Of course, she believed that the award system was fair. At least, it was for her and Su Muran because the result would totally depend on the audience. The Su family would not be able to pull any underhanded tricks and Lu Yi would not get himself involved directly too.
Now, even if the Su family would like to pull a few strings for Su Muran, they would need to ask for permission from Lu Yi, who was the representative of the Lu family, and also the Ye family. Therefore, even Su Muran’s most powerful backstage supporter would not be able to do much now.
Yan Huan sat with Liang Chen as both of them were nominated for the awards. One was the supporting actress for Zhu Xiaoye, and the other was the most popular main actress of the film.
“It was unexpected that I could be sitting here,” said Liang Chen with trepidation in her heart. “If it wasn’t for you, I would not have reappeared in front of the cameras anymore.”
“I asked you to be the main actress, but you rejected me.” Yan Huan’s original plan was to let Liang Chen be the main actress. After all, she was not willing to relegate Liang Chen to a mere supporting role, which would be a waste of her exceptional status and ability.
“You did better than me,” Liang Chen sighed. “If it was me at my peak performance, I could become your opponent. However, I am 34 now… No, I’m going to be 35 soon. I no longer have the energy to be the main actress anymore.”
“Actually, if it wasn’t for you, I would not be willing to accept any acting roles at all. This was really just a cameo role. It would be good if I can get the award, but if not, I wouldn’t mind either. The awards that I’ve gotten were more than enough.”
It was true. Liang Chen had begun to receive awards since she was a teenager. Although her path to stardom had been an uphill struggle for her, it could be considered as smooth in some ways. She had always kept her feet on the ground and knew her place well, and she had tried her best to portray all the characters given to her as well as she could. She even managed to obtain a myriad of awards throughout these years, either at the international level or the domestic level.
Her feelings had grown cold toward awards these last few years. Now, she was nominated for another award, just when she was thinking of retiring. If she were to obtain the award, it would be a perfect ending for her acting career.
The host onstage was delivering his speech emotionally. The winners for most of the awards had already been announced. When it was time for the award of The Best Supporting Actress, many of the actresses were looking forward to hearing the result yet nervous at the same time. However, it was not the same for Liang Chen, until the spotlight landed directly on her.
“Liang Chen, Zhu Xiaoye.”
The host announced loudly, and thunderous applause erupted below the stage. Liang Chen deserved the award of The Best Supporting Actress with her skills. If she, the mogul was present, the award would most undoubtedly belong to her.
Liang Chen stood up, her black midi dress draping from her perfect body. She looked like a mermaid that drew attention wherever she went. Starting from her waist, her figure was so dreamy that all men would see her as the perfect goddess. Despite her being 35 years old, she was still no different from the pretty and elegant Liang Chen who had first debuted more than ten years ago.
As expected, Liang Chen was the winner for two awards, The Best Supporting Actress and The Most Popular Actress.
She returned to her seat and sat down. She caressed both of her trophies admiringly.
“Look how popular you are. Why did you stop acting?”
Yan Huan really felt pity for Liang Chen. Even though it was another lifetime now, Liang Chen still chose to retire.
“It’s because I’m tired,” Liang Chen sighed as she passed the trophies to her manager. “You will know it when you are my age, since you are still young.” Liang Chen stared directly into Yan Huan’s eyes as she said that.
“If there ever was a day when you wish to film a movie that will surpass all your previous movies, remember to get me involved too. I want to witness the moment when you finally stand at that peak. I also hope to see that one of our locally produced films would attain the achievement of Top 100 for the Top-grossing Movie of the World, or even the Top 10.”
Yan Huan felt a jump in her temple. All she could feel was the enormous burden on her to succeed.
Yan Huan was quite calm when it was time for the award of The Best Main Actress. She no longer needed awards to prove herself anymore, as the audience’s recognition of her ability was the best award she could ever have.
Therefore, she was as calm as Liang Chen. It was hard to grasp what they were really thinking inside their heads. It could be the past, the future, the previous life, or the current life.
Anyway, it was something that she could hardly describe and understand thoroughly.
When the host announced her name on the stage, Yan Huan was still daydreaming. So, Liang Chen gave her a firm pinch on the waist.
Yan Huan rubbed her waist. Did she have to pinch so hard? Her waist could have been bruised by that. If it was not for the crowd, she would have cried out loud in public. Did she not know that her waist was one of the parts that could never be touched the most?
Yan Huan got up and walked onto the red carpet. Everyone present, including Yan Hua, smiled and congratulated her except for Su Muran. She had turned her head to the side. She must have hated Yan Huan to the level of wanting to skin her and break her bones.
Originally, Yan Huan did not have many thoughts regarding this award. She did not mind whether the prize belonged to her to another actress. However, anyone could obtain this award except for Su Muran. She was willing to receive the awards until she was old or dying, but she would not allow any one of it to fall into Su Muran’s hands.
Oh yes, even she herself could not remember the number of awards that she had snatched from Su Muran.
During this time of her previous lifetime, she already was with her husband, scheming this and that with Lu Qin to take control of the Lu family. However, she did not know that Su Muran’s career was growing rapidly, obtaining various awards every year. With her family’s support, she could win many prizes every year. She became more and more famous when she gained more awards, and those who were not as popular would be outshined. At last, even Yan Huan was gradually forgotten by the public.
Yan Huan received the trophy of The Best Main Actress from the host. Together with her onstage was Zhou Zizhe, who earned the award of The Best Supporting Actor. And of course, he deserved it. Although it was just an award of The Best Supporting Actor, it was a grand award for him. Zhou Zizhe’s popularity had now exceeded that of Qi Haolin. Meanwhile, the winner of The Best Director was between ‘When The Song Ends’ or ‘Zhu Xiaoye’, but finally it still belonged to Yan Hua. As for the winners of the other awards, there might be some surprising results but none that were overly unreasonable.
Director Jin, on the other hand, did not have many regrets for not obtaining any of the awards. He admitted that Yan Hua was better than him in producing traditional fictional films with heroes. However, he was not at all worried. They would meet again for the spring festival films.
The first film from Linlang had already gained the recognition of most of the parties. The popularity of Linlang had increased with it too. In addition to that, the spring festival film by Linlang had already been approved by the media department to be released during the upcoming new year.
