Chapter 485: I didn't win an award today, I'm really depressed (8,000-character update!)

After chatting with Ning Zhiyuan and Zhou Yuning.

Chen Ziyan said in Lu Yan He's ear, "After the box office of *Nine Yin* exploded, many film companies offered high prices to snatch his next film, but he is still quite principled and remembers people's kindness. When he was filming *Nine Yin*, it wasn't favored, and no one believed that martial arts films could still sell at the box office, so it was very difficult to find investment. Later, his current film company took over and invested, so he was able to film *Nine Yin*. Therefore, he refused other film companies and continued to cooperate with Donglin."

"Donglin? I don't think I've heard of this film company."

"It's a small company," Chen Ziyan said. "Before, they only made some low-budget films, basically none of which you've heard of."

"Although *Nine Yin* is a martial arts film, Director Ning Zhiyuan is also a veteran director. Is it really that hard for him to find investment?"

"Because his previous two films lost money," Chen Ziyan said. "Martial arts films really don't have good box office results now. Before *Nine Yin* came out, we hadn't had a high-grossing martial arts film for many years."

Hearing this, Lu Yan He also felt it was a pity.

A real pity.

Chen Ziyan suddenly tilted her eyes, "Don't tell me you have a martial arts story in your head that you want to write too?"

Lu Yan He smiled and waved his hand.

"Not for the time being."

He certainly had them, but he really had too many projects right now. Take it easy, take it slow.

Actually, meeting Chen Bige today gave Lu Yan He a reminder.

Even if he filmed until he died, he couldn't possibly film all those scripts by himself.

However, if he cooperated with everyone, he wouldn't have to do it all by himself.

Just like Chen Bige taking the lead to do *Rouge* and *Raise the Red Lantern*.

Just like Jiang Yuqian wanting to do *Call* now.

Just like Li Zhibai doing *Nineteen Years of Crime Records*.

Actually, could he cultivate some "project managers"?

After this thought popped into Lu Yan He's mind, Lu Yan He himself laughed.

It sounds a bit far-fetched.

However, is there any way to make it happen?

After some polite social pleasantries, Lu Yan He was finally able to sit down in his seat.

His seat was in the middle of the second row.

The actors sitting in the first row were only big stars like Shang Yongzhou, Chen Bige, Chen Pinhe, and Ning Xiulian.

Calculated this way, Lu Yan He's seat was also quite good.

But Chen Ziyan had muttered about it before. Chen Ziyan felt that with Lu Yan He's status today, he shouldn't be unable to sit in the first row. To put it bluntly, the Feihong Awards still saw Lu Yan He as too young; no matter how high his achievements were, his seniority was still a bit shallow, so it wasn't appropriate for him to sit in the first row, which is why they put Lu Yan He in the second row.

Lu Yan He really had no idea whether he could win Best Actor tonight.

He really wanted to win.

Having acted in so many films and being held up so high by everyone, it was indeed embarrassing not to have won a single Best Actor trophy.

However, the competition this year was really too great.

Not to mention others, there was still Shang Yongzhou in his own film.

Shang Yongzhou's disadvantage was that he had already won two Feihong Awards for Best Actor; it would be very difficult to win a third. But his advantage was that he hadn't seriously acted in an art film for nearly five or six years, and this time his performance in *Road of Glory* had received unanimous recognition.

As for Lu Yan He, his advantages didn't need to be mentioned, but his disadvantage was that the character in *Road of Glory* wasn't rich enough. Although the transformation in the early and late stages made the character portrayal quite profound, he was essentially just the second lead in *Road of Glory*.

If Lu Yan He had submitted for Best Supporting Actor this year, he would basically have been a lock to win the award.

At the time of submission, the reason he didn't submit for Best Supporting Actor was because he really wasn't lacking in supporting actor roles, and this part could be submitted for Best Actor.

Lu Yan He silently calculated and felt that he might really not be able to win Best Actor for this film.

It wasn't a problem with his acting, but a problem with his character.

Should he just submit for Best Supporting Actor for the next two major awards?

Best Actor, it feels like there's no chance.

Lu Yan He thought silently.

Huang Kai, sitting next to him, kept rubbing his hands on his knees.

Seeing this, Lu Yan He came back to his senses and asked, "Brother Kai, why do you keep rubbing your hands?"

Huang Kai whispered in Lu Yan He's ear, "I'm nervous, my palms are sweating."

"..." Lu Yan He didn't know what to say for a moment.

It was Huang Kai's first time being nominated for Best Actor at the three major film awards; it was inevitable that he would be nervous and uneasy.

Especially since his performance in *Rouge* was highly acclaimed. Even if he didn't win the Best Actor award at the Hexi Film Festival like Chen Bige, it didn't mean his performance was worse than Chen Bige's. It could be said that among the media, the highest acclaim was actually for Huang Kai. The media seemed to like *Rouge* very much, and in the predicted lists they gave, the Best Actor and Actress were Huang Kai and Chen Bige, respectively.

Lu Yan He said, "It's possible, Brother Kai. I think you'll definitely win one of the three major awards this year."

The Feihong Awards were the first to be presented, so they were the hardest to predict.

According to the law of trying not to give awards to the same person in the same year, if the Feihong Awards gave it to Shang Yongzhou, the other two awards would basically not consider Shang Yongzhou.

Unless that year was really too weak, like the year Lu Yan He won Best Supporting Actor for *Sanshan*, there was basically no competition, so he won two trophies by himself.

Obviously, this year was not that situation.

Huang Kai took a deep breath and said, "Don't jinx me, I need to stay calm right now."

Lu Yan He smiled and said, "You should have asked Sister Zixing to accompany you."

"Zixing had something to do tonight, otherwise she would have accompanied me," Huang Kai said.

"What does Sister Zixing have to do tonight?" Lu Yan He was a bit surprised.

"She's meeting someone. We hope to be able to invite that person out of retirement to be responsible for my agent work."

"Ah?" Lu Yan He was puzzled.

Who had Huang Kai taken a fancy to, and who was he trying to invite out of retirement?

The Best Supporting Actress award was presented at this time.

The winner was Li Shiyi, the supporting actress in the commercial action film *Abyss*.

A girl who was only in her early twenties.

This was her first time acting in a film.

When she heard her name, she was so excited that she wept with joy on the spot.

Lu Yan He turned his head to look; Li Shiyi was still a bit far from him, the little girl was sitting in the fourth row on the right side.

"Winning an award on her first time acting, she's really lucky," he heard a voice behind him sigh softly.

He turned his head and took a look.

Sitting behind him was Yu Mengling, the lead actress of *Fuso*, who had previously won Best Actress at the Lingyun Awards for this film.

Seeing Lu Yan He turn his head to look, Yu Mengling suddenly realized that her subconscious exclamation just now must have been heard by someone.

She stuck out her tongue in embarrassment.

Lu Yan He smiled kindly.

Lu Yan He had two nominations tonight: one for Best Actor, and the other for Best Screenplay for *Rouge*.

According to industry predictions, the hope of winning this Best Screenplay award was actually not as high as for Best Actor.

Mainly because *The Seventh Record of Floating Life* was too strong. Once it was released, its text was hailed as the most literary screenplay in Chinese cinema in the last decade.

How good was its screenplay?

Its film was so mediocre that at this Feihong Awards, it didn't have a single nomination other than Best Screenplay.

But in this situation, no one ignored how good its screenplay was.

Lu Yan He hadn't seen this film yet, but being praised by so many people in unison, Lu Yan He believed that it must have its own impressive points.

He also prepared to find a time to watch this film properly.

When the award result was announced as *The Seventh Record of Floating Life*, a round of "unsurprising" applause erupted throughout the venue.

Its screenwriter, a young man of only twenty-six, wearing black-rimmed glasses, walked onto the stage.

His name was Zuo Feng. He graduated from the School of Literature at Yuming University, then went to Beijing Arts to study for a master's degree in screenwriting. After graduating with his master's, he entered the industry. While working as an uncredited screenwriter on set, he used his spare time to write scripts and submitted them to a youth film fund venture capital meeting. It was this *The Seventh Record of Floating Life* that was taken a fancy to by actor Liu Teli, who served as the producer and made this film.

After Zuo Feng went on stage, his movements were a bit restrained, and he didn't even seem to dare to look at the audience.

He walked to the microphone, took the trophy, and seemed very embarrassed, saying, "A bit unexpected. I thought the one winning this award would be Lu Yan He. I really like the film *Rouge*."

Lu Yan He was suddenly cued and started laughing.

He knew that there must be cameras filming him at this moment.

He quickly waved his hand.

Sure enough, the screen at the venue happened to show him waving his hand.

A director cut to him.

Zuo Feng said, "Thank you, Teacher Liu Teli, for giving my script a chance to be made into a film. Maybe I will have many opportunities to make the scripts I write into films in the future, but I know that the first one is always the hardest. So, Teacher Liu, I will always remember the words you said to me that my script was written very well. You were the first person to give me encouragement."

Liu Teli was not at the scene.

But Zuo Feng's attitude of gratitude obviously made everyone at the scene appreciate him.

Applause was constant.

"Like me, there are really many young screenwriters who may be struggling on the poverty line, not knowing when the scripts they create will be taken a fancy to and made into works. I hope that the teachers present can pay more attention to the works of young screenwriters. The works we create are not bad, we just lack an opportunity to be seen by you. Thank you."

The audience applauded again.

Lu Yan He clapped while looking at Zuo Feng.

From his position, he could still see the expression on Zuo Feng's face very clearly.

What Zuo Feng said really made Lu Yan He think deeply.

During the break of the awards ceremony, Lu Yan He took the initiative to find Zuo Feng.

"Hello, I'm Lu Yan He."

Zuo Feng raised his hand and pushed his glasses, "Hello."

At first glance, Zuo Feng was expressionless, seemingly indifferent to Lu Yan He coming to find him, even a bit aloof and condescending.

But Lu Yan He still keenly saw the slightly trembling corners of Zuo Feng's mouth and his throat moving from time to time.

Lu Yan He laughed, guessing that Zuo Feng must be very nervous.

Just like him in the past.

Seeing those very famous people, wanting to make himself look as neither humble nor arrogant as possible, but unable to control his performance well, such unsatisfactory deviations would occur.

Lu Yan He said, "Congratulations."

Zuo Feng said, "Actually, you should have won the award. Compared to *Rouge*, *The Seventh Record of Floating Life* is not that popular."

Lu Yan He: "Although I haven't seen your film yet, almost every friend around me told me that the screenplay of this film is very good. So, I believe that you winning the award tonight is well-deserved, no need to be humble."

"Really?" Zuo Feng was very surprised.

"It's true. So, since you've already won the Feihong Award, don't belittle yourself," Lu Yan He said with a smile. "If there's a chance in the future, let's cooperate. I'll act in the script you write, how about that?"

Zuo Feng immediately said, "If you are willing to act, of course that's great."

Lu Yan He exchanged contact information with Zuo Feng and added him as a friend.

He said again, "Just now, you said on stage that there are many talented young screenwriters who are actually just missing an opportunity. If you encounter such screenwriters who need an opportunity in the future, and they have mature scripts, you can contact me at any time. If I'm not suitable, I can also introduce them to others. I have many actors around me who are actually waiting for a good script. But you also know that in our industry, there may be an invisible barrier between us and good scripts. Including a script like *The Seventh Record of Floating Life*, it never reached my hands or the hands of any actor around me. Everyone says that if such a script reached their hands, they would definitely not miss it."

Zuo Feng showed a look of surprise.

"Really?"

Lu Yan He nodded, "There are many actors who don't know how to pick scripts, but there are also many actors who have the ability and vision to read scripts. However, it's a pity that it seems the more such actors there are, the harder it is to find good things from a large number of scripts."

Zuo Feng: "I thought this script wasn't liked by many people. At that time, when looking for actors, because the budget was very low, many actors were unwilling to take it."

"There will indeed be such situations, but nothing is absolute," Lu Yan He said. "Sometimes it's not that we ourselves rejected the script, but that it was rejected by the team. The actor didn't even have a chance to see it. But if the actor saw it, actually, as long as the script is good, the pay and everything can be negotiated. So, in the future, if there are good scripts and good screenwriters, and you need an opportunity, contact me at any time."

Zuo Feng smiled in surprise and nodded.

He said thank you very forcefully.

Only then did he smile.

"Who do you think will win Best Actor today?"

In a lounge, a dozen people who smoke were gathered, so this lounge became a smoking room.

"Except for Zhang Ding in *You Who Go Against the Current*, everyone else has a chance, right?"

"Indeed, this year is really a big year for Best Actor and Best Actress. Everyone is coming on strong," someone laughed.

"Shang Yongzhou should be out of the running first, right? He has already won two Feihong Awards for Best Actor. It's impossible to give it to him again this year. If they give it to him again, he'll have won three times. He's only in his thirties. If he breaks the record at this time, will they give it to him in the future?"

"But besides this point, are there any other reasons not to give it to him?" Someone immediately asked. "Compared to him, Lu Yan He's character is a notch weaker, and the character's depth is not as thick as Shang Yongzhou's at all. He should be the one to be eliminated first, right?"

"Don't say that. Among the five people nominated this year, tell me, from the perspective of the judges, who is the one who should be recognized as Best Actor at this time?"

"But the character he played is indeed not the core protagonist of *Road of Glory*. Even if it's said to be a dual-male lead, anyone can see that the protagonist of this film is still Shang Yongzhou."

"This doesn't affect the brilliance of his performance in it, right? Even the United States has nominated him for many awards in a row."

"Those are all Best Supporting Actor awards. If he had submitted for Best Supporting Actor, he would definitely have swept it this year."

"Maybe the judges didn't consider them at all, but wanted to pick one between Huang Kai and Zhou Yuning. The character of Twelve Young Master played by Huang Kai is too good, and he completely nailed it. As a popular star with a lot of traffic, daring to insist on acting in this film under the public opinion environment where everyone was not optimistic at that time, and giving a performance that makes people look at him with new eyes, is completely worthy of a Best Actor recognition."

"Zhou Yuning is a late bloomer, single-handedly supporting the martial arts film *Nine Yin*, allowing martial arts films to return to the mainstream vision. Doesn't that also have representative significance?"

"Sigh, actually, except for Zhang Ding, all four of these people have reasons to win the award. The judges this year are really hard to be."

"It feels like whoever is chosen will have quite a bit of controversy."

"No way, in the past, two people competing was already a big year. This year, a situation of four people competing for the award has emerged, and everyone has a reason to win."

"But one thing is almost certain: the three major awards this year will probably be three different people."

"Three people out of four, who will be the unluckiest one?"

"Who knows."

"Will any judge think that Lu Yan He is rushing for the North American awards season, and he might have gained something in North America, so they will give the award to someone else?"

"Not necessarily, right?"

"If our domestic three major awards don't hurry up and give Yan He a Best Actor award, it will become a scandal for the three major awards."

"Then you're going too far. Lu Yan He has only acted in *Road of Glory* as a male lead film so far. Didn't his previous *Sanshan* already win Best Supporting Actor? It's not like they haven't given him an award."

"Are you mistaken? Lu Yan He was nominated for Best Actor at the three major awards last year for *Late Spring*, but he ran into the competition between Liu Teli and Chen Pinhe, and there was also a big dark horse, He Daren. Didn't Lu Yan He lose last year because his seniority was too shallow? Actually, *Late Spring* was also a performance that could have won the award."

"*Late Spring* is an ensemble film. No matter how good Lu Yan He's performance is, compared to the two, Chen Pinhe and Liu Teli, it's still a bit lacking."

"You guys just can't stand a young person winning Best Actor."

The break time was not very long, the commercial break was only fifteen minutes.

When there were only three minutes left until the ceremony continued, someone knocked on the door to remind them to go out.

Everyone stopped talking and walked out of the room one after another.

The conversation that just happened in the small room was just a conversation.

Will anyone talk about it outside? Will it have any impact in this circle? No one knows at this time.

Anyway, in this industry, countless people are chatting and outputting their opinions every day.

Maybe Lu Yan He can successfully win Best Actor tonight, maybe someone else will win it.

In any case, no matter what the result is, there will be various controversies.

But one thing, everyone is very clear about.

In the eyes of many people in this industry, Lu Yan He has reached the time when the three major awards must give him a Best Actor trophy.

Otherwise, if a top actor who is representing this industry cannot win an award that belongs to him, everyone will only question the authority of your awards.

From *Sanshan* to *Late Spring*, from *Rouge* to *Road of Glory*, the films Lu Yan He participated in have shone brightly internationally on behalf of Chinese cinema in the past two years. This is a fact that everyone can see.

A male actor who was smoking in the small room just now sighed to his companion: "Tsk tsk, it's hard to imagine, he's only twenty-one years old."

Lu Yan He sat back in his seat.

He let out a long sigh.

Huang Kai also clenched his fists.

Seeing him like this, Lu Yan He couldn't help but laugh.

The awards ceremony had reached its end, and it was about to reach the presentation of the most important awards.

Lu Yan He put his hand on Huang Kai's shoulder and said, "Brother Kai, let's continue to find suitable projects to cooperate on next time."

Huang Kai was finally distracted a little by this sentence, a bit puzzled, and asked, "Did you write a new script again?"

"A new script is written, but there is no character suitable for you," Lu Yan He smiled. "I mean, if there is a suitable play, we will continue to act together."

"Okay." Hearing that there was no script suitable for him, a flash of disappointment crossed Huang Kai's eyes.

He asked, "Then what... if you win the award this time, I might still not be able to help but be a little jealous of you, don't mind it then."

Lu Yan He was stunned.

Huang Kai took a deep breath, "I really want to win this award too much, I can't control my emotions."

Lu Yan He laughed and said, "Okay, Brother Kai, if you win this award, you also have to take care of my emotions, I will also be jealous of you."

"If I win this award, I won't take any pay to help you film a play in the future," Huang Kai said. "Really, I can't think of any other way to thank you."

Lu Yan He: "Now that you say that, I suddenly feel that it would be quite good if you win the award."

Huang Kai clenched his hands and took a deep breath.

"It's only you. If another competitor was sitting next to me, I wouldn't want to pay attention to them at all right now."

Lu Yan He laughed.

Originally, he was also quite nervous, but seeing Huang Kai like this, his own attention was diverted a little.

Finally, it was time to present Best Actor.

Lu Yan He felt that Huang Kai's whole body was tense.

Lu Yan He himself was the same, not much better.

That he had reached the point where he didn't need awards to prove himself... that's all bullshit.

Why shouldn't he need awards!

Lu Yan He directly raised his right hand to block his eyes.

As a result, Huang Kai suddenly grabbed his left hand, grabbing it very hard, as if praying for something.

"Let me grab it, otherwise I won't be able to breathe!" Huang Kai said.

People around saw the two of them doing this, and they all had expressions of unexpected surprise.

—Do you two have to be so attention-seeking?

The award presenter, Bao Zhenzhu, who had won the Feihong Award for Best Supporting Actress, opened the envelope and took out the information of the winner.

"The winner of this year's Feihong Award for Best Actor is—"

"Huang Kai, *Rouge*."

Before Lu Yan He could react, he was hugged by Huang Kai next to him in excitement.

"Congratulations," Lu Yan He said.

He was a bit numb and hadn't reacted yet.

Huang Kai took a deep breath and said, "The next one to win the award will definitely be you."

Lu Yan He laughed, patted Huang Kai on the shoulder, and said, "Hurry up and go accept your award. Stop worrying about comforting me."

Huang Kai was in a state of extreme excitement and agitation.

Lu Yan He watched him keep hugging people around him and then go on stage.

At this moment, he was really a little... jealous.

Why wasn't it himself who went on stage?

Reason had long told him that it was indeed difficult for him to win an award with *Road of Glory*, but if reason could work at this time, the sensibility that makes a person a person would be too useless.

Lu Yan He took a long, deep breath.

Yu Mengling, sitting behind him, suddenly put a hand on his shoulder and patted it gently.

"There are still the Lingyun Awards and the Galaxy Awards later, you still have a chance," Yu Mengling leaned her upper body over and whispered to Lu Yan He, "Don't be disappointed."

Lu Yan He thanked her politely.

At this time, someone still came to encourage him, and Lu Yan He was very grateful.

While clapping, he turned his head and smiled at Yu Mengling.

In the corner of his eye, he saw many people looking at him, their eyes full of encouragement and cheering.

Lu Yan He thanked them one by one with his eyes.

Huang Kai had already gone on stage to receive the award, holding the trophy, standing in front of the microphone, and took a deep breath.

"I hope I don't look too disheveled right now," Huang Kai said with a smile, "I'm too excited."

He took two deep breaths before his eyes turned red, he clenched the trophy in his hand, and said, "I really want to say with great confidence that I don't feel guilty at all for winning this award, but the actors nominated with me this time are all too amazing. You don't need me to say it, you all know how powerful they are."

Huang Kai saying these words on stage made many people unexpected.

"I even don't know how to face Yan He. If it weren't for him, I absolutely, absolutely would not have acted in the film *Rouge*. Then maybe the one on stage receiving the award today would be him."

As soon as Huang Kai's voice fell, a burst of laughter broke out under the stage.

Lu Yan He couldn't help laughing either.

"For this film, this character, I refused three times," Huang Kai said. "Then, Yan He persuaded me back three times. He told me at the time that this would become a representative work of my acting career. At that time, I thought, you wrote the script, of course you say so. If I really believed it, I would be a fool. Now that I am holding the first Best Actor trophy of my life, I just want to go back to that time and tell myself at that time, yeah, you really were a fool."

Lu Yan He's disappointment and uncomfortable emotions slowly gathered up.

Huang Kai's acceptance speech was a bit funny, which attracted him.

"Just before going on stage, I told Yan He that if I win the award this time, I won't take any pay to help him film a play. At that time, it was just a joke, wanting to liven up the atmosphere, because we were both quite nervous off stage—speaking of which, it's my first nomination, so it's fine that I'm nervous, but Yan He, you've been nominated so many times, why are you still nervous?"

Facing Huang Kai's teasing, Lu Yan He resisted the urge to raise his middle finger, just pouted, and made a posture that he was also helpless.

Huang Kai took a deep breath, "But, I want to say very seriously in front of everyone now, if you ask me to act in the next play, I won't take a penny of pay. Anyway, I don't have an agent now, and no one can control me."

Crazy, crazy.

Huang Kai also won the award, and the whole person was high.

Lu Yan He shook his head and made a tsk sound.

Huang Kai's acceptance speech ended almost entirely with his interaction with Lu Yan He. After getting off stage, he suddenly reacted and was shocked, "Damn, I forgot to thank the director and Sister Bige!"

Bao Zhenzhu smiled and said, "It's okay, they won't mind. With your appearance, anyone can see that you are completely over-excited."

Huang Kai: "... Ah."

Five minutes later, Ning Xiulian won Best Actress.

Chen Bige clapped very lightly, showing no disappointment.

On the contrary, Xu Yiren's disappointment could not be hidden no matter what.

The Best Director award was presented to Ning Zhiyuan, who had insisted on filming martial arts films and finally returned to the public eye with *Nine Yin*.

Best Film, a big dark horse, was given to the animated film *Angry Crow*, and everyone was stunned.

Another Feihong Awards came to an end.

Lu Yan He once again missed the award.

Lu Yan He did not go to the celebration party afterwards. Everyone felt that he didn't need to care about these awards, but he himself cared. He was worried that he would be too disappointed and couldn't hold back his expression, so he simply didn't appear.

When he walked out of the venue and was about to get in the car to go home, many media reporters swarmed over and asked him questions.

"You didn't win Best Actor this time, do you have anything to say to the fans who support you??"

"*Rouge* and *Road of Glory* didn't win Best Film, many netizens online said it was a big dark horse, do you think *Angry Crow* winning the award is reasonable?"

Lu Yan He was uninterested, sighed, but still stopped.

"Older brothers and sisters, I didn't win an award today, and I was already in a low mood, and you still have so many questions to ask me, I'm really depressed."

6,000 words guaranteed, 2,000 words added.

Can I... add a little more, friends.