"The next award to be presented is for Best Newcomer!"
"The winner is Zeng Xiaorou, for her representative work 'I'll Just Be Myself'!"
*Applause*
At the Dragon Country's Best Film Awards Ceremony, various awards were being presented.
When the host, Xiao Ming Ge, announced the winner of the Best Newcomer award, the entire venue erupted in applause.
However, this applause was entirely reluctant.
This was already the third time Zeng Xiaorou had graced the stage.
The first two times were for the film's accolades, but this third time was a personal award.
Everyone in the industry was aware of such practices.
Zeng Xiaorou's sudden rise from an unknown minor role to receiving so many awards clearly indicated that some capital had chosen her, aiming to polish her image and promote her.
However, they were already accustomed to such tactics.
Veteran actors, her peers, disdained such behavior.
Directors who favored catering to capital began to scheme, planning how to profit from this capital-driven promotion.
Qin Xuan watched all of this from a distance, with a cold eye.
He sighed again, lamenting how the entertainment industry had become so rotten to its core.
He knew Zeng Xiaorou. She was the one who had tried to get him to support her, failed, and then instigated her boyfriend to cause trouble for him.
He hadn't expected that in just a few months, she would find such strong capital to promote her so spectacularly.
And it wasn't over. After the Best Newcomer award, the Best Actress award this year also went to Zeng Xiaorou.
A newcomer, unknown just a few months ago, had managed to win such a prestigious award, surpassing everyone else. Could there be no hidden reasons behind this?
Qin Xuan absolutely did not believe it.
Ultimately, Zeng Xiaorou swept almost all the awards she was eligible for.
Except for the Best Popular Actress award.
That award went to Li Qingwan, who had become immensely popular across the country in the past two years. httpδ:/m.kuAisugg.nět
No one present was surprised by this outcome.
Li Qingwan possessed both talent and integrity.
Even if she had won all the awards related to actresses, they would have considered it deserved.
It was just a pity.
This year, significant capital had been invested behind Zeng Xiaorou.
And it was clear that the capital behind Li Qingwan could not compete with the opposing party.
This also made some uninformed individuals curious.
How vast was the capital behind Zeng Xiaorou?
Could it be the combined efforts of several capital groups?
After all, behind Li Qingwan stood the renowned film and television company, Junhua Entertainment.
And the boss behind Junhua Entertainment was the famous top second-generation heir, Xu Jun'an!
His mother was one of the country's few female billionaires, with assets in the tens of billions.
His father was the chairman of the renowned Xu Group, whose wealth was no less than his wife's.
No one knew the exact extent of their family's fortune.
They only knew that any newcomer the young master Xu wanted to make famous, he succeeded in doing so!
Xiao Zhan was like that, and so was Li Qingwan.
But now?
Zeng Xiaorou had achieved victory against Li Qingwan with an overwhelming advantage.
This was enough to show that behind this woman, there must be financial power even greater than Xu Jun'an's.
After all the awards were presented, everyone exited in order and proceeded to the dinner reception.
Qin Xuan finally had the opportunity to enter the restaurant and find Li Qingwan, who was quite disheartened.
After searching for a long time, he finally spotted her in the central area of the banquet hall.
At that moment, Li Qingwan was talking with Feng Kuzi and Lao Mouzi.
Holding a wine glass, her expression was somewhat awkward.
Before Qin Xuan could approach, Li Qingwan raised her glass in a toast to the two men and drank it down in one gulp.
After the two men laughed heartily, she had to refill her glass and repeat the action.
"Hahaha, Qingwan, you're doing the right thing!"
"Life is often unsatisfactory; only by learning to adapt and compromise can you find a way to survive."
"Don't worry, we'll consider what you said."
"Of course, if you're willing to have a 'good' chat with us tonight, this matter will surely proceed more smoothly!"
"You!"
Hearing Feng Kuzi's unrestrained laughter, Li Qingwan understood the implied meaning in his words.
Although she had anticipated that these two would not easily help her, she hadn't expected that directors who had previously shown her favor would utter such vulgarities.
Her emotions surged, and a mist instantly welled up in Li Qingwan's clear, limpid eyes.
She wanted to vent her frustration but also had to maintain her image.
Dropping her wine glass, Li Qingwan walked somewhat powerlessly towards the edge of the venue.
Just then, a gentle and magnetic voice suddenly sounded near her ear.
"Are you okay?"
The familiar voice sent a tremor through her heart.
Turning her head slowly towards the source of the sound, she saw the only man who had ever stirred her heart standing right before her.
Surprise, gratitude, joy, grievance, exhaustion—countless complex emotions instantly surged from the depths of her heart.
Her tears could no longer be held back and streamed down her eyes.
The string she had been holding taut in her heart finally snapped with a resounding crash.
"Hey! Are you okay?!" Qin Xuan reached out to support Li Qingwan, who was about to faint, and quickly channeled his internal vital energy into her to nourish her body.
Her physical condition was clearly not good, evidently due to experiencing intense emotional fluctuations and prolonged exhaustion.
Qin Xuan didn't know what she had gone through in just these few days apart.
But he was certain that the troubles she faced were no less than Liu Qing's.
A few minutes later.
Li Qingwan's complexion gradually regained some color and luster under Qin Xuan's nourishment.
After quietly thanking Qin Xuan, she regained a little of her former composure.
Then, under Qin Xuan's concerned gaze, she recounted her experiences of the past two days.
It turned out that after Xu Jun'an forcibly demanded Li Qingwan to form a public relationship with Xiao Zhan, Li Qingwan had resolutely refused.
Xu Jun'an, true to his word, immediately canceled all her subsequent commercial activities and film contracts.
Even if it meant paying an extremely large breach of contract fee, he was determined to completely sideline Li Qingwan.
Li Qingwan certainly couldn't sit idly by and let him manipulate her.
However, the contract was clearly written in black and white.
So, she had no choice but to use all her savings to buy her freedom.
Even so, Xu Jun'an still had no intention of letting her off easily.
Not only did he declare that Junhua Entertainment would no longer cooperate with Li Qingwan, but he also stated that they would not participate in the production or distribution of any films, music, or variety shows that Li Qingwan was involved in.
This, in effect, meant a complete blacklisting of Li Qingwan from the entire entertainment industry.
With no other options, Li Qingwan had no choice but to continuously contact her friends and confidantes in the industry.
Hoping to secure some resources to sustain herself.
However, the responses she received from them were all uniformly helpless.
This led to the situation just moments ago, where she had to endure the harassment of two major directors and forcibly drink two strong glasses of liquor.
Even so, Li Qingwan had still gained nothing.
After recounting everything to Qin Xuan, Li Qingwan let out a long sigh of relief.
In her opinion, everything was in the past.
Perhaps the entertainment industry was truly not a suitable place for someone like her to remain.
Just as Qin Xuan saw her helplessness and was about to offer words of comfort, a sharp, sarcastic voice suddenly reached their ears.
"Oh my, isn't this our Dragon Country's 'popular' star Li Qingwan!"
"Didn't Young Master Xu ban you? How are you still here telling stories to people?"