CH 78

October 29, 2022kaychandra

Chapter 78: The Unreasonable Master Xi

After Gongxi Qiao won the trophy, before he had even spoken his acceptance speech, there were already online media back home launching the news with the title “Flower Country’s Youngest Golden Leaf Award Film Emperor: Gongxi Qiao”.

After Gongxi Qiao sat down in the chair holding the trophy, congratulations from back home were already pouring in and the internet was buzzing with excitement. There was no late night lull at all. The Qiao fans, who were stepped on and off by the Nan fans, had a tone of not bothering with children and slapped the Nan fans in the face. However, they still gave face to Gu Nan, saying unanimously that it was just the fans’ behavior and had nothing to do with their idol.

As for whether it really had nothing to do with their idol, many people simply didn’t care. They only knew that Gu Nan’s fans were insinuating that Gongxi Qiao was inferior to Gu Nan before the award was announced. As it turned out, Gongxi Qiao won the film emperor award, hitting them hard in the face. 

What did you say? Gu Nan was popular abroad? That was a joke. Didn’t they see those big international stars laughing with Gongxi Qiao? Also, the “Golden Manor 2” director and main male and female actors treated Gongxi Qiao in a very cordial manner. If this didn’t illustrate the popularity of Gongxi Qiao abroad, then they must be hooligans.

What, you say Gongxi Qiao is famous internationally for his calligraphy and painting, unlike Gu Nan, who relies on actual film works?

Hey, if you’re not convinced, let your big Nan also go perform calligraphy and painting as well as get the Golden Leaf Award film emperor, and also get international stars to take the initiative to take pictures with him and walk the red carpet with him. We definitely won’t say he’s not relying on his strength.

Besides, take a look at how much older your own Gu Nan is compared to our Qiao Shao. How long has he been in the circle? If you compare his achievements over the last ten years with the achievements of someone who has only been in the circle for less than two years, he loses. How much face do you have to have to say that you’re stronger than others?

You guys are jumping up and down, does your Film Emperor Gu know? Can’t you see that the Qiao fans are too lazy to deal with you? 

The country fell into a sea of joy. The “Golden Manor 2” crew and “The Greatest Warrior” crew were also very happy. “Golden Manor 2” took the Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Cinematography awards, and “The Greatest Warrior” took the Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor awards. Both were successful.

At the end of the award ceremony, Phillips said to Gongxi Qiao, “Qiao, our movie is going to be released worldwide next month. When we come to Flower Country to promote it, I hope you can join us.”

“It would be my pleasure.” Gongxi Qiao smiled and agreed to the request of director Phillips. After taking a group photo, he hurriedly went to find the cast of “The Greatest Warrior”.

“It was a wise decision to cast Qiao to play this role, don’t you think, Willis?” Phillips looked at Gongxi Qiao’s back as he left and smiled at Willis.

Willis shrugged his shoulders, “You’re right.” But it’s not a good habit to brag.

“Xiao Qiao.” Director Wang saw Gongxi Qiao walking toward them, holding the golden leaf trophy in his hand. He said with a smile, “Congratulations, congratulations. Let’s go back, you can treat us all to a big meal.”

“No problem,” said Gongxi Qiao with a big smile, “not to mention one meal, even ten meals is fine.”

“You said it.” Xu Chao hooked his neck and said with a smile, “Anyway, we all heard it. You can’t renege when you go back.”

The others laughed at the words, but consciously or unconsciously, they were more respectful to Gongxi Qiao.

“Be prepared when you go out later.” Director Wang pointed to the door.” There may be many reporters waiting for you outside.”

Gongxi Qiao hugged the trophy in his arms a little tighter, then said, “The same goes for you.”

“The Greatest Warrior” won this award, so it was a big success before it was even broadcast. Therefore, when it was released, no matter how the box office turned out, they wouldn’t lose when it came to reputation. Even in the future, when people took stock of the classic films, it would be among them.

For Director Wang, as his last film, “The Greatest Warrior” was a success and he had no regrets.

He was glad that he was able to cultivate a Golden Leaf Award-winning film emperor with this film. For famous directors, being able to train outstanding actors was also a kind of success. 

As soon as the crew went out, they saw a group of reporters surrounding them. Especially Gongxi Qiao. As soon as he showed up, before he could catch his breath, he found himself surrounded by cameras and flashing lights.

There were many reporters surrounding Gongxi Qiao, including Flower Country reporters and foreign reporters. It was obvious that everyone was very interested in him, the new film emperor.

“Qiao, congratulations on winning a Best Actor, but I heard that you also played a significant role in ‘Golden Manor 2’. Is that true?” The question was asked by a foreign journalist.

“Yes, but my part was only a few minutes long, so it’s not an important role,” said Gongxi Qiao, smiling at the reporter who asked the question.

When the Flower Country reporters heard this, they were a little bit confused. When did Gongxi Qiao join the cast of “Golden Manor 2” and how come they didn’t know anything about it? The film was about to be released in their country and only now was the news revealed. Gongxi Qiao hid it really tightly. No wonder the organizers of the award ceremony arranged for him to sit with the director of “Golden Manor 2” and the male and female leads.

A National Station reporter with inside information smiled in his heart. He had known about it for a long time. If not for the gag order, the news would have leaked out a long time ago.

However, Qiao Shao got the Golden Leaf Award film emperor award. What a gratifying thing!

“Qiao Shao, I’m a reporter from the Feiteng website. Are you going to try a new genre of work after winning this award?” You should know that since Gongxi Qiao’s debut, his starring roles were ancient costume dramas, and there were almost no fashion or lifestyle dramas.

“I have that in mind, but I won’t force it. It mainly depends on the quality of the script.” Gongxi Qiao laughed very openly. “Right now, my primary job is still to film “Cultivation”.”

Well, he truly was a reliable boyfriend. He didn’t forget to help raise awareness for the film that Xi Qing invested in at this time.

Because Gongxi Qiao took home the film emperor award, the journalists on the scene, although very enthusiastic, weren’t overly so. When Gongxi Qiao was ready to leave, they were reluctant, but they didn’t make a move to pull him away.

However, although the reporters didn’t forcefully pull Gongxi Qiao, a young man came out from the side and blocked his way forward.

Chen Ke, who was following Gongxi Qiao, saw this and whispered in Gongxi Qiao’s ear, “This is an idol star from Strawberry Country, who is somewhat popular in our country.”

Gongxi Qiao looked up to survey the male artist in front of him. His clothes were intense, his dyed reddish-brown hair was a bit long, covering his ears and forehead. His nose was straight, but there were traces of having gone under the knife.

“Mr. Gongxi, can we take a picture together?” This male artist’s Flower Country language wasn’t particularly natural and sounded strange.

Gongxi Qiao looked at the army of reporters behind him and smiled apologetically. “Sorry, it’s a little inconvenient right now. We’ll take a picture together next time, okay?”

The smile on the male artist’s face stiffened and he waited for Gongxi Qiao to get into the car before he cursed in a low voice in Strawberry Country language.

For the sake of their own faces, the journalists from Strawberry country wouldn’t admit that their artist was ignored, so even if they were angry in their hearts, they pretended that nothing had happened. Although Gongxi Qiao got the film emperor award, the news wasn’t much mentioned in their country.

The Flower Country reporters didn’t have the same consideration. Someone immediately sent back a photo of the scene, with the headline “Strawberry country’s popular artist took the initiative to ask for a photo, Film Emperor Gongxi refused because he was too busy. Was he busy or arrogant?”

As soon as this news was sent back to the country, it immediately exploded. It should be noted that the Strawberry country entertainer named Lee Han Kim[1] had a lot of brain-dead fans in Flower Country. These young girls lived and died for their Big Brother Lee, and even raised money to buy luxury gifts for him. How could they stand to have someone ignore their “unbeatable handsome brother”? Immediately, they ran to Gongxi Qiao’s Weibo page and cursed, saying that he only won a Golden Leaf Award film emperor, what’s the big deal? Their own idol was a superstar throughout East Asia. Gongxi Qiao was an actor who debuted less than two years ago. Why should he look down on their idol?

Unfortunately, apart from those brain-dead fans, many people thought, what was wrong with Gongxi Qiao doing this? Besides, the reporter’s article stated that Gongxi Qiao had to leave because of an emergency, so he refused to take a photo together. He also stated that they would have the opportunity to take a photo together later. Did those brain-dead fans need to act so butthurt?

This popular artist who was held in the palm of the hand of Strawberry country still had the nerve to call himself the King of the East. That was ridiculous, okay? Gongxi Qiao was a Golden Leaf Award Film Emperor. That kind of idol artist had no acting skills and his looks all depended on plastic surgery.

And the brain-dead fans who said that Gongxi Qiao wasn’t as handsome as Lee Han Kim, were they blind? Even if an 80 year old woman were to choose, wouldn’t she still think that Gongxi Qiao left Lee Han Kim dozens of blocks behind when it came to looks?

Almost everyone was laughing at the stupid comments of the brain-dead fans. What did Lee Han Kim count as overseas? Would his face still look good after combing back his thick bangs?

Some of the late-night crowd who couldn’t sleep were bored and simply compared the facial value of the two with each other from 360 degrees. Some of the more unethical people even found photos of Lee Han Kim as a child without plastic surgery and Gongxi Qiao as a child. They finally came to a conclusion that this was the gap between an actual monkey and a prince.

After comparing looks, they also compared education, but Lee Han Kim didn’t even graduate from high school, so he lost again.

Then, the result was even worse when comparing temperament. Gongxi Qiao again beat Lee Han Kim by hundreds of blocks.

To compare trophies, Gongxi Qiao debuted less than two years ago and won three gold trophies, the Best Newcomer and Best Supporting Actor in the Thousand Flowers Awards and the Golden Leaf Award for Film Emperor. As for Lee Han Kim, what were all those nonsense awards that nobody had heard of? If those also counted, Gongxi Qiao’s high profile painting and calligraphy competition trophies were enough to crush Lee Han Kim into slag.

Some netizens said that Lee Han Kim still had one thing he could beat Gongxi Qiao in, and that was the brain damage of his fans.

Most of Gongxi Qiao’s fans were reasonable. Even if someone slandered Gongxi Qiao, they didn’t jump to their feet, but found evidence and then debated politely with each other. Sometimes onlookers were even brought to their knees because their writing was so good and their logic so clear.

Therefore, many people thought that Gongxi Qiao’s fans must include many learning tyrants.

Although the idea that “an idol attracts fans who are the same kind of person as themselves” was completely unfounded, netizens didn’t care about that. Anyway, in their eyes, Gongxi Qiao was the learning god, and many die-hard Qiao fans were learning tyrants. If your grades weren’t good, you’d be embarrassed to call yourself a Qiao fan. 

When everyone was still crushing the brain-dead fans with their strength, new news came back to the country. That was, Gongxi Qiao himself admitted that he played a role in “Golden Manor 2”, but it was only a guest cameo, not an important role.

Many Qiao fans said, my Qiao is really too sincere. Other artists boasted that they played important roles in blockbuster movies, but he publicly said that it wasn’t an important role. Such a straightforward artist really made fans worry, ah.

Why didn’t my Qiao’s work team stop him? Why not take advantage of this opportunity to raise his value? Why did he have to tell the truth? Didn’t you see that a certain film emperor who stepped on Qiao Shao just played a passerby[2] in a certain blockbuster, and returned home saying that he co-starred with a certain big shot?

This “certain film emperor” was Gu Nan, whose face was swollen. Originally, his work team saw that Lee Han Kim and his brain-dead fans had attracted all the energy, but they didn’t have time to breathe a sigh of relief before the war came back to them.

Blame it on their bad luck. They wanted to take this opportunity to hype up Gu Nan. Who knew that Gongxi Qiao would really bring home the film emperor trophy. Even God was on the side of this Great Young Master Qiao.

In fact, it wasn’t their fault. Everyone thought that Gongxi Qiao couldn’t really win the award, so they used such a publicity tactic. Ever since Gu Nan returned home, he found that the domestic market had been taken over by many up-and-coming youngsters. Although his publicists said that he came back because he missed his homeland, the well-informed in the circle knew that he chose to return to his homeland to continue his development because he wasn’t doing very well abroad.

However, after people leave the tea goes cold.[3] His previous contacts weren’t very good now. In addition, after Gu Nan returned to China, he didn’t produce any blockbusters. The movie he just released had a mediocre reputation and box office results. They wanted to take the opportunity of Gongxi Qiao’s nomination to let netizens recall the past glory of Gu Nan, and let everyone know that Gu Nan’s position as the top star in the circle was untouchable.

Who the hell knew that Gongxi Qiao’s luck would be so unbelievable? Less than two years after entering the circle, he was able to get the Golden Leaf film emperor award. Normal people wouldn’t even dare to think about that kind of good thing, but he actually did it easily!

Therefore, to mingle in this circle, acting skills, looks and connections were very important, but luck was also one of the elements that couldn’t be ignored, such as… Gongxi Qiao.

Counting his works since his debut, the first was a dog blood costume drama, but it was able to explode in the ratings, and also he was the most popular as a third male lead.

Later, not to mention “Immortal Mountain Courtyard”, the low-cost “Lord Brother-in-Law”, with an investment of less than ten million yuan, ended up earning hundreds of millions of yuan at the box office. He was also one of the main investors and earned a lot of money. Not to mention that he also made another actor from his own company popular. Say, if this wasn’t unbelievable luck, what was?

Later in “National Industry”, the kind of big production that everyone was scrambling to squeeze into, he happened to be valued by Admiral Zheng’s grandson because of his looks and talent, so he personally recommended him. Such good luck was simply something that only a winner in life could experience.

Luckily, what they did this time wasn’t too obvious. As long as they didn’t admit to anything, no one could find any dirt on them. So when some artists who were good friends with Gongxi Qiao sent out Weibos congratulating Gongxi Qiao, Gu Nan also sent out a congratulatory Weibo. His words were very gentle, making people who read it feel that Gu Nan was sincerely happy for Gongxi Qiao, ah.

So those things before were just fan behavior or Gu Nan’s movie producers and Gu Nan himself didn’t have anything to do with it, right?

Xi Qing took a sip of coffee and frowned as he watched the winds on the internet change. He wasn’t some simple netizen, so he remained skeptical about this.

He also read the long Weibo post before. Although there was no mention of Gongxi Qiao, there was a sense of stepping on Gongxi Qiao.

Anyway, he looked upset.

It would be strange for him to be happy when his own beloved, who he kept very close to his heart, was stepped on like this.

The next morning when Xi Qing went to the company he had his assistant send an email to the top management of each branch saying that they refused to use Gu Nan as a spokesperson for their products. 

As for this matter, could it be that he misunderstood and wronged Gu Nan?

Was it a bit too cruel?

It didn’t matter. Anyway, doing this was the only way he could feel comfortable in his heart.

As soon as the well-informed directors in the entertainment industry heard the news, they muttered in their hearts that it seemed like this Film Emperor Gu had accidentally offended Master Xi?

Therefore, the directors who wanted to work with Gu Nan began to hesitate. If they worked with Gu Nan, would it make Master Xi think that they were in cahoots with Gu Nan?

T/N: 

1. Lee Han Kim: 李汉金 in Chinese it would be Li Hanjin but since he’s from Strawberry country (aka Korea) I’m romanizing it this way. 金Jīn is the Chinese spelling of the Korean name Kim.

2. Passerby: 酱油 Literally “soy sauce”, slang meaning somebody who is just a passerby or an onlooker from “It has nothing to do with me, I just came out to buy soy sauce”.

3.When people leave the tea goes cold: 人走茶凉 Idiom meaning that after people leave, feelings become indifferent and relationships go cold.