Chapter 45: The Magnolia Awards Ceremony (Please Favorite and Recommend)

The Magnolia Awards, officially known as the Shanghai Television Festival Magnolia Awards, are officially hosted and were founded in 1986; they are one of the three major television awards.

The other two are the Golden Eagle Awards and the Feitian Awards.

Faced with Jiang Wei's invitation, Qi Hui thought it over and decided to go.

He greeted Director Lin and asked for leave, which ended up making everyone in the same group jealous.

Especially Lei Jiayin; he was from the Shanghai Theatre Academy, yet after being in Shanghai for several years, he had never once been to the Magnolia Awards venue.

In the past, he hadn't cared, but hadn't Qi Hui just gone right in front of him?

His own failure was painful enough, but a brother's success made him even more heartbroken.

There was no helping it; he could only comfort himself that even if Qi Hui went, he was just there to make up the numbers. Winning? That was impossible!

The last person to win a major award right after debuting was Li Xiaolu.

But Li Xiaolu's biological grandfather was the production director at Beiyingchang back in the day, her biological father Li Danning was also from Beiyingchang and worked as a director, and her biological mother Zhang Weixin was a famous actress from Changyingchang.

Having been immersed in acting since childhood and picking up roles in shows, it was no surprise she won Best Actress at the Golden Horse Awards upon her debut.

However, Qi Hui was not Li Xiaolu; it was impossible for him to win a major award right after debuting.

Yes, that was it!

But no matter how Lei Jiayin grumbled to himself, Qi Hui still went, carrying the envious gazes of the crowd.

If you want to see Qi Hui, you can see him in the live broadcast on Dragon TV; if you look carefully, you might just find him.

……

Following the message sent by Director Jiang, Qi Hui waited at the destination for the members of the *Lurking* crew.

The filming location for *Temptation of Home* was in the suburbs of Shanghai, so he was very close.

Although he was the last to know, Qi Hui was the first to arrive.

Time passed bit by bit, and soon, the actors from the original group appeared one by one.

Jiang Wei, Feng Enhe, Zu Feng, Wu Gang, Zhu Jie, Fan Yulin, and Shen Aojun.

Qi Hui had never met the last two; by the time he joined the crew, they had already wrapped up filming.

Interestingly, Yao Chen, the female lead, did not come.

When Shen Aojun asked about it, Jiang Wei indicated that he had contacted Yao Chen, but she ignored him.

In truth, Jiang Wei hadn't submitted her for an award because, due to an injury, part of her scenes had been completed by a body double.

In the era of traffic-driven "little fresh meat" stars, this would count as a merit—proof of working hard to film—but unfortunately, that era had not yet arrived, so Yao Chen did not meet the criteria for award evaluation.

Moreover, upon learning that she hadn't been submitted for an award while Qi Hui had, Yao Chen became even more depressed; she didn't even say goodbye and hung up on Jiang Wei directly, leaving Jiang Wei looking quite grim for a while.

The last to arrive was Sun Honglei, though his look was somewhat unique: his right hand was wrapped in bandages and gauze, bundled into a tight lump.

Looking at it, the injury was not light.

"Yo? Teacher Sun, how did you get injured like this?" Zu Feng asked in surprise.

"Ah, haha... I got hurt while filming," Sun Honglei gave an awkward smile. "Zhang Yimou's film. A movie."

As soon as these words were out, Zu Feng instantly stopped talking.

A movie by Zhang Yimou—he wanted to act in one too!

The hottest director in the country right now was Zhang Yimou.

There was no other reason; it was just because he had directed the Olympic opening ceremony.

"Huh?" Hearing this, Qi Hui was suddenly surprised. Zhang Yimou, Sun Honglei... could it be *A Simple Noodle Story*?

A... well, a bad film. The only impression Qi Hui had of this movie was Master Benshan's period-drama cross-eyed look.

He remembered that before he transmigrated, there were rumors that Xiao Shenyang had gotten into a fight with Liu Huaqiang and had been left bleeding... could this be why?

Qi Hui glanced at Sun Honglei's gauze-wrapped right hand, unable to help but grumble to himself.

Looking at the few people around him, Director Jiang took a deep breath, seemingly feeling a bit more confident and grounded.

"Let's go, let's head over."

He really didn't feel very confident, because competing against *Lurking* were Gao Xixi's *Paper Marriage* and Teng Huatao's *Wang Gui and Anna*.

In addition, there was another heavyweight opponent: Kang Honglei's *My Chief and My Regiment*.

*Lurking* was certainly not bad, but facing these opponents, the pressure was still immense.

At the Magnolia Awards venue, there were quite a few people; however, apart from those nominated for awards and the judges, most of the others were artists invited by the organizers to show their support.

This was actually also a stage for socializing; big shots who were hard to see on ordinary days might appear, and if you were lucky, you might be able to make a connection with a big shot and take your career a step further.

Qi Hui and his group didn't walk the red carpet, but after showing their faces in front of the camera lenses, they were ushered in by Jiang Wei in a massive crowd.

Jiang Wei was a somewhat old-fashioned person; he wasn't interested in flashy things like red carpets and autographs.

Actually, it was easy to understand; he had studied history as an undergraduate, so it would be strange if he weren't old-fashioned.

Qi Hui looked around and discovered that for such a big event, he didn't see any school leaders, such as the round-faced little old man Old Wang, or any other school administrators.

But thinking about it, it made sense; they were from the Beijing Film Academy, and this was Shanghai.

Although it wasn't explicitly stated, the two sides still competed with each other behind the scenes.

Even if the Magnolia Awards were to invite someone, they should invite the leaders of the Shanghai Theatre Academy; why would they invite the leaders of the Beijing Film Academy for no reason?

"Huh?" Zu Feng suddenly asked in surprise, "Isn't that Zheng Xiaolong?"

"Who?" Qi Hui followed his gaze and discovered a middle-aged man; his posture was still upright, but he looked somewhat aged.

"A big shot in the Beijing circle, Zheng Xiaolong," Zu Feng explained.

Qi Hui looked, pondered slightly, and soon knew who he was: the director of *Empresses in the Palace*.

This was his very famous work, but in his early years, he was a big shot in the Beijing circle.

As for how big... that would require talking about his background.

He came from a military compound, specifically the General Logistics Department compound; his father was the Minister of the Propaganda Department of the General Logistics Department. Later, Zheng Xiaolong retired from the military and transferred to work as the deputy director of the Beijing Television Art Center.

He was the one who bridged the gap and introduced "Little Steel Cannon" to Wang Shuo.

In the eighties, Zheng Xiaolong, Wang Shuo, and others pulled in Ye Daying, Ma Weidu, and others to set up the Seahorse Dance Hall, which was quite intimidating.

But later on... they were hit by the iron fist of justice.

Wang Shuo fled to the United States, going to New York, and Zheng Xiaolong also fell into silence.

The leaders of the Beijing circle became the two commoners, Feng Xiaogang and Zhao Baogang.

As for that bunch of military compound kids, they could only remain beneath those two.

Zheng Xiaolong was a big shot in the Beijing circle; his appearance here already said a lot: either he was so awesome that everyone respected him, or he was so washed up that no one cared.

Clearly, the current Zheng Xiaolong belonged to the latter.

However, by the time *Empresses in the Palace* came out, he probably wouldn't be like this anymore.

Although "queue-hair" dramas were somewhat disliked by some, *Empresses in the Palace* was indeed a phenomenal television series.

For a period of time, Heilongjiang Satellite TV broadcast it almost 24 hours a day, once being mocked as "Zhenhuan Satellite TV"; this alone already demonstrated the popularity of *Empresses in the Palace*.

And this show also allowed Zheng Xiaolong to regain his former glory; he proved that he was not a remnant of the old era, and that the new era still had a ship that could carry him.

Qi Hui surveyed the ceremony venue and saw quite a few familiar faces: Huang Shengyi, Song Dandan, Duan Yihong, Zhang Yi...

Of course, there were also some people he didn't recognize, such as "ghost guys"... ah no, they should be called foreign friends.

Although Qi Hui didn't quite understand why the Magnolia Awards, one of the three major television awards in the mainland, also had foreigners, he did indeed see foreigners here.

At 7:00 PM, the guests took their seats, and the music began.

A group of dancers dressed in white slowly approached, holding Magnolia trophies, and displayed their dance moves on the stage.

The awards ceremony officially began.