Chapter 150: Music Pioneer!

The next day.

Major newspaper headlines burst out:

"Jiang Lun Single-Handedly Sweeps Twelve Trophies to Become the Ultimate Winner!"
"Grabbing Twelve Awards: Newcomer Jiang Lun Shines Bright at the Chinese Pop Music Awards!"
"Miracle Day: Musical Talent Jiang Lun Claims Twelve Awards at the Chinese Pop Music Awards!"
"Jiang Lun Dominates Five Out of the Top Ten Golden Melodies, Crowned 2015 Singer-Songwriter Rookie King!"
"Best New Singer-Songwriter of the Year, Best Singer-Songwriter of the Year: Musical Prodigy Jiang Lun Puts on a Solo Show at the Chinese Pop Music Awards Ceremony!"
"Best Newcomer and Most Popular Male Singer Are the Same Person? This Is No Fairy Tale!"
"Best Lyricist and Composer Combined in One!"
"Chinese Pop Music Awards Introduces New Category: Annual Chinese Music Innovation Award!"
"Jiang Lun's Future Road is Destined for Glory!"
……

Titles like these piled up one after another. Newspapers, magazines, web portals, major news networks, and entertainment headlines—everything was dominated by Jiang Lun.

Weibo exploded as well!

"What?"
"Is Jiang Lun really this badass?"
"Has the Chinese Pop Music Awards committee lost its mind?"
"Oh my god! Is he even human?"
"Well-deserved!"
"I believe there was no shady backstage dealing at the Chinese Pop Music Awards this time!"
"Rigged! There's definitely something shady going on!"
"How much does a single award cost anyway?"
"Jiang Lun's market value must be skyrocketing now, right?"
"Everyone, go look! Jiang Lun's Weibo followers have surpassed ten million!"
"Huh? Why is it only just passing ten million?"
"Jiang Lun is probably the brightest star of recent years, isn't he?"
"Who's to say otherwise? I never expected the Chinese Pop Music Awards to even add a brand new category just for him!"
"Haha! Long live Jiang Lun!"
"Damn it! The Best Newcomer award should have belonged to our Fang Le!"
"Get out of here, your Fang Le's bubblegum pop tracks aren't even worth a fraction of one of Jiang Lun's songs!"
"Look at the charts before you speak; Jiang Lun's songs have completely locked down the top spots!"
"Any newcomer debuting this year is simply doomed the moment they cross paths with Jiang Lun!"
……

Guangzhou.

Another grand event in the annual Chinese music scene—the 2015 Music Pioneer Awards Ceremony—was scheduled to grandly open on December 28 at the Guangzhou Gymnasium.

The Music Pioneer Awards was an award ceremony co-hosted by twenty-three provincial music radio stations nationwide.

The Music Pioneer Awards was also one of Huaxia's authoritative pop music charts, as well as one of the most influential professional radio pop music charts in the Chinese pop music scene, covering an actual listening audience of over one hundred million. It was hailed as the pop music chart with the highest actual radio listener ratings in Huaxia.

At a certain five-star holiday hotel.

More than sixty powerful and popular singers from the Mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan regions who had been invited to support the event were all accommodated here.

Some of them had attended the Chinese Pop Music Awards yesterday.

Regarding Jiang Lun's sweeping of twelve trophies, they still harbored mixed feelings of envy and resentment.

Several celebrities gathered in private to analyze the trend of the Music Pioneer Awards this time and speculate on how many trophies Jiang Lun would be handed.

……

In a certain suite.

Hong Kong singer Chen Dugang and his management team all wore deeply furrowed brows.

They had also attended the Chinese Pop Music Awards yesterday, only to walk away empty-handed without a single award. Coming here today to participate in the Pioneer Awards, they wondered if they were once again destined to merely run for the sake of making up the numbers.

"It's over, it's over. The Best Album definitely won't be ours!"
"Don't build up others' prestige only to destroy your own confidence!"
"We still have a huge advantage," Chen Dugang said. "What if a miracle happens?"
"As for this year's Best Pioneer Singer-Songwriter, who knows if one of us will even make the cut!"
"They always select three people every year, so we're bound to be included. Besides, Jiang Lun is a Mainland singer, and we are Hong Kong and Taiwan singers. There's no conflict!"
"Phew... That's a relief then!"
The manager let out a sigh of relief. "At least the Hong Kong and Taiwan Top Ten Pioneer Golden Melodies will definitely secure us one award!"

……

In another suite.

Mainland singer He Xin and her work team were anxiously staring at the final professional voting charts.

"Our Golden Melody is now ranked third!"
"It's still climbing. Let's rally the professional voting team for one final push; there might be hope to grab first place!"
"Fat chance of that happening! First and second place both belong to Jiang Lun. This guy is practically trying to defy the heavens!"
"And the Best Lyricist, Composer, and Arranger are all him. Plus, for the Best Pioneer Male Singer jointly presented by twenty-four radio stations, he currently has the highest vote count in the Mainland too!"
"National Most Popular Pioneer Male Singer... he's actually in first place there as well... Looking at these charts... our Xin Xin probably doesn't stand a chance in these two categories!"
"Who's saying otherwise?"
"Sigh! This year is Jiang Lun's year of absolute victory, but for the rest of us singers, it's a disaster year!"
"Surely the organizing committee won't be that heartless and give all the awards to him, right?"
"What do you think? If it follows these voting results, we don't have a single sliver of hope!"
"Impossible. Otherwise, why would the organizers invite so many celebrities to attend?"
"True, maybe we still have a chance!"

……

In other rooms.

Those groups, bands, and female singers all secretly felt a sense of fortune.

A certain Mainland band's lead singer laughed, "Haha, the male singers are all doomed this year, running into a freak like Jiang Lun!"
"Right? Thank goodness we're a band. If I had gone solo, wouldn't I have been utterly crushed by him?"
The band members chimed in with agreement.

Yet after the joy came a sense of loss. Damn it, even with five band members pooling their efforts, they still couldn't rival Jiang Lun alone. They could only fight it out in the Mainland Pioneer Band/Group category, and even then, victory wasn't guaranteed because there was an even freakish underage group in the country eyeing the spot hungiously.

A certain trendy and popular Taiwanese pop group stared at the charts, letting out long sighs of relief.

They were currently ranked in first place, leaving the second-place runner-up far behind. If they maintained this level, the Hong Kong and Taiwan Regional Pioneer Group award would undoubtedly be theirs!

A certain female singer said, "Next year, I must strive to collaborate with Jiang Lun. Hopefully, I can secure the next installment of the Annual Most Popular Duet Golden Melody!"
Another female singer laughed, "Haha, thank goodness I'm not a male singer. The male singers have it truly miserable this year!"
Another Taiwanese female singer remarked, "Mainland male and female singers alike are having a tough time this year. Thank goodness Jiang Lun isn't from Hong Kong or Taiwan!"

……

With yesterday's precedent set by the Chinese Pop Music Awards, netizens also felt the immense pressure weighing on the celebrities participating in the Pioneer Awards evaluation this year.

"Looking at several categories on the Pioneer Awards, aside from the first place, the votes trailing behind are simply too tragic to behold!"
"It's not that bad. Xu Gang and Jiang Lun seem to be biting at each other's heels, their vote counts are very close!"
"Heh, you call a thirty-thousand-vote gap close?"
"Well, the third place is trailing Xu Gang by two hundred and fifty thousand votes. That disparity is way too huge, isn't it?"
"...... Uh, fair point!"

"Based on my observation, Jiang Lun winning ten awards at the Pioneer Awards this year is guaranteed!"
"Bragging doesn't cost tax money. Which eye of yours sees him winning ten awards? Currently, he's only in first place for five!"
"Best Golden Melody, Best Lyricist, Best Composer, National Most Popular Pioneer Male Singer, and Best Pioneer Singer-Songwriter—that's already five right there, not even counting the Top Ten Golden Melodies!"
"Did you eat the Best Arranger award or something?"
"The arranger wasn't him."
"Still his song, though!"
"So what if it's his song? The credited winner is Li Qing!"
"You hater!"
"You brain-dead fan!"

Compared to these two species of internet users, an even more annoying type existed:
They would start with, "No hate, no blind praise, but I feel that..." followed by a lengthy, rambling essay.
Then someone else would reply starting with, "Sorry, I don't feel that way at all..." and retort with even more words.
If their reasoning made sense, it would be fine, but when the arguments were purely speculative, it was even more obnoxious than simply dropping a cold "Heh."

……

The internet was吵得纷纷扬扬 (clamoring noisily), but Jiang Lun had no time to pay attention to any of it.

In fact, over the past few days, he hadn't even had time to check Weibo. All his thoughts and energy were consumed by rehearsals, performances, and preparing his acceptance speeches.

Guangzhou Stadium.

Before and after the Music Pioneer Awards ceremony, there were several star-studded fan-rallying concerts, abbreviated as rally concerts.

Jiang Lun didn't strictly need to rally for votes, but he still had to put real effort into performing at these concerts because a massive number of fans voted for him on the Music Pioneer Awards. Stepping onto the stage to perform was also a way to repay his supporters.

With two consecutive shows in the morning where he sang three songs at each event, combined with several days of accumulated fatigue, his entire body felt on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion.

The moment he stepped off the stage and climbed into the nanny van, his personal assistant handed over throat-protecting medicine and water. After swallowing the medicine, Jiang Lun fell fast asleep the second his head hit the seat.

He skipped lunch entirely, only grabbing a few hurried bites right before his afternoon performance.

"You're pushing yourself too hard!"
Mai Le had accompanied Jiang Lun all the way up, and this was his first time seeing Jiang Lun this utterly exhausted. "Tomorrow will be much more relaxed, though. There's only the annual gala and press conference for New Jingwu!"
"Right, has the screenwriting team finalized everything over there?" Jiang Lun asked, still keeping his mind on work.
The screenwriting team for the film *Fist of Fury* had been personally recruited by him, responsible for the cast script, storyboard scripts, lens language design, and more.
It was fair to say the director of this film was merely a puppet; Jiang Lun supervised and directed every single aspect himself, including giving input on costumes, props, makeup, art design, and set decoration.
The production crew came from Yida, and they were purely there to execute tasks for a fixed salary.
"It's all set!" Mai Le replied. "Would you like to take a look at the final finalized version? All the scripts and storyboards are in your email!"
"Alright, I'll find some time to look through them later!"
Jiang Lun nodded slightly, closing his eyes to rest once more.

Evening.

Tiny, star-like snowflakes began to drift down from the sky.
Snow falling in Guangzhou was an extreme rarity, yet even in such weather, the temperature wasn't terribly cold.
International Sports and Performing Arts Center.
The 2015 Music Pioneer Awards ceremony officially commenced.
More than sixty celebrity groups and individual artists were all in attendance.

As the number-one voted male newcomer singer on the Pioneer Awards, Jiang Lun walked into the venue arm-in-arm with Qiu Xuehua, who shared the top spot as the number-one voted female newcomer singer.

The moment he appeared, media reporters hoisting heavy cameras instantly bombarded him with a frenzy of shutter clicks.

On the stage, the external female host announced, "Entering the venue arm-in-arm now are Qiu Xuehua and Jiang Lun. Both of them are newcomer singers who debuted this year, and both have stood on the stage of *Dream Starlight Show*. Qiu Xuehua was the weekly champion of the thirty-second week, while Jiang Lun entered as a challenger in the twenty-second week."

Following that, the female host introduced their detailed backgrounds and the achievements they had created since their debuts. (To be continued.)