CH 77

October 29, 2022kaychandra

Chapter 77: Awards

The crew of “The Greatest Warrior” didn’t know how the domestic audience reacted. After they entered the venue, they didn’t feel confident.

Director Wang really hoped that the crew could win an award this time, but unfortunately the competition was too strong. The status of their Flower Country film industry was too low, so it was too difficult to bring home an award.

This time they got four nominations: Best Actor, Best Screenplay, Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography. This was already very good. Even if they came home empty-handed, they wouldn’t be ashamed. Didn’t they see that “Desert City” next to them only got one nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay but they all came with a big crowd?

In fact, they all knew that most of the time, Flower Country’s film works were just accompanying the prince to study[1] at such film festivals. However, it was good to come to foreign countries to get a layer of gold plating, so they would have more publicity gimmicks back home. It would be even better if they could be valued by foreign film companies during the exhibition and open up the foreign theatrical release market.

Gongxi Qiao’s seat wasn’t together with Director Wang, but with the cast of “Golden Manor 2”. He sat next to the lead actor, Willis. Although they didn’t spend much time together, the good-looking foreign man was very enthusiastic when facing Gongxi Qiao. So, after sitting together, the two talked in low voices from time to time.

The camera even favored the two handsome men, sweeping towards them from time to time.

“How strange. Why did the organizer arrange for Xiao Qiao to sit with the crew of “Golden Manor”?” Mi Yue asked Xu Chao in a whisper because she was very confused. In theory, the seating order of film festivals had certain rules. Generally, the seats were divided by fame and status, or by crew, but no matter by fame, status or crew, Gongxi Qiao shouldn’t have been in a group with the people of “Golden Manor 2” ah.

Although “Golden Manor 2” hadn’t been released yet, from the lineup and the popularity of the first installment, even with a new director, it would certainly have a good box office.

Xu Chao had vaguely heard a bit of inside information. When Mi Yue asked, he whispered in her ear, “Xiao Qiao made a guest appearance in that movie. This is internal company information, so don’t reveal it.”

Guest starring in “Golden Manor”?

Mi Yue had read the original novel, and immediately guessed which role Gongxi Qiao guest starred in. There was a bit of shock in her eyes. Although this role only appeared for a few minutes at the end of the second part, he had more important plotlines in the next two books. As for the fifth book…… It was still in the original author’s head, not written yet.

If Gongxi Qiao’s cameo role in the second installment was popular with fans, then the character would certainly not change actors in the next two installments. Wasn’t this the same as saying that Gongxi Qiao had already started to go abroad?!

The award ceremony began under Mi Yue’s shocked emotions. Western Europeans joked more openly than Flower Country people. Sometimes Gongxi Qiao didn’t understand their punchlines at all, but from beginning to the end, he would show a smile when others laughed. The attitude was both friendly and maintained the elegant manners that Flower Country people had passed down for thousands of years.

Many foreign female viewers watching the live broadcast couldn’t help but clutch their chests when they saw him smiling. This was a man who could easily make people swoon.

Some of the more open-minded female viewers even found Gongxi Qiao’s photos on the Internet and posted it on their Facebook page, asking boldly: Hot guy, wanna date?

The Flower Country users who didn’t use the Facebook platform made a special trip to Facebook to leave a message saying: No dating, you can’t date him, Qiao Shao is ours.

At the Golden Leaf Awards ceremony, the Best Adapted Screenplay Award was being presented, and short clips of the five nominated works appeared on the big screen in order.

When “Golden Manor 2” was shown, the shot was of Garcia, the lead actor, standing by a lake with a ghostly figure floating away on the lake.

Although the image of this ghostly figure appeared only in a glimpse, the beautiful image was already enough to attract the attention of the crowd.

“The winner of Best Adapted Screenplay goes to,” the guest of honor deliberately paused for a moment and winked at the crowd, “the crew of Golden Manor 2, congratulations.”

Gongxi Qiao had a joyful expression on his face and applauded enthusiastically, revealing his congratulatory emotions. “Golden Manor 2″ won the best adapted screenplay award, which meant that “Desert City” had to return empty-handed in the end. However, they hadn’t held out much hope, so they didn’t seem to be much disappointed.

Shortly after the Best Adapted Screenplay Award was presented, the Best Original Screenplay Award was presented. “The Greatest Warrior” was written by Director Wang himself, so for Director Wang, it was still very important.

“The heart of a chivalrous man isn’t judged by the level of his martial arts skills.” On the big screen, the noble son in brocade clothes stood proudly among the group, his eyes firm and clear, like a light that could illuminate the heart.

“Qiao, you look so good in ancient clothes,” Willis said in a sincere tone. “Was this how Flower Country people dressed in ancient times?”

“The style is largely the same, but the fabric, color, details, and accessories were a lot more elaborate, and people with different identities were entitled to dress differently,” Gongxi Qiao replied in a low voice, but his attention was on the stage.

“Wow, this is really…” the guest presenter shrugged his shoulders, “a commendable script. Congratulations to ‘The Greatest Warrior’!”

After hearing the guest presenter’s words, Gongxi Qiao’s face suddenly turned into a very bright smile. He couldn’t help but to increase the strength of his applause, and often looked in the direction of Director Wang.

The camera also honestly recorded his current appearance. He was the most famous person in the cast of “The Greatest Warrior”.

Director Wang accepted the Golden Leaf trophy, thanked the circle of people and said, “This is a surprise for me. This trophy should not belong to me alone, it should belong to my assistant screenwriter, and my young friend, Gongxi Qiao. It was those two who made this script even more alive and perfect.” He raised the trophy in his hand, “Anyway, thank you.”

He had been a director for so many years. He didn’t expect that the last one he would take home was not the Best Director but the Best Screenplay. It was kind of an unintentional achievement.

As Director Wang stepped down, the audience erupted in applause again. The cast and crew of “The Greatest Warrior” were also very happy. They wouldn’t go home empty-handed, and they had something to show off when they returned home.

Since the inception of the Golden Leaf Awards, Flower Country’s film works had only won seventeen awards, many of which weren’t very high value awards. Therefore, receiving four nominations and a Best Screenplay trophy this time was simply an over-achievement.

As for the other three nominations, they didn’t even intend to think about winning.

As expected, Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography were won by other films. The Greatest Warrior’s biggest goal was to make its presence felt when it was nominated.

There was no chance of winning those two awards, and Best Actor was even more impossible, so when the Best Actor award was presented, the entire “The Greatest Warrior” crew was extraordinarily calm. Even Gongxi Qiao, the person in question, was in an extraordinarily good frame of mind. The camera took countless close-ups of his face, and there was no trace of pretend calmness.

The viewers in front of the TV set once again felt that it was worthy of the male god from an ancient civilization, his poise was extraordinary.

People were coming and going, the snow was falling, the young man was wearing a fur robe and riding on a white horse. The delicate jade crown set off his green silk like a diadem. He suddenly pulled the reins, let the horse stop, and then slowly raised his head.

A piece of snow fell into his eyes and his pupils trembled slightly. This snowflake quickly melted away and turned into a drop of water that fell down the corner of his eyes.

This close-up was so beautiful, so beautiful that one was almost intoxicated with that eye. Willis, who was sitting next to Gongxi Qiao, even turned his head to Gongxi Qiao twice, with a look of awe.

“These five men are really too good, it’s really a difficult thing.” Juliana was one of the Best Actor award presenters. 

When she looked at the male guest presenter next to her with her pair of deep blue eyes, the male guest presenter couldn’t help but have the desire to protect this flower. However, thinking of her feistiness, he sobered up again. “Oh, I don’t like them.”

“Why?” Juliana pretended to be surprised.

“You know, no one likes someone better than themselves,” the male guest looked disgusted and shook the winner’s envelope in his hand, “so I don’t really want to open it right now.”

The audience in front of the TV saw that the screen was divided into five grids, and on each of them were the artists who had been nominated. Of the five, some were nervous, some smiled reluctantly, others were expectant, and of course some had impeccable smiles.

Gongxi Qiao was the last category.

However, back home, the Qiao fans in front of their TV sets weren’t as calm as he was. After learning that Gongxi Qiao was actually nominated, Qiao fans couldn’t help but pray secretly in their hearts that Gongxi Qiao would get the Best Actor.

However, those who knew a little about the Golden Leaf Awards knew that the possibility of Gongxi Qiao winning the film emperor award was too low. It wasn’t that his acting skills were inferior to others, but because Flower Country’s film industry was too low in international status, and Gongxi Qiao was too young.

How old was he this year?

Twenty-three.

It would be a miracle if a twenty-three-year-old Flower Country actor won the Golden Leaf film emperor award. In fact, given the subject matter of “The Greatest Warrior”, Gongxi Qiao’s nomination for Best Actor was already a miracle in the eyes of Flower Country fans.

After learning that Gongxi Qiao had been nominated for Best Actor, a certain journalist said publicly on Weibo that he didn’t expect Gongxi Qiao to win the award because Gu Nan had been abroad for several years and had only been nominated for one Little Golden Man award. Gongxi Qiao was seven or eight years younger than Gu Nan and it hadn’t even been two years since his debut, so he couldn’t possibly have done better than Gu Nan.

This Weibo post reminded many people that Gu Nan was an international superstar who had been nominated for the Little Golden Man Best Actor Award. The Little Golden Man award was the most prestigious award in the world, with the Golden Leaf Award only coming in second.

So, before the Best Actor was awarded, somebody already posted a long Weibo post listing the awards Gu Nan had won, and how popular he was abroad, how low-key he was, how superb his acting skills were, and how hard he worked and how dedicated he was.

Although this long Weibo didn’t mention Gongxi Qiao, it made many passersby think, Film Emperor Gu was so cool and so low-key. Even if Gongxi Qiao got a nomination for the Golden Leaf Award for Best Actor, what did it count?

Qiao fans watched with fire in their hearts, but in order to avoid bringing trouble to Gongxi Qiao, several leaders of the Qiao fans were constantly persuading people not to go to quarrel with the Nan fans and not to make people think that Qiao Shao wanted to borrow Film Emperor Gu’s hype.

Because of that, many netizens didn’t think there was anything wrong with Gongxi Qiao even though they marveled at Gu Nan’s excellence. Many of them took Gongxi Qiao as the future Gu Nan. This also indicated that, in their hearts, Gongxi Qiao, although good, was no match for Gu Nan.

Qiao fans were secretly unconvinced. If Gu Nan was so powerful, how come there weren’t so many superstars taking the initiative to take pictures with him and how come there weren’t international superstars walking the red carpet with him?

If Qiao Shao really got the award tonight, wouldn’t the Nan fans’ faces be swollen?

Well, although they themselves knew that it was unlikely, it wasn’t a crime to think about it or anything.

So when it came to awarding the Best Actor, Qiao fans were holding their breath. When they saw that the guest of honor was still deliberately rambling and whetting people’s appetite, they almost cursed.

Why the hell are you talking so much nonsense to present an award, we’re in a hurry!

However, the way their Qiao tilted his head to look at the snowflakes, his charm was so explosive that their hearts almost flew out of their chests.

The poor male guest of honor didn’t know that in the distant East there were already people mentally giving him their heartfelt condolences[2]. He whetted everyone’s appetite slowly opening the winning envelope before handing it to Juliana.

“Wow, wow, wow,” the male guest of honor marveled repeatedly and put the envelope into Juliana’s hand, “I think maybe you want to say his name even more.”

Juliana raised a nice eyebrow and didn’t refuse as she closed the award envelope in her hand and took a deep breath. “The winner of Best Actor in a Leading Role is Mr. Gongxi Qiao! Congratulations!”

The words Gongxi Qiao were a bit hard for the foreigner to pronounce, but at that moment the cast of “The Greatest Warrior” couldn’t care less about that.

The best actor was from their Flower Country!

Compared to the excitement of others, Gongxi Qiao was a little stunned. In the close-up, his bewildered eyes were almost frozen, as if he hadn’t reacted at all to winning the award.

It was only after Willis gave him a friendly hug that he came back to his senses.

Amidst everyone’s congratulations and applause, Gongxi Qiao walked onto the stage.

“Thank you.” He shook hands with the male guest presenter and gracefully gave Juliana a kiss on the hand before accepting the golden trophy and walking to the microphone. “Sorry, I’m a little excited.”

The audience gave him a warm and friendly applause.

The cast of “The Greatest Warrior” and Chen Ke covered their faces in unison. Xiao Qiao must not have prepared an acceptance speech!

“I would like to say that this trophy is an unexpected pleasure for me. I would like to thank the organizing committee, the Golden Leaf Awards, the director Mr. Wang Zhi, the cast and crew of “The Greatest Warrior”, and my manager Mr. Chen. Of course, most of all, I would like to thank my parents for all the tolerance and nurturing they have given me over the years. I love you all. In addition, I would like to thank my best friend, Mr. Xi. Thank you for everything.” He looked at the audience and smiled. “This award means a lot to me. I think it will become one of my most precious memories. Thank you all.” He kissed the trophy, raised it with panache toward everyone, bowed in different directions, and stepped gracefully off the stage.

This acceptance speech was short and sharp, making many people sigh that this youth was really straightforward. He didn’t realize that he could show his face a little longer if he talked a little more on stage.

The Flower Country reporters on the scene were going crazy with joy. The film emperor of this year’s Golden Leaf Awards was won by their Flower Country entertainer. It was big news and a big joy. After the award ceremony, they must find a way to get an exclusive interview with Gongxi Qiao.

As for Gongxi Qiao, he was still slightly unsettled. He got the Golden Leaf Film Emperor award just like that?

Didn’t they say that he was accompanying the prince to study?

T/N:

1. Accompanying the prince to study: Being overshadowed by the competition, certain that you have no chance of winning.

2. Heartfelt condolences: 心底慰问他 I think this is said as an ironic way of wishing for his death? I’m not sure.