Chapter 105: The ‘Chance Encounter’ on the Golden Horse

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The donkey-brand bag wasn’t given away, but Wu Xiang still bought something for Hai Qing—not just anything, but a walnut-cracking machine from Nuo Ji. Why did Hai Qing accept this gift? The reason was simple: she knew that in Hong Kong, this phone was much cheaper than on the mainland.

If it’s cheaper, why not take it?

After buying the gift, the rest of the day was about eating. After all, a one-day trip in Hong Kong only really involves these two things. And you know what? Hai Qing didn’t object at all—in fact, she ate heartily.

Pineapple buns, yuanyang milk tea, wonton noodles… she tried all these snacks, and for the final dinner, they went to the Dragon View Pavilion at the Four Seasons Hotel for dim sum.

Delicate, authentic Hong Kong-style snacks that made Teacher Hai sing praises. Hai Qing ate so much that Wu Xiang kept reminding her to watch her figure and not get fat again.

Her reply was simple: none of your business!

Anyway, the one-day tour was quite excellent—satisfying and joyful. Only at the end, because of being too tired from playing and eating, Wu Xiang’s little umbrella went unused. Alas, a miscalculation.

That crooked-mouthed, chubby guy surnamed Luo once said, if you want to do that thing—well, you can’t treat someone to a big feast; big meals are too exhausting. The ancients did not deceive me.

Forget it, there will be plenty of chances later!

The next day, Wu Xiang bid farewell to Hai Qing and flew alone to the Treasure Island.

The Golden Horse Awards are quite interesting. First, they are very inclusive—any Chinese-language film can be nominated. This is unlike the Hong Kong Film Awards, which have multiple conditions: the director must be a Hong Kong native, or at least six key positions must be held by Hong Kong people for the film to qualify. So, in this regard, the Golden Horse Awards are fairer.

Also, the Golden Horse Awards are quite well-organized nowadays—they provide hotel accommodations.

Another peculiarity is that the Golden Horse Awards actually include prize money. Worldwide, film awards generally don’t come with cash prizes. These awards are honorary. Take the Oscars, for example—they were initially designed to placate actors and directors who wanted raises and threatened strikes. When salary increases didn’t happen, they just gave out awards instead—did that count as a raise?

Look now, actors and directors in America no longer demand raises; only screenwriters still do. Screenwriters are better at playing the game—they have to be, since their job is to persuade others.

That’s the Golden Horse Awards. Wu Xiang was nominated mainly because his film “First Intimate Contact” was screening on the Treasure Island and was well-received.

Upon arrival on the island, naturally, someone came to pick him up. Although Wu Xiang appeared like a tourist traveling alone, he wasn’t wandering aimlessly like a headless fly.

The local booksellers had planned some autograph and book-selling events, but Wu Xiang declined—they were too time-consuming. He was very busy lately and decided to attend the Golden Horse Awards and then return. The ceremony itself takes at least three days, which was a luxury for busy Wu Xiang.

Like all major awards, the Golden Horse Awards involved a red carpet. At this stage, the Treasure Island film industry was beginning to decline—not as bleak as after the war, so quite a few people showed up.

“Ah! Zhang Ziyi!”

“Ziyi, look this way!”

Click, click… flashbulbs exploded like film was free. The reporters’ target was naturally the now very popular Zhang Ziyi.

“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” was truly a hit, with excellent box office in the United States. More importantly, its director Ang Lee was a genuine Treasure Island native.

Among Chinese-language directors, Ang Lee had the best foothold in Hollywood. This film greatly boosted his reputation. Besides box office success, Western critics also acknowledged its artistic merit. As for the East, many felt the wire-fu was ridiculous—the Westerners just don’t understand martial arts films.

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Well, that’s the classic East-West cultural clash!

There’s so much story behind this film that it’s hard to summarize briefly.

To Treasure Island filmmakers, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” was absolute hope. Although few actors in the film were from the island, they still felt it was a beacon of their cinema. The cast was star-studded: Chow Yun-fat, Michelle Yeoh, and the most dazzling was Zhang Ziyi as Jade Fox.

She was stunningly beautiful and fought brilliantly—truly captivating. As a result, Zhang Ziyi’s popularity on the island remained sky-high.

Currently, the only one who could rival Zhao Wei, known as “Little Swallow,” was Zhang Ziyi as Jade Fox. Wu Xiang had long understood her rise to fame—it followed historical patterns.

“...” Click, click—Wu Xiang emerged onto the red carpet, but the reaction was nowhere near that for Zhang Ziyi.

However, Wu Xiang was somewhat unique—he was alone. This was Treasure Island, and many didn’t know him. Apart from a few reporters, most movie fans had no idea what Wu Xiang, the author of “First Intimate Contact,” looked like. When Wu Xiang appeared, many thought:

Where did this tall guy come from? Not bad-looking, but this isn’t a basketball court!

How tragic! No screaming fans!

At this moment, Wu Xiang suddenly remembered he forgot something—he should have learned from post-war stars and spent some money to hire fans to cheer for him. That would have avoided this embarrassment.

Forget it, no idol route for me!

Wu Xiang’s heart was crying, but his face maintained a refined smile as he completed his first red carpet appearance at the Golden Horse Awards.

Don’t think no one recognized Wu Xiang on the red carpet. When the awards were announced, he wasn’t there for nothing.

“The 37th Golden Horse Awards for Best Original Screenplay goes to… Wu Xiang, ‘First Intimate Contact’!”

Wu Xiang was the first to receive an award. When the Treasure Island host, who didn’t even remember his name, announced it, Wu Xiang immediately put on a very surprised expression.

That’s right—Wu Xiang’s mother had long known the ceremony was staged like this!

“Thank you.” Wu Xiang accepted the trophy with great politeness.

But the host wasn’t done with him.

“Wow! You’re the Wu Xiang who wrote ‘First Intimate Contact,’ and you’re also nominated for Best Director, right?”

“Yes,” Wu Xiang replied simply.

“Let’s look at Mr. Wu’s résumé. He’s only 22 years old this year, right?”

“Yes.”

“But wow! Writer, director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, investor, and recently also producer of a film?”

“Oh, something like that.” Wu Xiang had to go along.

“So impressive! Only 22 and already doing so many jobs. This is simply…”

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“Maybe I just have a lot of free time,” Wu Xiang joked lightly.

“Hahaha…” The audience responded with hearty laughter.

“But it seems you’re injured, right?” The host finally noticed Wu Xiang’s arm was in a sling.

“That’s also due to my hobby,” Wu Xiang replied with another small joke.

“Hahaha…”

Honestly, Wu Xiang’s jokes weren’t very funny, but in such occasions, if you don’t laugh, it’s considered rude.

With that done, Wu Xiang had won Best Original Screenplay, which was only fitting—his novel sold well, and the film’s box office was high. Not giving him this award would have been unreasonable.

Afterwards, the major awards were distributed: Wu Zhenyu won Best Actor, Zhang Manyu won Best Actress for “Fulltime Killer” and “In the Mood for Love,” respectively. Their wins were well-deserved. Among the Best Actress nominees was also Zhang Ziyi.

Best Feature Film went to “Fulltime Killer,” earning director Du an additional 500,000 New Taiwan dollars. Finally came the Lifetime Achievement Award and then the much-anticipated banquet.

Wu Xiang liked this banquet because it allowed him to meet many big names, especially his brother Zhang Guorong, who was present this time despite his limited time.

Chow Yun-fat and Tony Leung were there, but Wu Xiang intended to meet that wild, eccentric man—Zhang Guorong. Yet, how to approach him? Wu Xiang hesitated.

“Why don’t you talk to me?” A lovely female voice whispered in his ear just as he was pondering how to introduce himself to Zhang Guorong.

“Me?” Wu Xiang immediately recognized the voice—it was none other than Zhang Ziyi.

“You’re terrible at pretending not to know me, you know that?” Zhang Ziyi lightly approached him. She was truly beautiful, especially with her slender figure in a white deep V evening gown—both sexy and pure.

“I’ve never been good at pretending. I’m an honest person,” Wu Xiang replied cleverly—neither denying nor admitting, and giving himself a compliment. Brilliant.

“Giggling…” She laughed, even more beautiful. “An honest person would pretend not to know a friend?”

“Friend?” Wu Xiang knew better than to say the question out loud. Since she said so, he had to give some face.

He smiled and said, “I pretended not to know you because I didn’t want to cause any rumors. That would be bad. Friends shouldn’t make things worse.”

“Alright, I’ll accept that. I didn’t want to come at first since I wasn’t nominated for Best Actress, but I came anyway. Do you know why?”

“Why?” Wu Xiang’s heart raced. How could he possibly know? But when Zhang Ziyi told him the reason, he was stunned.

“I came here because of you!”