Chapter 548: You Are a Cold-Blooded Person

Hearing Guoji Zhang's self-righteous words, the guests in the audience all gave an awkward "heh" smile.

She actually started showing off in front of Chen Daoming.

Fan Xiaopang rolled her eyes and curled her lip, unable to stand that ghostly look of hers, putting on such a ridiculous act.

She and Guoji Zhang had a past grudge, the two had publicly torn into each other.

And her expression was captured by the camera, the viewers in the livestream chat got lively.

"Fan Xiaopang's expression hahahaha!"

"Why is she saying all that, is she showing off?"

"Everyone's laughing so awkwardly!"

"."

At the Macau Film Festival venue, the awards were still being presented on stage. Chen Daoming honestly felt this person was putting on an act, so he asked: "Tell us, how many major awards have you won?"

"I've won the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Awards, the Golden Horse Awards, and the Huabiao Awards Awards, and more than once at that." Guoji Zhang looked very pleased with herself.

"How many times have you won the Huabiao Awards Awards?" Chen Daoming continued asking from the side.

This award is a government award, it doesn't matter mentioning it here.

"Three times!" Guoji Zhang said proudly.

"Ah!" Chen Daoming looked very surprised: "Among Chinese actresses, is that the most you've won?"

"Mm, currently it is." Guoji Zhang's heart was filled with infinite satisfaction, feeling quite smug.

The guests below the stage couldn't stand watching anymore, this was just too much putting on airs. Gong Huang especially had that disdainful little expression, she had known for many years that this woman was a show-off.

It's safe to say many female stars don't like Guoji Zhang, people like Man Shen, Michelle Yeoh, Mei Gu and others have publicly roasted her.

Being able to offend every single female star of her generation clean, only Guoji Zhang could do it. Even many of the younger generation, Da Mimi and others, don't like her.

Her popularity in the circle was just that bad, bad to the extreme, fortunately she was thick-skinned.

Actually these A-list female stars are all thicker-skinned than Liu Tianxian. Guoji Zhang had countless scandals, yet none of them killed her career, she remained very active in the end.

If Liu Tianxian had casually run into any one of her scandals, the ending would have been vanishing from the public eye and quitting the circle.

Those who say Liu Tianxian is thick-skinned simply don't understand how other stars court disaster.

Liu Tianxian courts disaster the least, many of the dirt on her was forced onto her head by enemies, there's no solid evidence at all, while others actually have solid evidence.

"We all know China has several major film awards, Golden Rooster, Hundred Flowers, and now we have our Macau Film Festival. Do you know the differences between these awards?" Chen Daoming asked.

"Of course I know. The Golden Rooster Awards is the recognition from industry insiders, the Hundred Flowers is the best filmmaker in the audience's hearts, as for the Macau Film Festival, there's no need to say more." Guoji Zhang said with some nervousness.

"That won't do, this must be said, what kind of nature is it exactly?" Chen Daoming pressed on, having come all the way here, how could he not mention the Macau Film Festival.

"This one really must be explained by you, I'll give this opportunity to you." Guoji Zhang said with a smile.

"Don't you know?" Chen Daoming questioned.

"I definitely know, I'm just giving this opportunity to you."

"If you know then say it."

Before Guoji Zhang could finish, Chen Daoming cut her off directly, with an imposing aura of authority without raising his voice, who told her to show off just now.

This left Guoji Zhang unable to gracefully back down, she said with an ingratiating smile: "To tell you the truth, I really do know."

"To tell you the truth, you really need to say it out."

"Oh come on, hurry up, say it quickly." Guoji Zhang cooed, pulling Chen Daoming toward the microphone.

The audience below gave two "heh" laughs, watching the state these two were in, their secondhand embarrassment was acting up.

Guoji Zhang had been showing off so much earlier, now being pressed by Chen Daoming to the point she couldn't gracefully back down.

Not only did the people at the venue find it awkward, even the livestream viewers felt these two were awkward.

"Those who know the founding history of the Macau Film Festival should all be clear that Macau has the advantage of being a meeting point of Eastern and Western cultures, and the Macau Film Festival is precisely to promote international exchange and cooperation, building a docking platform."

Chen Daoming, elegant and steady in bearing, looked at the audience and continued: "Universal's General Manager Donna is sitting in the front row, this is the role of a bridge, the role of the Macau Film Festival, making it possible for more excellent Chinese-language works to go out into the world."

Donna stood up, bowed to the audience and guests at the venue, and expressed her thanks to those on stage.

"Clap clap clap!" Applause rang out, everyone had noticed this typical white Western woman, wondering if she might buy a few films.

The camera also caught Donna, the viewers saw her too.

"I was wondering who that old lady sitting next to the Principal was, turns out it's Universal's General Manager Donna." Someone commented.

Actually hardly anyone really understood what the nature of the Macau Film Festival was.

After all, it used to be a small award, nobody paid attention.

Now that Chen Daoming said this, everyone went "oh", suddenly enlightened, so that's how it is.

After a little farce wrapped up, Chen Daoming opened the envelope, glanced at the guests below: "The winner of Best Actor at the 6th Macau Film Festival is—"

"You read it." Chen Daoming stopped halfway through and handed the card to Guoji Zhang.

This made several possible winners like Liao Fan, Sun Honglei, Sun Weimin, Xie Miao, Tao Zeru and others quite nervous.

Although Xie Miao's chance of winning was extremely low, he still had a tiny bit of hope.

Tao Zeru's smoke-darkened face was written all over with tension, his eyes fixed firmly on the stage.

On the big screen behind, clips of the nominated films were playing, including Black Coal, Thin Ice, Silent Witness, Four Days and Nights, Xiu Chun Dao, Song of the Phoenix and others.

Every clip was wonderful.

Just as the whole venue fell somewhat silent, everyone in anticipation, Guoji Zhang announced loudly: "Tao Zeru! Song of the Phoenix!" "Clap clap clap!" Warm applause rang out at the venue.

At the same time everyone looked in one direction, and saw a short, dark-skinned man stand up from his seat.

Quite surprising, they actually gave Best Actor to this person. Last year this man missed out on the Golden Rooster.

Many people felt injustice for him, among them Ni Ping was the most indignant, but helpless, some things can't be resisted, one has to accept reality.

The tension on Tao Zeru's originally stern face relaxed, replaced by a smile. After greeting the companions beside him, he quickly went up on stage.

He took the Golden Lotus Trophy from Chen Daoming's hands, and the two shared a big hug.

The two had once collaborated on "Black Hole"!

"Thank you to the judges for recognizing me. This award means a lot to me; it's a kind of affirmation." Tao Zeru pressed his lips together as he spoke, his swarthy face twitching slightly, looking a bit nervous.

Although the Macau Film Festival hasn't yet been recognized as mainstream, it has accumulated some credibility, and he considered it a major award.

"Being able to receive this award today, I feel very grateful in my heart. There are many people I want to thank — every crew member of 'Song of the Phoenix,' and the director—" Tao Zeru suddenly became choked up as he spoke.

"Clap clap clap." Fang Hong led the way with encouraging applause, and the others followed suit.

The audience in the venue still didn't understand what was going on!

"Thank you, thank you, Macau Film Festival!" Tao Zeru bowed to the audience to express his gratitude, then went backstage for interviews.

He didn't say any more — saying too much would get sentimental.

Next up was the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by Beijing Film Academy Principal Zhang Huijun.

It was a kind of recognition for those who had contributed to the film industry.

"We film workers, including frontline filmmakers, must strive hard. Don't just go through the motions day by day — opportunities are reserved for those who are prepared."

What he said was still the same old grand narrative, nothing too substantial, and didn't match the relaxed and pleasant atmosphere of the film festival just now, becoming somewhat solemn.

Old-school literati are like this. Cui Yongyuan didn't interrupt him, letting him speak as he pleased — the two weren't cut from the same cloth.

The audience below all listened in silence, applauding when appropriate.

The entire gala tonight had no sentimental segments. If it were another gala, they would definitely arrange a sentimental segment to move people — that's a necessary staple.

But Fang Hong didn't allow that kind of thing. This was a film and television gala, essentially spiritual entertainment; doing all that unnecessary stuff would only make people uncomfortable.

"The Lifetime Achievement Award of the 6th Macau Film Festival is awarded to Comrade Li Xuejian." Zhang Huijun announced.

The guests and audience below applauded. Li Xuejian stood up, adjusted his Zhongshan suit, and strode up to the stage.

The two met and shook hands firmly!

Li Xuejian stood at the microphone holding the Trophy, and said in a hoarse voice: "Winning this award, and having it presented to me by the highly respected President of Beijing Film Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and Chairman of the China Film Artists Association — I'm very moved."

"Clap clap clap!" The audience spontaneously burst into applause.

For some reason, whenever this man spoke in such a formal setting, he had a magic that moved people and made them want to cry.

Perhaps because he spoke slowly, as if with some effort, and his hoarse voice made people's hearts ache!

A sad emotion permeated the venue. Some sentimental guests and audience members couldn't help but shed tears — Nazha had already started crying.

For some reason, there was no deliberate sentimentality!

Even the viewers in the livestream chat, separated by screens, could feel that wave of sadness.

"My nose tingles."

"So sad, so sad!"

"I really want to cry, I don't know why."

"Well-deserved, hall-of-fame artist."

Comments like these scrolled across the livestream chat like snowflakes — with so many people, tens of millions were watching.

Plus the TV broadcast had at least tens of millions of viewers, and many were teary-eyed in front of their TVs.

Liu Tianxian's eyes also reddened involuntarily at the scene. Fang Hong watched her in surprise: "Is it really that exaggerated?"

"So moving." Liu Tianxian dabbed at the corners of her eyes.

"What's moving about it?" Fang Hong was baffled — it seemed perfectly normal. When he usually talked with Li Xuejian, he never felt that moving, want-to-cry feeling.

He couldn't feel that overly sad emotion.

Maybe it's because he had truly suffered hardship, seen too much suffering — what could be more frightening than poverty?

"You're a cold-blooded person, you just don't understand." Liu Tianxian sniffed.

Fine, he's cold-blooded. Fang Hong said nothing more.

"Using characters to make friends with the audience is my choice, my pursuit. Thank you to the Macau Film Festival for giving me this award, thank you to the vast number of film viewers for your continued attention and support of the film industry. This Trophy didn't come easy — I will treasure it well.

I—"

When Li Xuejian got to this point, the entire audience once again burst into spontaneous encouraging applause.

"I also want to say, if I get the chance to act again, I will devote myself to creating works and serving everyone well. Thank you." Li Xuejian bowed to express his gratitude to the entire audience — it was indeed quite moving.

Amid the applause, Li Xuejian went backstage for interviews with reporters. The audience gradually eased their suppressed emotions and let out a long sigh.

On stage, a song-and-dance number was now being performed — a few young ladies in very little clothing were dancing seductively.

Now that most of the major awards had been presented, the Macau Film Festival, having lasted nearly three hours, was drawing to a close.

Only the final major award remained: Best Film!

"Tonight's awards gala is about to end. We will now present the biggest award of the evening — the Macau Film Festival Best Host Award."

Cui Yongyuan's joke drew laughter and applause from the audience.

"Let's first look at the nominees: Sa Beinan, Zhang Shaogang, Cui Yongyuan."

Cui Yongyuan was having fun on stage, starting to tease people: "At the time, Sa Beinan thought he was a shoo-in for this award. Why? Because he felt that awards in the film circle were given to people connected with film, and he considered himself a film person's family member — unfortunately, that wasn't the case anymore."

(End of chapter)