In March, the weather began to turn warm but still with  lingering winter chill. Even though the temperature had risen to more than 10 degrees, the difference between it and body temperature was still very large because of the icy cold wind.

Tao Mu wore a well-tailored and conventional black suit, and walked on the red carpet side by side with Li Xiaoheng. This was also Tao Mu’s first public appearance after his engagement to Li Xiaoheng.

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When the media reporters and fans on both sides saw this scene, they screamed excitedly. Amidst the successive shutter sounds and bursts of dazzling white flashes, Tao Mu and Li Xiaoheng walked to the photo interview area on the red carpet.

A large wave of reporters flocked over, taking photos and asking questions excitedly.

“Mr. Tao, this time “Soldier Elite” has received eleven nominations at the Lingxiao Awards, how many are you confident of getting?”

“”Soldier Elite: Unsheathed Knife” has raked in 2 billion dollars worldwide, and jumped to second place in the global box office rankings. Do you have anything to say?”

“Many movie fans are looking forward to the sequel of “Soldier Elite”. May I ask when the sequel will start filming? Will it still be the original cast?”

“After you got engaged to CEO Li, you took a three-month leave to travel around the world. In addition to being busy with the promotion of the big production movie “Soldier Elite: Unsheathed Knife”, you haven’t accepted any new scripts or other entertainment related jobs. It is rumored that you are retiring from acting, is this true?”

Various questions came one after another, and Tao Mu picked out a few interesting questions to answer.

“Being nominated is already an affirmation of us, so I don’t insist on awards.”

“I am very satisfied with the movie “Soldier Elite: Unsheathed Knife”. I have no plans to make a sequel in a short time.”

“I’m not retiring. It’s just that I haven’t received any interesting scripts recently. I love acting, and I will spend more time and energy on polishing my works in the future. I will probably shoot a movie or TV series each year. I will try to use wonderful performances to return everyone’s love.”

Estimating that the time was almost up, Tao Mu and Li Xiaoheng waved at the camera and fans, regardless of the reporters’ reluctance, and turned to enter the awards hall.

The other members of the crew of “Soldier Elite” have almost all arrived. Celebrities who have a good relationship with Tao Mu, directors and behind-the-scenes producers also greeted him one after another. The young newcomers who were not qualified to approach stood in twos and threes on the periphery, looking at Tao Mu who was surrounded by people in the center like stars surrounding the moon, and felt envious.

“This is the real winner in life. Not only is he handsome and has good acting skills, he also has the capital to support people, and the movies and TV shows he produces are also very profitable. It would be great if I could sign with Tao Mu’s film and television company.”

There was not a lack of people who thought this way. So much so that before the awards ceremony even started, the people around Tao Mu never stopped appearing. It wasn’t until the staff of the TV station came over to remind that the awards ceremony was about to begin that Tao Mu had the opportunity to take Li Xiaoheng back to his seat and sit down.

After sitting down, Tao Mu immediately turned his head and whispered to Li Xiaoheng: “Sorry about ignoring you.”

“It’s okay.” Li Xiaoheng smiled and shook his head. He was happy to admire Tao Mu’s shining appearance in the crowd.

“The two of you are too much. During the honeymoon, you show off your affection on live broadcast every day, and now you have to attend the awards ceremony as a couple. Can’t you give us single dogs a way out?”

Next to Tao Mu was Guo Yaning. Seeing that the two have been inseparable from the moment they came in, and now they were even secretly whispering together after sitting down, she couldn’t help but roll her eyes.

Tao Mu chuckled, and explained very seriously: “We aren’t showing off, this is our daily interaction.”

After hearing this, Guo Yaning rolled her eyes even more strongly.

Fortunately, the awards ceremony soon officially began. Guo Yaning didn’t have to tremble at the cold and lonely feeling of having dog food slapped on her face.

This year’s Lingxiao Awards Ceremony was still broadcast live by the national station. At 7:30 in the evening, the news broadcast had just ended, and the audience directly locked on the national channel, preparing fruit and snacks, and waiting patiently for the start of the awards ceremony.

Similar to the process in previous years, the Lingxiao Awards began with some insignificant small awards. For example, the Best Newcomer Award, which was launched a few years ago to encourage young actors to study their acting skills steadily, as well as other awards for the best soundtrack, costumes and props.

Gu Yuzhang, who gave a wonderful performance in “Soldier Elite” despite it being his first TV drama, was lucky enough to win the Best Newcomer Award. It once again confirmed Tao Mu’s ability to train newcomers, and at the same time, it also gave this TV series, which received eleven nominations in the Lingxiao Awards, a good start.

Gu Yuzhang was particularly excited when he delivered his acceptance speech. Because the film version of “Soldier Elite” was a project initiated by Beijing Film. Even if his role in the movie was also very popular with the audience, and he was signed to Tao Mu’s company, he still didn’t have a part in the filming of the movie.

It was just a supporting role in a movie, and being signed to Tao Mu’s film and television company and valued by Tao Mu, Gu Yuzhang didn’t worry about filming resources at all, so he didn’t value it too much. However, the movie “Soldier Elite” was really too impressive. As a mainstream movie, it not only had a good reputation, but the global box office had broken the record of 2 billion dollars. No matter how carefree Gu Yuzhang was now, it was inevitable that he would be a little bit conflicted.

After all, not everyone had the opportunity to participate in a big movie with a global box office of more than 2 billion dollars. Even Tao Mu himself couldn’t guarantee that he could achieve such a good result when he made movies in the future. However, things were already like this, and the company couldn’t do anything about it. So helping Gu Yuzhang to win the Best Newcomer Award this time was also a consolation. Of course, in addition to this, the company also promised to tailor-make a movie for Gu Yuzhang.

Such a career line with ups and downs left Gu Yuzhang full of emotions. Although he missed the 2 billion dollar box office movie, fortunately, the company still valued him. When Gu Yuzhang delivered his acceptance speech, he thanked Tao Mu, his benefactor and boss, repeatedly. Promising he would work hard and live up to the expectations of his boss.

During the speech, the camera turned to Tao Mu frequently. Tao Mu also calmly waved and smiled at the camera. Guo Yaning, who was sitting next to Tao Mu, was once again envious and jealous. She didn’t expect that the newcomer Tao Mu signed to be so considerate, unlike the few starlets signed by her studio, who were not very talented, but were so full of drama.

“This won’t do! When I present the award to you later, I have to make things difficult for you. Otherwise, it will be difficult to vent my frustration.” Guo Yaning expressed fiercely.

——That’s right, Guo Yaning, who had moved to the big screen, had long since stopped making TV dramas. Participating in the award ceremony of the Lingxiao Award this time was also due to being invited by the organizer to be the award presenter. And it was to award one of the most valuable awards, the Best Actor Award.

As an award presenter, Guo Yaning naturally got wind of who won in advance. This was also one of the unspoken rules of domestic award ceremonies. The management team of the finalists would be notified of the results in advance to make sure nothing goes wrong. So in many cases, the audience only needed to see which nominee did not come to the awards ceremony, and they could probably predict who would win the award. But this kind of thing, only the top-tier big names dared to do it. If a young actor who had just entered the industry dared to pull this stunt, they would definitely offend the organizer.

However, this year’s Best Actor was a bit of an exception. Because “Soldier Elite” was a mainstream military promotion drama in which Tao Mu co-produced with the military, and was very in line with the preferences and tastes of the jury of the Lingxiao Awards. In addition, the ratings of this TV series have broken historical records, and had caused a phenomenon-level performance in the whole society to join the army. Of course, the most important factor was that the movie version of “Soldier Elite” had shockingly raked in 2 billion dollars worldwide. Almost everyone had confirmed with certainty that the best actor for this year’s Lingxiao Award must be Tao Mu. But the other four nominees who were shortlisted together with Tao Mu did not find excuses to not attend, but instead all came over.

The main reason for this was that in addition to being an actor with good acting skills, Tao Mu was also a capable producer and a big capital investor. Many people want to take this opportunity to get to know Tao Mu, so that when Tao Mu prepared to film other works in the future, he could think of them at the first opportunity.

For a big production movie with 2 billion dollar box office sales on the global scale, even a supporting role was enough to add a touch of brilliance to their qualifications. What’s more, Tao Mu was only 21 years old this year, and his future was long and bright.

It was also for this reason that when the Lingxiao Award for Best Actor was announced, the atmosphere at the awards ceremony was for once very cheerful, the kind that was full of joyful celebration. Whether it was Tao Mu who won the award, the other four nominees who were also shortlisted, or other guests at the award ceremony, they were all sincerely happy for Tao Mu. The entire award presentation scene instantly became a sea of joy, and the continuous applause continued until Tao Mu stepped onto the stage.

The guests in charge of awarding the Best Actor Award were Guo Yaning and the chairman of the jury for the Lingxiao Award. As we all know, the Lingxiao Award had always been called a “government award”, and Tao Mu was the “son” of SARFT. Therefore, when the chairman of the judging committee of the Lingxiao Award presented the trophy to Tao Mu, he did not forget to pat Tao Mu on the shoulder, and praised with pride: “Not bad, kid, you are worth looking forward to.”

A TV series “Soldier Elite” broke the domestic ratings record of the same subject at the same time and set off an upsurge of joining the army across the country. A movie version of “Soldier Elite” raked in another 2 billion dollars worldwide, and spread the positive image of Chinese special forces to the world. These two works of Tao Mu not only brought glory to the Chinese film industry, but also meant that the Chinese film industry, which had always been accumulating strength and looking for its own path, had finally sent its own voice to the world. This was a kind of cultural export, and it also allowed the domestic entertainment industry to see the hope of revitalizing commercial films in mainland China. They believe that in the next few years, the mainstream of film and television dramas full of Chinese elements and positive energy would no longer be a dry pool of water, and more filmmakers would follow in the footsteps of Tao Mu and slowly explore the wider possibilities in Chinese movies..

And all these changes were brought about by Tao Mu.

As the chairman of the jury said, although Tao Mu was still young and his acting career had just started, Tao Mu’s future had unlimited possibilities. He deserved everyone’s expectations.

“Thank you Chairman and Sister Ya Ning. Thank you to the organizer for awarding me this award. Thank you for your recognition, encouragement and expectations.” Tao Mu raised the trophy and kissed it: “This is the award I got in my four years in the industry. But I firmly believe that this is just the beginning. The future is still long, I will work hard with the people who love me and the people I love, and dedicate more and more exciting works to everyone.”

When Tao Mu said this, he looked at Li Xiaoheng who was sitting under the stage, and his eyes became more gentle and tender: “This trophy has an extraordinary meaning to me. This is not only everyone’s recognition of my acting skills, but also a new beginning of my career and life. I want to give this trophy to my most important person. Without him, I would not be where I am today. Without him, I don’t think I would have the future I could look forward to. So, what I want to say is, Li Xiaoheng, you deserve this trophy.”

As Tao Mu sooke, he raised the trophy and toasted Li Xiaoheng: “We used to cooperate tacitly and cooperated seamlessly. I hope that every day in the future, we can also be of one mind and cross the river in the same boat.”

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As soon as these words fell, the guests at the awards ceremony had already stood up excitedly. There were screams, whistles and applause one after another. Even Guo Yaning and the chairman of the jury on the stage looked over with smiles on their faces. Under the scorching gazes of everyone, including all the audience in front of the TV, Tao Mu walked up to Li Xiaoheng holding the trophy, and said with a warm smile, “Thank you, Mr. Li. The other half on the military medal must be your name.”

“I’m very honored.” Li Xiaoheng accepted the trophy with a smile, leaned forward to hug Tao Mu, and made a serious promise: “I will continue to be by your side every day in the future. Together we will live life together through thick and thin.”

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