Chapter 19: Now, I Have Arrived

Amidst the applause, Cao Yang went on stage.

The presenter chattered away for a while and even smiled and patted Cao Yang's arm; Cao Yang didn't know which language it was, so he could only face it with a smile.

After the presenter finished speaking, he said "thank you" several times, shook hands with the other party, and received the Silver Bear.

It felt about the same as Li Xiaoran's Silver Bear.

Cao Yang thought haphazardly; he hadn't prepared an acceptance speech in advance, thinking that winning a Berlin Best Actress would be good enough, and never dared to hope that he could also win a major award.

It seems the school put in a lot of effort, and Teacher Xie Fei also spent a lot of energy; this is almost turning into a Chinese-language special.

"Thank you to the jury, thank you to the film festival; this is my first film, and there are many people worth thanking: my teacher, Mr. Situ, my guide, director Tian Zhuangzhuang, my parents, and my lead actress, Ms. Li Xiaoran."

"Last year, my alumnus, director Zhang Yimou, won the Jury Grand Prix here; I was very envious at the time, thinking when I could stand there myself; now, I have arrived!"

"Clap, clap, clap......"

The applause was like a tide.

Raising the Silver Bear in his hand, Cao Yang finally said, "Finally, thank you to my alma mater, the Beijing Film Academy; this is a student practice film I shot, which received strong support from the school, and I am proud to be a student of the Beijing Film Academy."

Well, Cao Yang still couldn't resist flattering the Beijing Film Academy in the end... he did a wave of advertising for the Beijing Film Academy, and it even reached the Berlin Film Festival; this is called returning a favor. How can it be called flattery in the world of adults? This is called mutual benefit.

The school should be very satisfied now, right?

I hope the school can be more helpful next time; I'll take your advertising to Venice and Cannes.

The final Golden Bear went to "Intimacy", which can be considered as keeping the biggest award in Europe, but even so, giving so many awards to Chinese-language films will likely lead to controversy tomorrow.

However, it's not without precedent.

In 1999, at the 56th Venice Film Festival, the highest award, the Golden Lion, was given to the National Master's "Not One Less", and then the Silver Lion for Best Director was given to Zhang Yuan's "Seventeen Years".

The influence was only greater than this time.

After the awards, they couldn't leave yet; there was still a press conference waiting for the winners.

Cao Yang and Li Xiaoran were interviewed together; they were all routine questions. The reporters who could get in were all insiders of the film festival, and most of the questions focused on the film itself, not asking sharp questions just to attract attention.

Returning to the hotel, it was already eleven o'clock at night in Berlin; Cao Yang wanted to call to share the good news, but first had to convert the time to avoid being inappropriate.

Berlin is in the Eastern First Time Zone, and China is in the Eastern Eighth Time Zone, but it's not a simple 7-hour difference because they also have daylight saving time and winter time.

The time difference during daylight saving time is 6 hours, and the time difference during winter time is 7 hours.

It's February now, which is winter time, so it's eleven o'clock at night here and morning in China.

Then, there was a knock on the door outside.

Cao Yang opened the door and saw that it was actually Zhao Tiantian standing outside.

"Tiantian, is something the matter?"

"Director Cao, can I come in and sit for a while?"

Cao Yang instantly understood Zhao Tiantian's meaning.

To be honest, Cao Yang is not a person who has detached himself from low-level interests, but there are still some bottom lines for some things, such as an investor's woman; it's best not to touch them, otherwise, it's easy to ruin one's reputation.

Just imagine, the money man spends money to promote a mistress, the money is given to you, but you don't talk about morality and still want to sleep with the man's woman; once the reputation is ruined, who would dare to invest in you?

"Tiantian, it's too late today; I still have to report the good news to Boss Feng later; if there's anything, let's talk tomorrow, okay?"

Cao Yang deliberately mentioned the coal boss, and the meaning was self-evident.

Not two minutes after sending Zhao Tiantian away, there was another knock on the door.

Still not giving up?

Cao Yang opened the door, about to sternly refuse again, but unexpectedly, it was Li Xiaoran.

"Are you very disappointed to see it's me?"

Li Xiaoran joked, and without waiting for Cao Yang to reply, she walked in naturally, not feeling like an outsider at all.

"You saw it all?" "Couldn't sleep, came out for a walk, and just happened to see a certain actress knocking on the door of a certain famous director surnamed Cao at night."

I believe you, Cao Yang didn't respond.

"My agent asked me when I'm returning to the country, whether to go back tomorrow or go back with the crew." Li Xiaoran suddenly asked, "Do you have any suggestions?"

What suggestions could I have?

You've received the award, and there's nothing left to do; if you want to go, go, if you want to stay, stay.

"Cao Yang, let's stay here; you promised me, let's go to that small town by the sea, watch the sea together, walk on the beach together, and grow old together slowly."

Li Xiaoran leaned her head on Cao Yang's shoulder, wrapped her arms around him, and whispered, "Have you forgotten all these?"

"Hiss......"

Again, didn't you say you were almost recovered?

Cao Yang was stunned; is she unable to get out of the role?

Seeing Cao Yang's face change, Li Xiaoran burst into laughter.

"Alright, you don't have to blame yourself all the time; maybe I'm willing. Look, I'm abroad, and you're abroad too; just pretend you came to find me; my wish is fulfilled, maybe I'll get out of the role."

!

Cao Yang thought for a moment and asked, "Does this count as me taking advantage of someone in a vulnerable position?"

"It doesn't."

"I'm helping you fulfill your wish?" Cao Yang took off his coat.

"Yes, do you know how long I've been waiting for you in this foreign land?" Li Xiaoran threw off her top.

"Hmm......"

Then what else is there to say? You miss me, I covet beauty; that's just how it is, truly and genuinely feeling each other's delicacy and roughness.

At the age of twenty, it's exactly the time when one is greedy for the next meal after the last; facing one temptation of beauty after another, one can still strike hard; this night is destined to be sleepless.

There were many others who were sleepless; Li Chang, a reporter for Sina Entertainment, also didn't sleep all night.

He had been paying attention to the news from Berlin; at 3:27 AM, Li Chang said "yes" and ran to Editor-in-Chief Hu's office.

Shaking awake Editor-in-Chief Hu, who was sleeping on the sofa, he shouted excitedly, "It's here, it's here."

Editor-in-Chief Hu was startled and sat up immediately, "It's here? Best Actress?"

"Best Actress! Berlin Best Actress, Li Xiaoran won the Berlin Best Actress, the first Berlin Best Actress from the mainland!"

"Publish, publish, publish, front page headline, hurry up and push it, hurry up." Editor-in-Chief Hu waved his hand and asked with great momentum, "Have you contacted Berlin?"

"It's already settled; they will send the photos via email as soon as possible."

"Good, good, hurry up and do it."

Editor-in-Chief Hu turned on his computer, connected to the foreign network with a special account, and browsed the news of the Berlin Film Festival.

"Holy crap! Wang Xiaoshuai won Best Director?"

Editor-in-Chief Hu paused, thought for a moment, strode out of his independent office, came outside, and beckoned the intern, Xiao Li, to follow him.

Returning to the office, Editor-in-Chief Hu let Xiao Li look at the content on the monitor and whispered, "You go and post a text message on the page as an intern reporter later."

In Xiao Li's naive, big eyes, there was a clarity that hadn't been polluted by society; he didn't ask why, just nodded and did as the editor-in-chief intended.

He even thought the editor-in-chief was promoting him and felt grateful.

Editor-in-Chief Hu felt that everything was under control, sat down, crossed his legs, and sipped his coffee leisurely, refreshing......

Pfft!

"Crap, crap, crap! Jury Grand Prix? Is this hellish thing fake news?"

Even he, a news person, suspected it was fake news written randomly by foreigners.

Thank you to the brothers for the monthly tickets and recommendation tickets, thank you.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 20 =====