Chapter 69

Chapter 69

The *Golden Phoenix Awards* ceremony kicked off at 8:00 PM.

The first few awards were for Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, and Best Costume & Makeup—categories with less prestige.

*Prince of Beggars* won the Best Costume & Makeup award. It was a promising start.

The next award was for Best Newcomer. Ye Mingzhao, who played dual roles in a drama that reached a peak viewership of over 3%, earned massive online praise for his authentic acting. The Best Newcomer award was truly deserved. Even the other nominees who were up against him were utterly convinced of his win.

Amid thunderous applause, Ye Mingzhao stood up, embraced the thrilled Yu Mingze, and walked confidently to the stage.

After receiving the trophy from the presenter, Ye Mingzhao delivered his pre-prepared speech and returned to his seat, holding the trophy. He remained calm and composed, as if nothing could faze him!

Yu Mingze excitedly touched the trophy and said, "Good start! Good start!"

The next award was for Best Screenwriter. After a musical performance, as the previous year's Best Screenwriter winner, Yu Mingze took the stage again, this time to present the Best Screenwriter award to the new winner.

Amidst the laughter and cheers on stage, Ye Mingzhao's thoughts drifted. He was thinking about what Yuan Jing had mentioned—that Mark Brown from Paimon Pictures had reached out to *Starjoy Media* for collaboration, using the preparation of *Westward Journey* as a pretext, hoping to meet him through Qi Yue's introduction.

Ye Mingzhao couldn't be sure if Mark Brown's actions were instigated by Hua Rui, but he saw this as an opportunity to use Mark Brown as a pawn to probe the ever-elusive Hua Rui.

……

After what felt like an eternity, Ye Mingzhao heard thunderous applause and saw everyone’s eyes on him. A clip from *Prince of Beggars* nominated for Best Supporting Actor was playing on the big screen.

Ye Mingzhao snapped back to reality as the presenter announced loudly, "The winner of this year's *Golden Phoenix Award* for Best Supporting Actor is..."

"*Prince of Beggars*, Ye Mingzhao."

The venue erupted in thunderous applause, accompanied by the triumphant music for the award winner.

"Wow, wow! Our Zhaozhao actually won Best Supporting Actor—that's incredible!"

In front of the television, Ye Mingxi placed a slice of watermelon on the coffee table, took a wet wipe to clean his hands, and began clapping loudly.

Madam Ye looked pleased as she grabbed her phone and said, "I just remembered Old Qin's grandson took the college entrance exam this year. I should check how he did..."

"What? How did you know my Zhaozhao won the *Golden Phoenix Award* for Best Supporting Actor? Oh, you were watching TV too! I didn't expect this either..."

"Exactly! He's so young, this is his first time acting, his first time as a lead, and his first time playing dual roles. I didn't expect him to perform so well..."

"Yes! He's been smart since he was a child, and he does everything with such grace. By the way, your daughter is on summer vacation, right? Does she want to try acting too? Should I help you ask around and see if I can get her into *Starjoy Media*? As we all know, the entertainment industry can be quite chaotic, so we need to ensure our children's safety if they want to dabble in it..."

"Your child is graduating and thinking about finance? Oh, they want to get some tips from Zhaozhao! But this kid has since left finance to pursue acting."

The Ye family exchanged glances. That night, they watched as Madam Ye dominated the phone, calling family after family under the guise of catching up, but always steering the conversation back to her son's Best Supporting Actor win at the *Golden Phoenix Awards*.

At the awards ceremony, all the guests looked at Ye Mingzhao with admiration.

A Best Supporting Actor winner at just twenty-three!

This age even set a new record for the youngest winner of the Best Supporting Actor award.

It's worth noting that the competition for Best Supporting Actor is often fiercer than for Best Actor. This is because there are so many veteran actors in the industry who, due to various reasons, can only showcase their acting skills in supporting roles, making the Best Supporting Actor award one of the highest honors each year.

Now, at the age of twenty-three, Ye Mingzhao has won the Best Supporting Actor award at the Golden Phoenix Awards. One can only imagine how stunned everyone was when the results were announced.

However, such an outcome was also within people's expectations.

Leaving aside Ye Mingzhao’s substantial background, just from the perspective of acting, many actors, when portraying villains, tend to overemphasize the evil aspects of their characters, leading to overly dramatic performances. However, Ye Mingzhao’s portrayal of the villainous second male lead is completely free of this issue.

If Ye Mingzhao’s performance as the male lead in "The Beggar Prince" could still be described as a natural fit for his age, then his portrayal of Fu Shen—a highly intelligent and antisocial villain—seems almost effortless, as if it isn’t acting at all.

To put it more clearly, most of the time, when Ye Mingzhao plays Fu Shen, what he presents is not an act but an emotional release, a deep empathy and immersion into the character.

In the jargon of their profession: that’s called being in character.

Throughout the history of acting, many great performers have, due to their deep immersion in their roles, successfully created classic characters that shine in film history.

Ye Mingzhao’s Fu Shen is no exception.

Although Ye Mingzhao’s acting techniques are not yet flawless, the Fu Shen he portrays is inherently soulful because the actor brings life to the character not through technique but through emotion and resonance.

This style of performance is beyond the reach of most actors, relying purely on innate talent.

Yet, the acting profession thrives on talent. Most of the time, people may not want to admit it, but they must acknowledge that geniuses do exist. What many strive for their entire lives is often just the starting point for a genius.

Ye Mingzhao is one such talented actor. His portrayal of Fu Shen is soulful.

This is a significant reason why the judges of the Golden Phoenix Awards, after several rounds of deliberation and discussion, decisively awarded the Best Supporting Actor trophy to Ye Mingzhao.

It is not only an encouragement for this gifted actor but also a recognition of his talent.

After all, the probability of a newcomer winning a major award in their first year is not high, let alone in the fiercely competitive category of Best Supporting Actor. While the Best Actor and Actress awards might sometimes be given to outstanding young performers due to various considerations, in the Best Supporting Actor and Actress categories, most judges typically focus on acting skills and the depth of the work.

There is no denying that Ye Mingzhao's acting skills are exceptional, and anyone with eyes could see it. However, he has only been in the industry for a year, so his experience is lacking, and the depth of his body of work is somewhat insufficient.

What allowed Ye Mingzhao to beat out the other four veteran actors who were also nominated and win the award—and earn the genuine applause of all the nominees—was not just his formidable background and his ability to manipulate situations with ease. It was because Ye Mingzhao's performance in the drama truly won everyone over.

At this moment, Ye Mingzhao, seated, was also a bit dazed.

Ye Mingzhao did not have an obsession with awards. When he participated in the *Prince of Beggars* production, it was not with the goal of winning an award. So, when he learned that Yu Mingze had nominated him for awards such as Best Newcomer, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actor on behalf of the *Prince of Beggars* production team, Ye Mingzhao didn’t have much of a reaction.

Even when he learned that he had been nominated for Best Newcomer and Best Supporting Actor, Ye Mingzhao didn’t think much of it. At that time, he was fully focused on the acquisition of the Zhou family and had no energy to spare for anything else.

What Ye Mingzhao hadn’t expected was that the Golden Phoenix Awards would actually give him both the Best Newcomer and Best Supporting Actor awards.

The reason was that they appreciated his performance and believed that his acting had given the character a soul.

The judges, unaware of the full context, assumed that Ye Mingzhao had deeply connected with the character and become fully immersed in the role during filming, which was why he was able to deliver such a classic portrayal of Fu Shen.

Only Ye Mingzhao knew that, when portraying Fu Shen, he had never resonated with or become immersed in the role. He had simply let loose the darkest and most despicable parts of his own nature.

In front of everyone, on set, in front of the camera, and under the sunlight.

Ye Mingzhao had never imagined that his cunning and ruthless side would be accepted by others, so at every moment during the filming, he was fully aware that he was acting!

Using his real self to perform a fictional character.

And because of this fictional character, he had received real honors.

Beside him, Yu Mingze had already jumped up from his seat in excitement. The *Prince of Beggars* production team also stood up, hugging Ye Mingzhao and congratulating him on winning the Best Supporting Actor award.

Mechanically, Ye Mingzhao rose from his seat and made his way to the stage, hugging and shaking hands with countless people as he went, passively accepting their congratulations and well-wishes, eventually standing on the stage.

He accepted the weighty trophy from the presenter, and at that moment standing in front of the microphone, Ye Mingzhao was suddenly moved.

The host asked with a smile, "As we all know, *Prince of Beggars* was your acting debut. As a new actor, you earned the Best Supporting Actor award for your very first role. Could you share your thoughts with us?"

Ye Mingzhao had already calmed down. He stood in front of the microphone, surveying the packed audience below, seeing Yu Mingze, who was practically bouncing out of his seat with excitement, and his fellow actors, all beaming at him.

Ye Mingzhao had not been in the entertainment industry for long, and because of both intentional and unintentional neglect, he hadn’t formed many connections in the industry.

In fact, aside from the casts of *Prince of Beggars* and *Jiangshan Strategy*, his interactions were quite limited. Apart from Liu Rumei, the only others he interacted with were a few artists from Starjoy Media.

But now, these unfamiliar faces, from an unfamiliar world, openly embraced the real Ye Mingzhao under the spotlight.

In this moment, Ye Mingzhao rediscovered the allure of acting.