Before the awards ceremony, judging was held. The top ten from each category would undergo judging and the top three would be chosen. Then, the awards ceremony would commence.

  Su Nanfeng participated in landscape photography.

  Ming Shu and Wei Xu participated in portrait photography.

  Those photos that were displayed outside would not be undergoing the judging. Hence, no one knew what the pieces for the judging were. Besides the theme, no one knew what the photos would be about.

  “Hello, everyone. I am your host for today, Aisha. Welcome to the international photography competition for the year……”


  Ming Shu sat down absentmindedly. All that was left of her lollipop was the stick.

  The introduction was not too long. The screen started displaying the different works after a short while.

  Only the works were shown. The name of the photographer was not displayed.

  They would only reveal the name of the photographer after the awards were announced.

  The first category was the humanities and documentary category. It mostly depicted the lives of people and there were quite a few good works.

  The second category was landscape photography. Su Nanfeng chose the night scenes of cities. Night scenes from ten different cities were displayed. Each one of them made you feel like you were right inside the photo.

  Yu Xiaohan started tearing up for some reason.

  Su Nanfeng hurriedly consoled her in a flurry.

  “What happened?” Ming Shu asked Su Nanfeng.

  Su Nanfeng patted Yu Xiaohan’s shoulder. “These ten cities are the cities that Xiaohan wants to visit in the future. She told me that she wanted to travel long ago.”


  “Oh……” Ming Shu looked at the big screen. “Thoughtful.”


  Su Nanfeng sighed. What he wanted to do the most was take her there personally.

  So that all these night scenes would have her inside them.

  Ming Shu returned to her absentminded state. Su Nanfeng glanced at her a few times before deciding to console his own girlfriend.

  “Next up is ‘I have a dream.’ Please appreciate it.”


  A child appeared on the screen first. His skin was dark and his body was scrawny. However, his smile was bright and vibrant. It seemed to infect other people and allowed them to feel his happiness.

  The works after that revolved around children. Some were happy, some were sad…… but no matter what, all the children had a kind of light in their eyes. The light was called hope.

  The theme of this work was the dreams of left-behind children.

  It was not uncommon to find such themes.

  However, in order to shoot such photos, this person must at least be a master.

  “Senior Sister, were these taken by you?”


  “Why do you feel this way?” Ming Shu tilted her head and looked at Su Nanfeng.

  “Not much reason…… I just feel that you can shoot such photos. However, if you look at them carefully, they seem a bit different from your style.” Su Nanfeng said, “Senior Sister, what is your theme?”


  “A dream-like order.”


  Su Nanfeng was curious.

  What kind of theme is this?

  The next few works were not as good as the ones with the theme “I have a dream.”


  “Up next, we have the second-to-last work for portrait photography. The theme is ‘a dream-like order.’ I wonder what the author of this dream-like name is trying to show us through his or her photography.”


  When the first photo appeared, it took everyone’s breath away.

  Mist wreathed in the air. Only clusters of pine greens sprouted out from beneath the mist. On top of the greens, a lady in white was dancing happily. The mist followed the movement of her dress and twirled around her.

  The sun rose up from afar and cast its reflection on the sea.

  The lady was very beautiful. Her makeup was clean and her smile was pure. She seemed like a pure and innocent fairy.

  This was beyond their expectations.

  The pine greens looked like a forest. Based on the entire photo, it was taken from a very high place.

  How could this person shoot from such a high place?

  Actually, this was just an optical illusion. It was a picture of the ground but some props were added.

  The image changed.

  It was the same person.

  She was in a forest. The background should have been taken during sunset. Light sprinkled through the trees and formed light beams. The lady stood among the beams. Her makeup and clothing changed.

  The lady was running. It was shot in the instant when she looked back.

  The third photo was displayed, and then the fourth, and the last one……

  Under the starry star, the lady stood still on a glittering lake. The sky was filled with Kongming lanterns.

  Her expression seemed sad and she was looking far away, as though waiting for a person that would never return.

  From the mountain in the clouds to the vast grassland, to the sandy desert, to the quiet valley…… to the starry lake.

  Every scene was magnificent and grand but the person in the photo didn’t lose her color.

  She was the theme.

  A dream-like order…… dreamy and illusional.

  No one had regained their sense even after the host finished her script.

  With such a piece of work before it, the last group appeared really ordinary.

  Wei Xu’s seat was quite far away from Ming Shu. She looked past the crowd and saw Ming Shu. The latter was looking down and seemed uninterested in what was happening around her.

  Her reaction made Wei Xu hate her even more.

  “Okay, we have displayed all the works of the photographers. Now, we move on to the most important matter of the night. Which photographers will get an award today? Let us watch an advertisement first. We will announce…… cough, cough, I’m joking, we don’t have any sponsors……”


  The host livened up the atmosphere.

  The top three awardees for the humanities and documentary category were revealed soon. The person who presented the award was a senior of the photography industry.

  The photographers who got the awards were so excited when they faced the senior who presented the award to them.

  In the landscape photography category, without a doubt, Su Nanfeng got first place.

  Su Nanfeng passed the trophy to Yu Xiaohan the minute he came down. Yu Xiaohan took the opportunity when everyone was looking at the stage to kiss Su Nanfeng.

  Ming Shu looked at them with a mysterious smile.

  Yu Xiaohan met Ming Shu’s eyes and felt awkward for a moment. She hugged the trophy and used Su Nanfeng to block her red face.

  For the first two categories, photographers from their country and overseas photographers both got awarded. However, the number of overseas photographer awardees were quite little.

  “We will move on to our last category. I believe that this is the one everyone is anticipating too…… first, let us reveal our third place. Please display the work.”


  The screen behind started displaying the work.

  Once it was done, the host said, “Who will be our winner for third place? Let us have a look…… come, please look at the big screen.

  The black spot below the work disappeared and a name popped up.

  “Congratulation to Mister Lu Xiaohui. Can we invite Elder Fu to present the award for Mister Lu……”


  The process of presenting the award was not long. Once Lu Xiaohui came down, the second place was revealed.

  The second place was neither Wei Xu nor Ming Shu.

  There was only one more slot left.

  Wei Xu was confident that her photos would definitely win. After all……

  “Okay, only the first place is left now. Let us see who the first place will go to.”


  Wei Xu sat up straight. She stared at the big screen.

  When the photos were shown, Wei Xu was stunned. How……

  It was not her photos.

  The photos that were shown now most probably belonged to an overseas photographer.

  It was not the breathtaking “a dream-like order” either……

  “Congratulations to Mister Eric Jim.”


  How can it be……

  “Weird, why is it not the photographer for ‘a dream-like order’?”


  “Yeah, what are the judges doing? Anyone could tell that ‘a dream-like order’ was much better.”


  “Is there something shady going on?”