Chapter 540

"You're just one Huabiao Award away from sweeping all the Best Actor nominations—how about that~"

After seeing the official lists of this year's Hundred Flowers Awards and Golden Rooster Awards nominations, Big Mi Mi couldn't help but sigh.

Even her gaze at Bai Liang had changed since then.

Double Best Actor nomination for the Hundred Flowers and Golden Rooster Awards!

"Nominations have a 'grand slam'?" Bai Liang asked, genuinely surprised by the term.

"Of course they do—this is the entertainment industry, everything gets blown out of proportion. Especially now, how many meaningful awards are even left in the domestic scene? A nomination for Hundred Flowers or Golden Rooster is enough for plenty of people to go wild with press releases, especially young artists."

At this moment, Big Mi Mi felt just like that old mentor who'd given Bai Liang his first lesson when he first entered the industry—she was genuinely enjoying being a teacher, dishing out a full lecture.

"The Hong Kong Film Awards are just the Xiangjiang entertainment circle playing in their own backyard; the Golden Horse Awards got completely ruined before. So now the only ones left are Huabiao, Hundred Flowers, and Golden Rooster—or else you go the European 'Big Three' route like the Korean Blue Dragon Film Festival, which still has some value."

Honestly, even though Big Mi Mi had no chance of winning any of these awards, her knowledge was seriously deep!

It was just like those "Car Knowledge Kings" who can't afford a sports car but know every spec of every supercar by heart.

This kind of knowledge had never been explained to Bai Liang by that old mentor—like what the hell the "European Big Three" even were.

Mainly because that old mentor had absolutely no need to care about any of this.

It had nothing to do with her.

But many Chinese entertainment novel protagonists always start with these awards—so you can imagine how much prestige they carry.

But these kinds of awards still lean heavily toward artistic actors; Bai Liang, who fully embraces commercial cinema, has little to do with them.

Cannes, Berlin, Venice—he'd probably never set foot in any of those film festivals in his lifetime.

Hmm. Then again, maybe someday he'd go to use their platform for his own promotion.

Similarly, Big Mi Mi knowing all these "useless facts" was also a waste.

Her 85 Flower group was basically completely cut off from these awards.

But what you can't have always stirs unrest.

Not everyone is like Bai Liang, who gets a Weibo Best Actor title and happily thinks it's enough, constantly bragging about it.

"What's that look for, little brat?" Big Mi Mi instantly noticed Bai Liang's odd expression, narrowed her eyes, and prepared to strike.

But Bai Liang wore a look of utter innocence. "I'm listening to Teacher Mi Mi's lecture~"

"What teacher Mi Mi? At a time like this, you should call me Teacher Yang!"

After correcting him, Big Mi Mi quickly slipped in a surprise: "Houston Best Actress."

"Oh right~" Bai Liang unconsciously grinned.

Then a small hand pinched his waist and twisted!

"I knew you were thinking about that bastard."

Big Mi Mi didn't know what to say—she did have an award like that.

The "famous" Houston Best Actress.

Because of this fake award, she'd been mocked endlessly, and she deeply regretted it.

She'd rather never have had it!

But at least it was just a fake award—mostly just mocked online. Compare that to Yang Tianbao, who won Best Supporting Actress at the Hundred Flowers and got roasted to ashes.

If you accept an award you don't deserve, you really do get blasted to pieces.

Now that the internet is so advanced, netizens are sharp—they all know exactly which film awards have real value and which don't.

Back in the print media era, it was so easy to fool people.

Now, even if someone doesn't know, a dozen "know-it-alls" will jump out to explain it to them.

If you win an award with no prestige? It's a fake award.

If you don't have the talent to win a prestigious award? You're undeserving.

In a way, this has become: winning awards carries risk; nominations require caution.

But Bai Liang faces none of this risk.

His reputation is too good, and his acting is obvious to all.

Even though he has the title of "top streamer," it's just a decoration for him—something he keeps only because he's still willing to wear it.

Put bluntly, others are top streamers because that's the highest title they've got.

But Bai Liang's "top streamer" title? He just hasn't bothered to remove it.

Big Mi Mi scrolled through the online discussions about this year's nominations and realized she had zero reason to worry about any public pressure on him.

"You've got a great chance of winning this time!"

"Hundred Flowers? That should be easier. The Golden Rooster has more prestige, right~"

"No, I think you're more likely to win the Golden Rooster Best Actor."

Since when did you get so smart?

Watching the big sister who'd been acting silly around him lately suddenly flash a stroke of brilliance, Bai Liang felt oddly uncomfortable.

Could she just go back to being her old self? He still preferred her playful side.

Big Mi Mi crossed her legs, creating a tempting curve—but there was no hint of seduction now, only serious expression.

"You need to know: the Hundred Flowers Awards are held every two years, the Golden Rooster every year—the competition is completely different."

"Who?"

"Are you seriously that clueless?!" Big Mi Mi glared at Bai Liang. Who even got nominated?!

But then she thought about it and suddenly found this quite nice.

Alright, sis will explain it to you slowly!

"Your Hundred Flowers Best Actor rivals are Zhang Yi, Zhang Hanyu, Zhou Runfa, Huang Xiaoming; your Golden Rooster rivals are Da Peng, Xiao Yang, Wu Yihan, Huang Xiaoming."

Place these two nomination lists side by side, and anyone with even a basic understanding of the film industry can feel the difference.

The names on the list don't even carry the same weight!

Except for Sect Leader Huang.

Like Bai Liang, he was also nominated for two awards this time, both for Best Actor.

Though Sect Leader Huang is actually quite the tough guy — the stronger the opponent, the stronger he gets; his true strength is unknown.

As long as he's not playing some domineering CEO type, if he reins it in just a little, he's actually a pretty solid, capable actor.

The main reason his reputation is so polarizing is that his ceiling and his floor are absurdly far apart.

And so, in Big Mi Mi's analysis, Sect Leader Huang really is one of Bai Liang's main competitors.

"He has a very wide network~"

Hearing this, Bai Liang actually nodded — how could it not be wide? Even Yang Tianbao managed to snag the Hundred Flowers Best Supporting Actress back in the day.

After mentioning Sect Leader Huang's threat level, Big Mi Mi suddenly blinked. She was suddenly a little curious what Sect Leader Huang was thinking at this moment.

After all, Bai Liang is no easy opponent~

The Hundred Flowers Awards situation is unclear — plenty of strong contenders, hard to tell who's ahead for now — but for the Golden Rooster Best Actor, it's actually Bai Liang alone, crazily pressuring everyone else.

At this moment, Sect Leader Huang's brainwaves actually synced up a bit with Big Mi Mi's.

He stared at the two characters of Bai Liang's name on the nomination list and felt his head throb a little.

Even though this guy's most famous "award" in film is still just that Weibo Best Actor title — Sect Leader Huang absolutely did not dare take Bai Liang lightly.

This grinning capybara — only when you actually face him as an opponent can you feel the pressure he puts out.

A super well-rounded warrior, a contestant with virtually no weaknesses.

It's been a long time since such a monstrous contestant has appeared in the domestic entertainment scene.

And with the label of "savior of the market," plus the increasingly exaggerated momentum of being the box-office champion, it feels like it can no longer be held back.

Really going to let a guy like this keep clutching that damn "Weibo Best Actor" title?

When Bai Liang first started running his mouth about this, his peers were still laughing it off, and the seniors were probably pretty dismissive.

But now?

Bai Liang keeps shouting that he's the Weibo Best Actor — how many people can still laugh?

They can't even keep a straight face.

Sect Leader Huang certainly can't laugh — damn it, if he's the Weibo Best Actor, then what am I?

You know, even Wu Jing managed to snag the Huabiao Best Actor and the Hundred Flowers Best Actor.

Not that I'm looking down on Wu Jing. Fine, maybe just a little — this guy's dramatic acting is relatively a bit lacking.

But he nearly swept a domestic Grand Slam of Best Actor awards just by riding on "Wolf Warrior 2"!

And that was with so many people having it in for Wu Jing back then, trying to hold him down.

Likewise, Bai Liang is facing the exact same situation.

He's younger than Wu Jing, his momentum is even greater — if they can't hold him back, they really can't.

Having figured all this out, Sect Leader Huang could only sigh — but of course he still had to fight for it. Just because you're impressive, Bai Liang, doesn't mean he'd kneel down and concede.

Even online public opinion isn't completely one-sided — anyway, Sect Leader Huang still discovered that plenty of people were supporting him!

Yep, he saw it in the comments section of his own Weibo.

All of them supporting him!

—

"I'm off~"

Big Mi Mi waved at Bai Liang — she had finally "wrapped" her part in the "Reset" crew.

A cameo role that should've taken three or four days to film somehow dragged on for over half a month.

"Sister Mi." Bai Liang hesitated, looking like he had something to say.

"What's up? Can't bear to see me go?"

"Want me to find you a crutch or a wheelchair?"

"Get lost~"

Without hesitation, she flipped him the bird, and then Big Mi Mi seemingly walked off without looking back, her gait limping.

But after a few steps, she did turn back and say to Bai Liang: "Good luck, Golden Rooster Best Actor~ I'll be waiting for good news."

Golden Rooster Best Actor, huh.

Bai Liang thought for a moment, then smiled back at her. "Sure~ I'll give it a try."

"What do you mean 'give it a try'? You're definitely going to make it. If you win, sis will give you a reward."

Hearing this, Bai Liang's expression actually turned a little strange.

A reward?

She's already limping when she walks.

And after spending this past half month or so together, Bai Liang really couldn't imagine what else she could possibly reward him with.

What trick haven't they already tried?

That's normal.

A private car — even a second-hand one — if you maintain it well, it's actually still pretty delicate.

Unlike those shared cars, which are actually pretty durable — if someone really stomps on it too hard, you just send it back for repairs.

Of course, flooring the accelerator until the engine can't take it — for the driver, that's naturally quite a thrill.

Looking at it now, the car doesn't seem to have any complaints either.

And what a coincidence — during Bai Liang's "aggressive driving," "Better Days" finally crossed the three-billion-yuan box-office mark!

Yesterday at dawn, the film's official Weibo even posted one final celebratory poster.

Another three-billion-level movie has been born!

For this movie to reach such a level, it left quite a few people staring in disbelief.

Damn it, not even bothering to pretend anymore. Just maxing out the box-office draw, huh?

Honestly speaking, although Bai Liang's personal cumulative box office is very high, most of it was achieved by clinging to "big thighs."

For example, "Wolf Warrior 2" clung to Wu Jing's thigh, and "The Wandering Earth" can be said to have clung to Guo Fan's thigh.

The soul figures of these two movies were both the directors.

The reason everyone generally acknowledges Bai Liang's box-office draw as high enough is, on the contrary, more because of that movie with Sister Tian Tian, "How Long Will I Love U."

That movie had some small regrets, ultimately only making a little over two billion at the box office, failing to cross the three-billion mark.

And this "Better Days," from a certain angle, had an even lower configuration.

Many industry insiders felt that even if this film was shot well, normally it would top out at around one or two billion at the box office.

And now it actually managed to be dragged up to the three-billion level. One could say that guy Bai Liang's personal box-office draw has been pushed to the extreme!

Without being able to create the phenomenal influence that "Dying to Survive" did, it still ended up standing in the same tier as "Dying to Survive" at the box office, with almost no difference between them.

Quite a few people felt that, although they had already tried to overestimate Bai Liang's box-office draw as much as possible before, looking at it now, it seems they still underestimated him!

This three-billion box office was achieved while the overall film market was in full contraction, single-handedly succeeding in warming the market back up!

Guan Hu: Has the market warmed up? Why the hell don't I feel it?

"The Eight Hundred" has already been released for some time now. The box office... is not bad, over a billion.

This result already looks very impressive on the surface, but relative to its cost, damn, it's really hard to say whether it made money or lost money.

The reason Guan Hu had previously run off to take photos with that son of some runaway general and such was actually because he wasn't worried about the movie's box office at all, felt it was in the bag, and had started scheming for awards.

At that time the Golden Horse Awards hadn't blown up yet, and that son of the runaway general had resources in that area.

As a result, looking at it now, trying to be clever ended up costing him dearly, a total blood loss!

With no hope for the Golden Horse Awards, it also affected the movie...

The good news is, "The Eight Hundred" probably won't lose money.

But the bad news is, "The Sacrifice" that's about to be released next may be about to suffer terrible misfortune!

And the two brothers of Huayi, the company that produced "The Eight Hundred," are also feeling a bit depressed right now.

That shouldn't be the case. How could this movie only have this much box office?

Always feeling as if there was an invisible black hand tripping them up in the shadows.

"That's not right! In the past, it was always us doing this kind of thing!"

A black hand, huh!

So familiar~

Huayi, this kind of old-established company, what haven't they done ahem, what haven't they seen~

Their experience in this area is more than sufficient.

Just didn't expect that one day they would suddenly take such a heavy hammer blow themselves.

It came so swiftly, struck so decisively, that once the rhythm was driven into a frenzy, there wasn't even a chance to block and whitewash it.

This time's opponent is so ruthless!

The two brothers looked at each other, quite feeling that the times have changed.

Have these leftover remnants of the old era really already failed to board the new era's big ship?

(End of this chapter)