As the line on the heart monitor began to flatten, Lin Shen signed a deal with the devil.
A heart demon calling itself the “Director” designed a performance project just for him, titled Forty-Nine Acts of Sacrifice for Love. The rules were simple: complete forty-nine sacrificial scenes ending in death inside the heart demon's “immersive theater,” and his lover Xia Wan would get more time in the real world.
And so Lin Shen became the project's one and only, terribly unlucky leading man.
This isn't an epic of heroism, but a string of absurd, trashy productions. From tragic martyr to socially anxious clown, from dragon-slaying warrior to laughingstock hunted by a hamster, the “Director” works tirelessly behind the scenes in pursuit of its twisted idea of “dramatic tension.” Lin Shen, meanwhile, goes from giving it his all, to slacking off, to finally snapping and fighting back with a barrage of complaints.
He gradually realizes that the one who most needs saving may never have been Xia Wan in her hospital bed, but himself, lost in an obsession with self-sacrifice and unable to break free.
Now the lights are about to come up on the final act.
Will he follow the project plan and complete this grand “sacrifice for love”?
Or will he smash the whole production and shout at all the torment:
“Cut!”
The answer is on the next page.
