Chapter 398 You do the first day of the month, I'll do the fifteenth.

"In the Best Actor award, the nine judges conducted four rounds of voting. In the first round, Liu Teli received four votes, Chen Pinhe received four votes, and Yan He received one vote. He Daren and Shang Yongzhou received no votes."

"At this point, Xi Weian, as the chairman of this year's judging panel, began to lead all the judges in a new round of discussion. He said that under these circumstances, everyone needed to state their reasons again to see if they could convince each other. At this time, someone suddenly mentioned that He Daren also deserved this award. Then, in the second round of voting, Yan He got one more vote, He Daren got one vote, Liu Teli and Chen Pinhe each got three votes, and the winner was still not decided."

"Seeing this, Xi Weian suggested that the three judges who did not vote for Liu Teli or Chen Pinhe in the second round vote between Liu Teli and Chen Pinhe. He thought that this way, the three people would definitely be able to cast more votes for one of them. However, the judge who had been voting for you chose to abstain from voting, and the other two voted for the side they originally supported."

Chen Ziyan wore an expression of disbelief.

"The judge who supported you said that she insisted that you should win the award this year because, in her opinion, although Chen Pinhe's performance this time was superb, it did not deserve to win the Fei Hong Award for the third time. If he had never won the Fei Hong Award before, then of course he would deserve it, but he has not. Liu Teli's performance was very vivid and showed his skill, but his character was not like your character in 'Late Spring', which had a rich and complex literary quality. At the age of 20, you performed a depth and height that no other 20-year-old actor could perform. For the Fei Hong Award, there has never been a 20-year-old male character who won the Best Actor award. This is of great significance."

"Because she resolutely refused to support anyone other than you, the third round of voting still yielded no results. At this point, Xi Weian and the other judges were in a lot of pain, and no one could convince anyone else, but they had to decide on an award. In the end, Xi Weian even proposed a tie, suggesting that Liu Teli and Chen Pinhe both win the award, but this was unanimously opposed by the other judges, who felt that doing so would be demeaning to the participating actors."

"It was at this point that Xi Weian proposed that each judge nominate two candidates, and these two candidates must be different people. The final vote count would be calculated this way, and the result would be respected regardless of who the final winner was. Although the judges had some objections, they had no better solution, so they agreed to this approach. Then, something unexpected happened. The judges who supported Chen Pinhe and Liu Teli, worried that their chosen candidates wouldn't win, both selected He Daren as their supporter, and a few selected Shang Yongzhou. The judge who supported you also believed that, besides you, He Daren was the actor most deserving of the Feihong Award—this judge seemed to value significance. She felt that awarding the prize to He Daren would be of great importance because He Daren was the least famous of the five nominees and had never won any film acting awards before. So, in the end, He Daren won the award."

After listening to Chen Ziyan's recap of the voting process for the Best Actor award based on online revelations, Lu Yanhe had only one feeling: it was utterly ridiculous.

It turns out that it wasn't that the judges had a unique eye and found a hidden gem of acting talent, but rather that because there were the same number of judges supporting Liu Teli and Chen Pinhe, they couldn't vote for him. As a result, they inexplicably used a different voting formula and selected someone they hadn't expected.

Regarding the leaks about the judging process, all the judges remained silent and refused to respond.

The Fei Hong Awards also stated that the organizers were unaware of the voting process; they only received the final results from the judges.

However, based on the information Chen Ziyan gathered, this revelation is very likely true.

Lu Yanhe was still immersed in shock and disbelief.

"The award competition is truly full of unexpected surprises that you wouldn't even dare to imagine," Chen Ziyan said. "Fortunately, your performance in 'Late Spring' wasn't highly anticipated in the early stages, otherwise you would have been the one who was met with huge disappointment after having high hopes."

Chen Pinhe's fans and followers were even more furious after this revelation came out.

If Liu Teli really did defeat them in the end, or if Lu Yanhe pulled off a major upset, some judges felt they deserved the win, and although they were not convinced, they were not as frustrated as they thought.

It was clearly a competition between two exceptionally talented actors, but inexplicably, someone who wasn't initially favored by the judges ended up benefiting from it.

After the revelation, He Daren's name was trending on social media and remained there for a long time.

"If the revelation is true, then He Daren can only be said to have been lucky, but this kind of luck is also so frustrating." Entertainment critic Guan Suchen, who is never absent from these matters, immediately expressed his comments: "The result of any award should not be a case of the snipe and the clam fighting and the fisherman benefiting. I think that in this matter, Mr. He Daren is probably more upset than anyone else - he probably didn't want to win the award in this way either."

Lu Yanhe felt a strong sense of agreement with Guan Suchen's words and was deeply moved.

Now, whether it's Chen Pinhe or Liu Teli, amidst all the chaos and controversy, everyone is saying that both of them deserve it, no matter who gets it, even if it ends up being a double chance, it's still better than both of them missing out.

However, the impression people have of Ho Tai-yan is—

He just got lucky; he doesn't deserve this award.

Unless the jury steps in and says, "No, He Daren is the best choice they've carefully considered," then the controversy won't be about "getting an award by chance," something no actor wants to face.

At this point, Longyan Film Industry suddenly announced the re-release of "Late Spring." This news didn't attract much attention. It wasn't until the next day, when "White Pearl" and "Upstairs" also announced their re-releases, that people realized that these films might have all agreed to re-release together.

Following closely behind, "Nine Turns of the Galaxy" announced its re-release.

-

"This re-release was arranged long ago. The Feihong Awards organizing committee had communicated with almost all the production companies that were nominated for Best Film, and they had also coordinated with the major cinema chains. No one expected to encounter such a thing at this year's awards ceremony. However, after discussing it, everyone decided not to change the original plan."

Liu Bige and Lu Yanhe said on the phone, "Awards and box office are too far apart. We also hope that awards can stimulate the box office of domestic films and encourage more people to go to the cinema to watch movies."

The re-release began three days after the awards ceremony, with all nine nominated films for the Fei Hong Award being re-released, accounting for nearly 25% of the market's screenings.

This number is very high. The Fei Hong Awards organizing committee must have made a great effort to secure such a screening rate from the cinemas.

Riding on the popularity of this award, these nine films surprisingly grossed over 40 million yuan in box office revenue on their first day of re-release.

The highest-grossing films were "White Pearl" and "Upstairs". Benefiting from the popularity of the two male leads in recent days and the discussion about their acting skills, coupled with the fact that "White Pearl" did not have a high box office before, this time it suddenly sparked such a wide discussion, and many people also wanted to see how well Chen Pinhe acted in this movie.

In comparison, "Late Spring" ranked third. This is partly because the extensive publicity beforehand had already ensured that potential viewers interested in the film had seen it, and partly because the film did not generate the same level of buzz as the other two films at this awards ceremony.

On the contrary, "The Galaxy Nine Turns," which only grossed 720,000 at the box office, grossed a whopping 1.13 million on its first day of re-release, directly breaking the previous total box office record.

A spokesperson for the Fei Hong Awards said, "We have always strived to make our Fei Hong Awards a more influential and representative award, one that can truly bring more vitality to the film industry and help filmmakers and producers. This time, we also tried something new: communicating with theaters to secure screenings for the Fei Hong Award-nominated films for re-release, hoping to use the award's influence to help the films achieve higher box office returns. Judging from the current results, our idea has been initially realized. The nine films nominated for the Fei Hong Awards earned more than 40 million yuan on their first day of re-release, which is a remarkable figure. No one expected that this re-release would achieve such high box office returns, considering that these are all films that were recently released. It far exceeded our expectations."

He did not give an interview during this speech; he left the stage after finishing his remarks.

Clearly, he didn't want to answer the controversy surrounding the Best Actor award selection.

In fact, putting aside the Best Actor award, it's clear from many aspects that the Fei Hong Awards are striving for change and doing more.

From allowing individual media outlets to broadcast the red carpet event live, to adjustments made to the awards ceremony, and the collective re-release of nominated films.

The Fei Hong Award is not only committed to maintaining its status, but also to innovation.

Lu Yanhe greatly admired this.

-

However, countless facts have proven that even the highest level of popularity will gradually cool down over time.

Without exception.

Despite the initial reports, no one came forward to confirm their veracity. The online buzz eventually died down as no new developments emerged.

Lu Yanhe thought the matter had been dropped.

At most, it will become material for every future review.

At this moment, YeMai.com suddenly announced something.

— YeMai.com will launch a new e-magazine, "Star!", and has invited renowned writer/screenwriter Yu Jiang to serve as editor-in-chief.

Then, Yu Jiang forwarded the message and said: "For the first issue, we invited Mr. He Daren, who has recently been embroiled in a lot of controversy, to be interviewed by us. We talked about the Fei Hong Award, about acting, and about the belief of an actor. In this interview, we seriously discussed fame and fortune and art."

The hype that had finally died down has come back with a vengeance.

What did He Daren respond to?

What are his thoughts on winning the award?

The newly launched digital magazine "Star!" quickly became a trending topic with the help of YeMai.com.

Star! also opened pre-orders immediately—just like Jump Up back then.

-

"Have you heard about the situation before?"

"without."

"Yemai.com suddenly started another magazine, really... Oh well, we're not planning to continue publishing on Yemai.com anyway, let them do what they want, we'll only have two issues left," Chen Siqi said.

Lu Yanhe: "I asked Sister Zixing, and she didn't know anything about this. She was completely unaware of it. But I guess she was also in a passive position, since she's about to leave Yemai.com. Yemai.com must have known some information, which is why they kept it from us and produced another magazine."

"The key thing is that they actually appointed Yu Jiang as the editor-in-chief!" Chen Siqi finally couldn't hold back her anger and complained.

What annoyed them even more than YeMai.com secretly producing a new magazine was that it was related to Yu Jiang.

Over the past two years, Chen Siqi has had countless arguments with Yu Jiang.

"Jump Up" hasn't announced the end of its partnership with YeMai.com yet.

Chen Siqi said, "When will we announce to everyone that we have ended our cooperation with Yemai.com?"

Lu Yanhe thought for a moment and said, "That's fine, what do you think?"

“I wish I could announce it today, but that would create too much tension, so I’ll pass,” Chen Siqi said. “I don’t want to put our ‘Jump Up’ in the spotlight just because of a momentary impulse. However, I’m also thinking about something. Should we continue to collaborate with other platforms for ‘Jump Up’, or should we release it exclusively on our own social media?”

Lu Yanhe said, "I think we should proceed step by step. You have always been facing the pressure of not having enough manpower. We will release 'Jump Up' exclusively on our own social media platform. It's not just a matter of content transplantation. You will definitely have to keep up with a lot of supporting things. Just the issue of how to handle payment is very complicated. We used Yemai.com's system before, and we didn't have to worry about many things. Now we have to take care of it ourselves."

Chen Siqi said, "You're right, but once our 'Jump Up' app is up and running, the exclusive releases must be made on the app."

"Your app is designed to be a comprehensive media platform, right?"

“Yes,” Chen Siqi said. “Currently, we are involved in many sections, including literary creation, interviews, and film and television reviews. Once we have more and more content sections and have accumulated enough basic knowledge, I will start working on this. Of course, for me right now, the most important thing is to compile ‘Jump Up’ into different anthologies and publish them overseas.”

Lu Yanhe asked, "This must be quite difficult; just the translation alone requires a lot of effort."

“Yes, but it’s difficult, but we still have to do it,” Chen Siqi said. “Now that we are the best-selling arts and literature magazine in China, the next step is of course to go global. There is another important reason: I don’t just want to be a media outlet that is only influential in China.”

When a third-year university student says something like that, others would probably think she's spouting nonsense.

However, Lu Yanhe understood Chen Siqi's thoughts, knew her meaning, and understood her ambition—and Lu Yanhe also felt the same ambition.

-

Xin Zixing's resignation letter was placed on Liu Qiao's desk ahead of time.

In her resignation letter, she wrote: "Over the past year, I have gradually realized that my efforts are diverging from the company's strategic priorities, and we are drifting further and further apart. After the company openly used my personal matters with Huang Kairen for publicity, I clearly expressed my hope that the company would give a formal response to this matter, but I have not received such a response to this day. While I was working hard to keep the digital version of 'Jump Up' on YeMai.com and bringing a large number of stable users to YeMai.com through it, the company, in the same way, secretly established a competing magazine and invited Yu Jiang as the editor-in-chief—as everyone knows, she has an extremely unpleasant past with Lu Yanhe, an artist with whom we have a deep collaboration with YeMai.com. All the things that have happened this year have made it impossible for me to continue working at the company with trust and a happy heart."

After the meeting, Liu Qiao returned to his office and saw a resignation letter on his desk. Reading this part in particular made him feel as if he had fallen into a deep well.

Liu Qiao had long been prepared for Xin Zixing to leave. But he didn't expect that Xin Zixing would simply place a resignation letter on his desk, refusing to tell him in person.

Xin Zixing's resignation letter was all about how she was drifting further and further away from the company, but in Liu Qiao's eyes, it was about how he and she were drifting further and further apart.

When did it start?

Why did things turn out this way?

Liu Qiao picked up his phone, paused for half a second, and then put it back.

The call was never made.

-

The launch of Star! magazine, with its first issue featuring an interview with such a popular figure as Robert Ho, is quite a formidable move.

However, at this point, no one thought that "Jump Up" was going to leave YeMai.com.

On the contrary, many people think that YeMai.com has tasted the success of "Jump Up" and wants to start another e-magazine.

This news has even prompted many portal websites to consider whether they should also launch their own e-magazines.

Anyway, this thing has low costs, but once it's done, it's entirely possible to be self-sufficient and even make a small profit. Most importantly, having such a consistently published magazine means having a stable readership.

In fact, many self-media platforms today are simply the evolution of magazines.

Whether it's a public account or other text-based media, the essence is to continuously and steadily produce text content in a certain style.

However, many portal websites, after careful consideration, felt that the return on investment for e-magazines was too low, and that it would be better to use that energy to develop other products.

Let's forget about it.

-

After submitting her resignation letter, Xin Zixing immediately told Lu Yanhe and Chen Siqi about it.

Chen Siqi did not expect Xin Zixing to leave early.

Xin Zixing had originally agreed to stay until the December issue of "Jump Up" was finished before leaving.

It can be considered a complete ending – if it weren't for Xin Zixing, "Jump Up" wouldn't have been published in electronic format on Yemai.com.

Chen Siqi said, "Sister Zixing, when you resigned, didn't they say anything to you?"

“I don’t think they’ll say anything to me. They probably already knew I was leaving. If they really wanted to do something, they would have contacted me already,” Xin Zixing said. “Besides, I think a lot of people in the company probably want me to leave, since if I’m gone, I won’t be a threat to them.”

When Xin Zixing said this, she felt a subtle sense of despondency.

Perhaps deep down, she still hoped someone from Yemai.com would try to persuade her to stay—even though she had made up her mind to leave, no amount of persuasion would change that. Well, she had simply been with Yemai.com for a long time and made so many contributions, so she couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness. She was leaving, but because she couldn't stay at Yemai.com any longer. It wasn't that she wanted to leave voluntarily.

In this situation, not a single person tried to stop her.

It seems that what she thought before was an illusion—she held both "City Travelogue" and "Jump Up" in her hands, and was the most crucial person in both of these jobs. After working for a long time, she couldn't help but have the idea that without her, it might be difficult to find someone to take over these two jobs for a while. As it turns out, at least in Yemai.com's eyes, this was not the case.

She took a deep breath, opened the car door, got out, and walked towards the restaurant.

Tonight she invited several core members of the "City Travelogue" team to dinner.

Photographers Chen Liang and Tian Baihe, photography assistant Xu Chao, graphic designer Zhou Fang, and assistant Xiao Mei.

These are all people who have been with her on "City Travelogue" from the very beginning. When she had the idea of ​​leaving, she had already talked to them, and they all expressed their willingness to go with her, which made her feel most comforted.

Regardless, the team she built from scratch is still willing to follow her. Their willingness to follow her at this time is the greatest trust and support they can give her.

Before going in, Xin Zixing took a deep breath to adjust her state, not wanting to show any negative emotions. At this time, she couldn't let everyone see her downcast side, as it would be very demoralizing.

Just as she was about to go inside, Xin Zixing's phone suddenly vibrated.

She picked it up with some surprise and saw that it was a message from Tian Baihe: Zixing, I'm sorry, I can't go tonight.

Xin Zixing was taken aback. Just as she was about to reply and ask what was going on, Tian Baihe sent her a second message: "President Liu contacted me. He promised to let me direct 'City Travelogue' as long as I stay."

Xin Zixing stood in the twilight as the sun set, momentarily lost in thought.

The door suddenly opened from the inside. "Ah, Sister Zixing?! Why are you standing at the door instead of coming in?"

The person who opened the door was Xiao Mei.

This assistant, who usually appears delicate and like a pretty face but is actually very trustworthy, looked at Xin Zixing with a surprised expression.

Xin Zixing snapped out of her daze and said with a smile, "I was just checking my messages. Tian Baihe just messaged me saying he can't come."

Xiao Mei immediately frowned. "What's wrong with him? He said there was no problem just two hours ago. No way, I'll give him a call. How could he stand us up? I want to see which little girl has bewitched him this time."

"Xiao Mei," Xin Zixing pulled Xiao Mei back, "No need."

Xiao Mei was taken aback. "Huh?"

Xin Zixing said, "He won't be leaving with us."

Xiao Mei was puzzled for two seconds before she came to her senses.

"What?!" Her face immediately turned furious. "That traitor!"

"It's alright, everyone has their own choices." Xin Zixing patted Xiao Mei on the shoulder and asked, "Has everyone else arrived? Let's go in first."

"Oh, Zhou Fang hasn't come yet," Xiao Mei said. "He just told me he's on his way."

Xin Zixing agreed.

She added, "Don't mention Tian Baihe at dinner tonight. Just say he suddenly had something come up and can't make it, so as not to spoil the fun for everyone."

Xiao Mei nodded and hummed in agreement.

Suddenly, at that moment, Xiao Mei's phone rang.

"Zhou Fang called me," Xiao Mei said. "Let me answer it first, Sister Zixing."

"good."

Xiao Mei answered the phone, and after two seconds, her expression suddenly turned ugly.

"You just go when he calls? Who did you make an appointment with first?" Xiao Mei questioned disapprovingly. "Let me tell you, Zhou Fang, you can't let Tian Baihe lead you by the nose. He likes to order you around and treats you like a follower. Can you please ignore him?"

Xin Zixing's heart skipped a beat when she heard what Xiao Mei said.

It turns out that Liu Qiao did take action, but he just didn't use it on her.

Xin Zixing couldn't help but laugh.

A sense of relief crept into my smile.

Why bother remembering the pleas of someone who isn't worth remembering?

Since you've decided to leave, don't linger, don't look back, just keep moving forward.

At that moment, a sense of resolve arose in Xin Zixing's heart.

Let's wait and see. We'll see if she can't keep up with Yemai.com after leaving, or if "City Travelogue" starts to decline without her.

Xin Zixing has never wanted to achieve anything more than she does now.

Xiao Mei hung up the phone. "That idiot Zhou Fang. Tian Baihe told him to come back to the company, saying he had something to tell him. He didn't dare to refuse Tian Baihe. Tian Baihe usually treats Zhou Fang like his lackey. I gave Zhou Fang a good scolding and told him that Tian Baihe is no longer on our side. Only then did he dare to say that he wouldn't talk to Tian Baihe anymore. He came over right away and even asked me to confirm if Tian Baihe was really not going to follow us anymore. What a coward."

Xin Zixing listened to Xiao Mei's complaints and didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"Does Zhou Fang usually get bullied by Tian Baihe?"

"It's not exactly bullying, it's just that Tian Baihe knows Zhou Fang is soft-hearted, easy to talk to, and can't say no to people, so he always dumps some dirty and tiring work on him."

Xin Zixing frowned. "Is this phenomenon serious? I've never had any recollection of it before?"

Xiao Mei said, "Tian Baihe is always very obsequious in front of you, so how could you possibly find out? Besides, he hasn't done anything that goes against principles, so we can't easily complain to him."

Xin Zixing nodded, understanding.

The phone rang again at that moment.

When Xin Zixing looked, she saw an unexpected name.

Liu Yaliang.

Strictly speaking, the original trio of "City Travelogue" consisted of her, Chen Liang, and Liu Yaliang.

However, later, because Xin Zixing shifted her focus to this area, the fashion section she was originally in charge of was no longer available. Xin Zixing recommended Liu Yaliang to take over her original work, and Liu Yaliang left "City Travelogue" as a result.

Liu Yaliang, a wealthy second-generation heiress, has always been interested in these kinds of things. After taking this job, she thrived and became the editor-in-chief of the fashion section in May of this year.

Xin Zixing and Liu Yaliang often meet up; the young woman enjoys having meals together.

This time she was leaving, and to keep it a secret, she didn't tell anyone except the team from "City Travelogue" who wanted to take her with her.

She answered the phone with a puzzled look and asked, "Ya Liang?"

Liu Yaliang said angrily, "Sister Zixing, don't you treat me like a friend at all? You're taking people away from Yemai.com without even telling me? Don't you consider me one of your own? How could you take others with you without even thinking of taking me with you?"

Liu Yaliang's questioning left Xin Zixing stunned, unable to recover for a long time.

After a long while, she smiled and said, "I'm sorry, Ya Liang, I was wrong."

"Are you free now? I'll send you an address, why don't you come and have dinner with us?"

"That's more like it," Liu Yaliang said, then hung up the phone in a huff.

That evening, Xin Zixing updated her status on her social media platform, saying: "I submitted my resignation letter today and left YeMai.com. From today onwards, I will no longer be in charge of the documentary 'City Travelogue,' nor will I be in charge of the digital version of 'Jump Up' magazine on YeMai.com. I've worked here for many years and was fortunate enough to create two projects that everyone liked. I've been working hard these past few years, trying to achieve good results. Now I have the opportunity to take a break. I'm going to give myself a vacation. I'm leaving for a trip tomorrow. When I come back, we'll continue."

Xin Zixing's update was like a bolt from the blue, leaving her fans stunned and shocked, as they hadn't expected it.

Before this, Xin Zixing had shown no sign of leaving Yemai.com.

Why did you leave so suddenly?

No one expected that an hour later, the official Weibo account of "Jump Up" posted: "Thanks to Ms. Xin Zixing's introduction, we started publishing the electronic version of 'Jump Up' on Yemai.com. In nearly two and a half years and nearly thirty issues, we have met many readers. Now we must apologize to everyone and say that this December issue of 'Jump Up' is the last issue published on Yemai.com. Starting next year, 'Jump Up' will no longer cooperate with Yemai.com for electronic reading. Thank you for your attention and support."

If Xin Zixing's update only attracted the attention of a small group of people, then the statement from the official Weibo account of "Jump Up" jolted many people who were still awake.

With monthly sales consistently exceeding 300,000 copies and an estimated readership of one million, its influence is undeniable.

Many people's first reaction is, where will they go to see "Jump Up" in the future?

Many readers do not buy physical books; they only read electronic versions.

(End of this chapter)