SA CH154
The winner of the 2046 Berlin Golden Bear Award for Best Actor was finally announced. The moment that name echoed, Rong Xu’s fans across China, the United States, the UK, France… the entire world, froze in front of their televisions. It wasn’t until the awards ceremony music swelled that they snapped back to reality, looking at their companions with such excitement and joy that they couldn’t utter a single word.
[My Rong! My Rong! Rong Rong!!!]
[QAQ What should I say, what should I say, what on earth should I say, woo woo woo]
[He really won, Rong really won! God, I’m right outside the venue now, I really want to go in and see him, I really want to tell him “Congratulations” in person. Truly, congratulations, my dearest Rong!]
After Wen Xuan received the Best Actress award, Rong Xu’s fans had already given up hope for this award. However, just as they were preparing to comfort their favorite young man, they suddenly received this unexpected news.
If the fans were thrilled for Rong Xu, unsure how to express their joy, then Rong Xu himself, sitting in the audience at the Golden Bear Awards ceremony, was wide-eyed, completely stunned for a moment.
The entire hall erupted in thunderous applause, almost tearing the roof off. Xia Muyan, sitting beside Rong Xu, saw his surprised expression. The beautiful actress smiled faintly, chuckling as she applauded: “Congratulations, Rong Xu.”
No sooner had she spoken than the director next to her also smiled: “Rong Xu, congratulations, aren’t you going up to receive your award?”
The deafening music reverberated through the venue for a long time. Everyone turned to look at the young Chinese actor, showering him with enthusiastic applause.
Regardless of how much genuine emotion was in that applause, or how much envy and jealousy it contained, at this moment, none of that mattered. The world’s gaze and blessings were focused on this young man.
No one knew how much time passed, but Rong Xu’s lips curved, and he slowly stood up. He walked through the seats to the aisle. Looking up, he saw the tall, handsome man on stage applauding softly, gazing at him with tender eyes.
Rong Xu and Qin Cheng’s gazes briefly met in the air. The live guests and viewers watching the broadcast didn’t find anything amiss, but they didn’t realize that the smiles on both their lips became even brighter.
The applause continued.
Rong Xu walked step by step onto the stage. The moment he stepped up, he saw a certain man open his arms, looking at him with a calm expression.
Everything seemed so natural.
Under the gaze of countless top stars and celebrities, and the anticipation of viewers in front of their televisions, the two gently embraced.
Just as the host David said, they were good friends. The whole world knew they were good friends. So, since Qin Cheng was presenting the award to Rong Xu, wasn’t it natural for them to hug a little longer?
[Rong Rong’s first major Best Actor award was presented by God Qin. Ahhh, this is too sweet! They’ve been hugging for so long, it’s been several seconds! Promise me, don’t let go, don’t let go! Please, Chengrong, hug for a lifetime!!!]
That hug made CP fans excitedly cover their flushed cheeks, frantically posting messages. And hidden beneath this hug, unbeknownst to anyone, Rong Xu gently closed his eyes and buried his face in the warmth of the other’s shoulder. He took deep breaths of Qin Cheng’s scent, and the sudden nervousness and excitement of winning the award slowly settled in this familiar smell.
At the same time, in the camera’s blind spot, Qin Cheng’s thin lips curved slightly, and his arms tightened around the young man in his embrace.
His grip was immense, as if he wanted to embed this person completely into his body. In the burning hot embrace, he lowered his head close to the small, delicate earlobe, suppressing the urge to kiss it. After a long moment, he uttered the three heaviest words of his life—
“I love you.”
The low, magnetic voice quickly pierced his eardrum, reaching directly into the depths of his heart. There was a sudden buzzing sound in his brain. Rong Xu’s body trembled slightly. He clenched his fingers and replied with a low chuckle: “I love you too.”
The hug lasted a little too long. Just as the audience below also felt it was a bit inappropriate, Qin Cheng quickly said: “I really want to kiss you, kiss you right here.”
He had just said this, while on stage. When he was off stage, he had squeezed his young man’s soft fingers and said how much he wanted to kiss him. However, Rong Xu sighed helplessly: “Wait a little longer, until I’ve finished everything.”
At this moment, the host’s voice suddenly rang out: “Hey, dear Qin, although we all know you and Rong are good friends—yes, you really are just good friends, can you two speed up the award presentation? Our awards ceremony director is already considering cutting my performance time to give you more hugging time! He’s too much!”
The whole hall burst into laughter. Rong Xu also let go of the man and took the heavy trophy from his hand. The two exchanged glances. Qin Cheng stepped towards the audience, while Rong Xu walked to the microphone.
The next moment, fluent, smooth English slowly flowed from the young man’s mouth. His elegant, clear voice gently resonated in the ears of every guest present and reached the ears of viewers in front of their televisions. He first formally thanked the investors, producers, director, and co-stars. After finishing these official remarks, he paused for a moment, his gaze lingering in the direction of the Everlasting March crew, then began to speak again.
“Everlasting March is the second romance film I’ve starred in, and honestly, it’s my first traditional romance film. That era is a memory for a generation; speculators from all over the world flocked in, some making a name for themselves, others failing. Resources and interests built golden mountains for them, and knowing the odds were extremely low, they still plunged in without hesitation. Just like the love in the film, knowing the final outcome can only be separation, but facing an utterly beautiful flame, a moth’s choice is always to fly into that endless fire of love.”
“I was very surprised to receive this award, and I thank everyone for their affirmation.”
“There are only two kinds of feelings in this world: one is ‘I love you,’ and the other is everything else.”
“Standing on this podium, I want to say to all the fans around the world who love me, I love you. I love acting, I love experiencing different lives, I love presenting different roles to you.”
“Finally,” his voice paused, and the handsome young Best Actor looked across the entire venue, his gaze slowly settling on one point: “I love you.”
The moment the words fell, applause erupted again. Amidst the enthusiastic applause, Rong Xu stepped off the stage and returned to his seat. The crew members of Everlasting March congratulated him one by one. Checking his phone, he saw that Wen Xuan, Lin Xuan, Chu Qi, Jennifer, and others had also happily sent him their blessings.
After replying to everyone, Rong Xu turned and looked at the man to his left. At this point, the winner of the Best Director award had already gone onto the stage and begun their acceptance speech, while below the stage, Rong Xu smiled, his lips curved, meeting the gaze of the man beside him.
Qin Cheng raised an eyebrow, his lips curving.
Rong Xu looked at him meaningfully, smiling without speaking.
The two looked at each other for a moment. Qin Cheng asked in a low voice, “Who was that last sentence for?”
Rong Xu calmly replied, “Of course, for all my fans who love me.”
Qin Cheng said calmly, “Liar.”
Rong Xu added, “For the judging committee of the awards.”
Qin Cheng was perfectly composed: “Liar.”
Rong Xu thought for a moment, his smile unwavering: “For everyone in the Everlasting March crew.”
Qin Cheng subtly hooked his finger. He feigned serious thought for a moment, then said indifferently, “If you lie, the trophy will be taken away.”
Rong Xu was slightly startled: “How will it be taken away?”
Qin Cheng smiled and turned his head: “Taken away by the person you love.” As soon as he finished, looking at his young man’s adorable, surprised expression, Qin Cheng instinctively leaned in, intending to kiss those full, red lips. Rong Xu immediately applied force, pinching his finger hard, his nail almost digging into the flesh.
Qin Cheng: “Cough cough cough…”
Before the man could react, the young man immediately demanded: “Even if the camera isn’t on us now, the awards are still ongoing, Qin Cheng! What are you doing!”
Mr. Qin, who forgets everything else when he sees his young beloved: “…” After a moment of silence, he calmly asked, “What if I said I forgot where we were… Xiao Xu, would you believe me?”
Rong Xu turned to look at him, his face saying: “Do you take me for a fool?”
Qin Cheng, who couldn’t wash himself clean even if he jumped into the Yellow River: “…”
The conversation slowly went off-topic due to a certain man’s near-major blunder. Soon, the Best Picture award was also finally revealed. Since both Best Actor and Best Actress went to Chinese actors, Best Picture and Best Director naturally couldn’t be Chinese. The organizing committee also needed to maintain balance; if they gave it to China again, it would definitely cause a global uproar.
When the host stood on stage and presented his final stand-up comedy performance to the audience, all the guests gave the humorous host a warm round of applause.
Amidst the roaring applause, Qin Cheng looked calmly at the stage, when he suddenly seemed to hear something. He turned in surprise to look at the young man beside him, only to see Rong Xu staring straight at the stage, also applauding.
Hesitating for a moment, Qin Cheng frowned slightly and asked, “Xiao Xu?”
Rong Xu turned to look at him: “Hmm? What’s wrong?”
His brow furrowed further. Qin Cheng asked, “What did you just say?”
“Did I say anything?”
Qin Cheng pursed his thin lips and said no more. However, the moment the awards ceremony truly ended, he suddenly heard a voice again. This time, he immediately turned around and looked at the young man who had been sitting beside him all along.
Under the bright, dazzling lights, those exquisite, beautiful eyes held a whole galaxy of shimmering stars. The young man, whom he cherished in his heart, smiled softly at him and spoke those words—
“All the ‘I love you’s’ of my life, Qin Cheng, belong only to you.”
There was a boom in his heart, as if the most beautiful fireworks had bloomed. The tips of his ears involuntarily grew hot, but on the surface, a certain man calmly looked at Rong Xu, showing no abnormality. It wasn’t until the gala dinner after the awards ceremony that he picked up his phone and opened his alt account.
His cold and elegant face showed no ripple, but all the celebrities and directors present probably didn’t know that at this moment, fireworks seemed to be exploding continuously in the heart of this top superstar.
Before posting on Weibo, Qin Cheng suddenly remembered that his Rong Rong had long seen through his disguise, but he didn’t hesitate and still couldn’t resist posting this Weibo message.
[Lotus Paste Orange Filling: So sweet, so swee,t so swee,t so sweet, so swee,t so sweet, so sweet, so sweet! Love him so much love him so much love him so much love him so much love him so much love him so much! I want to pick him up right now and kiss him in front of the whole world!!!]
This Weibo post didn’t receive many replies, as Rong Xu’s fans were currently excitedly celebrating his first “Three Golds” Best Actor award. The fans who did reply to LotusOrangeFilling chuckled, saying:
[Orange Goddess, why are you suddenly so domineering, wanting to pick up your lotus root and even kiss him actively? What happened to the cute and naive rich beauty, Lotus Paste Orange Filling? Your persona has completely broken down 23333333]
As for Rong Xu’s only reaction to this Weibo post—
[How to Perfectly Eat an Orange: Tip 31 is even dumber. So dumb, only I can tolerate him, hmm, only I ^_^]
Mr. Qin began looking for his beloved’s alt account after last year’s Golden Bear Awards ceremony. However, with hundreds of thousands of fans, it was like finding a needle in a haystack. To this day, a full year has passed, and he still hasn’t found Rong Xu’s alt account.
During this period, no matter how Qin Cheng threatened or cajoled, he couldn’t extract any information about the alt account from Rong Xu. He also naturally couldn’t imagine that although his Rong Rong followed him, he never replied under his Weibo posts. Instead, he always posted his own Weibo messages to mock him.
This made the search for the alt account even more difficult.
But no matter what, that declaration of love still made Qin Cheng very happy, and his mood remained good for several months, until…
[Qin Cheng: …You said it, all the “I love you”s belong to me?]
Rong Xu, who had just finished filming a scene with Wen Xuan and left the set: “…”
He quickly looked left and right, finding nothing unusual. Rong Xu raised an eyebrow slightly and replied with a message: [When did you start planting spies in the crew?]
[Qin Cheng: You just said “I love you” to Wen Xuan.]
Rong Xu replied with a mix of laughter and tears: [Isn’t this acting? I’m collaborating on a romance scene with Sister Xuan; you can’t expect me not to say my lines, can you?]
[Qin Cheng: …]
[Rong Xu: Be good, stop messing around. We’ll wrap up tomorrow. I’ll bring you some local specialties when I come home, okay? ^_^]
Orange Goddess: Humph!
Indeed, after the Golden Bear Awards, the newly crowned Best Actor Rong Xu and the newly crowned Best Actress Wen Xuan collaborated on a romance film. Directed by Xu Sheng, it was a romantic comedy.
Since Chinese New Year was approaching, a flurry of New Year’s films were being released. Rong Xu had never filmed a New Year’s film in this life, so he teamed up with Director Xu and Wen Xuan to shoot this simple romantic comedy.
The filming of such a comedy romance was extremely simple. Both the male and female leads were at the Best Actor/Actress level, and Director Xu was also incredibly skilled, making the production smooth and effortless. Although Rong Xu and Wen Xuan were collaborating for the first time, they only had two NGs (no good takes) from beginning to end. One was due to a slight issue with Wen Xuan’s makeup, and the other was a lighting problem.
Top-tier actors working on such a simple New Year’s film was truly an overqualified endeavor. They finished all the filming in less than two months. When the film was released, as everyone expected, its box office easily surpassed 10 billion yuan and began heading towards 12 billion.
In 2047, Rong Xu entered a period of full-scale breakout.
Everlasting March naturally received Best Actor nominations for the Oscars and Golden Phoenix Awards. However, this time, Rong Xu did not win the Best Actor award for either of these major ceremonies. Qin Cheng released an anti-war film at the end of 2046, timing its release to coincide with the Golden Phoenix Award nomination window, which ultimately helped him win the Golden Phoenix Award for Best Actor the following year.
In terms of awards, in the first half of 2047, Rong Xu only had two Best Actor nominations and did not actually win a trophy. However, the New Year’s film Love You that he collaborated on with Wen Xuan directly broke the box office record for Chinese films in the past six years, topping the Chinese box office charts of the 2040s with a terrifying 15.6 billion yuan in global box office.
Lighthearted and enjoyable romantic comedies remained the audience’s most beloved popcorn movies.
Aside from this, the Rong Yan Foundation continued to operate stably. The foundation had built over a thousand Project Hope primary schools across China and began establishing corresponding medical funds.
The film’s eponymous theme song, Love You, jointly sung by Rong Xu and Wen Xuan, also achieved 1.09 million single sales. This number did not surpass Rong Xu’s Lost Wings and Rong Yan, but in the music industry, he gained an even more solid standing.
Although Rong Xu consistently stated that he had no plans to enter the music industry, these three albums still attracted a group of music fans for him.
Everything was developing smoothly. This 22-year-old Chinese actor held an undeniable position in the global entertainment industry. However, Rong Xu’s debut time was still relatively short, and he didn’t have many works. In April, after the Golden Phoenix Awards ceremony, he took on his eighth film in his acting career, “The Grand Heist,” collaborating with the famous French beauty Sophia Natta. It was a heist film.
This film was released in November and was a rare action film for Rong Xu, attracting a large number of viewers. The film itself was a very authentic commercial popcorn movie, with cool action and thrilling car chases, ultimately grossing 8.7 billion yuan globally.
The Grand Heist‘s box office was definitely at the top tier among global films, but for Rong Xu, it was his worst-performing commercial film in terms of box office. When the film’s results came out, many haters who had been suppressed by Rong Xu’s constantly rising momentum and couldn’t resurface finally had something to say.
[The romantic scenes were so awkward, Rong Xu’s new movie was just… He and Sophia had no chemistry at all; it almost put me to sleep.]
[It felt like an older woman-younger man romance, and when they looked at each other with deep affection, I got goosebumps.]
[Rong Xu is still not suited for romance films. It was fine when he worked with Xia Muyan, as their characters were already positioned as an older woman-younger man dynamic. When he worked with Wen Xuan, he was carried by Wen Xuan; her acting skills are so good that it never felt out of place. Now, working with Sophia, his true colors are revealed.]
Rong Xu’s fans naturally scoffed at the remarks of this small group of haters. Today, Rong Xu has close to 300 million Weibo followers, and his private fan forum alone has nearly 100 million loyal fans. Even the most popular people have haters, but these haters simply couldn’t affect Rong Xu in the slightest; they would just talk nonsense and fabricate stories, and Rong’s fans couldn’t be bothered to respond to them.
However, for some reason this time, perhaps because a similar heist film was about to be released in China and intended to use The Grand Heist‘s publicity to increase its own exposure, the haters wouldn’t stop talking. They continuously smeared Rong Xu, saying his acting was poor.
Rong Xu’s fans were completely exasperated and could only state the facts honestly: [With trophies in hand, we laugh at mad dogs.]
That Hollywood film was indeed planning to use Rong Xu’s recently released The Grand Heist to open up its market in China. However, they never expected that when Luo Zhentao discovered this situation, he informed Rong Xu and Rosie, who were beside him. For a moment, Rong Xu, who was reading a script, and Rosie, who was contacting fans, both froze simultaneously.
Rong Xu smiled helplessly, while Rosie looked at Luo Zhentao with a strange expression and asked, “Do they know… that Xiao Xu’s new film is about to be officially announced?”
Luo Zhentao spread his hands: “Mr. Holte has always been very discreet. That Hollywood film’s director is only a second-tier American director; they probably really don’t know.”
Rosie: “Thank them for saving us a wave of promotion fees.”
On December 18, 2047, Rong Xu’s birthday, over 100 million fans sent birthday wishes to their Rong Rong under the automatically sent birthday Weibo post by Sina. At 23:58, just before the end of the day, Rong Xu also updated a Weibo post—
[Rong Xu: For five years, thank you for accompanying me. Having you all is the greatest fortune of my life [smile]]
Fans immediately exploded—
[Rong Rong, having you is our greatest fortune!!!]
And in the last minute of that day, a certain “good♂friend♂” of Rong Xu, recognized worldwide, finally posted a Weibo message—
[Qin Cheng: Happy Birthday! Finally, Xiao Xu, happy collaboration on the new movie [cake]//Rong Xu: For five years, thank you for accompanying me. Having you all is the greatest fortune of my life [smile]]