliced together.
A hero rotted in the gutter. The sunlight he had bought with his life now shone upon those who despised him.
【The End.】
The lights in the theater abruptly came on.
The blinding white light stung the eyes, but in the vast screening room, not a single person among the hundreds moved.
At the entrance, a cleaning aunt peeked in with her broom and trash bag, then startled, pulled her head back.
She had worked here for five years and had never seen such a quiet scene when a movie ended.
In Jiang Ci’s mind, the system’s notification sounds were so dense they made his scalp tingle.
【Heartbreak Value +99!】
【Heartbreak Value +128!】
【Heartbreak Value +228…】
The rate at which the numbers climbed gave Jiang Ci the illusion that he was “slaughtering” the entire audience.
Just then,
the middle-aged man in the front row who had cursed the loudest earlier,
now buried his face in his rough palms, his shoulders shaking violently, large teardrops falling through his fingers and splashing onto his leather shoes.
“I’m such a piece of trash…” he sobbed, cursing himself, “I even called him a dog… He didn’t even get to leave his name behind…”
“This isn’t healing… This is clearly trying to kill me…”
“Don’t help me up, my legs are weak, I can’t stand…”
Amidst the collective lament, Jiang Ci cautiously turned his head to look at the other side.
Chu Hong had taken off her reading glasses.
She lowered her head, took out a faded handkerchief from her pocket, and meticulously wiped the lenses.
Once, twice.
The lenses were clearly already clean, but she felt they were stained with dust that could never be wiped away.
Over and over, tirelessly.
“Mom…” Jiang Ci called out, feeling guilty.
Chu Hong’s hand paused.
She put her glasses back on. The area around her eyes was unnaturally red, but her gaze was exceptionally calm.
“Let’s go.” Her voice was a bit hoarse. “Time to clean up.”
Jiang Ci felt as if granted a pardon. He hurriedly pulled up Li Li, who had cried herself weak and collapsed in her seat, and with one hand supporting his mother, he lowered his head and walked out.
“It’s… it’s Jiang Ci!” someone shouted.
The crowd, immersed in sorrow, all focused their gazes on him.
Under normal circumstances, this would have already been a sea of screams and camera flashes.
But not today.
Those red, swollen eyes looked at him, their gazes lacking the fanatical fervor of chasing a star.
Instead, they held a sense of restraint.
Even when the weeping man in the front row saw Jiang Ci approaching,
he subconsciously pulled his leg, which had been stretched into the aisle, back, pressing his whole body against the chair back,
making a wide path for him.
The crowd automatically parted to both sides.
Jiang Ci felt utterly uncomfortable in this solemn atmosphere and could only pull his hat brim lower and walk swiftly.
Just outside the screening room, a gust of cold wind hit them, finally rebooting Li Li, who had been in a frozen state.
“Liar!”
The girl’s furious shout, thick with tears, echoed in the lobby.
“Thump!”
A pink fist hammered into Jiang Ci’s arm.
Li Li cried while hiccupping, “You said this was a comedy! Wuwu… You said it was healing! You owe me my tears! You owe me my Shen Qingyuan!”
Jiang Ci didn’t dare dodge, letting her pummel him: “Well… that part cutting the steak earlier was quite elegant, right? That counts as… a food show?”
“You’re still saying that!” Li Li cried even harder. “If I ever believe your nonsense again, I’m a puppy!”
The passersby around them seeing this scene didn’t laugh. Instead, they cast looks of empathy.
“I’m going to the restroom.”
Jiang Ci really couldn’t stand this atmosphere of being surrounded on all sides. Finding an excuse, he fled like a refugee into the men’s restroom.
He had just entered a stall and locked the door, not even having time to catch his breath, when he heard the sound of a lighter outside at the sinks.
“Bro, got a light?” The voice was muffled, with a heavy nasal tone.
“Don’t have one.” Another voice, even hoarser. “Got tissues, want some?”
A moment of silence.
”…Yeah, give me two.”
Then came the sound of pulling tissues and blowing a nose forcefully.
“Damn it.” The first person cursed, his voice trembling. “This cigarette makes me want to cry.”
“Who isn’t?” The second person sighed. “My grandpa used to fight in the war. Had shrapnel in his leg, never got it out before he died.”
“When I was a kid, I didn’t understand. I even thought his walking was ugly… Now I really want to slap myself twice.”
“This movie hits too hard afterwards. That shot of the mass grave… way too brutal.”
“That kid Jiang Ci… really has something. Used to think he was just selling his face. Today’s film, I’m convinced.”
Jiang Ci, hiding in the stall, listened to the conversation outside and silently released his grip on the door handle.
He leaned against the door panel, looked up at the exhaust fan on the ceiling, and let out a long, deep breath.
On the system interface, the growth of Heartbreak Value finally slowed. The golden numbers ultimately settled on an amount that made his heart race.
Jiang Ci washed his face, put his mask and hat back on, and walked out of the cinema.
The midday sun was brilliant, so glaring it made one want to cry.
The streets of the county town were bustling with traffic. Jiang Ci actually felt a sense of being in a different world.
Chu Hong and Li Li stood on the steps below, waiting for him.
Li Li was scrolling through her phone, sniffling as she did: “Bro, you’re done for. The trending list exploded.”
Jiang Ci leaned over to look.
The Weibo trending chart was a sea of tragic red.
#Salute to Shen Qingyuan# followed by a deep red “Explosive”.
#Jiang Ci Lies# followed by “Boiling”.
#The Most Painful Spy Film in History# followed by “New”.
#Who Can Dig Shen Qingyuan Out of the Dirt# was rapidly climbing.
Below the hashtags were countless comments from devastated netizens:
【@PuppyLovesMeat: I thought I was going to watch the Film Emperor be cool. Turns out I went to a funeral. Jiang Ci, you owe Shen Qingyuan a life, you owe us an explanation!】
【@DustofHistory: That line ‘The sky is bright’, I literally cried until I lost control. He didn’t see the dawn! He didn’t even get to hug that girl!】
【@ImNotABlackFan: Used to criticize Jiang Ci for being expressionless. Today I apologize. That look when he crushed the wine glass, that smile while dancing with a broken leg… Who else in the domestic entertainment circle? I ask, who else could act that?!】
“Looks like this is solid,” Jiang Ci thought to himself. As long as he didn’t get sent knives, his reputation was firmly established.
He adjusted his expression, put on a relaxed smile, and walked towards his mother.
“Mom, hungry? Let’s go eat…”
“Jiang Ci.”
Chu Hong suddenly spoke, cutting him off.
She didn’t turn around, still with her back to Jiang Ci, gazing at the large red lanterns hanging over the distant street.
The midday sun cast her shadow very short, making her seem somewhat lonely.
“What’s wrong, Mom?” Jiang Ci’s steps halted, his heart inexplicably sinking.
Chu Hong’s voice was very soft, yet it precisely pierced the place Jiang Ci most wanted to hide.
“That final interrogation scene, when the Japanese man stepped on your broken leg.”
Chu Hong turned around.
Through the sunglasses, Jiang Ci couldn’t see her eyes clearly,
only feeling that those two gazes seemed able to penetrate his thick down jacket.
“The human body has instinctive reactions.”
Chu Hong took a step forward, her tone frighteningly calm.
“That kind of pain can’t be acted. Someone who hasn’t truly experienced that pain, their first reaction is to shrink back, to dodge.”
“But you didn’t.”
“You ‘trembled’.”
Chu Hong pointed to the outside of her own thigh. “The muscles were spasming, but your body was yielding to that pain.”
The smile froze on Jiang Ci’s face.
He had forgotten.
The woman standing opposite him was the widow of a narcotics officer.
She understood better than anyone what someone who had truly been injured, who had truly endured pain, looked like.
“Jiang Ci.”
Chu Hong took off her glasses. Those red, swollen eyes fixed tightly on him,
asking the question that sent chills through Jiang Ci’s entire body:
“These past two years outside… what exactly have you been through?”