Chapter Five: The Unawarded Trophy

The Gallery did not predict inevitabilities, Shen Yan realized. It compressed the world until only two choices remained. He called a copyright attorney Zhou Zi'ang had introduced and asked Xu Zhi to contact a platform hungry for an exclusive. Then he advanced eighty thousand yuan of his consulting fee for the operation, on one condition: Tang Li would register the script publicly and decide for herself whether to expose Gao. “You may never get it back,” Xu Zhi warned. “Then I'm buying something before it becomes old.” Tang Li won Best Newcomer. Backstage, Gao presented his contract. Instead of signing, she played his recording during her televised acceptance speech.