Entertainment: I just want to be the boss behind the scenes

Chapter 473 Failed?
Although Meng Bai has taught everything he knows, it turns out that high sugar and high protein alone cannot fill the stomach.

After less than two rounds, Li Yitong said that her hands and feet were weak and she had no strength left.

After all, she was his girlfriend, Meng Bai was reluctant to continue, so he called the hotel and asked someone to send up some food.

Crystal shrimp, fried shrimp with lime oil, braised pork with preserved vegetables, pickled pork with preserved vegetables, steamed pork with crab roe...

Although she is a girl and a celebrity, Li Yitong is a typical "meat lover".

“Shanghainese cuisine always tastes sweet and weird.”

She picked up a piece of braised pork, put it in her mouth and tasted it, then said with some disdain, "It doesn't feel as good as the braised pork in Jinan."

"You won't get used to eating it all the time, but it's actually not bad to try it occasionally." Meng Bai said.

Li Yitong curled her lips calmly. This bastard's taste used to be similar to hers, but it has slowly changed in recent years.

It must have been influenced by that Kunshan girl.

Really annoying!
She took out her cell phone and prepared to find a variety show to watch while eating to change her mood so that she wouldn't lose her appetite.

A burst of music sounded, and Meng Bai took a look at the familiar UI interface on the screen. It was the horizontal video of "Sisters Who Make Waves", and it seemed to be the latest episode.

"You've been chasing me."

"This show is really interesting and more fun than those ordinary talent shows," said Li Yitong.

This is true. As the hottest variety show this summer, Sisters Who Make Waves has been a hot topic and hot topic since its launch. Even though it experienced a major event such as the release of the show in the middle, its playback volume still firmly ranks first on the online variety show list.

Tencent Video’s "Creation Camp 2020" aired its final group formation night a few days ago. However, both hot searches and real-time data were surpassed by "Sisters Who Make Waves".

It just so happened that Yang Chaoyue and her group's "101" limited group expired and disbanded, which also attracted a lot of attention, causing the newly formed "Hard Candy Girl 303" to disappear almost as soon as it debuted, and the dignified "Penguin New Group" had no presence at all.

However, there is only one episode left of "Sisters Who Make Waves". After the group formation night next week, the entire first season of the show will also end.

"I see that Daxi is very popular, so can she debut as a member of a group?" Li Yitong asked.

"Not necessarily. The production team discussed with her a couple of days ago to see if she wanted to join the group plan, but she said she needed to think about it." Meng Bai said, "It just so happens that you have time these days, so you can urge her to make a decision quickly, so that the production team won't have trouble arranging it then."

"Can you control who gets to form a group behind the scenes?"

"Of course. The vote is just a piece of data. It can be adjusted at will in the background."

Seeing Li Yitong's eyes wide open, Meng Bai smiled and said, "I'm just kidding. It can be adjusted, but the scope of change is very limited because fans are watching these voting data almost all the time. If there is a slight fluctuation, it will easily lead to doubts."

"If that's the case, then why are you still discussing with the contestants who will form a group and who will be eliminated?"

"Sisters Who Make Waves is different from other talent shows. The sisters are all artists who have debuted for many years and are experienced and have a wide network of contacts. Although they all signed an agreement before the show started, if someone really doesn't want to form a group, we can't force them to do so."

Meng Bai said: "Those who come to participate in the show basically do so for the purpose of maintaining their popularity or becoming popular again. For people like Daxi whose popularity has risen during the show, it is not so important whether they form a group or not."

"In order to avoid embarrassing situations, the production team will confirm with the wavering contestants in advance. Those who don't want to form a group will give up, and those who want to form a team will be replaced according to the voting results. Of course, those who rank very high or very low will definitely not be discussed."

Li Yitong thought about it and felt that this would be better. It not only ensured the subsequent operation of the entire plan, but also gave the "sisters" the right to choose.

She ate and watched with gusto. Meng Bai was not that interested in the show and just listened to her talk in a disjointed manner.

The meal took more than an hour to finish.

"Well--"

Li Yitong touched her stomach and said, "I'm so full."

Meng Bai pulled her hand and said with a smile: "Get up and move around to speed up digestion. I want to play the second round."

"I don't want to move." Li Yitong was unmoved: "Who knows how many rounds it will take you to finish it? You still have a busy day tomorrow, so you should have a good rest tonight."

Meng Bai raised his eyebrows and said unhappily, "How can this be possible? How can you withdraw from a battle?"

"Save the file first and continue tomorrow." Li Yitong's crescent eyes suddenly showed a bit of charm, "I have a gift for you tomorrow."

"Gift? What gift?" Meng Bai's eyes lit up. He loved gifts the most.

"It's no use telling you now. You'll know tomorrow night."

Looking at the sly smile on the woman's face, Meng Bai thought for a moment and nodded: "Okay, I'll wait and see. But let me make it clear first, if I'm not satisfied with tomorrow's gift, you won't end up well, girl, hehe..."
-
Under the temptation of the gift, Meng Bai saved the file, let his girlfriend go for the time being, and slept soundly all night.

The next morning, Li Yitong got up early and woke up the sleeping man with jealousy. Then she went to put on makeup and change into her dress contentedly.

There's no way around it. Women spend much longer putting on makeup than men, not to mention they're all artists.

Not to mention award ceremonies like the Magnolia Awards, even on set, especially for costume dramas, actresses usually sleep one or two hours less than their male counterparts every day, all of which is spent on makeup.

After complaining in his heart, Meng Bai watched his girlfriend being picked up by his assistant and then fell asleep again. He didn't wake up until the morning.

After washing and packing up leisurely and having lunch, he took Hua Yan to meet up with the crew of "The Bad Kids", and then they rushed to the Magnolia Awards together.

"Mr. Meng is here!"

"Hello, Mr. Meng."

When Xin Shuang, Qin Hao and others saw the big boss arrive, they all came over to say hello.

"Hello, Uncle Producer!"

Wang Shengdi, wearing a cute little dress, walked over holding her mother's hand and called out to Meng Bai crisply.

If we talk about the most impressive character in "The Bad Kids", besides the "little climbing expert" Zhang Dongsheng, the other most impressive character is Pupu, one of the "three kids".

The audience obviously loves this "dark little loli" and her popularity is even higher than that of the young male lead Zhu Chaoyang.

As a result, the popularity of the little girl Wang Shengdi also soared, making her the first "post-10 little actors" to have an independent name.

Of course, her performance in the drama was indeed very good. She was also nominated for the Best Supporting Actress for her role as Pu Pu at the Magnolia Awards.

Although it is impossible for her to win the award, she is almost the youngest nominee in the entire history of the Magnolia Awards.

"Didn't I tell you to call the producer brother?"

Meng Bai bent down and said to her with a deliberately frowned face.

The little girl blinked her eyes and said, "But if I call the producer brother, then the director uncle and the others will get the upper hand."

"Hey, the little girl does have a point."

Meng Bai patted her head lightly, then stood up and gestured: "This little girl is growing fast. When she was filming "The Accidental Murderer", she was only half a person's height, but now she has grown to her chest."

Girls generally develop earlier than boys. Wang Shengdi was born in 2010 and is ten years old this year, which is the perfect time for her to grow taller.

This girl, like Qu Chuxiao, also signed an agency contract with Shuidi Agency, and is also an actor of the "Arc Light System". Because of her popularity and strength, she has received many roles since "The Bad Kids". Like the previous "Mistakenly Killed", and "Assassination of Novelist" with Li Qin.

Unlike Zhao Jinmai, who was a "sister", Meng Bai really treated Wang Shengdi as a little kid. So although he complained about the title of "uncle", he actually didn't care much about it, just whatever the kid called him.

The group arrived at the waiting area for the Magnolia Awards, and then followed the staff's instructions as they walked across the red carpet and entered the backstage.

As soon as he came in, Meng Bai looked around and easily saw the crew of "Joy of Life" who had entered before them, as well as the leading actors Zhang Ruoyun, Li Yitong and others.

But there are so many people here that it’s not convenient for them to get together directly.

"Ding~"

The cell phone rang. Meng Bai took it out and took a look. It was a WeChat message from Li Yitong.

Li Yitong: [I am on the left side of your crew, can you see me? ]

Meng Bai: [I see.]

He raised his head and looked over there, and Li Yitong was looking at him as well. Their eyes met in the air, and then they couldn't help but smile at each other.

Li Yitong: [Does my dress look good today? ]

Meng Bai: [It looks good, and suits you very well. ]

He had just seen that the girl was wearing a silver-white deep V dress today. The dress was inlaid with diamonds and sequins from top to bottom, which looked very shiny. Li Yitong: [You have to look carefully and remember this dress. ]

Meng Bai was a little confused. What did "remember your clothes" mean?
He turned his head again and gave her a puzzled look, but unfortunately the girl just smiled at him without explaining.

……

Compared to events like the "Starlight Awards" and "Weibo Night", these formal award ceremonies are much shorter, starting at 7:30 and usually ending around 10:00.

The Bad Kids received six nominations, but it didn't have much chance of winning. Arclight didn't put too much energy into the Magnolia Awards, but paid more attention to the Feitian Awards to be held next month.

Of course, it would be nice to win an award, especially for Shin Sun and his friends.

"Is this also Teacher Qin Hao's first time coming to Magnolia?" Meng Bai asked.

Qin Hao nodded. He didn't mention it when he was filming movies before, but after he started to get involved in the TV circle in the past two years, he had the best chance when he was in "Peace Hotel". In the end, only the female lead was mentioned and not the male lead, so he simply didn't come.

So all in all, this is indeed his first Magnolia Award nomination, although it was only for "Best Supporting Actor."

To be honest, although Zhang Dongsheng is the most popular character in "The Bad Kids", in the plot, the protagonists are actually the "three kids" Zhu Chaoyang, Yan Liang and Pupu. This can be seen from the name of the original novel "Bad Kids".

In addition, the role was a villain, so if he signed up for the male lead, he would have no hope. So the crew sought Qin Hao's opinion at the time and nominated him for "Best Supporting Actor", and he was indeed nominated.

However, nominations are nominations alone. His competitors include Chen Daoming from "Joy of Life", Sha Yi from "Little Joy", Wang Jinsong from "Operation Ice Breaking" and Tian Yu from "Joy of Life". All of them played extremely popular roles last year and contributed many famous scenes.

It’s really hard to say whether you will be selected in the end.

In fact, to be honest, apart from Meng Bai's "Best Screenwriter (Adaptation)" which is a little more stable, it is hard to say about the other awards.

The first half of the ceremony mainly consisted of a variety of small awards, and apart from the nominees and winners, not many people paid attention to it.

The main focus of the guests and the audience is still on the grand prize in the second half.

"Next we're going to announce the Best Photography Award..."

With the host's introduction, everyone who had been waiting for an hour became more excited. From this technical award, the real highlight came.

"The Bad Kids" was also nominated for Best Cinematography, but was not selected. It was given together with another Best Art Direction Award to "The Longest Day in Chang'an".

Although Meng Bai and his team felt a little disappointed, they didn't care too much. As one of the popular costume suspense dramas last year, "The Longest Day in Chang'an" was indeed praised by many viewers for its pictures and lens aesthetics.

"Look at it from a positive perspective. This is actually good news." Meng Bai comforted everyone: "Both awards were given to The Longest Day in Chang'an. At least this shows that the jury has no prejudice against online dramas."

The crew all nodded. Indeed, before this, what they were most worried about was the "contempt chain" between online dramas and TV dramas. What if the organizer just wanted to use the online drama as a gimmick and actually preferred the TV drama in the end? Then there would be no hope at all.

But at the moment, it seems that the judging panel is quite fair.

After the two technical awards, there are the Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress.

"The winner of the Best Supporting Actress Award is Tao Hong from Little Joy."

"The winner of the Best Supporting Actor Award is Tian Yu from Joy of Life."

As the names of the winners were announced, Qin Hao, who was sitting next to Meng Bai, sighed, but still calmly applauded to express his congratulations.

"Pity."

Meng Bai and Xin Shuang both said something.

It was expected that Wang Shengdi would not be selected as the "Best Supporting Actress", but they had actually thought about Qin Hao's "Best Supporting Actor".

"It's okay. If I win, I'm lucky. If I lose, I'm doomed." Qin Hao himself was quite open-minded: "I thought the winner would be Mr. Wang Jinsong, but I didn't expect it to be him."

This is true. After reading the list of nominees, many people thought that the winner would be either Chen Daoming or Wang Jinsong. After all, the former's "Emperor Qing" and the latter's "Uncle Dong" left a very deep impression on people.

In comparison, although Tian Yu’s role as “Wang Qinian” is also very outstanding, it always feels a little lacking.

But the awards had already been given, and talking about it would seem like being sour. So Qin Hao just sighed and didn't say anything else.

The "Best Actor/Actress" award after the supporting role had nothing to do with the crew of "The Bad Kids". Meng Bai was looking forward to it for Zhang Ruoyun, but unfortunately it was given to Chen Baoguo in the end.

In this regard, he can only say "the loss is not unfair."

"The next two awards to be announced are the Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay."

As the host's voice fell, the crew of "The Bad Kids" took a deep breath together.

Meng Bai's screenwriter award is the one they have the best chance of winning tonight. If they lose again, it is possible that they will not win any award at all.

"Doesn't Lao Meng look very nervous?"

Zhang Ruoyun, who was sitting on the side, glanced at Meng Bai and said to Li Yitong beside him.

As a friend for many years, although he was a little worried about Meng Bai's "rich emotional life", he always stood on his buddy's side.

So even though he knew that the girl next to him and his wife's best friend didn't get along, he still maintained a normal attitude.

After hearing what Zhang Ruoyun said, Li Yitong glanced at Meng Bai who was calm in the distance and said with a smile: "Maybe he has won it once, so he doesn't think much of it anymore."

"This……"

Zhang Ruoyun thought about it and decided that, given Lao Meng's personality, it seemed possible.

The awards ceremony continued, with the original screenwriter award announced first, which was won by Operation Ice Breaking. Next, the best screenwriter in the adaptation category was announced.

"The winner of the 26th Shanghai TV Festival Magnolia Award for Best Screenwriter (Adaptation) is——"

"Wang Juan from Joy of Life."

As the awards were announced, applause broke out at the scene. Everyone from the "Joy of Life" crew stood up and congratulated their screenwriter.

Li Yitong clapped her hands while looking at Meng Bai nervously. Seeing that he didn't seem to be abnormal, she felt relieved.

"How should I put it... I want to say pity for Lao Meng, but it seems inappropriate."

After Zhang Ruoyun sat down, he muttered something in a low voice.

Indeed, one is a good friend and the other is his own crew. It would not be good if either of them failed.

On the crew of "The Bad Kids", everyone also sighed.

"Well, Mr. Meng, don't worry about it. The jury may have considered that you won it once, so they gave it to someone else this time." Xin Shuang comforted carefully.

Meng Bai glanced at the people around him and chuckled, "Alright, I didn't say anything, why are you so regretful? With awards, anything is possible. Just like Director Xin said, maybe the jury wants to balance things out and give us a big award later."

“Hey, that makes sense.”

Everyone responded, but they all knew in their hearts that this possibility was not very high.

Looking at the expressions of the people around him, Meng Bai shook his head.

It would be a lie to say that he didn't feel sorry for not winning the award, but he really didn't care that much.

His current identity has gradually shifted from screenwriter and producer to company boss and industry tycoon. Winning awards is naturally good, but if not, it's just a pity and there's nothing to be sad about.

The crew of "The Bad Kids" had lost hope as they failed to win the most promising "Best Screenwriter" award.

This feeling reached its peak, especially after he failed in the following "Best Director" award.

At this point, there is only one "Best TV Series" left.

Seeing the award presenter taking out the envelope from his pocket, Xin Shuang and the others were ready to leave, but Meng Bai was the only one who remained alert and sat there.

"I declare that the winner of the 26th Shanghai TV Festival Magnolia Award for Best TV Drama is——"

The presenter paused and glanced towards the audience.

“Congratulations, The Hidden Corner!”

(End of this chapter)