Chapter 971: Chapter 974

The audience gaped in awe as the president walked on stage. Meanwhile, Sophia flinched in her seat below the stage as she was surprised to see that a number of snipers had taken their positions. That explains why I’ve been feeling an odd, tingling sensation under my skin this whole time, she thought. This is amazing. I wonder how many snipers and undercover agents are here; even Joel is here. Meanwhile, Stanley was so shocked that he dropped the melon seeds snack that he had been munching on. “N-Never in my life have I seen such a sight!”

The audience applauded with all their might once the president appeared. Once he got on stage, he lifted a hand up to silence the crowd before he picked the mic up. The cheers died down as everyone was waiting for the president to announce the winner of the ‘Light of Cethos’ award.

“He is the first Cethosian to have won an Oscar for being the Best Actor,” the president said. Everyone could guess the identity of the winner from the first sentence itself—the audience cheered and clapped as some found the announcement shocking, while others thought that it made sense. After the first wave of cheers ended, the president continued. “He is the only Cethosian actor to have won two Best Actor awards at the Oscars. He’s a long-term advocate that fights for the rights of actors and actresses who are ethnic minorities, supporting his beliefs that they deserve the same jobs and salaries without discrimination. He’s been fighting for the revision of such laws for Cethosian artists to be able to find better workplaces and greater equality in their workplaces when they travel out of the nation! He isn’t the only benefactor of his hard work and success; our entire entertainment industry benefits from it! He is none other than Taylor Murray, the winner of our ‘Light of Cethos’ award!”

The crowd applauded as Michael got on stage to receive his award for the second time. After greeting the president in a friendly manner, Michael took the most valued award of the night into his own hands—

the ‘Light of Cethos’ award. At that moment, awards such as the Best Artist or Best Male Actor felt like nothing in comparison to what he had received. Nicholas Yates was dumbfounded as he watched Michael receiving his award on stage. The existence of the ‘Light of Cethos’ award itself blew Nicholas’

mind; he didn’t even know that there was such a thing before that night. But it was clear that the award was an important one since the president was the one who handed it out.

Sandra was probably the one who was the most stunned by this entire incident. All the confidence and pride that she had just developed within her was crushed into pieces by the blinding golden trophy of the ‘Light of Cethos’ award! No! I haven’t been defeated! I’m still the one who got the endorsement job for Dragon Eye! Nicholas is impacting the entire world while Michael is simply getting a tiny, worthless award that allows him a chance to show off in Cethos!

The director was rather shocked as well. He only found out about this award 3 days ago, but he hadn’t expected it to be given to Taylor! Isn’t his Grandpa dead? I thought he’d lost all the backup and support he had! How did he get this award, then? This isn’t just any award; it isn’t decided by a single individual.

They have to go through meetings and discussion before handing it over to the president, who has to then make any required changes before approving it. But… The director was close to collapsing onto the ground once he thought of the ridiculous, silly behaviors he exhibited earlier.

Michael had to give a speech after collecting his award. He stood on the podium for a while and glanced at Sophia before he smiled and picked the mic up. “Up until today, my greatest achievement in life isn’t just receiving the ‘Light of Cethos’ award.” The audience fell silent as they hadn’t expected his first sentence to start off so straightforwardly. The cameras captured Michael’s handsome features as he glanced down the stage over to someone seated in the first row. The crowd saw how calm he appeared to be as the camera footage was projected onto the huge screens—he seemed even calmer than when he had received his tiny award earlier. “Up until today, my greatest achievement is… the fact that I have a perfect family. Although I’d lost my parents at a young age, I still have a happy family. I have my sister, my nephew, my wife, and my beloved daughter. Getting married to my wife and having a daughter with her has been the greatest honor of my life.”

The cameramen were alert in doing their jobs—they initially focused the shots on Michael, but they then shifted it to Sophia’s face once he mentioned his wife. Sophia’s face appeared on the big screen, showing tears of joy in her eyes. Michael continued his speech. “I want to thank my parents. I want to thank my father for educating me, for teaching me not to give up. I want to thank my mother for blessing me with all her talents. I want to thank my wife and daughter for all the years they’ve spent with me…

From today onward, I hope to continue striving for equality and recognition for the ethnic minorities and Cethosians. I want to create a world in which Cethosians are allowed the right to be proud of their ethnicity all across the globe. Thank you.”

After the short acceptance speech, the emcee then announced the end of the award ceremony before inviting all the guests onto the stage for a group picture. Everyone was quick to move as they wanted the opportunity to grab a picture with the president. Even the laziest, most arrogant artists sped up onto the stage before they arranged themselves according to their own socially assumed statuses. Michael, of course, took the center spot right beside the president. Nicholas tried his best to get closer to the president, but Sam took his spot. Sam was, in fact, one of the people who had supported the idea of handing the ‘Light of Cethos’ award out that year. With his influence within the scene, he managed to implement the award that Michael had just received. Michael had to thank Sam for his help in ultimately making this win possible.

Once again, Nicholas tried to edge over to stand beside Michael, but he was shoved away by Harry and some other seniors, so he ended up in the corner. The stage seemed to shine brighter than ever as artists filled the entire platform. It was an impressive sight to see. “Come on; let’s go up!” Sarah tugged Sophia up onto the stage, and Michael quickly waved toward her. She squeezed her way over to him and felt his large hand grabbing onto her small one.

With a trophy in one hand, and Sophia in the other, Michael’s eyes were twinkling brighter than the stars as he lowered his gaze to look at how elegant and beautiful she was.

“Dear guests, please look over here! The camera’s here!” The cameraman called for everyone’s attention before speedily taking a few group shots. Everyone tried their best to look at the camera, but all Michael saw at that moment was Sophia.

The award ceremony came to an end, and the president was the first to leave after the group photos were taken. The event itself had indeed been one of the grandest ones to have happened in Cethos;

everyone had witnessed a historical moment that night!

In the end, Taylor turned out to be the biggest winner of the entire award ceremony. Glory Entertainment was too embarrassed to publish all the articles that they had drafted, and they speedily withdrew all the drafts that they had sent out previously. However, it was too late—the Internet kept records of everything that had been uploaded. It seemed like all their efforts and money spent on buying and increasing votes had gone to waste; the two awards that Nicholas won were nothing when compared to the ‘Light of Cethos’ award. Sandra quickly left the hall with a pale, sickly expression on her face. The rest of the artists from Glory Entertainment were silent as they, too, sneaked out of the hall.

“Well? Were you guys surprised?!” Maddie cried as she hopped over excitedly. “It’s so rare for you guys to show up at an award ceremony, so I had to make sure that you wouldn’t leave empty-handed. I talked some sense into the 9th Old Master, and I told him that you had to receive an award even if that meant that we had to create a whole new one just for you!” Maddie was one of Michael’s largest fans. Thanks to her connections, all the nights she had stayed up gathering materials during the New Year, and all the colleagues that she had convinced to stay back to help her, they managed to gather all of Michael’s achievements throughout the years into a single file. He had indeed performed a great deal of important work over the years, although he had always been low-key about it. The materials they gathered formed a huge pile. Maddie then managed to get an exclusive meeting with Sam, during which she begged him to reach out to a few of his connections and convince them to come up with this award.

At the same time, Joel stood in a dark corner, dressed in his military uniform. His cold, emotionless glare softened a little as he gazed at Maddie lovingly.

Once the crowd cleared out of the hall, Sam walked to the backstage waiting room hand-in-hand with Nicole. Michael came with Sophia; Harry came with his little kitten; Justin and Celine had been waiting for them backstage. All of them were coupled up, each with the love of their lives.

“Everyone’s here! Does anyone want some melon seed snacks?” Stanley appeared alongside Sean. The atmosphere backstage had a subtle transformation the moment they walked in.