Becoming a Movie Star, System Only Finished Loading After Ten Years

The awards ceremony quickly began, with host Zhang Guoli.

"Qi Hao, it's going public in a few days, are you excited?"

While Zhang was speaking onstage, Wang Chonglei was talking next to Qi Hao offstage.

Qi Hao wanted to kick him away.

Can't you show some respect to Zhang? Excited my ass, I'm not excited.

It's just going public, I've had so many companies go public without feeling excited, you're making it sound like something scandalous.

However, Qi Hao is not only a star director but also a shareholder in many large companies, so he has a very central position and can sit with figures like Mrs. Hua's president Wang Chonglei and China Film's general manager La Peikang.

"President Wang, this next award is definitely for 'Assembly', let's just wait for the results."

La Peikang interrupted Wang Chonglei's chatter.

Come on!

It's just an IPO, catching someone backstage to congratulate you, it never ends. Even now, you're still standing there, aren't you worried you'll sustain a serious injury?

Wang Chonglei, feeling awkward, had no choice but to quiet down.

La Peikang is not someone to offend; he has real power in China Film and might take over Han Sanping's role.

However, the first award for Best Art didn't go to 'Assembly'; instead, Lu Yuelin and Yu Maiduo won it for 'Iron Man'.

Qi Hao wasn't interested in these; he only cared about the Director Debut Award.

Even with Qi Jian's help, Qi Jian neither promised him a guaranteed win nor disclosed the results ahead of time.

Therefore, he was anxious inside.

The closer to revealing the results, the itchier his heart became.

But given the quality and box office of 'Steel Piano', he couldn't believe anyone was more suitable for the Director Debut Award.

The only worry was accidentally exerting too much effort and beating Feng Xiaogang for Best Director.

If that happened, Qi Hao wanted to throw a sack over Feng Xiaogang.

You damn useless fellow, if you can't even compete with me for Best Director, then stop acting like a big shot in front of me.

Qi Hao's first acting role was a bit part in Feng Xiaogang's 'Client and Contractor', so Feng frequently showed off in front of Qi Hao.

However, recently, Feng felt quite pressured and didn't dare flaunt in front of Qi Hao.

Because Qi Hao might surpass him for Best Director at any time.

Thinking of the extras who once played bit parts in the crew, defeating himself for Best Director, made Feng begin to question his own life, wondering if he was living as stupidly as a pig all these years.

Sitting far behind Qi Hao, Li Dawei felt bitter.

From his angle, he could only see the back of Qi Hao's head.

He could also see Mrs. Hua's president Wang Chonglei tilted saying something to Qi Hao, making it seem like Qi Hao was Mrs. Hua's boss and Wang Chonglei was reporting work.

Such a vast difference.

He hadn't even gotten a chance to talk to Qi Hao today, as people were packed tightly together.

Alas, it seemed he genuinely couldn't compare.

Qi Hao was definitely taking Best Director this time, and he, at best, could only win a Director Debut Award.

And just when talking about the Director Debut Award, it really arrived.

These small awards are generally presented early on.

The nominees included Xierzatiti Yafei's 'Maimaiti's 2008', Li Dawei's 'Wait and See', Qi Hao's 'Steel Piano', Peng Jiahuang, Peng Chen's 'Walking to School'.

"The Golden Rooster Award, Director Debut Award goes to... "

The Golden Rooster Award has presenters and award announcers, two people each, and the stage was packed full.

After the nominated films were exhibited, Yuan Quan and Xia Yu began announcing the winning information.

Actually, there had been rumors between Yuan Quan and Qi Hao.

When Yuan Quan and Xia Yu broke up, it was reported that Qi Hao was the third party.

If it were a smaller awards ceremony, they might avoid such awkward situations, but the Golden Rooster Award has a deep background and arrogance, evidently not caring much about such issues.

Your situation, your former girlfriend, presenting an award to her rumored ex-boyfriend, is your own matter.

"Qi Hao, 'Steel Piano', congratulations Qi Hao!"

Xia Yu shouted Qi Hao's name without any embarrassment.

Meanwhile, the loudspeaker conveyed a high praise from the jury:

'Steel Piano' sees reality, sees the lower class but without a critical view, lacking heavy and sorrowful undertones, instead adding a kind of warm poetic touch. It brings attention to the ordinary people living in adversity, allowing everyone into their inner world. This shows a deep care in the director's heart for humanity...

Qi Hao felt a bit embarrassed by such praise.

However, he had to take the award he deserved.

This newcomer award was his, even Jesus couldn't take it away!

Shaking hands with the people beside and behind him, Qi Hao walked towards the stage.

Many felt regretful.

Qi Hao's 'Steel Piano' was eligible for competing for Best Director, better than 'Assembly', 'Mei Lanfang', 'Li Chun'.

Claiming it as the best film this year might also hold up.

Unfortunately, our environment loves ranking and seniority, Qi Hao's debut film, plus rumors of Zhang Meng's true direction circulating, the jury, for safety, couldn't possibly give Best Director to Qi Hao.

Actually, Qi Hao had no choice but to have Zhang Meng as producer initially.

It's not about acting for ten years and suddenly becoming a director, many actors with thirty years of experience still haven't become directors.

To ensure film quality, Qi Hao had to find a professional in the crew.

No one understood 'Steel Piano' better than Zhang Meng.

The misunderstandings that followed were something he anticipated, he hadn't thought to clear them up.

The best way to resolve misunderstandings was to create a film better than 'Steel Piano'.

If you look at Chen Kaige, if he were to make a film better than Farewell My Concubine, would anyone still doubt that he wasn't the director of Farewell My Concubine?

Moreover, Qi Hao doesn't regret the misunderstanding at all now.

If he were really to receive the Best Director award, he might just burst into tears on the spot.

"Thank you!"

Qi Hao took the trophy from Jiang Wenli and then walked to the microphone.

"Qi Hao has become a director and made such a great film. Truly impressive for someone so young!"

Zhang Guoli, the host, needed to interact a bit with Qi Hao.

But he was so emotional that as he spoke, his eyes started to redden.

"I really have to thank the veterans of the film industry for their guidance. I still remember the first time filming with Teacher Zhang Guoli; I was just sixteen then..."

Qi Hao cooperatively started reminiscing about the past.

However, he seriously doubted whether Zhang Guoli remembered him, as he was merely an extra back then.

But Zhang Guoli's wife certainly noticed him.

After all, he looked charming, and what woman doesn't like a fresh-faced young man?

After much back-and-forth, Qi Hao finally finished his award acceptance speech, although he didn't quite understand what was up with Zhang Guoli.

Logically speaking, our collaboration was eight hundred years ago, and we didn't have any friendship, so why get so sentimental? You're not the one giving the acceptance speech.

Your sentimentality is leaving me at a loss for how to perform.

Actually, Zhang Guoli was genuinely moved. His wife and son recently had a fierce argument, and as a husband and father, he found himself in a difficult position.

Regarding his son from an ex-wife and his current wife of a second marriage, he felt very guilty, as though he had let them both down.

But what could he do?

He had tried very hard to attend to their feelings.

Yet he was burdened with feelings of frustration that found no outlet.

What troubled him further was that with all his accommodations, his son, whom he had high hopes for, hadn't succeeded.

Not only causing trouble but also lacking any ambition.

Looking at Qi Hao, born to an average family with no doors opened for him, from running minor roles at sixteen to now, at just under thirty, winning the Golden Rooster Best Actor last year and this year's Golden Rooster Best New Director.

Old Zhang felt bitter inside!

If only his son could be like Qi Hao, standing on the stage holding a trophy and speaking fluently, he'd be willing to live three... no, twenty fewer years.

Qi Hao wouldn't care much about his thoughts.

None of these veterans are pushovers; he now just wants to hurry and become a shareholder of Maotai.

Only when adorned with multiple shareholder halos can he stand tall before these so-called entertainment moguls.

He's bent over far too much in the past decade or so.

Now with a sore back, he really doesn't want to bend anymore.

Once he returned to his seat, Qi Hao started settling his main task.

[Congratulations, host, for completing Main Task 1]

[Task completion reward: Acting +10, Script "Kung Fu", 3.5 million shares of Maotai stock]

Sigh~

Qi Hao first checked how much stock he received; nothing else mattered much.

The "Kung Fu" script has nothing to do with him, and Acting +10 is useful but merely icing on the cake.

3.5 million Maotai shares!

That's 1.5 million more than the 2 million when the task was released.

Today is Saturday, the stock market closed, and yesterday Maotai's closing price was 171.16 yuan/share.

If calculated by this, 3.5 million shares of Maotai stock amount to a total value of 599.06 million.

Maotai stock recently entered a stable price phase, not rising much.

For the past dozen days, it has hovered around 170.

But that's still 600 million.

It's not in vain to chase the newcomer award like a clown.

Just ask, Best Director or 600 million, which would you choose?

That's an even more obvious choice than choosing between Tsinghua University and 10 billion.

Penguin 800 million, Maotai 600 million, Apple 400 million, Sina 300 million; Qi Hao now owns stocks worth 2.1 billion.

Though maybe not quite as good as Gao Yang, Qi Hao isn't that far off.

Unfortunately, Qi Hao lacks the foresight the system has; they wouldn't know where to invest even if these stocks are liquidated, so they might not sell the stocks in the short term.

This is substantial wealth that can be seen but not touched for now.

At best, it makes Qi Hao incredibly confident.

If anyone tries to bully me again, I'll just flip the table.

With 2.1 billion, no matter where you throw it, it's a nuclear-level deterrent.

Another slight pity is that the main task didn't continue; the second main task didn't release upon the completion of the first one.

Who knows what the activation conditions are?

The first task took one year to activate; in barely ten more days, it'll be two years since activation, who knows if a new task will be released?

However, Qi Hao isn't in a hurry.

He still has the language learning task yet to be completed.

Now that the main task is complete, he needs to focus all his efforts on learning languages.

Studying day and night, at home, on set, in hotels; he refuses to believe he can't master a foreign language.