Chapter 120: Awarded

  Apart from Hamasaki Ayumi, what probably excited Zhou Xiao the most was that several girls from Morning Musume also came over to ask for a photo shoot.

  This group of AKB48 seniors, in Zhou Xiao's eyes, no matter how they looked or made up, all had a bit of a rural quality to them. At that time, Morning Musume's 5th generation members like Ai Kago and Risa Niigaki hadn't joined the group yet. The youngest members were people like Aki Maeda, Yui Ichikawa, and Rie Kaneko. Among them, Rie Kaneko was later known as AKB48's Mayu Watanabe's rival, with a gentle and quiet girl image that was very likable. However, Zhou Xiao wasn't paying much attention to her because among Morning Musume, there was only one member whose style was completely different from the others.

  Maki Goto, the only third-generation member of Morning Musume, is particularly special in today's group. Her outstanding appearance and unique temperament make her shine like a sun suddenly appearing among the stars.

  Her fate was not good, with a very annoying younger brother and her mother jumping off the building ten years later. However, she is still a carefree and strong girl in the national team, even if Zhou Xiao had just escaped from Hei Mu's stunning beauty, he couldn't help but take several glances at her before reluctantly withdrawing his gaze.

  Taking photos, chatting, socializing, rehearsing, on December 30th, Zhou Xiao had been doing these things all along. Luckily, every now and then, Uncle Inoue would come to the scene with him, otherwise Zhou Xiao might not have known where to go or what to do. Barely making it through the evening, this year's music awards ceremony finally began.

  Sitting next to Zhou Xiao were several newcomers who debuted with him this year, but among them, the only one he knew was Ice River Qingzhi, the singing prince. The other two had already been eliminated in his time, which also shows how unreliable this newcomer award is, as many famous singers from that era didn't get selected this year.

  Xiao Zhou, dressed in a suit and leather shoes, sat below the stage watching as Kuroki Takeshi and Sakai Masashige began hosting. The style of hosting in Japan is quite orthodox. It's not that it's only because the occasion is formal, but like Europe and America, coming up with a fun talk show segment is basically unseen.

  However, Mr. Sakai Masashige still summarized the Japanese music scene in 2000 at the beginning, and then quickly started the awards ceremony.

  Apart from the highest award and newcomer award, this awards ceremony also has many other awards, such as singing award, album grand prize, special award, composition arrangement lyrics award etc. Among them, the singing award cannot be given to a newcomer like Zhou Xiao who hasn't even released an album yet. But among the remaining few awards, there was a small surprise for Zhou Xiao.

  The Special Award is usually given to the singer or group that caused a big sensation this year, last time I remember it was given to An Shan and Anmu Nami, but today, this butterfly's wings changed history, the presenter read out the name of Zhou Xiao and An Shan Girl Group without Anmu Nami!

  It's also worth mentioning that this year, due to the current trend of the "Idol Generation", it's actually quite normal for a new idol singer to emerge. However, what's striking is that idols like AKB48's Atsuko Maeda and Zhou Xun, who rose to fame overnight with a single album selling 2 million copies, have garnered even more attention.

  This award wasn't that important, Zhou Xiao followed behind An An and made a quick exit after receiving the award, until his name was called again on stage.

  This time it's really a newcomer award.

  Step by step, he walked onto the stage and received the Best Newcomer award that belonged to him. In fact, Zhou Xiao didn't have much surprise, as he and Bing Chuan Qing Zhi were in different fields, one in popular music and the other in opera singing. So there wasn't much competition or conflict between them, nor could their influence on their respective industries be compared. Therefore, whether the award went to him or not was normal. As for it ultimately falling into his hands, it could only be said that Bing Chuan Qing Zhi had chosen a bad time to debut.

  The award ceremony is over, and Zhou Xiao doesn't care about anything anymore. The annual grand prize still went to Nantian Xingxing, although Zhou Xiao was a nominee, but sitting under the stage, he didn't have any desire to win this award at all. This year's Nantian Xingxing was just too against the sky, and there's nothing that can be done about it.

  Finally got through the awards ceremony, after getting off the stage, Zhou Xiao immediately found Uncle Inoue: "Let's go home! I'm bored to death!"

  It wasn't until the next day that Zhou Xiao got up at noon. After returning home last night, he started writing again due to boredom, and this time it was for half the night, until dawn when he finally went to bed. The final rehearsal of the Red and White Song Festival was scheduled for noon, so he dared to do so.

  What woke up Zhou Xiao was Uncle Jie's phone call. When Zhou Xiao came out of the apartment, he found that Uncle's car was already waiting outside.

  "You sleep a lot, don't you? Chinese New Year is coming soon, why do you look so sluggish?" Uncle Inoue asked as he watched Zhou Xiao climb into the car.

  "It's New Year's and you're not allowed to be sluggish... I was working all night yesterday, ah... The holiday is almost over, I can't wait to get back to work." Zhou Xiao said.

  It's just that he's become so humble, the Zhou Xiao who used to look forward to holidays every day in his past life now actually starts to look forward to work, which shows how empty and lonely his heart is.

  The rehearsal and performance of the Red and White Song Festival were nothing special, as it was a big event once a year, so the focus was on stability. Zhou Xiao's performance was placed in the second half, and he didn't have much interest in watching the first half. Ten years is enough time for the aesthetics of performances to change greatly, even for someone like Zhou Xiao who doesn't have much aesthetic sense, now looking at the 2000 performance would feel very strange. Of course, the songs were all good ones.

  As for acquaintances, there were almost none, B'z didn't come, Kumi Koda didn't come either. Originally, Kumi Koda was completely qualified to attend, but she had no interest in coming, taking a low-key route instead. SMAP did come and almost performed at the end, but they were busy, especially on this kind of show, they had more things to do. Among the remaining participants, Zhou Xiao only knew one person from a group called "Yaban".

  In the midst of a heated argument, Ishibashi Takamasa witnessed firsthand the plagiarism incident involving Zhou Xiao's jokes on the "Comedy Heaven" program. However, since the matter was taken over by Shimada Shinsuke, he didn't say much about it afterwards. As for who was plagiarized, Zhou Xiao thinks that Ishibashi Takamasa probably never knew his name from start to finish.

  It wasn't easy to get to the second half of the show. Fifteen minutes before the performance started, a staff member found Zhou Xiao, who had been waiting for a long time.

  He made his appearance, hosted the interview with the audience, cracked a few harmless jokes, sang and then left the stage. That's how Zhou Xiao ended his first Red and White performance. He didn't feel particularly happy or excited. At this point, he was just a small-time celebrity. Even though he stood on the Red and White stage, even though his single ranked third in total sales for the year, he was still just a small-time celebrity. The Red and White show wouldn't give him any special treatment, and his appearance wouldn't get high ratings.

  "Next year's Kouhaku, I don't know if I'll be able to stand on this stage again. And the year after that? Will there ever be a year when I'm standing here with AKB? As a small-time idol and a bit player in Kouhaku, it might seem like a big success to others... but for me... it's nothing. I want more, I want Kouhaku to treat me like a big star, I want my own segment!" Xiaoxiao thought to herself as she stepped off the stage one last time, gazing out at the unfamiliar stage."

  "What's on your mind?" Uncle Inoue stood beside Zhou Xiao.

  "Nothing, let's go home," said Zhou Xiao.

  "It's not time to go back yet, wait until the very end when everyone will come out and meet with each other," said Uncle Inoue.

  "Huh? What a hassle! Can't we just sneak out early?" asked Zhou Xiao.

  "Of course not, so many big-name singers are waiting, if you leave early it would be like what." Uncle Inoue said.