Chapter 360: Ridiculous! Beyond Ridiculous

Although she had successfully clapped back on stage and smoothly accepted the award, Ni Bingyan still felt a little uneasy after returning to her seat.

‘Whatever the reason the award was given to me, it’s not like I don’t deserve it. Why shouldn’t I be able to accept it?’

‘I didn’t use any dirty tricks to snatch it, so you can’t blame me, right?’

‘Sister Li, did something happen to Zhen Yiyi?’

Even the law is tempered by human sentiment, to say nothing of the entertainment industry.

Zhen Yiyi was retiring due to illness, making *Endless Summer Night* her final work. Her performance in the film was outstanding; it made no sense for her not to win.

Since Zhen Yiyi was absent from the awards ceremony today due to her illness, it was impossible to gauge anything from her expression. As soon as Ni Bingyan returned to her seat, she immediately took out her phone from her nude pink silk clutch and sent a message to Duanmu Li.

Her new, translucent, peach-colored ombré nails made her fingers look even fairer and more delicate. They were beautiful, but tapping the screen to type felt a bit clumsy.

Ni Bingyan couldn’t help but frown slightly.

Hidden by the back of the seat in front of her, her wide sleeves, and her clutch, the fans watching the live broadcast couldn’t see her take out her phone. All they saw was her lowering her head with a frown, and they instantly flew into a rage:

“What’s wrong with that director from Taiwan?! Our Bingbing won, doesn’t she deserve it? There were five nominees, so any of them could have won, right? Pathetic people just love to cause trouble!”

“Pfft, what was the organizing committee thinking? They knew Lin Zhiyuan and Zhen Yiyi are best buddies, yet they still had her present the award to our Bingbing! As soon as that old hag started her drama, it made it look like our Bingbao snatched the award.”

“WTF! Seriously? She’s taking it out on our Bingbing because of her personal connections? How unprofessional can you get?”

“What century is this? If you don’t believe it, just go check their social media! They’re the type who can’t get through the year without posting, like, ten photos together.”

“Basically, in her eyes, as long as Zhen Yiyi didn’t win, whoever did is guilty!”

“Emm, personally, I think there’s nothing wrong with sticking up for a good friend. But to take it out on an innocent person because of it? That’s just classless, especially when it’s literally her job…”

“Protect our Little Ice Candy, poor Bingbao.”

…

After furiously denouncing Lin Zhiyuan, complaining about the Jinma Award’s organizing committee, and pitying their idol, the fans went back to watching the live broadcast.

Ni Bingyan was oblivious to all this. She was still waiting for Duanmu Li’s reply.

Her entire team had come for her Jinma Best Actress nomination. However, she was sitting in the front row with the main cast and crew of the film for camera access, while Sister Wei and Brother Biao sat in the back to make their work easier.

As for Duanmu Li, she was waiting in the car to pick the three of them up and take them back to the hotel after the ceremony.

Now that she had the Best Actress trophy in hand, her status had soared. Sister Wei’s and Brother Biao’s inboxes were sure to be overflowing with new work offers.

Of the flood of congratulatory messages, she only needed to handle the personal ones. Sister Wei and Brother Biao had always managed her professional correspondence, so the two of them were certainly busy replying to everyone at that moment.

Plus, with Lin Zhiyuan causing a scene, the anti-fans would inevitably crawl out of the woodwork to spout nonsense about her being unworthy of the award.

Therefore, managing public opinion was also crucial.

Those two were too busy to be disturbed, so it was safer to ask Sister Li.

She wasn’t very talkative, but she was excellent at gathering information.

This time, however, Sister Li hadn’t found anything.

“Nothing’s wrong. She’s still recuperating in Korea; she hasn’t returned to the country.”

Ni Bingyan felt it was impossible that nothing had happened, so she sent another message to Wei Shuojie.

Wei Shuojie happened to see it and replied quickly:

“I just got the news myself and haven’t had a chance to tell you. Zhen Yiyi is retiring because she was caught soliciting a prostitute. Her husband found out. The informant said that for the children’s sake, and because he couldn’t bear her kneeling and begging, he ultimately chose to keep it quiet. But his condition was that she must retire from acting, return to her family, and never make a public appearance again.”

Sister Wei was swamped, so for her to spare a moment to reply showed just how much she doted on Ni Bingyan.

She had never imagined that in less than two years, Ni Bingyan would bring her two Best Actress awards, one Best Supporting Actress award, and a slew of other miscellaneous accolades.

‘At this rate, she’s guaranteed to win the Grand Slam of the top three awards before she’s thirty-five!’

Sister Wei’s blood was boiling with passion. She was in a state of super-excitement, her mind completely consumed by work.

My god!

Ni Bingyan read Sister Wei’s message several times, her eyes wide with disbelief.

She knew the truth might be outrageous, but she’d never expected it to be *this* outrageous!

In that instant, Ni Bingyan felt tiny cracks forming in her worldview.

The shock was just too great.

She knew there were plenty of female celebrities in the industry who weren’t exactly prim and proper, who played the field—but they were single!

Which married actress with children would be this stupid?

‘Having an affair is one thing, but was it really necessary to solicit a prostitute?’

Zhen Yiyi had married into a wealthy family and had two sons. The internet was full of happy photos of their family of four. Her husband, though a bit old, was said to dote on her. Weren’t they supposed to have a great relationship?

‘Why would she do something so self-destructive?’

It was common to see male celebrities get caught soliciting prostitutes, but a female celebrity getting caught? That was a first. You really do see everything if you live long enough.

“That’s impossible, right? She’s not an idiot! Why would she do something like that?”

‘Could she have been set up by someone?’

After all, Zhen Yiyi had also won Best Actress before. She was a great actress and, from what Bingyan had heard, a dedicated professional.

If that hadn’t been the case, she wouldn’t have been so convinced by Sister Wei’s earlier analysis that her own chances of winning were low with Zhen Yiyi in the running.

Sister Wei had gotten busy again and had no time to look at her phone.

Unable to get a reply, Ni Bingyan’s mind started to wander.

‘I know what Sister Wei is capable of,’ she thought. ‘Could it be… that to ensure I won, Sister Wei leaked this news? And the committee, afraid the scandal would damage the Jinma Award’s credibility, gave the award to me instead?’

‘Even though my performance was dazzling this time, the other three candidates were also excellent… So why did I win?’

The cold trophy in her hand, Ni Bingyan still felt a sense of unreality.

She felt that winning an award by capitalizing on someone else’s private scandal was a bit disgraceful.

After agonizing for a long time, Ni Bingyan messaged Sister Wei again:

“Sister Wei, now that I’ve won, I should probably thank the PR department properly later, right?”

Ni Bingyan felt her hint was obvious. As it happened, Sister Wei was taking a sip of water when she picked up her phone and saw the message. Without giving it much thought, she just replied, “I’ll arrange it, don’t worry about it,” and went back to her work.

From the moment she walked the red carpet to the present, Ni Bingyan had already been on five trending topics. The entire PR department was working themselves to death to keep her from flooding social media and annoying the general public.

Any normal person would think to thank them properly, let alone Ni Bingyan, who wasn’t lacking in emotional intelligence.

Wei Shuojie had to gulp her water down, so naturally, she had no time to overthink things.

Ni Bingyan, believing she had figured out the truth, felt the trophy in her hands had lost its luster.

Seeing her calm expression after winning Best Actress, Guo Tong, who had been stealing glances at her, finally couldn’t hold back:

“What’s with you? You won the award, aren’t you happy?”

The two had once been roommates. Now, Guo Tong was a mother who spent her days not only looking after her child but also arguing with her frustrating husband and his equally frustrating family.

Her figure was gone, she was constantly drained of energy, and she even suffered from incontinence. After sacrificing so much, all she got from her husband was a rhetorical question:

“You chose to do all this yourself. Why are you acting like I forced you?”

Her own life was a complete mess, while Ni Bingyan’s career was skyrocketing. It would be a lie to say she wasn’t envious or jealous, but she didn’t exactly hate her either.

“Ah? No! I just feel like it’s a bit unreal, like I’m dreaming!”

“But it’s a sweet dream!”

Guo Tong sighed and stared blankly at the stage.

In any given year, only a handful of people could win Best Actress, and winning such a prestigious award was even harder.

And this was one of the “Three Golds,” the most prestigious awards in the country!

There were so many actresses in the entertainment industry.

Some were beautiful, some were talented, some were great actors, and some had powerful connections…

But some people were just lucky and managed to pull ahead of the pack.

Guo Tong couldn’t help but sigh again, lowering her head and starting to feel sorry for herself.

Meanwhile, in an office in Rongcheng City, a programmer with round glasses, working overtime to fix bugs, also felt that his luck was incredibly good!