novelraw Chapter 119: The Whole Audience in Tears—Total Sweep!
Chapter 119: The Whole Audience in Tears—Total Sweep!
The drumbeats stopped.
But the movie did not end.
The screen did not fade to black. Instead, it cut cleanly back to that cold, dead-silent imperial palace.
The vast hall, with candle flames flickering.
Qin Feng, portraying the emperor, sat alone and motionless upon the dragon throne.
Hurried footsteps echoed from outside the hall.
A eunuch scrambled in, half-running, half-crawling, holding aloft a scroll of battle reports, his voice shrill and ecstatic.
"Great victory! Your Majesty! A great victory at the border!"
"General Gu gave his life for the nation! The remaining troops' morale soared and annihilated all invading enemies!"
The eunuch knelt on the floor, trembling with excitement.Yet, this overwhelming joyous news failed to elicit even the slightest reaction from that solitary figure on the dragon throne.
The emperor did not reach for that "victory report" soaked in blood.
He only slowly raised his hand.
That hand, which once strategized and commanded the nation, now trembled faintly.
He looked at his empty palm, as if trying to grasp something from the crisscrossing lines of his palm.
But in the end, he grasped nothing.
He waved his hand, signaling the eunuch to withdraw.
The ecstasy on the eunuch's face froze. Not daring to say more, he bowed and retreated step by step from the great hall.
The immense palace was left with only the emperor once more.
He slowly stood up and descended from the high imperial seat.
Step by step, he walked upon this pinnacle of power built upon countless bleached bones.
His back, within the vast hall, was stretched long by the candlelight.
This war, Great Xia had won.
Yet he had lost, utterly and completely.
The movie's final shot froze on Qin Feng's face, which showed neither joy nor anger.
The screen slowly faded to black.
Inside the screening room, faint floor lights came on.
Absolute dead silence.
No conversation, no commotion.
Within this silence, the only clearly audible sounds were the rising and falling, suppressed-to-the-extreme sounds of sobbing.
Jiang Ci sat in the shadows of the corner.
He did not move.
He could clearly feel, not far from his side, the shoulders of a female journalist shaking violently.
Yet, right at that moment.
A crisp notification tone, completely out of place in this sorrowful atmosphere, abruptly rang in his mind.
[Ding!]
Jiang Ci's whole body jolted.
It's here?
He immediately pulled up the system panel.
[Detecting heartbreak emotion...]
[Settling accounts...]
[Heartbreak Value +15.]
[Source: Audience (Row 7, Seat C), Audience (Row 12, Seat A), Media Reporter (Row 5, Seat B)...]
Fifteen points.
Not much.
But it was a beginning.
Jiang Ci's heart began to beat uncontrollably faster.
On the big screen, the mournful end credits song began to play.
The cast and crew list started to scroll upwards slowly.
Starring: Qin Feng.
Starring: Zhao Xueling.
...
Most of the audience in the screening room were still immersed in the lingering impact of General Gu's death, unable to snap out of it.
They just watched those scrolling white words numbly.
Until.
That name appeared.
[Special Introduction]
[General Gu — Jiang Ci]
When these words clearly appeared in the center of the big screen.
All the pent-up emotions found their outlet at this moment.
That man who fought a bloody battle, beating out the final song of his life on the city tower.
That youth on the grasslands, whose smile was brighter than the sun.
That A'Gu who said, "I only want the present."
His name was Jiang Ci.
And also at this instant.
Inside Jiang Ci's mind.
It went crazy.
[Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!]
It was an endless stream of notification tones!
He felt the emotions of everyone in the entire screening room ruthlessly flooding into his mind!
Jiang Ci's body stiffened violently.
His hands instinctively gripped the armrests of his seat with deadly force.
Only this way could he barely maintain surface calm.
On the system panel.
The number in the [Heartbreak Value] column had completely lost its mind.
Scrolling upwards madly!
Row after row of dense data streams flashed before his eyes.
[Ding! Detected intense heartbreak emotion, Heartbreak Value +27 (Source: Film Critic, Zhang Rui)]
[Ding! Heartbreak Value +31 (Source: Audience, Row 7, Seat F)]
[Ding! Heartbreak Value +19 (Source: Media Reporter, Li**)]
[Ding! Heartbreak Value +22...]
[Ding! Heartbreak Value +41...]
The data was still jumping madly.
Yet, amidst this chaotic storm of data.
A different, distinct notification message abruptly popped up.
[Detected intense heartbreak resonance from a core associate...]
[Settling accounts...]
[Heartbreak Value +88 (Source: Su Qingying)]
Jiang Ci stared fixedly at that message.
Su Qingying?
Eighty-eight points?
One person contributed almost one-third of the value?
This heartbreak value storm continued until the final note of the end credits song faded.
When the big screen turned completely pitch black.
The roaring in Jiang Ci's mind finally slowly subsided.
The system's emotionless, icy announcement followed.
[Settlement complete.]
[Total Heartbreak Value harvested this session: 324 points.]
[Heartbreak Value balance: 524 points.]
[Reward lifespan extension: 65 days.]
[Current remaining lifespan: 246 days, 7 hours.]
Two hundred and forty-six days.
Jiang Ci looked at that number and was completely stunned.
He stared blankly at the now completely dark screen.
Two hundred and forty-six days.
For the first time, he was this close to the time unit of a "year."
To think, this was only a small-scale premiere.
Starting tomorrow, until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, a full half-month of the Spring Festival movie season...
This movie would be publicly released nationwide.
That would be... what a terrifying harvest.
"Snap!"
A crisp sound.
All the lights in the screening room suddenly turned on.
The glaring light instantly yanked Jiang Ci from his immense ecstasy and shock back to reality.
As darkness receded, everyone was exposed under the spotlight.
The suppressed sobs gradually stopped, turning into sparse yet deeply respectful applause.
The host's voice, excited to the point of nearly cracking, resounded through the entire screening room via the speakers.
"Thank you! Thank you, everyone!"
"A great film! A soul-stirring viewing experience!"
"Now, let's welcome the main creative team of 'Palace Conspiracy' onto the stage to meet us with our warmest! Our most frenzied applause!"
Qin Feng, Zhao Xueling, Su Qingying, and the other main cast members stood up from the front rows amidst thunderous applause.
They smiled and acknowledged the audience, then walked onto the stage.
Spotlights followed them.
After all the main creatives were in place, the host wore a mysterious and exaggerated smile.
His gaze precisely pierced through the crowd, firmly locking onto that quiet corner in the very last row.
He raised his volume and shouted loudly.
"Of course! We absolutely cannot forget tonight's biggest surprise!"
"That General Gu who beat the war drum with his life, who broke countless hearts—"
"Jiang Ci! Please come up to the stage!"
Swish!
A bright spotlight instantly broke away from the main stage, landing with pinpoint accuracy on Jiang Ci.
Hundreds of gazes from the entire screening room shot towards him simultaneously.
Inquiry, curiosity, shock, and the lingering sorrow.
Jiang Ci was still caught in the immense joy of his extended lifespan.
The moment the light hit him, he slightly lowered his eyelids, blocking out everyone's line of sight.
When he raised them again, the trace of ecstasy in his eyes that hadn't yet dissipated had quietly vanished.
A weariness and emptiness, as if he had just awoken from a great dream, appeared in his gaze.
He stood up, facing the scrutiny of the entire hall.