You were supposed to have a fake marriage with the diva, so how did you become her father?

After the piano prelude ended, the LED screen at the back of the stage switched from large gold characters to a dynamic background image, with dark gold lines flowing slowly against a dark background, like fine sand slowly pouring out of an hourglass.

The spotlights on both sides simultaneously shone on the side entrance of the stage, creating a bright circular spot of light.

The host walked out of the spot of light.

He was a man in his early forties, wearing a dark brown fitted suit, no tie, and one button of his shirt collar undone.

Her hair was neatly combed, and she wore a smile that had been specially tailored for the awards ceremony—not too enthusiastic to appear frivolous, nor too restrained to appear aloof.

After he walked to the center of the stage and stood still, he first bent down slightly towards the audience, then straightened up, holding the microphone and scanning the entire audience.

"Distinguished guests, musicians, and friends watching the live stream—good evening." His voice came from the speakers, at a moderate volume, with a relaxed quality typical of someone who has been a host for many years.

"Welcome to the 33rd Golden Melody Awards ceremony. I'm your host tonight, Li Heng. Most of you here know me, but if you don't, that's okay—just remember how many awards you won tonight; it's not important that you can't remember the host."

A polite laugh rang out from the audience, and someone clapped softly twice.

After the laughter subsided, Li Heng continued, "Friends here tonight, I glanced around and saw a long list of familiar names. Mr. Zhang Yuanfan, I shook hands with you on stage last year when you won Best Producer. You're here again this year, which means last year's trophy hasn't worn your hands out yet."

Zhang Yuanfan, who was sitting in the second row on the right, smiled and waved his hand. Li Heng on the stage raised the microphone to him in response.

"Teacher Sun Li," Li Heng said, turning his gaze to the group in the middle, "I've been listening to your song 'Night Voyage' on repeat for almost a month now. Although it's about someone going out to sea on a boat, when I listen to it in the office, all I can think about is 'It's time to go home.' My wife says that's a work injury, but I say it's art appreciation." Sun Li was amused by this and shook his head with a laugh, and the people next to him chuckled a few times as well.

"And then there's Mr. Chen Jianbin—" Li Heng glanced at the seat near the front, "After winning Best Male Singer last year, Mr. Chen said in an interview that he wanted to take a year off, but he released a new album this year. I'd like to interview Mr. Chen; what exactly was that 'rest' like?"

Chen Jianbin was sitting in the first row. He was drinking water when he heard his name called. He put down his cup, raised his hands in surrender, and said something that was picked up by the speakers but not very clearly. The gist of it was something like "writing songs is a way to relax."

Li Heng nodded on stage and said, "Teacher Chen said that writing songs is a way to relax, so I suggest that everyone here learn this way of relaxing." The audience laughed for a while.

Li Heng then named several other people, including those who make independent music, write film and television soundtracks, and sing folk songs.

Each name was followed by a short comment or joke—not long, but every single one made people laugh. It wasn't forced, perfunctory laughter; it was genuine laughter that came from finding something funny.

After looking around, Li Heng's gaze finally landed on the middle seat in the second row.

He paused for a moment, then spoke with a slightly more serious tone than before, but with a hint of a smile: "Finally, I'd like to reserve some time for our most special guests tonight. Lu Ran and Shen Yuege—"

His voice was noticeably raised a little, and he turned his head to look in the direction where the two people were sitting, a smile on his lips that said, "I've wanted to mention you for a long time."

"To be honest, the Golden Melody Awards have been going on for 33 years, and every year there are couples and married couples coming to the event. But something like you two—one a songwriter, the other a singer, you've written an entire album and received multiple nominations—I've never seen anything like this on this stage. And the key point is, the key point is that you two live in the same house, which means that when you argue, you might not even be able to confidently say things like, 'What kind of stuff did you write?' because the other person could actually bring up specific works and have a live debate with you."

A burst of laughter erupted from the audience, louder and more frequent than ever before.

Lu Ran smiled slightly while sitting in the chair, but her smile was rather restrained.

Shen Yuege tilted her head slightly to the side next to him, the corners of her mouth still curved upwards, but she didn't react much either.

After the laughter subsided slightly, Li Heng continued, "Seriously, there's something quite interesting about this year's Golden Melody Awards nominees—Lu Ran occupies almost half of the seven songwriting-related categories. When I first got the list, I thought there was a data error, so I had Xiao Zhou from the organizing committee redo the table. Xiao Zhou told me, 'Brother Li isn't mistaken, it's definitely like that.' I was silent for three seconds, then said—'He paused, as if waiting for the audience to be ready to respond,'—I said, 'Then tonight's awards ceremony will have to be prepared for the same person to go on stage multiple times.'"

A round of applause erupted from the audience, even more enthusiastic than the laughter from before.

Someone turned their head and glanced towards the second row, while someone whispered something to the person next to them.

Lu Ran sat upright in the chair, maintaining his usual calm expression, but his posture was different from a few minutes ago—he had changed from leaning against the back of the chair to leaning slightly forward, with his hands folded on his knees.

Shen Yuege sat very upright next to him, her champagne-colored skirt spread out on both sides of the seat, one hand resting on the armrest, her fingers lightly touching the velvet on the surface of the armrest.

She didn't turn to look at Lu Ran, but the curve of her lips remained perfectly still, neither too big nor too small.

Li Heng brought the conversation back on stage, picking up a pair of gold cards from a small table beside him: "Alright, we've called out everyone we needed to, and said all the praise we needed to. Now, let's move on to the official part of the evening—the awards ceremony. We'll start with the smallest award and slowly work our way down to the ground. Are you all ready?"

He glanced down at the card in his hand, then looked up, his voice regaining the formality of announcing awards: "The 33rd Golden Melody Awards, the first award presented—Best Rap Single. The nominees are—"

Lu Ran knew that the awards ceremony was about to begin.

...