FS-novel Chapter 519: Bai Ming Awards Ceremony Scene
Chapter 519: Bai Ming Awards Ceremony Scene
"Pfft——"Xiao He's terrified expression successfully amused Liu Rulan, who couldn't help but laugh out loud beside him.
"What kind of expression is that? It's not that serious."
Xiao He had already heard Liu Rulan enter the room, so he just turned his head to glance at her, a troubled look on his face. "You wouldn't understand."
If it were fans, that would be fine. He could accept them picking ugly photos for publicity.
But this was his mother!
His Her Majesty Mother, who had all his embarrassing childhood photos in her possession!
Xiao He was genuinely afraid that Mother Xiao would see with a mother's eyes—thinking everything looks good—and then pick the ugliest childhood photo to edit into the tackiest Douyin video.
"Don't worry, Teacher Bai isn't that bored."
After laughing, Liu Rulan guessed Xiao He's worry and comforted him. "Teacher Bai recently wants to start a book review account. It has nothing to do with you. Don't overthink it."
"Phew, that's a relief——"
Xiao He let out a long breath. "So you knew about that too."
Sister Liu's speed of information dissemination remained a mystery.
"Speaking of which, who came up with the marketing strategy for Record of Chasing the Wind?" Xiao He was still curious. "I didn't even know my recognition spanned such a wide age range."
What a talent!
"It was probably someone from an outsourced team," Liu Rulan said. "Chances are, they're still your fan."
Otherwise, they wouldn't have such sharp instincts.
"Outsourced?"
Xiao He thought about it and then relaxed. Outsourcing publicity like this was perfectly normal. The only abnormal thing might be that their team actually thought to promote through video channels.
"This is a promising talent."
Xiao He immediately started thinking about poaching them. "Should we have Lin Cheng try to recruit them? I think this person is a bit of a genius."
If they could bring them in and nurture them, maybe they could take unconventional paths and catch opponents off guard at critical moments.
Liu Rulan also considered this question, then nodded. "I'll talk to Lin Cheng. It just so happens that Pan Yuerou's work team needs to be formally established, and we're still short a few people."
Currently, at Linghui Entertainment's Operations Department, each team had different responsibilities, handling different artists and segments.
Now that Pan Yuerou's work was about to kick off, her dedicated team also needed to be assembled. They couldn't keep operating like before, with just simple shared duties and no main team in charge.
"Sounds good."
Xiao He had no objections.
"The Bai Ming Awards official schedule starts tomorrow," Liu Rulan reminded him. "Don't stay up late tonight."
"I know."
The Bai Ming Award screenings had already concluded, and the opening ceremony and panel discussions had been completed over the past couple of days.
What came next was the main event—the final awards ceremony.
On site, the judging panel, composed of 101 public jurors, would vote live to decide the winners of the nine major awards and honor the final victors.
It was also the most dazzling moment, drawing attention from everyone in the industry and excitement from the fans.
——
On the night of the Bai Ming Awards, Xiao He didn't go for an eye-catching look. Instead, he chose to enter the venue quietly with the production team.
But just as their car was driving into the central area, he was the first to catch a glimpse of light-up signs flashing past his window.
Xiao He sat up straight, his gaze quickly following outside the window.
Outside the car, a large crowd of people held up light-up signs and banners, standing quietly on both sides of the road. Only when cars passed by did they excitedly wave their props, mouths opening and closing, but they restrained themselves from making any noise.
Xiao He saw his name, "Xiao He," written on those signs.
Many of the people who had come here were his fans.
On the left, there were fans. On the right, there were fans too.
They had no idea which car carried Xiao He, so they simply stayed where they were, waving their props to prove their presence.
Liu Rulan sat in the passenger seat and also saw the dense crowd of fans by the roadside. As if reminded of something, she lowered her voice and said, "According to inside information, your votes were already overwhelmingly first in the preliminary round."
Although Xiao He's fans had never been particularly high-profile in the industry circle, that didn't mean they lacked fighting power.
They stayed low-key because they never went around declaring war or making disparaging comparisons. It was also because Xiao He was strong enough to prove himself—there was no need for anyone to repeatedly emphasize his acting skills or excellence.
But when it was time for them to step up, the Little Box fans never held back.
During the Bai Ming Awards preliminaries, Xiao He was already unmatched—even top idol seniors couldn't compete.
Their love was just like this now—filled with silence.
Xiao He pressed his lips together tightly, watching outside the window without a word.
"This time, you probably won't lose to anyone in the voting," Liu Rulan continued rambling. "Nervous?"
Xiao He's gaze swept over the crowd, spotting some familiar faces and some less familiar ones, but he didn't answer Liu Rulan.
His silence made Liu Rulan stop pressing for a response.
Soon, the driver Lao Qi reminded them, "We're here."
"Alright."
Xiao He pushed open the door and stepped out of the car.
——
This time, the Bai Ming Awards were arranged in Qin City, next to Beijing. The overall size of this venue was moderate—it neither had Beijing's grandeur nor Shanghai's splendor. But as the ceremony venue for one of the three major "popularity awards," its scale was more than sufficient.
Most of the celebrities attending this venue were important artists with high traffic and buzz. As a result, the entrance was already packed with people, the surrounding area had been cordoned off early with barriers, and in the distance, fans of various artists who had come for tonight's event were gathered.
From this perspective, the overall scale of the event was still quite grand.
The production team this time was the same group that had attended Cannes. As a team destined to receive massive attention tonight, they no longer needed to use fashion to enhance their star power. Among them, aside from the actress Ding Wanyu, who wore a champagne-colored gown, everyone else was uniformly dressed in simple black suits, leaving nothing to criticize.
After some simple interaction with the host, the group stepped into the venue building to the sound of new introductions.
Once inside the venue, Xiao He noticed that the decor did have its special touches.
From the outside, the venue looked like a rectangular building, but from the inside, the main hall was elliptical. The center was hollowed out, and looking up, you could see the domed ceiling. The staircase on the side had a curved structure, resembling an empty barrel shape. The center appeared very spacious.
Xiao He couldn't help but look up again and again, finding the architectural structure quite interesting. A perfectly good venue ended up looking like a shopping mall—whatever the upper floors looked like, the lower floor could see it all clearly. Walking up floor by floor, looking up revealed blue sky and white clouds.
But this half of the area wasn't yet the main awards hall; it was only the venue's front foyer.
"It's still early. Should we head to the lounge in the back first, or go straight to the front?"
Ning Jiaqi checked his watch and asked Xiao He and the others beside him.
Going to the lounge at this time usually meant touching up makeup, grabbing a bite to eat, or letting some people satisfy their smoking cravings.
Xiao He was still looking up at the ceiling decorations and didn't have any of those thoughts, so he simply shook his head.
The others also preferred to go inside and sit down first.
So the group entered the awards hall directly.