And it was an art film, clearly not made for the sake of making money. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Zhou Yun was happy to help with this kind of thing.

She and Yuh Huaijiang even hugged in the end and took a photo together.

After this round of large-scale socializing finally came to an end, the award ceremony was at last about to officially begin.

Zhou Yun had Song Chi sitting on her left, and You Jiang on her right.

People in the same nomination category were competitors, but at times like this, at least on the surface no one would be that openly hostile.

What’s more, neither Song Chi nor You Jiang were really the big favorites tonight.

The most awkward place was actually over where Ning Xiner sat. She was next to Zhang Hongyu. Clearly she was the female lead of the film "Laissez-faire", yet the one nominated for Best Actress was Zhang Hongyu. She couldn’t help thinking, if the audience saw this scene of her and Zhang Hongyu in the same frame on camera, how ironic it would feel.

But this evening, not many people were actually paying attention to Ning Xiner. To be honest, everyone barely had the time to focus on the nominated actors; who would have spare energy to care about Ning Xiner? She wasn’t a big Celebrity who came with her own halo and popularity like Zhou Yun or Song Chi.

Once the ceremony moved into its official flow, the whole atmosphere changed.

Even though the host on stage kept making everyone laugh, that tension from facing the question of whether you’d win still couldn’t be diluted by anything.

Even though Zhou Yun had just won an award last year, even though everyone said her chances this year were slim, until the final results were announced, she still couldn’t truly put all her expectations down.

She still longed to win.

Let alone those nominees who had never won an award before.

Even someone like Yin Lin—an Actress whose career had hit its peak with "Bad Woman" and whose acting was now thoroughly mature—after winning the Lingjun Award for Best Actress, still harbored hopes for the Qingmu Award.

One award after another was handed out.

Sitting in the audience, Zhou Yun watched each Winner go up on stage to accept the trophy and give their speech. Two of them even ended up in tears on stage, and Zhou Yun was deeply moved watching them.

Very few people could truly take it all lightly.

When Zhou Yun went on stage to present the Best Actor award, she actually had a bit of anticipation in her heart. She hoped the winner would be Song Chi or Mr. Jiang, You Jiang.

Of course, she hoped for the former even more.

Ever since Zhou Yun got together with Song Chi, he hadn’t won a single award.

His peak had come too early.

Some of Song Chi’s more extreme fans had said things along the lines of Zhou Yun holding back his career. Naturally, no one took that seriously, but when Zhou Yun saw those comments at the time, she didn’t say anything—she just kept it to herself.

She didn’t want to hold back Song Chi’s career.

Even though people in the industry all knew the real reasons why Song Chi hadn’t been able to win any awards in recent years, Zhou Yun still hoped he could win one again as soon as possible, to show those who thought he was on the decline because he hadn’t won in a while that Song Chi had never once held his own career back.

These past few years, Song Chi had been acting seriously and steadily. In just two or three years, he had already put out acclaimed and popular works like "Heart Inquiry" and "Laissez-faire"; no matter who you compared him with, he would never come up short.

Zhou Yun walked up onto the stage amid a wave of applause.

She first said a quiet thank you, then began to read the award speech.

When she was about to open the envelope, her heart even started beating faster.

She took the card with the Winner’s information out of the envelope, glanced at the name, and couldn’t help letting out an excited cry.

"Ah!"

All eyes in the room focused on her.

That delighted exclamation made many people instantly think of the same possibility: could the winner be Song Chi?

Strictly speaking, Song Chi’s performance in "Laissez-faire" wasn’t so good that it surpassed Liang Yuanpu’s and You Jiang’s, but it had indeed been brilliant. It would have made sense whether he won or not.

Was this year’s luck finally landing on Song Chi?

Zhou Yun showed the audience a slightly excited smile and said, "This year’s Qingmu Award for Best Actor goes to—"

"You Jiang!"

The whole room froze for a second, then burst into intense applause and cheers.

Even You Jiang himself hadn’t expected it. He was stunned for a moment, then stood up in surprise and immediately hugged Zhang Hongyu beside him.

They were old acquaintances, old friends.