Chapter 253: Applause and Grand Prizes

When the Golden Horse Awards ceremony first began, Chen Nuo found it quite boring.

He really didn't know what the Golden Horse Awards Executive Committee was thinking; the combination of Do Do Cheng and Chen Jianzhou wasn't even as good as the one he'd seen last time with Kevin Tsai and Lin Chi-ling. At least they had ridden out on horses, which counted as quite innovative and made people's eyes light up.

But these two were truly awkward.

However, as the awards began to be presented, when the Mexican gay guy Rodrigo Prieto took home the first award of the night for *The Message*—Best Cinematography—

and stumbled through his English thanks to his mom and dad, his brothers and sisters, and the great Chen Nuo on stage alongside another Colombian cinematographer,

this awards ceremony suddenly became interesting in Chen Nuo's eyes.

Next, Ning Hao went on stage to take home Best Adapted Screenplay, which could be considered snatched from the hands of *Assembly*.

But immediately after, their Best Art Direction was snatched away by a Taiwanese film, *Parking*.

At this moment, Chen Nuo's heart was already filled with a desire to win.

Later, Janice Man didn't win Best New Performer, losing to Jiang Shengming for *Hopscotch*. He felt a bit uncomfortable inside.

Janice Man was sitting a bit far from Chen Nuo; he specifically leaned over to look, and although Janice Man was smiling, it was clear that she must have been extremely disappointed inside.

However, one had to say, from the perspective of an ex-boyfriend, Chen Nuo was also very sad.

But from the perspective of an actor...

In any case, he would have to comfort her well afterward.

Afterward, they didn't win Best Editing or Best Sound Effects, and Chen Nuo was even more annoyed.

Then came the Best Supporting Actor award, which he had won before.

This time, *The Message* had two people nominated, so it could be said the probability of winning was extremely high.

Chen Nuo was also waiting with bated breath, full of expectation.

This time, he wasn't disappointed.

The judges were more moved by the harrowing execution ground scene Huang Bo performed in *The Message* than by the sissy Qingyi role interpreted by Duan Yihong.

The 45th Golden Horse Best Supporting Actor was thus taken by Chen Nuo's Beijing Film Academy senior, Huang Bo.

When Huang Bo gave his acceptance speech, although he was still pretending to be humorous, everyone could hear that he was clearly extremely excited.

After all, having only debuted for a little over two years, and this being only the second film he had acted in, winning the Golden Horse Best Supporting Actor was undoubtedly a huge encouragement for an actor with his slightly lackluster appearance.

Afterward, Best Makeup & Costume Design was also taken by *The Message*.

The acceptance speech Park Ruomu gave on stage made the sound of thanking Chen Nuo ring out on the Golden Horse stage for the fourth time that night.

It seemed the on-site cameraman who had been staying by his side all night, pointing the lens right at his face, wasn't going to leave for the whole evening.

This made Chen Nuo, who was in an extremely good mood, unable to even say two words to Fan Fan Binbing for fear of how the live audience might react if it were broadcast on the big screen later, so he simply stayed silent and kept a straight face the whole time.

Chen Nuo felt that this feeling of watching his own people win awards was no less than winning one himself. At the very least, when he won Best Supporting Actor here last time, he really hadn't been that happy.

It wasn't even as pleasant as seeing Huang Bo being incoherent on stage.

The female star sitting next to Chen Nuo, named Bernice Liu, went up halfway through to present the award for Best Documentary.

She and that guy named Leroy Young told cold jokes for eight minutes together, which almost froze Chen Nuo to death.

After coming down, Chen Nuo saw her looking like she was about to cry, clearly knowing she had messed up, and couldn't help but feel a bit of compassion, saying, "It's okay."

Well, it would have been better if he hadn't said anything; now the other person's eyes were truly red.

This made Chen Nuo not dare to act rashly again.

When *The Warlords* took the first award of the night, Best Visual Effects, Chen Nuo couldn't help but secretly breathe a sigh of relief.

Before Director Peter Chan took his seat, when he had proactively gone over to greet him, Peter Chan had joked that if Li Lianjie didn't win Best Actor tonight, they might go home empty-handed. At the time, Chen Nuo was still comforting him.

As it turned out, it was about to come true, and Chen Nuo didn't dare to be sure if his own suddenly emerged *The Message* had snatched the fruits of Director Chan's labor, so he had been feeling a bit sweaty.

He had always remembered that if it weren't for Director Chan's generous 400,000 back then, it wouldn't have been so easy for him and Qi Yuntian to open their studio.

Come to think of it, the directors he should thank the most were Zhang Yimou first, and Peter Chan second!

Now, regardless of whether Li Lianjie, who wasn't present, could win Best Actor, or whether Peter Chan's Best Director would go to someone else, in any case, Director Chan's face was saved for today.

At the very least, it was better than Huayi's *Assembly*.

Earlier, when Chen Nuo saw Zhang Hanyu of *Assembly* competing for Best Supporting Actor and ultimately losing to his own Huang Bo, and that the male lead Tong Dawei hadn't even been nominated, he was truly laughing his head off inside.

Until now, Huayi was still empty-handed.

Director Feng Xiaogang on the big screen couldn't even be bothered to pretend anymore; his face was black. Even when he went on stage to present an award, he half-jokingly said that the Golden Horse Awards didn't quite welcome him.

After watching other people's jokes, next, Chen Nuo began to hope that their *The Message* wouldn't become a joke in the eyes of others.

From this moment on, the heavy-hitting awards of the night began to be revealed one by one.

First was the Best Actress award, contested by Fan Fan Binbing and Liu Yifei.

In Chen Nuo's view, the others competing for this award today weren't actually strong. Mo Xiaoqi for *Half Flame, Half Brine*, Karena Lam for *Claustrophobia*.

Has anyone heard of or seen these two films?

At the very least, Chen Nuo truly hadn't.

Therefore, when the presenters Peter Chan and Sandra Ng began to introduce the candidates one by one, he couldn't help but tilt his head and say to Fan Fan Binbing, "Relax, I think it's definitely you."

Fan Fan Binbing was really nervous, only revealing a forced smile, and said in a barely audible voice, "If it's true, are you afraid if I kiss you?"

Seeing that the other person was still in the mood to joke, Chen Nuo also felt much more relaxed and said in a low voice, "Don't kiss on the lips."

Fan Fan Binbing smiled and said, "Emma Stone can do it, I can't?"

Chen Nuo laughed instantly.

As luck would have it, at this moment, the big screen happened to show Fan Fan Binbing.

In an instant, Chen Nuo tilting his head to look at Fan Fan Binbing laughing was caught red-handed by the thousands of audience members in the venue and the tens of millions of viewers in front of their televisions.

What Chen Nuo didn't know was that at this moment, in the control room behind the scenes of the Golden Horse Awards, all the staff collectively cheered.

The 50-something-year-old head director laughed up at the sky and said, "Don't leave after today ends, I'm treating everyone to a late-night snack!"

Instantly, the cheering grew by several decibels.

"All night! Finally, finally caught him!"

The excitement of the Golden Horse Awards directing team was not without reason.

Because for the entire red carpet segment, *The Message*'s appearance was already in the second half.

Logically speaking, at this time, viewers looking for novelty would have already turned off their TVs or changed the channel.

But this year, those short ten minutes of *The Message*'s appearance had already created the highest viewership rating for the Golden Horse Awards red carpet segment since viewership statistics began in Taiwan.

The island-wide viewership rating reached 8.20, with over 1.7 million viewers, which was more than three times the previous red carpet segments, and even exceeded most of the awards ceremony segments.

This was simply an incredible figure, even alarming the executives of the broadcaster, CTV. Although everyone knew that once Chen Nuo came, the viewership rating would inevitably increase significantly, to the point that after the news spread, advertising was sold at twice the price of previous years.

However, no one expected it to be this exaggerated.

The peak of the red carpet viewership was when Chen Nuo appeared alone in the lens, walking at the very back of *The Message* crew, with no expression on his face, one hand in his pocket, strolling alone on the red carpet.

Sometimes, a woman not wearing clothes is wearing the most beautiful outfit.

Sometimes, a man having no expression is also the best expression.

At this moment, the Taiwanese fans behind him, screaming crazily and waving posters of *The Joker*, *The Message*, or *Twilight*,

shouted the two words "Nuo Nuo" so much that they almost lost their Taiwanese accent, and were as close as one family with the female compatriots from the mainland.

You couldn't blame them, because tonight,

the Chen scumbag, who had been insisting on working out for several months, wearing a crisp black suit with a bow tie, and having undergone excellent work by Michelle,

was indeed in the best state he had been in for an awards ceremony in recent years.

At the very least, he was five times more handsome than the Cannes red carpet after he had gained weight,

three times more handsome than the 43rd Golden Horse red carpet when he had just finished filming *The Joker* in the US and the hair on his head had been almost shaved off,

and about 1.5 times more handsome than the 80th Academy Awards red carpet when he had just started working out.

Therefore, in the Golden Horse Awards live streaming room set up for the first time in Taiwan, those mainland viewers who had to go through many twists and turns to watch, the local Taiwanese viewers, and some foreign viewers typing in Japanese or Korean,

just like the fans at the scene, when they saw this scene of Chen Nuo walking alone on the red carpet, as if walking alone on the moon,

the text scrolling in the chat box rolled as fast as a waterfall.

Several languages were mixed together; it was impossible to see what exactly was being said.

At a glance, one would only see many exclamation marks.

Just as men in the comment sections of certain websites could reach a level of world harmony, indistinguishable from one another,

at this very moment in the Golden Horse Awards live streaming room, among the millions of viewers watching the live stream, those women, regardless of nationality, region, or language, issued the same exclamation and shout.

"Handsome!!!"

"Grass!!!" (Japanese)

"!!!" (Korean)

Perhaps it was also the mindset of really holding onto the fact that they didn't know when Chen Nuo would come to Taiwan to attend the Golden Horse Awards next time.

From this moment on, the on-site head director, stunned by the viewership ratings, gave a death order to the on-site cameraman: keep filming him for me. From the beginning of the awards ceremony to the end, don't stop at all.

And he also told the technical staff that whenever they could cut to him, cut him onto the big screen for me.

Ultimately, when they entered the second half of the awards ceremony and began presenting Best Actress,

throughout the entire ceremony, Chen Nuo had already appeared on the big screen 11 times.

Although every time it could cause a small increase in viewership ratings, the fly in the ointment was that they hadn't captured a single expression other than a polite smile.

Until now.

When Chen Nuo began whispering to Fan Fan Binbing, it was actually already seen on the small screen in the monitoring room.

But when introducing the Best Actress candidates in other films, it was impossible to have Chen Nuo and Fan Fan Binbing appear on the big screen, right?

The head director was truly anxious, fearing that when it was Fan Fan Binbing's turn to be introduced, the two would stop talking.

Finally, almost the very next instant after Sandra Ng finished introducing Karena Lam, the person on the big screen was immediately switched to Fan Fan Binbing, not even waiting for Peter Chan to start his introduction.

And so, not too early and not too late, it caught Chen Nuo's heartfelt smile just right.

Michelle's makeup technique was truly no joke, and the live audience at the Golden Horse Awards was truly supportive enough.

When Chen Nuo's smiling face appeared on the big screen, it actually caused a small stir at the scene.

Even the pride of Taiwan, Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee, had come to the scene today and had appeared on the big screen smiling I don't know how many times, but not once had anyone applauded because of it like this time.

Peter Chan happened to turn back and see this scene on the big screen, laughing, "Nuo Zai, stop laughing. If you keep laughing, the Best Actress will be you."

Well, at this moment, the entire Golden Horse Awards ceremony was truly roaring with laughter.

And Chen Nuo couldn't help but laugh again, looking a bit shy and bashful.

The head director in the control room, looking at the viewership rating surging to 13% and reaching over 2.9 million, really wished he could say to Peter Chan,

You are so good at talking, how about I ask you to host the next Golden Horse?

It's much more spirited than that Chen Jianzhou guy.

Next, under Sandra Ng's witty and funny remarks, it finally reached the awards segment.

Peter Chan opened the envelope, took a look, and then read, "The winner of the 45th Golden Horse Award for Best Actress is, Chen Nuo's... neighbor, Fan Fan Binbing."

No one would be fooled, although this impromptu joke was indeed very interesting.

But when "Chen Nuo" was called, Fan Fan Binbing had already covered her mouth, and the live camera also captured this moment.

At the same time, the expressions of the other three candidates also appeared on the big screen together.

It could be said that the other two were happy with the joy of acting pros, only Liu Yifei was genuinely happy.

She was originally sitting next to Gao Qunshu, two seats away from Fan Fan Binbing.

When "Fan Fan Binbing" was read out, this girl immediately jumped up happily, walked two steps to Fan Fan Binbing's side, and hugged Fan Fan Binbing, who had also stood up with an excited face, for several seconds.

Chen Nuo, who was on the side, didn't hear what the two women were saying; he was clapping while smiling.

To tell the truth, he was quite excited inside.

It could even be said that there was a sense of accomplishment.

Because for *The Message* crew, Chen Nuo could completely say a sentence that wasn't too excessive, and that was, it was all built by his own hands.

Among them, including deciding on Fan Fan Binbing as the female lead, to replace Li Bingbing, who had performed excellently in the previous life.

Chen Nuo didn't quite remember if Li Bingbing had won an award; perhaps she had, perhaps she hadn't.

But Chen Nuo dared to guarantee that in this life, Fan Fan Binbing definitely acted better than Li. Otherwise, even if his face was big, the Hundred Flowers Awards couldn't have risked the huge controversy, and four years later, given her another Hundred Flowers Award.

After doing this, apart from some silly bloggers on the blog saying some sour words, not a single company or artist came out to say there was a dark operation.

Coupled with the Golden Horse Best Actress win at this moment, Fan Fan Binbing completely didn't need to go film *Lost in Beijing* to prove anything.

After Fan Fan Binbing and Liu Yifei finished hugging, she didn't follow what was said before and imitate Emma Stone to give him a kiss.

The two just hugged shallowly, even a friend-like touch-and-go kind.

However... in that 0.01 seconds when the two people's eyes met, everything they said to each other was already vividly engraved in each other's minds.

"Thank you, I love you."

"You're welcome. I love you too."

Of course, the love here was Fan Fan Binbing's expression under excitement, and it might also just be Chen Nuo's misreading of something in her eyes, and the love conveyed in Chen Nuo's eyes was just a polite and courteous response.

But in any case, the excited tears in Fan Fan Binbing's eyes were absolutely true.

When she dragged her long white dress, walked onto the podium, took the Golden Horse Best Actress trophy from Sandra Ng's hands, stood in front of the microphone, and lowered her head to cry for almost three seconds, only then did she say the first sentence to the microphone with tears all over her face.

She choked and said, "Chen Nuo, thank you."

Thank you all for the monthly tickets!

I risked my life to write another chapter. Love you guys!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 254 =====