“Brother-in-law, why did you suddenly rush to this so-called Galaxy Award ceremony?” Leng Zhimeng asked, confused, while sitting in Qin Li’s room. Originally, they were happy when Huang He suddenly said he would take them to Chengdu for a visit. But they didn’t expect Huang He to be attending such an obscure award.
“Because I like science fiction,” Boss Huang replied very directly.
“Really? I didn’t know you had such a hobby, brother-in-law?” Leng Zhimeng tilted her head.
“Didn’t you see I have a room full of Gundam?” Boss Huang grinned. In his past life, as an employee of Bandai, although Huang He detested his boss’s unreasonable demands, he had a strong passion for Gundam and the plastic models behind it. He was a veteran model enthusiast. Even when his monthly income was only 5,000 yuan in his past life, he had a wall full of Gundam models, and for that, Huang He didn’t even have a girlfriend.
And in this life, nothing could hinder Boss Huang’s love for Gundam. Although it was difficult to buy genuine Bandai Gundam models in this era, that was clearly not a problem for Huang He. He had long ago spent money to collect all the Gundam models released by Bandai.
Yes, all of them. As a collector, since he was so wealthy in this life, he naturally had to achieve the goal he couldn’t even dream of in his past life: collecting all genuine Gundam models.
Besides, Boss Huang had another idea, which he would mention later.
“Is Gundam considered science fiction? If you have the resources to build Gundam, wouldn’t it be better to find a dozen planes with equivalent firepower?” Leng Zhimeng muttered. Facing this question, Huang He had no way to refute it, or rather, this was something all mech enthusiasts could not bring up – the practicality of mechs… Frankly speaking, mechs were truly impractical. Only an idiot would build mechs.
Just as Leng Zhimeng was about to have a good chat with her brother-in-law about science fiction, Qin Li walked back in and asked somewhat nervously, “Mr. Huang, are you planning to be an award presenter this time, or just an audience member?”
Qin Li was indeed very anxious. Huang He had come with an invitation for an award presenter, but Qin Li genuinely felt that their small award ceremony didn't match Boss Huang’s status, so it was possible Huang He might not be willing to appear as a presenter.
Unexpectedly, Huang He smiled and said, “Since I came with an invitation for an award presenter, I will naturally do the job of an award presenter. I will follow Editor Qin’s arrangements. Whatever you ask me to do, I will do it. The guest follows the host’s lead!”
Huang He’s words immediately relieved Qin Li, and she became overjoyed, coming up with more ideas. She pressed on, “Then, Mr. Huang, could you give a speech to all our writers and share your insights on science fiction works?”
“A speech?” Huang He pondered for a moment, then shook his head, “Let’s skip the speech; I’m not prepared at all.”
“Yes!” Qin Li nodded with some disappointment, then heard Huang He continue, “However, I can have a chat with everyone, just in a casual conversation. That would be more relaxed!”
“Understood!” Qin Li immediately became excited again and began ordering her subordinates to temporarily revise the award ceremony’s event plan and schedule. After all, everything should yield to our Boss Huang. She was very much looking forward to the grand occasion of this Galaxy Award.
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“This Editor Qin is making quite a fuss!” Xu Wen, also known as Reporter Xu, whom Editor Qin mentioned. After careful consideration, he finally decided to come to the award ceremony to try his luck.
If there was a mysterious big-name guest attending, it would naturally be a cause for great celebration. If Editor Qin had deceived him, he would have just made a wasted trip. That was still better than reporting on something like a child hitting their head on a door, as it would have been more valuable!
Anyway, if he was fooled this time, he would absolutely ignore this wicked woman next time.
What Xu Wen didn’t expect was that Qin Li had really gone all out this time. More than a dozen different media reporters had arrived successively, all from major media outlets in Chengdu. Even reporters from CCTV’s local bureau were present.
“Could there really be some big news this time? Otherwise, Qin Li would have offended everyone!” Xu Wen pondered, feeling that he might indeed be about to get a big scoop, which made him even more expectant for the award ceremony to begin.
But when the award ceremony actually began, Xu Wen realized he might have overestimated Qin Li’s cleverness. The entire award ceremony was extremely dull. It was just the host coming on stage to read the list of nominated works, then building suspense, and finally inviting the award presenters to directly announce the winners, followed by the winning authors coming on stage to give brief acceptance speeches.
So, most award ceremonies followed this routine. But the problem was that neither the award presenters on stage nor the winning authors were familiar. No audience would be interested in watching such a spectacle.
It was like when the audience saw news about the government holding a meeting on the media, they would immediately change the channel.
After 30 minutes, Xu Wen still hadn’t found any valuable news. The only good news was that the award ceremony was progressing very quickly. The host seemed to be intentionally speeding up the pace, and all sorts of minor awards in the early stages were given out in the blink of an eye. What remained was the main event, the list of winners for the Galaxy Award.
“The nominees for this year’s Galaxy Award are: Liu Cixin’s ‘To Raise My Parents’ and He Xi’s ‘Heaven Born Me Talented’…” The host continued to read the nomination list dryly. Xu Wen yawned. If he hadn’t been thinking about at least recording the winners of the Galaxy Award to compile a small news item for the day, he heard the host suddenly say in an extremely excited voice, “Now, please welcome award presenter Mr. Huang He to announce the winners of the 17th Galaxy Award!”
“Hmm… Huang He… another completely unheard-of name… Hmm… Wait… Huang He?” Xu Wen’s little finger twitched slightly. He then glanced at the reporters around him and noticed that some part of them, or even their entire bodies, were twitching.
Then he looked at the host on stage, whose excited expression was almost overflowing.
“Hey! Could it really be that Huang He!” Xu Wen swallowed and instinctively tightened his grip on the microphone in his hand. He then ordered the cameraman next to him to quickly focus on the stage. Amidst a flurry of surprise and panic, Boss Huang, wearing a simple shirt, walked out from backstage.
“Holy cow! It’s really Huang He!” No one in China’s media industry didn’t recognize Boss Huang’s face. So, when he appeared, all the reporters in a daze at the scene erupted. Some female reporters even let out screams!
At the same time, many people at the scene were bewildered. They weren’t bewildered by Boss Huang’s identity, but rather they were muttering in their hearts, “Who is this guy? Is his name Huang He, or is Huang He his pen name? What works does he have? Why have I never heard of this name? Why is he presenting an award at the Galaxy Award!”
At least two-thirds of the people at the scene were in such a confused state. This couldn’t be blamed on them. After all, in the eyes of most science fiction enthusiasts, the magnificent universe and the extremely small microscopic world were the most fascinating things in the world. What was a billionaire to them? He wouldn’t give them money!
Of course, there were also quite a few people who knew Huang He. They then informed their bewildered friends about Huang He’s identity, and the news spread like wildfire. Soon, everyone knew that China’s richest man was standing on this stage, serving as their award presenter.
Meanwhile, Huang He on stage was also being very professional. Without any unnecessary remarks, he solemnly took out an envelope. After opening it, his face showed a surprised expression, and he announced, “The winner of the 17th Galaxy Award in 05 is: Liu Cixin’s ‘To Raise My Parents’ and He Xi’s ‘Heaven Born Me Talented’. Please welcome the two award winners to the stage to receive their awards!”
After waiting for more than a minute, Da Liu and He Xi, pushed forward by the crowd, walked onto the stage somewhat bewildered, shook hands with Huang He, and received the Galaxy Award trophy and winner’s certificate from him!
“Are you really China’s richest man?” He Xi, who had been holding back, couldn’t help but ask when shaking hands with Huang He.
“I’m not sure, after all, I don’t know if others are richer than me!” Huang He replied sincerely. “But among the people I know, there shouldn’t be anyone richer than me!”
“That’s powerful!” He Xi exclaimed inwardly.
“Are you here for fun?” Da Liu suddenly asked out of the blue.
“Is it fun here?” Huang He retorted.
“It’s quite fun!” Da Liu nodded, and the two couldn’t help but laugh. Next were He Xi and Da Liu’s acceptance speeches. It wasn’t the first time they had won awards, so they should have been very experienced. But as they spoke, they couldn’t help but stammer a little, clearly not having recovered from the shock of Boss Huang’s appearance.
So, they decided to keep it brief, thanking everyone they needed to thank, and then prepared to go offstage. However, Huang He called out to them, “Don’t leave yet, the organizers told me that there will be a panel discussion on site. You two are the discussion guests, you can’t leave!”
“Ah!” Da Liu and He Xi were stunned again. Although the Galaxy Award did have a panel discussion, it never took place at the award ceremony itself. It was usually held in a conference room in the afternoon after the award ceremony concluded, and it was also not public. Everyone would sit together like friends and chat casually. They never imagined they would have to speak on stage.
But since the organizers had arranged it this way, they had no choice.
At this moment, the organizers’ staff quickly brought over various sofas, chairs, and tables, along with refreshments, and set up a panel discussion venue.
Afterwards, all the award winners and several editors from the editorial department also appeared, and a science fiction panel discussion, completely unarranged and unprepared, began!