CH 92

Chapter 92: Invitation to the Spring Festival Gala

Regardless of whether Gongxi Qiao and Gu Nan’s “good buddy” appearance was genuine or not, at least the facade was displayed to the fullest. No matter what the reporters really believed, anyway, the photos of the two popular film emperors were printed in newspapers and magazines, and a bunch of good things were written about them. There was no worry that no one would buy them.

The most important thing was that the two men had an outstanding status in the circle among male artists. The media had to give them some respect. They had to know what to write and what not to write. They were respectful to each other, so that they could continue to meet in the future.

The two major film emperors over here were good buddies, and Liang Yumeng was being roasted over a fire over there. Although the two film emperors didn’t admit that it was Liang Yumeng who did it, they didn’t deny it either. In the last year, there had been a lot of negative reports about Liang Yumeng. Many people already didn’t have a good opinion of him, and now it was revealed that he had pitted the two film emperors against each other. Even Gongxi Qiao, a male artist who once won glory for the country, wasn’t spared. Therefore, he reached the point where practically everyone was shouting at him.

For many people, Gongxi Qiao wasn’t just an entertainer, because he not only won the Golden Leaf Award film emperor, but also had a superb position in the world of calligraphy and painting. As everyone knew, the level of cultural sophistication in show business varied. An artist like Gongxi Qiao, who came out of Imperial Capital University and represented the country at a world-class cultural exhibition, was a sight rarely seen in a hundred years. Such an aura made Gongxi Qiao invariably higher than ordinary artists, so when people confirmed that Liang Yumeng had set Gongxi Qiao up in such a way, they were extraordinarily angry.

Everyone in the circle knew that Liang Yumeng was doomed to be unable to get up after this time. Not only could he not get up, he would have to spend his life lying in a stinky pit, unless Gongxi Qiao fell, Xi Qing fell or Gongxi Qiao and Xi Qing had a falling out.

However, no one had the patience to sympathize with him. Rather than sympathize with others, it was better to think about how to find better resources for themselves.

In the resplendent private room of a restaurant, Sun Jingxue was sharing a meal with someone and saw her life assistant behind her answering the phone several times and her face didn’t look too good. She asked, “What’s going on?”

The assistant looked at the person sitting across from Sun Jingxue. “Mr. Liang wants to see you.”

“Mr. Liang?” Sun Jingxue’s beautiful eyebrows were slightly raised, with some charm. The fingers pinching the silver fork looked extra fair because of her red nails. “It’s not long ago that we settled the accounts between us. What is there to see?” Not to mention that she hadn’t been interested in Liang Yu Meng for a long time now, even if she was, she wouldn’t go against Xi Qing for a man.

Where couldn’t she find a good looking and discreet man? It wasn’t worth it for her to cross the Xi family for a plaything.

Seeing the annoyance and mockery in Sun Jingxue’s eyes, her life assistant exited the room and blocked a certain number in her phone.

It wasn’t wrong for people to be ambitious, but it was wrong to be too ambitious without adequate strength and still be unwilling to pay the price.

Inside the room, the assistant saw Liang Yumeng’s face turn pale. He didn’t dare to ask more questions and stood to the side in silence.

“Were there any calls from the company?” Liang Yumeng’s voice was hoarse, his eyes were also bloodshot, and the way he looked at the assistant was a bit scary.

The assistant shook his head.

Liang Yumeng slumped on the sofa. Now his agent hadn’t shown up for days, and the company pretended that he didn’t exist. He knew that he was really finished this time, and he didn’t even have a chance to things turn around.

If …… he hadn’t messed with Gongxi Qiao, he might not have come to this point.

Foresight couldn’t be bought with a thousand gold pieces, and regret medicine was useless.

With almost two months to go before the Chinese New Year, Gongxi Qiao, a rising film emperor who got the Golden Leaf Award, received an invitation from the National Spring Festival Gala program.

The National Spring Festival Gala was the grandest show on the night of New Year’s Eve. It was characterized by a high threshold and a lot of scolding[1], but it was essential for many people of the country who were accustomed to it.

Because of this, this gala had a very strict screening process for the programs and had to be rehearsed over and over again, and some programs could even be canceled minutes before the live broadcast started.

However, no matter how strict it was, there were people who had special treatment, such as Gongxi Qiao. The program team indicated that as long as Gongxi Qiao was willing to participate in the gala, the program team would consider arranging singing or a skit for him, and absolutely guarantee that he could appear on the live broadcast that night.

It was no wonder that the Spring Festival Gala program team treated Gongxi Qiao so favorably, because Gongxi Qiao’s influence on the younger generation was too great, and it was a positive influence. He graduated from a famous university, was a famous young calligrapher, had a positive image and high popularity, and was also the Golden Leaf Award film emperor. The appearance of such an artist on the show would not only attract young viewers, but also meet the requirements of the Spring Festival Gala for artists. It couldn’t be better.

So as long as Gongxi Qiao agreed, it wasn’t a problem to arrange any kind of program. Even if he couldn’t figure out how to sing opera, they would arrange for an opera singer to be his teacher.

Gongxi Qiao himself wasn’t particularly excited about the invitation to the National Spring Festival Gala, but Gongxi Xiong and Qiao Lanfen were very excited. The two old folks had always held great reverence for the Spring Festival Gala. In their eyes, to be on the Gala would really bring honor to all eight generations of their ancestors.

Faced with the fervent gaze of his parents, Gongxi Qiao couldn’t say no, and called the program team back the next day, saying that he would fully support their work and strive to bring joy and blessings to the people on New Year’s Eve.

The director of the program was very happy to hear this. He immediately said that Gongxi Qiao could arrange a three-minute program by himself, and he did not need to participate in the preliminary rehearsals, but only in the later important live rehearsals.

In fact, the program team also knew in their hearts that with Gongxi Qiao’s current status, there was no need to use the Spring Festival Gala to increase his status, but rather his willingness to participate was a favor to them. For this kind of superstar, every minute was money. If they wanted him to spend two or three months of his time here like others, it would be unkind.

However, what they didn’t expect was that although Gongxi Qiao didn’t have time to come to rehearsals often, he quickly submitted his program and also sent an audio clip to them.

Gongxi Qiao’s program was a solo, and the audio was the song he sang.

To be honest, the program team had never heard of this song, and the name was strange, called “Venerate Heaven Song”, which sounded like a prayer to heaven for good harvest, peace and happiness. The tune wasn’t like an ordinary folk song or pop song, but it was nice to hear.

The program team privately thought, maybe this great young master was preparing to develop from acting to becoming a singer. Anyway, this song had a good meaning and it was a good omen to sing it at the New Year’s Eve party.

So they didn’t have a problem with it and put the song “Venerate Heaven Song” into the live program list.

Winter in the Imperial Capital was always very cold, but there were a lot of indoor scenes in “Dream Corridor”, so it wasn’t too hard for everyone to film. After everyone knew that Gongxi Qiao was invited by the National Spring Festival Gala program, they all smiled and asked him to treat them.

If you could receive an invitation from this program, you at least proved that you were well regarded by the National Station. Otherwise, even if you were popular, getting on the program would be futile.

Gongxi Qiao knew in his heart that those people wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to have a good time. As the investor of this movie, he was also generous and invited the whole crew to a restaurant that day. This caused the entertainment media to praise him in their reports the next day for being generous and popular with the crew.

However, the news that he was invited by the Spring Festival Gala program team wasn’t leaked out.

Gongxi Qiao himself didn’t have much of an operatic approach to singing, and the “Venerate Heaven Song” was actually a reworked version of the Heavenly Sacrifice Song from his previous life. “Heavenly Sacrifice Song” included not only prayers for blessings, but also for gods and immortals, which Gongxi Qiao felt was inappropriate, so he recorded only part of the prayers to heaven.

However, he made it clear that this wasn’t his own creation, but a historical song of blessing. The general public might only think that this was some new style of song, but if a veteran archaeologist were to listen to it, he would know that it was a song from the Tianjin dynasty.

The Tianjin dynasty was a very bright page in Flower Country’s history. The economy and technology were ahead of the rest of the world, and small countries from all over the world competed to pay homage. The culture was even more splendid and colorful. Therefore, there were still a lot of film and television works about the Tianjin dynasty.

Although …… in Gongxi Qiao’s opinion, many works were insipid nonsense. But in any case, at least it also showed that modern people were very interested in the period of history of the Tianjin Dynasty.

Xi Qing had already known that Gongxi Qiao was going to participate in the Spring Festival Gala, so he decided to keep his ticket for the gala this year. Although he couldn’t go on stage with Gongxi Qiao, it was nice to watch him perform from the audience.

Recently, Gongxi Qiao was busy filming “Dream Corridor”. Because he played a seemingly gentle character who was actually a schizophrenic with a twisted heart, Xi Qing was worried that he would get too involved in the role, so he would drag him along to run and play tennis or other things.

But the truth was, his worries were superfluous. Gongxi Qiao not only did not get too involved in the role, but also practiced the “Venerate Heaven Song” in the recording studio of the manor.

This recording room was specially prepared by Xi Qing after he learned that Gongxi Qiao was going to sing a solo at the Spring Festival Gala. The equipment was better than many professional recording studios, although it was only used to sing one song.

That day, Gongxi Qiao didn’t have to go film, so he went to the recording room to sing again, and asked Xi Qing to be the audience.

Xi Qing knew that Gongxi Qiao didn’t particularly like to sing. Usually, even if he was in a good mood, he would drag him along for a walk in the garden instead of humming a song. However, he knew that Gongxi Qiao had a good voice and sang very good songs, and had even sung in KTV in the past.

However, he didn’t expect that Gongxi Qiao would sing such a song with the flavor of reverence for nature. Listening to this song that didn’t belong to this era, he inexplicably had the feeling that he was making a sacrifice to heaven.

“How is it?” Gongxi Qiao finished singing and looked at Xi Qing with a smile.

“There’s an indescribable sense of solemnity.” Xi Qing handed him a glass of honey water. “No wonder it’s called a heavenly sacrifice song.”

“Of course. This was the song sung by the national teacher himself when the emperor of the Tianjin Dynasty sacrificed to the heavens.” Gongxi Qiao took a sip of the honey water. “The original name was originally called “Heavenly Sacrifice Song”, but I cut out some of the inappropriate content.”

Xi Qing looked at Gongxi Qiao, who was drinking water, and paused for a moment. “The emperor’s sacrifice to heaven?”

“Yes, in Tianjin, on the eighth day of the first month of every year, it was the time for the emperor to offer sacrifices to the heavens, praying for the year’s wind and rain to be favorable and the harvest to be bountiful.” Gongxi Qiao held his cup, and his tone was emotional. “At that time, technology wasn’t developed, so it was natural to pray for the blessings of the heavens, in order for the people to have a peaceful year.”

“No wonder the song is so solemn.” Xi Qing thought about it. “It’s good.”

Gongxi Qiao smiled and didn’t say anything.

T/N