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

The screen simultaneously displayed clips of the shortlisted works, each clip lasting about ten seconds.

The first song released was called "City Night Talk," with a melody that had a touch of jazz and a slow rap rhythm that created a great atmosphere.

The second one is a rather hardcore song called "Street Rules," with dense drum beats and vocals that have a noticeable graininess, like the kind of rough texture that's intentionally preserved in a recording studio.

The third one is a commercially oriented love rap song with a strong melody; the chorus is sung rather than spoken.

The fourth piece is a work with regional characteristics, using a lot of dialect words, which sounds very fresh.

Lu Ran rarely listens to rap, but he thought the melodies playing were quite nice.

Based on his intuition, "Street Rules" seemed to be better.

After several clips finished playing, Li Heng opened the golden envelope in front of him, took out the card inside, glanced at it, and then looked up to read out the winner's name: "Street Rules – Wang Kai."

Applause erupted from the audience, and a young man in a black hoodie stood up from the back row and strode onto the stage.

After accepting the trophy, he stood quietly in front of the microphone for a moment before speaking. His first words were brief: "Thank you to the judges, thank you to the Golden Melody Awards." Then he paused and added, "This song is about the street where I grew up. Thank you to that street for teaching me how to speak."

After he finished speaking, he bowed and walked off the stage. The whole process was crisp and efficient, without any unnecessary words. Lu Ran watched his back from below the stage and thought that this person was quite genuine. He came up and said something from the heart without reading a long list of thank-you notes.

Next, they awarded a Best Ethnic Music Album award.

The winner was a female singer dressed in traditional clothing. When she went on stage, her skirt was so long that she almost tripped, and the ushers next to her helped her up.

Her first words after receiving the trophy were, "I've been holding back for three years, and I've finally delivered!" The audience laughed and applauded, and she laughed along with them.

Then she expressed her gratitude, thanking the ethnic music research institution for providing the materials, the recording engineer for helping her with the sound mixing, and her family for supporting her in making this niche music. Finally, she said, "I hope more people will listen to ethnic music in the future; it's really beautiful."

The audience erupted in applause again, this time longer than the previous one.

After the two awards were presented, there was a performance during the intermission, where a new generation male singer came on stage and sang a slow song.

He sang well, but the song he chose was too dull. Lu Ran was a little distracted while listening. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Shen Yuege next to him was looking down at her fingernails. He didn't know if she was admiring her manicure or looking elsewhere.

After the performance, Li Heng returned to the stage, now holding a new gold card. He walked to the microphone, cleared his throat, and said, "The next award, I think many of you are waiting for, is the Best Newcomer Award. Each of the five nominated newcomers this year has their own unique characteristics. Some are skilled singers, some are songwriters, and some are all-rounders. Following the pattern of previous years, this award is often a 'battle of the gods,' but when I received the nomination list this year, I found that one of these five indeed had a significantly higher score—I won't say who it is yet, let's look at the nomination clips first."

The shortlisted segments began playing on the big screen.

The first singer to be released was a male singer named Zhao Ziheng. He sang a pop-rock song with a very distinctive voice and handled the high notes cleanly and crisply.

The second one is Zhou Yuxin, a former lead singer of a girl group who went solo. She sang a very rhythmic electronic dance song, and her stage presence was indeed quite good.

The third is a female folk singer named Lin Xiaolu. Her voice is a bit husky, and she sings in a relaxed way, as if she's just humming something casually while sitting in a corner of a coffee shop.

Then, during the fourth segment, when Liu Siqi's face appeared on the big screen, the sound in the venue noticeably changed slightly.

The clip played her song "The Girl Who Waves Her Wings," which she released last year. As soon as the melody started, a few people hummed along softly.

Lu Ran looked at the screen and saw Liu Siqi standing in the recording studio wearing a white shirt, with a microphone in front of her. She was not wearing makeup and her hair was casually loose.

The scene cuts to her singing the chorus, and the voice coming from the speakers is clear and powerful, with her enunciation almost exactly matching the effect he envisioned when he wrote the song.

After the nomination clips finished playing, Lee Hang picked up the microphone: "The nomination criteria for Best Newcomer is nominations within the last three years of debut, and all five of this year meet that requirement. Two of them have even been nominated for less than two years and have already produced quite a few complete works."

He looked down, opened the gold envelope, glanced at the name on the card, and when he looked up, his expression was calm, without the slightest exaggerated surprise or feigned suspense.

He read it aloud: "The 33rd Golden Melody Awards, Best New Artist – Liu Siqi."

As applause erupted from the audience, Lu Ran saw a figure in a light blue dress stand up in a seat on the right side of the third row.

Liu Siqi's look today is a bit different from the previous times I've seen her. Her hair is permed into big curls and draped over her shoulders. Her makeup is more refined than usual, and she has a pair of small silver star earrings hanging from her earlobes.

When she stood up, she first bowed to thank the people next to her, and then walked towards the stage. The hem of her long dress trailed a little on the ground. She walked at a slower pace than usual, but her overall demeanor was still quite steady.

She walked to the center of the stage and took the crystal trophy from Li Heng. The trophy was not large, but it had many facets, which reflected a scattering of tiny points of light under the stage lights.

She stood quietly in front of the microphone for a moment, holding the trophy in both hands.

Logically, the winner should speak immediately during this segment, but she paused for about three or four seconds, and the people below waited quietly for three seconds as well. No one made a fuss or urged her on.

Then she spoke, her voice different from when she usually recorded songs, carrying an indescribable quality, as if something was stuck in her throat but she had suppressed it: "Thank you Golden Melody Awards, thank you judges. This is my first time standing on this stage, and to be honest, I didn't expect it to be so soon. Last year, I was thinking that getting a Best New Artist nomination within three years would already be amazing, and I never thought I would actually win this award tonight."

She paused, glanced down at the trophy in her hand, then looked up and continued, "I want to thank two people. The first is my manager, Sister Xue. She's been mentoring me since my debut. When I first entered the industry, I knew nothing, and she taught me how to find my rhythm in the recording studio. The second is—Teacher Lu Ran."

When she mentioned the name, her gaze shifted slightly towards the second row, where she saw Lu Ran sitting calmly in his seat, looking in her direction. His face showed no particular expression, but his gaze remained fixed on her.

Liu Siqi, holding the microphone, continued, "I recorded every single song that Teacher Lu Ran wrote for me with great care. I felt that if the songwriter put so much effort into polishing the melody and lyrics, then the singer would be letting the song down if they didn't give it their all. Thank you for entrusting me with those songs. I hope we'll have the opportunity to collaborate again in the future."

When she said the last sentence, her tone was very sincere. It wasn't the kind of sincerity that was deliberately sentimental and made the atmosphere awkward, but rather a genuine feeling that she really wanted to continue working together.

Then she thanked several people—the recording engineer, the mixing engineer, the band members, and her parents—and finally said, "This award belongs to everyone," before bowing and walking off the stage.

Halfway there, her eyes met Shen Yuege's from a distance of a few seats away.

Shen Yuege sat in the center of the second row and nodded slightly to her. The nod was small but the posture was very relaxed, as if to say, "Congratulations, you deserve this."

Liu Siqi returned a smile and then walked back to her seat.

Lu Ran, sitting next to him, saw this scene but didn't say anything, though he couldn't suppress the smile on his lips.

After all, this was a song he gave me; how could I possibly hold back?

The awards ceremony resumed in the venue.

After Liu Siqi was seated, Li Heng continued the flow of the proceedings: "Alright, the Best Newcomer Award has been awarded. Let's take a break and move on. Next award—Best Original Television Soundtrack."

Lu Ran had nothing to do with this award. He had written some film and television scores but they were not nominated. The award was given to a film and television music producer.

When the man went on stage, he was holding a pair of black-rimmed glasses. His first words were, "I took off my glasses to wipe them off backstage, and when I looked up, I realized I had been shortlisted. When I looked up again, I realized I was on stage." The whole audience laughed for a while.

He then sincerely thanked the director, producer, and recording team, and concluded by saying, "I hope to make more TV dramas that deserve good music in the future." His words drew another round of applause from the audience.

Next up is the Crossover Music Collaboration Award.

The winner of this award is an electronic music producer who collaborated with a folk music group on an album.

When he went on stage, he brought along suona players, and they gave an impromptu performance of suona and electronic drums, which greatly heated up the atmosphere in the venue.

An elderly musician sitting in the front row kept nodding as he listened, saying to the person next to him, "This is interesting," and the person next to him nodded in agreement.

When Li Heng returned to the stage, he had a new card in his hand.

He paused at the microphone, his gaze sweeping across the audience. "The previous awards were all specialized ones, but this one is different—Best Album Producer. This is one of the more prestigious awards tonight; all five nominees are veterans who have been in the industry for many years. Of course—" He glanced at the card in his hand, "—there's also a relatively new face in the business."

The audience fell silent for a moment. Someone glanced in Lu Ran's direction, then quickly looked away.

Lu Ran remained seated without changing his expression, but when the host uttered the word "new face," he could vaguely sense someone's gaze sweeping past his profile.

However, that look wasn't malicious; it was more like someone confirming "whether it really is him."

A compilation of the shortlisted clips began playing on the big screen.

The five segments are each a song's intro and chorus, accompanied by the producer's name and the song title.

When the fourth segment played, Lu Ran recognized it as a song from Shen Yuege's album, which he had produced—the scene cut to his back as he stood in front of the mixing console in the recording studio, with the subtitles next to him reading "《千千阙歌》—Producer: Lu Ran".

After the fifth segment finished playing, Li Heng started opening the envelopes, slower than he had done with the previous awards, as if he was deliberately creating a certain atmosphere.

He gently pried open the seal of the gold envelope with his thumb, and when the card inside was pulled out, the venue was exceptionally quiet, with not a single sound coming from the speakers.

Li Heng glanced at the card, then looked up and read out the name that perfectly matched the barely suppressed smile that had appeared on his lips when he saw that face: "Best Album Producer Award—Lu Ran."

This time, the applause lasted longer than any before.

When Lu Ran stood up from his seat, he glanced at Shen Yuege. She was looking at him with a slight smile on her lips. Then she nodded slightly, a little more than the nod she had given Liu Siqi earlier, as if it were a silent "go ahead."

As he walked along the aisle of the second row toward the stage, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Zhang Yuanfan, who was a few seats away, was smiling and clapping, and the female singer in the red dress next to Zhang Yuanfan was also clapping.

Among the senior figures in the first row, one of them turned his head to look at him, his gaze carrying a sense of recognition.

Then he went up the steps, walked to the center of the stage, and stood in front of the microphone.

When Li Heng handed over the trophy, Lu Ran caught it. The trophy felt heavier than Liu Siqi's, and it had a solid, sinking feel in his hand.

He held the microphone, glanced down at the words engraved on the base, then looked up and began to speak.

His voice was slightly lower than usual when giving presentations, but without the slightest tremor: "Thank you for the Golden Melody Awards, thank you for the judges. This album won this award not because of its high production quality, but because the songs themselves are well-written. And the fact that the songs are well-written—" He paused, "is because there was someone behind the scenes singing earnestly, putting every single line in its proper place."

He didn't name names, but everyone in the audience knew who he was talking about.

Shen Yuege sat in the second row, making no move, just quietly watching the stage.

When Lu Ran looked up from the microphone, his gaze was directly in her direction. Their eyes met for about a second in the air before he looked away, said "Thank you everyone," and walked off the stage.

When he returned to his seat, he placed the trophy on the floor beside his feet, leaning against the chair leg, and then sat down again.

As he sat down, Shen Yuege leaned over and said in a low voice, "What you said just now was quite good."

Lu Ran turned his head and replied, "That's the truth." Shen Yuege didn't say anything more, but her fingers lightly touched the back of his hand on the armrest before withdrawing them, a movement so subtle that only he could feel it.

Li Heng on stage has already accepted the next card.

The lights shone back on the center of the stage, and after a brief moment of warmth, the atmosphere returned to the rhythm unique to an awards ceremony.

There are still several awards to be presented tonight. The people sitting on the stage are staring at the spotlight in the center of the stage, waiting for the next name to be read out by the host.

...