269: Chapter 269 The Loudest Slap

The spotlight, like a bolt of golden divine lightning striking from the nine heavens, poured down onto the young man at the center of the National Centre for the Performing Arts stage.

Su Zhe.

Twenty-four years old.

In his left hand, he held the Best Actor trophy.

In his right hand, he supported the pinnacle scepter of Best Director.

And on the podium before him stood the Golden Dragon Award for Best Picture—the supreme honor representing tonight, and indeed the entire history of Chinese cinema!

Three heavy Golden Dragon Award trophies.

Under the brilliant lights, they reflected a dazzling, almost blinding radiance.

Unprecedented!

An unparalleled grand slam!

Below the stage.

Thousands of top stars in the Chinese Entertainment Industry, famous directors, veteran actors, and the business moguls in suits sitting in the back rows.

At this moment.

They all remained standing, looking up at the man on stage.

In the entire Grand Theatre, there was no sound other than heavy breathing.

Two hundred million viewers watching the live stream across the internet held their breath, even forgetting to send bullet comments.

Everyone was waiting.

Waiting for this newly crowned King of the Chinese Entertainment Industry to let out his dragon's roar in the highest hall of Chinese cinema.

Under the gaze of millions.

Su Zhe slowly placed the two trophies in his hands side-by-side on the lectern.

He leaned down slightly.

Extending his slender fingers, he gripped the metal stand of the microphone.

Zzzt...

As he adjusted the height of the microphone, a very slight yet piercing sound of electrical friction came through the speakers.

Just this small sound.

Instantly made the entire venue so quiet that a pin dropping on the thick carpet would have been clearly heard!

Su Zhe looked up.

His eyes, which seemed capable of piercing through all hypocrisy, slowly scanned the dense crowd below through the dazzling spotlight.

"Whew..."

He exhaled softly into the microphone.

"Thank you, everyone."

Su Zhe spoke, his voice deep and magnetic, carrying a composure that came from having weathered many storms. "Thank you to the jury for awarding these three heavy trophies to me.

And thank you to every senior and colleague who just stood up and applauded for me."

Su Zhe paused, a casual, almost rogue-like smile suddenly tugging at the corners of his mouth. "Actually.

While I was waiting backstage earlier, a journalist friend asked me a very interesting question through the fence."

Hearing this.

Everyone below the stage pricked up their ears.

The viewers in the livestream also became curious.

"He asked me."

Su Zhe's fingers gently stroked the scales of the Golden Dragon Award trophy. "Director Su, how did you manage to, with such a pitifully small budget, when you couldn't even afford a proper opening ceremony..."

"...produce masterpieces of the caliber of the knockout and drug god?

Is it your pursuit of art that makes you view money as dirt, intentionally seeking this gritty sense of reality?"

A wave of good-natured laughter broke out below the stage.

Everyone thought Su Zhe would surely follow this lead and give a moving, standard speech about 'art above all' and 'enduring hardships.'

After all, that was the most standard 'correct answer' for an awards ceremony.

However.

On the stage.

The smile on Su Zhe's face instantly froze and vanished in the next second.

Replacing it.

Was a tangible, bone-chilling coldness.

"Viewing money as dirt?"

Su Zhe let out a highly mocking sneer into the microphone. "No.

Everyone, you think too highly of me.

Actually, I wanted to spend more money too."

Su Zhe suddenly looked up, his gaze like two peerless cold blades, bypassing the respected veteran artists in the front row.

Like a falcon locking onto its prey in the dark.

It pierced toward the 'Capital Zone' in the seventh and eighth rows of the Grand Theatre, where the CEOs of major entertainment companies and cinema executives were seated.

"I also wanted to use Arri's top-tier cameras from the start.

I also wanted to rent the largest real-scene studio in Asia.

I also wanted to provide my actors with five-star luxury boxed meals at a standard of five hundred yuan a day, so they wouldn't have to gnaw on cold buns in a slaughterhouse!"

Su Zhe's voice began to rise in the vast theatre, carrying a suppressed fury. "But!

There was no other way!

Because in this circle, there are some people who think they are gods who control the rules.

They joined forces and despicably cut off my funding chain.

They hired internet trolls to frantically smear and report my movie before it was even released.

And in the end!"

Su Zhe grabbed the microphone stand and leaned forward like a raging lion letting out a world-shaking roar. "They used their pitiful monopoly power to block my cinema channels.

During the National Day Golden Week, they only gave drug god a 5% ghost screening rate!"

Boom!

As soon as these words were spoken.

The entire National Centre for the Performing Arts instantly erupted in an uproar.

Elder Ji and the other older generation artists in the front row frowned deeply, their eyes filled with anger.

In the livestream with two hundred million viewers, the bullet comments exploded like a volcanic eruption!

[Holy shit! Holy shit! Director Su is going all out!]

[So wild! Directly calling out capital's dirty tactics at the Golden Dragon Award ceremony?]

[This is a real man! I knew there was something fishy about that 5% screening rate!]

[He's going on a rampage! Su Zhe is going to completely tear the roof off the Chinese Entertainment Industry today!]

And in the back rows of the Grand Theatre.

In the Capital Zone, pinned down by Su Zhe's knife-like gaze.

The remnants of Tianyu Media and the vice presidents of several cinema chains were now pale as ghosts from fear!

Cold sweat poured down their foreheads like a waterfall.

"Crazy... this madman..."

A certain cinema executive trembled all over, his legs so weak he almost slid from the large leather seat onto the carpet.

He wished he could find a mouse hole to crawl into immediately.

Having their fig leaf torn off in public at the highest hall of art on national television.

This was ten thousand times more painful than killing them.

On the stage.

Su Zhe's judgment continued.

And it was an ultimate execution that struck directly at the soul.

"I remember it very clearly."

A look of extreme arrogance and disdain curled Su Zhe's lips. "At that time, a certain high-and-mighty cinema CEO once sent me a harsh message through someone.

He said...

Without the channels they deigned to give me, I, Su Zhe, would never be able to serve a dish at the Manchu Han Imperial Feast of cinema!

I could only be like a beggar on the internet, filming low-class short dramas for the rest of my life!"

Silence.

A deathly silence fell over the entire venue.

Everyone felt the terrifying tension in Su Zhe's words, like a nuclear explosion about to occur after being suppressed to the limit.

"But. Today."

Su Zhe suddenly reached out both hands.

Under the gaze of everyone present.

He grabbed the Best Actor trophy in one hand and the Best Director trophy in the other.

And held them.

High and heavy above his head.

The golden dragons glistened under the lights, stinging the eyes of the capitalists in the back.

Su Zhe's voice, transmitted through the top-tier sound system.

Like bolts of divine lightning from the nine heavens splitting the darkness.

Resounded thunderously throughout the vast Grand Theatre, deafening and enlightening!

"I want to use these three trophies!

To tell those high-and-mighty capital lords sitting in the back rows.

True art cannot be suppressed.

True public opinion cannot be smothered by capital!"

Su Zhe's eyes were bloodshot, veins bulging, as he let out the most unrestrained soul-roar since his transmigration two years ago. "A truly good chef.

Even if forced into a corner by you.

Even if forced by you to the roadside to set up a dilapidated, drafty stall.

He can still use the roughest iron wok to create a peerless delicacy that makes the whole world stop to catch the scent and linger forever!"

The roar echoed against the dome.

Su Zhe suddenly fixed his gaze, like two physical swords, onto the faces of those trembling capital moguls.

Gritting his teeth, he asked the ultimate rhetorical question that had been suppressed in the depths of his heart, word by word: "I'm asking you!

This slap I'm delivering to your faces today!

Does it... feel good?"

...

One second.

The entire National Centre for the Performing Arts fell into a second of deathly silence, like an absolute vacuum.

Even the air stopped flowing.

Then!

Rumble...

Like a supervolcano suppressed for ten million years, it met its most violent eruption at this moment.

"It feels great!"

Zhang Song, sitting in the first row, let out a roar with tears streaming down his face and was the first to jump from his seat.

"It feels amazing!"

Yin Hua and Tie Niu waved their arms like madmen, roaring at the top of their lungs.

Then.

Elder Ji in the front row stood up and clapped his hands until they were red.

All the veteran artists, all the talented actors, all the media journalists.

Over a thousand people in the venue!

At this moment, their boiling blood was completely ignited by Su Zhe's speech, which was arrogant to the extreme yet incredibly satisfying.

Everyone stood up!

A tsunami of cheers, whistles, and thunderous applause that almost blew the roof off the theatre.

Like a magnitude 12 tsunami, it swept through the entire scene.

In the livestream.

Two hundred million viewers fell into a state of total frenzy.

The density of bullet comments caused the servers of the three major video platforms to lag severely three times within a minute.

[Satisfying! It's so freaking satisfying!]

[This slap didn't just land on the face of capital, it landed on the face of the entire rotten Chinese Entertainment Industry!]

[God Su, please accept my bow! This is the true arrival of a king!]

[Good chef! Peerless delicacy! Director Su is awesome (voice cracks)!]

Amidst the rain of brilliant gold foil.

Amidst the tidal waves of cheers.

Su Zhe held the two Golden Dragon Award trophies high, standing at the very center of the stage.

He tilted his chin up slightly, looking at the group of capitalists who had finally lowered their noble heads.

The corners of his mouth.

Curled into a smile that was relieved, domineering, and full of disdain for the world.

He knew.

That from tonight onward.

This Chinese film industry, which had been toyed with by capital.

Finally.

Had welcomed its true master!