Chapter 240: Nocturne

In the main hall, a total of five Newcomer Singers had received nominations for the Golden Melody Awards 【Best Newcomer】.

Three men and two women all appeared on the big screen.

Five cameras were aimed at them, capturing their facial expressions.

People like Zeng Zhen and the others had looks of Surprise on their faces, with excitement in their eyes and brows.

Under normal circumstances, there should have been nervousness and apprehension, wanting to see if they could actually win this highest honor for a debut Newcomer.

But they all knew very well that they didn't even count as runners-up; at most, they were just there to make up the numbers.

After all, in this world, there are 5 nominees for every award; even if one person is the recognized must-win, you still have to round out the other four, right?

The 52-year-old Lin Haimei stood on stage, looking at the cameras to build suspense.

She seemed incredibly surprised by the winner.

Netizens in the bullet comments began to discuss it heatedly.

"Haha, Auntie Lin is truly a senior who excels in both film and music; this acting is Ox!"

"Ox, Ox! I give this eye acting full marks."

"Hahaha, Auntie Lin is still young at heart; who doesn't know that the winner is Luo Mo?"

"Hurry up and play 'Nocturne'; I want to see him go up to receive the award amidst the singing!"

After about ten seconds, once the five cameras had done close-ups of the faces of the five nominees, Lin Haimei finally announced: "The winner of the 32nd Golden Melody Awards 【Best Newcomer】 is..."

"—Tong Shu!"

Everyone present instinctively began to applaud, then instinctively turned their gazes toward Luo Mo in unison, and then suddenly, one by one, their faces showed astonishment.

Did they hear that right? It's Tong Shu?

How could it be Tong Shu!?

This caused the applause at the scene to pause for a moment, before it became thunderous once again.

It's just that many people's gazes first looked at Tong Shu, then couldn't help but shift to Luo Mo.

The bullet comments surged in that moment, overwhelming the screen.

They were all uniform question marks: "???"

Everyone sent question marks to vent their emotions first, and only then started typing.

"Holy crap, how could it be Tong Shu?"

"This is absurd! Even though I'm a 'mom fan' of Tong Shu, I still think it's absurd!"

"The album 'Big Fish' is popular, but it's still worse than 'Red'."

"All of Tong Shu's songs were written by Luo Mo."

"Whether it's popularity, influence, or song sales, Luo Mo is a whole level higher."

It wasn't just the netizens; even Tong Shu himself was bewildered.

He had already been happily applauding for Boss Mo, wanting to stand up and give Boss Mo an Embrace, then watch this leader go up on stage under the spotlight to receive the award, Peerless in glory.

But... why was it my name?

Only now did everyone realize that Lin Haimei wasn't acting at all, nor was she being young at heart; she was genuinely shocked when she saw the winner's name.

Tong Shu sat in the row behind Luo Mo, dazed, until a large hand reached over from the front row and gave his shoulder a firm pat.

This scene made him feel like he had instantly returned to the time of "Creating Idols".

Luo Mo patted him vigorously: "Are you being silly? Get up and go receive the award!"

Everyone has been applauding for ten seconds; if you don't get up, are you acting like a big shot?

Tong Shu looked up and saw that Luo Mo had a smile on his face, without the slightest bit of annoyance or frustration.

Tong Shu also knew this wasn't the time for conversation, so he could only hurry to stand up, bow slightly to the people applauding all around, and walk quickly toward the awards stage.

His whole body was stiff, his mind was blank, and he was incredibly nervous.

"I didn't even prepare an acceptance speech in advance!" Tong Shu shouted in his heart.

Luo Mo watched Tong Shu standing on the awards stage, but he didn't have any particular thoughts.

In his view, not giving him the 【Best Newcomer Award】 could only be considered unexpected, yet within reason.

This indicated that the 【Golden Melody Awards】 did not intend to categorize him under the 【Newcomer】 label for judging.

According to the consistent tradition of the Golden Melody Awards, newcomers are not eligible for other awards.

What's more, that man on Earth, having gone on a rampage with his debut album, also received a 【Best Newcomer】 nomination in his first year attending the Golden Melody Awards, but did not win Best Newcomer.

He went straight for the heavier, higher-prestige 【Best Album】!

It's just that in that year, that man was still incredibly green, saying: "Thanks to Brother Xian for the guidance."

This man was named Zhou Jielun, and this debut album was called "JAY".

On the awards stage, Tong Shu took the Best Newcomer Award trophy, feeling only that it was heavy.

He was slightly incoherent, stumbling through his acceptance speech.

However, when it came to thanking Boss Mo, this kid... his speech suddenly became smooth.

In his 30-second acceptance speech, he spent 20 seconds thanking Luo Mo.

In the bullet comments, bored netizens began to keep statistics.

"He just said 'Boss Mo' 6 times."

"Hahahaha, Tong Shu is so cute."

"Although Tong Shu is also my love, I still feel a bit of injustice."

"What exactly is the Golden Melody Awards doing? Does Luo Mo have a grudge against them?"

"That makes no sense. Even if there's a grudge, they shouldn't give it to Tong Shu, right?"

After Tong Shu returned to his seat from the stage, Luo Mo also gave him a thumbs-up.

In his view, it was quite good for Tong Shu to win an award this year.

This kid had a soft personality and little Seniority; having more awards under his belt could improve his status and standing.

Even after sitting down, Tong Shu still looked as if he were in a dream, feeling that everything was so unreal.

On stage, he had even thought for a moment that he was unworthy of the award.

"With Brother Luo Mo here, how could I have the face to be this year's Newcomer King?" Tong Shu thought to himself.

Truth be told, Luo Mo had been called the 【Strongest Newcomer King in History】 by everyone for several months already.

Yet, he actually had no official honor!

According to the flow of the Golden Melody Awards in this world, they would announce a Singer award first, then a behind-the-scenes award, in a Loop.

The second award was the 【Best Arranger Award】.

The importance of an Arranger to a song is actually quite high, but all along, everyone has paid more attention to the Lyricist and composer.

And the presenter for the Best Arranger Award was actually the retired Huang Xishan.

Huang Xishan, whose spirit and energy looked much better than before, took the stage and began to read the nominees.

Because he had left in a manner that was generous and quite chic before his retirement, people's perception of him had improved, and they had become a bit reluctant to see him go.

"Ah! It's been a long time since I've seen Great God Huang!"

"It looks like Great God Huang's retirement life is going well!"

"I just saw him take the initiative to shake hands with Luo Mo when Luo Mo entered the venue."

Huang Xishan glanced at the list, walked to the microphone, leaned down slightly, and said, "The nominees for Best Arranger are..."

"Zhou Ke!"

"Xu Yizhou!"

"..."

"Luo Mo!"

After each name was announced, the accompaniment of the song they arranged would play.

And after Luo Mo's name was announced, a burst of noise emerged; as soon as everyone heard this opening noise, they knew the prelude to "Nocturne" was coming.

Because there were too many stunning songs among those Luo Mo had arranged, it was impossible to choose, so in the end, they could only select the latest one, "Nocturne".

This made the mood of the audience who had previously been cursing the Golden Melody Awards improve slightly.

Although it was a behind-the-scenes award, at least Luo Mo had received two Nominations, and they were consecutive Nominations!

Huang Xishan stood before the microphone, took a deep breath, and announced, "Congratulations to Luo Mo! Winner of this year's Golden Melody Awards Best Arranger!"

In an instant, applause thundered, and those behind-the-scenes personnel were all convinced and impressed.

All the arrangers nodded while clapping at this moment, expressing their recognition of Luo Mo's win.

Although they had won awards, their fees for arranging songs would certainly be higher in the future, but wouldn't the phrase "I narrowly lost to Luo Mo" also be worth something?

Losing under the hands of Great God Luo is not necessarily a shameful thing nowadays.

The accompaniment of "Nocturne" sounded again, only this time it was the accompaniment for the chorus.

Luo Mo stood up, buttoned his suit, nodded to the people clapping around him, and after an Embrace with Tao Jie, Sun Yi, and others, he realized that Xu Chujing, who was sitting in the front row, had also stood up and was looking at him with a smile.

Luo Mo smiled at her, took half a step forward, leaned his whole body forward, and shared an Embrace with her.

This Embrace between the front and back rows caused the bullet comments to explode instantly.

"Ahhh! They hugged, they actually hugged!"

"Is this the first Embrace? Is this the first time these two have hugged?"

"Hug! Hug longer for me!"

"Hold him down, everyone hold them down together, let them keep hugging!"

Luo Mo gave Xu Chujing a light Embrace; her waterfall-like long hair made his cheeks feel a bit itchy.

His heart felt even itchier.

After separating, Xu Chujing made a gesture of invitation.

Luo Mo strode toward the podium, the spotlight following him the whole way.

He received the Best Arranger award from Huang Xishan's hands, and the two shook hands again.

Luo Mo began to recite the acceptance speech he had prepared long ago, though he hadn't expected to go up and recite it so early.

His speech wasn't anything special; it was very official and standard.

It was nothing more than thanking his parents, his company and team, his partners, and so on.

After leaving the stage, the next award to be presented was the 【Best Group Award】.

Although Aurora Girls had received a Nomination, as mentioned before, because the judging happened earlier and "Miss Chic" and "Chinese Language" were released later, they ultimately missed out.

But it didn't matter; there was still the 【Hua Ge Award】 after the New Year.

The behind-the-scenes award presented immediately after was 【Best Music Video】, which had nothing to do with Luo Mo.

After that was presented, it was 【Best Band】, which also had nothing to do with Luo Mo.

As for the 【Best Album Packaging】 that followed, that was an award with even less connection.

Logically speaking, the order of the Golden Melody Awards this year was a bit strange; there was no reason for the Arranger award to be presented before these two.

"Could it be that they wanted to let Luo Mo receive the award early to save everyone from venting their Anger uncontrollably, so as to quell the public Anger?" netizens speculated.

Next up was the main event.

——【Annual Best Song】!

This was equivalent to the Golden Melody Awards announcing to the outside world the strongest divine song of the year!

However, under normal circumstances, awards cannot just consider a song's download and streaming data; they must also consider many other aspects, such as innovation, influence, and so on.

Being popular is not enough; it must be both critically acclaimed and popular.

The person coming on stage to present the award this time is last year's Annual Best Song winner, Xu Lianying.

Yes, that is the diva known as the Queen of Sweet Songs, the magnetic diva who lost to Luo Mo and Xu Chujing in the "King of Love Songs".

Dressed in a white gown, she opened the list and said, "The songs nominated for Annual Best Song are..."

Many Singers at the scene held their breath.

In the live comments, the audience was frantically typing the names of their favorite songs.

Xu Lianying looked at the list, her expression a bit stiff.

"Sun Yi's 'Young and Promising'!"

"Chen Shanqi's 'The Things I Miss'!"

"Zhao Xueqin's 'Second Cup'!"

"Liu Xu's 'Road'!"

"And... Luo Mo's 'East Wind Breaks'!"

As one song after another was played, the camera focused on the five Singers.

The guests at the scene felt their breathing quicken, because this scene was absolutely the most exaggerated moment in the history of the Golden Melody Awards!

It was five songs and five Singers, that was correct.

But among them, three songs came from the same person!

And everyone knew very well that for this award, "East Wind Breaks" was a guaranteed win.

After all, this song was a trailblazer; Luo Mo had single-handedly created the genre of 【Chinese Style】 with this god-tier song, and this was something that would be written into the history of the music scene!

Anyone who talks about this year's music scene in the future will absolutely not be able to bypass the song "East Wind Breaks".

Xu Lianying took a deep breath and announced the final winning song, saying, "The winning song is—Luo Mo's 'East Wind Breaks'!"

Thunderous applause erupted, and Luo Mo stood up once again.

After embracing the people around him again, Luo Mo looked at Xu Chujing, who was sitting in the front row and had turned her head to applaud him, raised his eyebrows slightly, gave her a look, and met her eyes.

"He is becoming more and more presumptuous," Xu Chujing thought to herself.

The relationship between the two had, unknowingly, already moved toward the edge of the ambiguous stage.

Xu Chujing stood up helplessly, and the two, one in the front row and one in the back, embraced gently once more.

A satisfied Luo Mo then began to stride toward the stage to accept the honor.

Because the weight of the Annual Best Song award was relatively heavy, Luo Mo did not cut any corners in his acceptance speech, speaking for a full 30 seconds, although... it was just the same words repeated over and over.

This made the Singers off-stage incredibly envious, especially the Newcomers.

From another perspective, this was also the first time in history that a Newcomer had won the Annual Song!

—Luo Mo had created history again!

And how much history was he going to create this year?

But it must be said, the music scene had been a bit sluggish in recent years, and many people said the golden age had already passed.

If not for Luo Mo and the sudden emergence of Chinese Style, there absolutely would not have been such brilliance this year!

This was a person who, with his own strength, allowed the music scene to shake off its fatigue and reappear in a golden age!

After Luo Mo returned to his seat, the next award to be presented was another major behind-the-scenes award—the 【Best Composer Award】.

The live comments were overwhelming at this moment.

"Hahaha! Luo Mo, why don't you just not sit down!"

"My intuition tells me it's him again!"

"Luo Mo: Organizer, why don't you just add a chair for me on stage!"

"Luo Mo: I'm just going to live on stage today!"

"It's killing me, I should have brought a bag to hold the trophies; how am I supposed to carry them with two hands?"

Sure enough, after the award presenter came on stage, among the nominees, there was no escaping that man again.

There was no help for it; the Chinese Style was right there, the 【Gong, Shang, Jiao, Zheng, Yu】 were right there!

As usual, because Luo Mo's composition was so god-like, the background music playing was yet again his latest song—"Nocturne".

"Nocturne" has appeared at the Golden Melody Awards three times!

It is hard to imagine that a single song would actually be played 3 times in such a top-level awards ceremony before the awards process was even halfway through.

So much so that in the live comments, the audience began to frantically tease.

"'Nocturne': Can't stop at all!"

"'Nocturne': Tell me, exactly how many times do you want Laozi to play?"

"'Nocturne': Streaming count +1+1+1"

(PS: Second update, 4200 words! Requesting monthly tickets! Charging for the top five of the monthly ticket rankings!)

(End of chapter)