"Best Supporting Actor goes to—"
"Mr. Qin is a senior, a role model worth learning from, of course I know Teacher Qin."
Xiao He responded neither humbly nor arrogantly.
"If Mr. Qin has nothing else, I'll take my leave first."
With that, Xiao He turned to leave.
"Don't you want to know in advance who won this award?"
Xiao He stopped in his tracks.
He glanced at Qin Yuezhang and asked with a half-smile, "Oh? Mr. Qin actually has such great influence to know the award results in advance?"
Qin Yuezhang flicked the ash from his cigarette without answering Xiao He's question, instead saying, "Some people shouldn't be too arrogant. Haven't you heard that there's always someone better, and skies beyond skies?"
"You've reached where you are today mainly through luck, but luck is worthless in the face of absolute strength."
"Mr. Qin is saying I'm lucky?" Xiao He chuckled, "That's true, I do think I'm quite fortunate to receive so many people's affection, to continuously improve, and even have the opportunity to be nominated for the White Magnolia Awards, competing on the same stage with impressive seniors. Regardless of the final outcome, I believe I've already surpassed many people. Thank you for the compliment, Mr. Qin."
Playing dumb? Who couldn't do that?
Qin Yuezhang choked on his words.
"If Mr. Qin stopped me just to compliment me, then I'll be going now. Goodbye, Mr. Qin."
Xiao He had nothing more to say to this person.
"This year's Best Supporting Actor isn't you."
Qin Yuezhang's voice came again.
Xiao He's expression remained unchanged, his demeanor completely composed, showing no disappointment or embarrassment upon hearing this news: "Oh."
"This is just a warning. Next time, don't randomly take things that don't belong to you."
As he spoke, Qin Yuezhang threw his cigarette to the ground, then crushed it with his pointed leather shoes.
"So, Mr. Qin manipulated the results behind the scenes?"
Xiao He directly pursued the question.
Qin Yuezhang naturally wasn't foolish enough to answer such a question. He glanced at Xiao He without replying, merely curling the corner of his mouth as he raised his hand to pat Xiao He's shoulder, his tone sinister: "Young man, keep working hard."
Then he directly left the balcony.
Xiao He watched this person's retreating back and sneered, spitting out two words:
"—Pretentious fraud."
If he were an ordinary actor, he might have been intimidated by Qin Yuezhang's warning by now, believing that Qin Yuezhang truly had such great power to take away his Best Supporting Actor award.
But unfortunately, Xiao He wasn't an ordinary actor, nor was he a newcomer who knew nothing about Qin Yuezhang.
People do indeed fear and dread the unknown, but Xiao He already fully understood Qin Yuezhang's background and family circumstances, clearly knowing what cards Qin Yuezhang held.
The ability to manipulate things through high-level connections, making capital intervene to change award recipients—such situations might indeed exist, especially given the rumors in previous years that don't arise without cause.
But with Qin Yuezhang's current state?
Their own mess wasn't even cleaned up yet, their heads heated with anxiety—where would they find the hands to reach into the judges' panel here?
Xiao He found it laughable.
This Qin Yuezhang truly lived up to being the "Crown Prince" who rose through "Xingchen Film Industry"—his skill with manipulative rhetoric was truly exceptional.
Clearly already knowing from the judges' panel that he wouldn't win the award this time, he still deliberately said ambiguous things to him before the results were announced, making it seem as if his original failure was due to Qin Yuezhang's deliberate intervention.
With just a few words, he instantly elevated his own status and methods while threatening and warning Xiao He—this ability was truly impressive.
Tsk tsk, too bad he didn't know that Xiao He had already "stripped him bare."
The current Xiao He didn't take him seriously in the slightest.
...
The red carpet ceremony in the front venue officially ended, and the awards ceremony in the main venue was about to begin.
Xiao He followed the production team members and sat in a middle-front position according to the seating arrangement for the "Starry Radiance" crew.
Next to him was Zhang Mo.
Zhang Mo twitched his nostrils, smelling the cigarette smoke on Xiao He, and teased him: "Went for a smoke without calling me?"
Many actors were heavy smokers, though they never exposed this in front of cameras, and Zhang Mo was no exception.
But Zhang Mo couldn't quite remember whether Xiao He used to smoke or not.
It seemed that back during filming, when several smoking buddies gathered to puff away, they never saw Xiao He.
"Wasn't me."
Xiao He curled his lips, wanting to say "it was a pretentious fraud," but stopped himself in time and changed the subject: "Mr. Zhang, nervous?"
Zhang Mo chuckled lightly: "I've already won once before, what's there to be nervous about—you're the one who's nervous, right?"
Xiao He smiled without speaking.
He had been somewhat nervous before, but now that he knew the outcome, he wasn't too nervous anymore.
The awards ceremony opening began with singing again, with a group of somewhat familiar actors performing on stage.
Then the host came on stage and began delivering an uplifting speech, promoting the organizers' concepts and original intentions, before finally shifting focus to the formal White Magnolia Awards presentation.
The first awards presented were for behind-the-scenes personnel, including Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Screenwriting, and so on.
In this segment, "Starry Radiance" screenwriter Tan Yuan successfully won the Best Original Screenplay Project Award.
Instead, director Wen Hongyuan missed out on the Best Director Award.
For such awards, it's generally impossible for the same production team to simultaneously win both Best Director and Best Screenplay, and since Wen Hongyuan and Tan Yuan were a married couple, whoever won made everyone happy. So when this result came out, Wen Hongyuan was genuinely happy, hugging his beloved tightly in front of the cameras.
This couple had weathered storms together for so many years, winning no shortage of awards. Yet whether failing or succeeding, they always remained by each other's side, quietly doing their work behind the scenes, never publicly marketing their marital relationship, yet they were one of the rare truly loving couples in the industry.
Xiao He also applauded excitedly, genuinely happy for them.
After this segment ended, it was time for the performance category awards.
The first to come was the Best Supporting Actor Award.
Although he already knew the answer in his heart, when the host built suspense and various cameras deliberately focused on the several nominees, Xiao He still clenched his palms.
The host glanced at the card in hand, slowly scanned the audience, then said with a smiling face and clear voice—
"The winner of the 31st Shanghai Television Festival Best Supporting Actor is—"
"Luo Jiashi!"
When he heard this name, Xiao He finally exhaled, feeling like the shoe that had been hanging overhead had finally dropped.
But Xiao He felt no disappointment or regret.
He raised his hands and applauded with a smile for this actor named Luo Jiashi.
Actually, Luo Jiashi was also quite young, only thirty-six this year, with unremarkable looks that could only be called proper. He wasn't one of the currently popular traffic actors. The television drama he participated in was a crime investigation theme, where he played a young police officer confronting drug lords to the end. In the plot, when this character was about to be tortured to death, Luo Jiashi indeed delivered impressively memorable acting, comparable to Xiao He's performance in Meng Zetian's death scene.
The only difference was that Xiao He played a villain, while Luo Jiashi played a hero.