These small actions could translate into quite a large amount of content. For example, they could write articles such as: How deep is the love between the Peerless Couple? Deep enough to permeate every small aspect of their lives! From just this small action, we could see that blablabla…

After boarding the car, Sheng Jiaoyang asked, “Why did you come?”

“To pick you up.” Shen Zhining reacted without a second thought, as if he was answering what he had eaten for the day.

Sheng Jiaoyang chuckled before she looked at the two trophies in Shen Zhining's arms and said with pride, “Look, I'm awesome, right? After a year of hard work, I have earned these trophies that every other actor and actress yearned for.”

Shen Zhining looked at the trophies in his hands, “This is just the beginning.”

“Of course! I must get the Best Female Actor award to prove that all my effort did not go to waste.” In her eyes, the popularity award was awarded by the audience, and she was not satisfied with it. She would only feel satisfied when she wins the Best Female Actor Award, which was handpicked by the professional critics.

Shen Zhining turned around to look at her. “I believe you will get it one day.”

Sheng Jiaoyang smiled, “You said the same things as Gu Zhou.”

Shen Zhining squinted in displeasure. He was not pleased to hear another man's name coming from her mouth!

“You looked very happy when you were seated beside him and talking to him,” Shen Zhining said in an ambiguous tone.

“It's alright… Eh, how did you know?” Sheng Jiaoyang's eyes widened slightly as she looked at Shen Zhining in amazement.

“As long as I want to, nothing can stop me from watching the live broadcast.”

His tone was a killer! Sheng Jiaoyang threw side glances at him while jokingly saying, “You're so capable, did you possibly have a hand in my awards?”

Unexpectedly, Shen Zhining did not reject her conjecture.

Sheng Jiaoyang was stunned, He did not reject my conjecture! This meant that her words were likely true.

She took a deep breath and asked, “So you had some influence over these two awards of mine?”

When he saw that Sheng Jiaoyang was turning into a ball of fire, Shen Zhining could no longer stop himself from bursting out into laughter. After a hearty laugh, he rea.s.sured her, “You deserved the popularity award. To cast a vote, your ident.i.ty had to be verified. Hence, it cannot be faked.”

“This means that you had a hand in my rookie award then?!” Sheng Jiaoyang did not know how else to think. She only felt that she was foolish to feel ecstatic since she was not given the award because of her ability.

“I didn't do anything. They voted to give you the award,” Sheng Zhining said with a smile in his eyes.

However, Sheng Jiaoyang was feeling highly doubtful of his words, “You didn't do anything… which meant that you said something then?”

Shen Zhining looked like he was recalling something. Then, he said, “While the broadcasting company was looking for sponsors, I attended a gathering, and someone suddenly mentioned seeing the TV series you acted in. They thought your acting was quite good, and they commented that you will definitely get an award at the award ceremony.”

“What did you say then?” Sheng Jiaoyang was filled with curiosity.

“Mhmm.”

“…” Just tell me what you said already! Sheng Jiaoyang felt helpless.

Wait! A sudden thought struck Sheng Jiaoyang. “Did you just respond to that comment with a mhmm?”

A grin crept up Shen Zhining's face. His silence affirmed her words.

Sheng Jiaoyang drew up the scene in her mind. A big-bellied man was trying very hard to build a good relations.h.i.+p with Shen Zhining. As such, he took the initiative to compliment the person most precious to him. However, Shen Zhining only replied back with a 'mhmm'. How was the big-bellied man even supposed to continue the conversation?

“So, we can't even tell if the reason I was awarded these trophies is because of you?”

“Regardless, the trophies are now in your hands.”

“I didn't expect people could cheat their way to win an award like this. If so, wouldn't that be unfair to the others?” Sheng Jiaoyang looked at the trophies; they did not look so pleasing to her eyes now.

Sensing her thoughts, Shen Zhining turned serious, “You shouldn't think of it in that way. There's no absolute fairness in this world. If you're someone with average acting skills, no one would give away an award just to try and curry favour with me.”

That was true. After all, they would not support an incapable person just to win over people, as it would tarnish their own brand image.

Sheng Jiaoyang had thought it through and stopped pursuing the matter. Just as Shen Zhining said, the awards were now in her hands, and there was no point in overthinking about it.

However, someone in another vehicle had taken it to heart instead.

Ren Jiayin was throwing a huge temper at her manager, “Didn't you say that I would most likely get the award? And wasn't I nominated for the Best Female Actor Award? Why did it become the Rookie award? Am I a rookie? How can I compete with rookies? That's lowering my status!”

Her manager thought silently, It's good enough that you were nominated. If competing with rookies is lowering your status, isn't your status lowered even further when you're beaten by another rookie?

However, what her manager said was, “Jiayin, don't get angry. There are other award ceremonies too…”

“Didn't you say that the company of one of the products I'm endorsing is sponsoring the ceremony? Why can't they even get me an award?” Ren Jiayin rudely interrupted her manager.

Her manager said helplessly, “Those are two different things. They can't control the outcome.” But in her heart, she was thinking, If you had half of other people's acting talent, there would be any need for me to worry about this incident.

“I don't care!” Ren Jiayin turned away and looked out of the window.

“There are other awards too. Jiayin, you can talk to CEO Mu personally. With his connections, it should be easy to get a few awards for you.”

“But I don't want those random awards. People are laughing at me.” Ren Jiayin frowned.

Her manager was on the verge of rolling her eyes. As she looked at Ren Jiayin, who she had groomed to the best of her ability, only one word came to mind: Worthless.

She did not wish to use such harsh words to describe her own celebrity, but Ren Jiayin was too ignorant about her own capability. Unfortunately, Ren Jiayin had the support of the highest-ranking person in the company, making it difficult for her to request a switch.

“Xu Jiaojiao is such a pain in the neck. Why does she get to have two awards? Why don't they give one of them to me? Why did the organizer give both awards to the same person, they can just have one of those awarded to me!” Ren Jiayin was furious at the thought of Xu Jiaojiao having two trophies on hand.

“Those trophies aren't the usual items that can be shared at will. Jiayin, you must be more mature. You've debuted for six years, can you stop being so naive?” her manager said helplessly.

“How am I not mature? I know those aren't normal items, that's why I want them!” Ren Jiayin said righteously.

“…” The manager felt that she had been utterly defeated.

“Xu Jiaojiao is definitely my nemesis. She caused me to be humiliated, and she even s.n.a.t.c.hed my award. I will never be done with her!” Ren Jiayin said furiously.

The manager peered at Ren Jiayin, “Forget it. Her acting skills are better than yours, and she has a stronger backing. You can't do anything to her. If you still wish to go challenge her head-on, the outcome will be the same as what happened when you fell tonight. Everyone will just speak up for her.”

“I have a lot of fans too!” Ren Jiayin was not happy to hear her manager belittling her.

“Do you have a huge fan base like Xu Jiaojiao?”

“…No.” No matter how much confidence Ren Jiayin had in herself, she could not deny this fact.

Her manager wanted to laugh badly, but after she considered that Ren Jiayin might complain to her boss, she endured it and said, “Jiayin, truthfully speaking, I have seen the red carpet video. You can't blame Xu Jiaojiao for your fall. She had already walked in front of you when you fell, and she never stepped on your dress. You were the one who tripped yourself.”

“I felt annoyed at her for walking ahead of me. That's why I wasn't careful and tripped myself.”

What?! The manager thought in her heart, Thankfully Xu Jiaojiao wasn't aware of this, otherwise, she would definitely say that Ren Jiayin is a nutcase.

Ren Jiayin was still muttering in the corner, “Juniors these days don't have manners. She didn't even greet me and dared to walk ahead of me! How dare she!”

Her manager decided to rest her case, but she still had to remind her, “Jiayin, regardless of how unhappy you are with Xu Jiaojiao, you must still show that you like her. Look at your ridiculous post, you've gained a lot of haters.”

“I don't care about them. I still have my fans who would support me forever.”

Her manager drew in a deep breath and asked the driver, “How much longer?”

“There's a traffic jam, we need at least another 40 minutes.”

The manager felt that her ears were becoming deaf soon.

As the other celebrities got into their Alphards and left the venue, quite a number of them had mentioned Jiaojiao's name. Clearly, they were envious of her good luck.

During her ride home, Qu Wen started to become angrier when she recalled Xu Jiaojiao saying that she should take care of herself, as the new generation would outperform and replace the old generation. Wasn't Xu Jiaojiao implying that she, Qu Wen, was the older generation being replaced?

Qu Wen had to admit that Xu Jiaojiao was indeed capable. Her popularity could not be falsified. When Qu Wen had first started out, she could not even obtain such a highly valued award.

Qu Wen was not the only one feeling resentful. Mo Lan was annoyed as well.

Regardless of whether they were on stage or off stage, whenever she looked in Gu Zhou's direction, Xu Jiaojiao and he were always whispering into each others' ears.

Back then, when she was with Gu Zhou, they did not have that much to talk about. Otherwise, they would not have broken up. It was because Gu Zhou was too busy with his work that even if they met, Gu Zhou did not seem like he had wanted to talk to her, much less perform those small coaxing actions.

Whenever Mo Lan thought of the image of both Gu Zhou and Xu Jiaojiao enjoying themselves, she felt more displeased. What she deeply desired and deemed important was instead easily obtained by others.

That night, many people had tossed and turned in bed out of envy, jealousy, and hatred, whereas someone else was being pestered by a certain someone for half a night before turning in.