On August 29, 2007, Qin Li, president of Science Fiction World Magazine, Yao Haijun, deputy editor-in-chief, science fiction writers Li Mu, Han Song, Wu Yan, Ding Ding Worm and others went to RB Yokohama to participate in the 65th World Science Fiction Convention.

This is the first time that the World Science Fiction Convention has been held in an Asian country since its birth, and it is also the first time that the Chinese science fiction community has participated in the World Science Fiction Convention in an organized manner.

On August 30, the three-day conference officially opened, with more than 5,000 science fiction enthusiasts from all over the world participating in the conference.

On the morning of the 30th, Li Mu, President Qin Li, Deputy Editor-in-Chief Yao Haijun and others walked into the huge exhibition hall together, and were immediately attracted by the various exhibits inside.

The exhibition hall is filled with a variety of sci-fi characters, including static ornaments, moving dolls, and even suspended astronauts.

Li Mu stopped in front of a strangely shaped glider, the owner of the glider was an RB man, and at this moment he was engrossed in fiddling with his elaborate glider model, and turned a blind eye to the arrival of Li Mu and the others.

"This is the glider from the cartoon Nausicao Nausica?" Li Mu asked, pointing to the model.

The owner of the glider suddenly showed a bright smile when he heard this, and even pulled Li Mu to discuss it well, but it was obvious that Li Mu rejected him.

A few people left the glider booth, and President Qin Li couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "I didn't expect you to even recognize the shape of the plane in the cartoon."

Li Mu smiled: "This is the animation of the famous Miyazaki, I know it's normal."

Qin Li nodded: "This matter is indeed normal, then now let's talk about something that is abnormal." Half a year ago, you told me that you would write another book with tens of millions of sales, and last month you sent me the manuscript of "Moving Labyrinth", and now the first month sales of "Moving Labyrinth" have been counted, 1.1 million copies......

Qin Li looked at Li Mu: "Sure enough, it's another book with tens of millions of sales, and now what makes the entire editorial department very curious is that before it goes on sale, how do you judge whether it is a book with tens of millions of sales?"

Li Mu said, "Intuition."

Qin Li smiled, "I believe in market research more than intuition."

After speaking, Qin Li left early, saying that she wanted to find out what the probability of Li Mu winning the award was.

The Hugo Awards are subject to two rounds of voting, the first round of nominations and the second round of the final round, in which all members of the World Science Fiction Association can participate in voting.

Although the World Science Fiction Association has the word "world", the number of members is not large, about 5,000 in total. If a work can get more than 2,000 votes, it is very likely to win the award.

Qin Li was in charge of the magazine's external communication work for a long time before becoming the president of Science Fiction World Magazine, and it is precisely because of this that the overseas publication of Li Mu's English books will finally be entrusted to him.

Due to her work, Qin Li is very familiar with many science fiction writers in the world, and if she asks about the attitudes of the members of the Science Fiction Association in private, she can roughly see Li Mu's chances of winning the award, after all, there are so many people who are qualified to participate in the vote.

As a result, she asked more than 50 people in a row, and the answers she received were all strikingly similar.

In the heaviest and most influential award for Best Feature, "The Martian" has almost a crushing advantage. ….

At least forty of the more than fifty people questioned said that other works could not be compared to "The Martian", and only a small number mentioned a work called "The End of the Rainbow."

In the award for Best Novella, "Gravity" also has a large number of fans, with about two-thirds of the association's members saying they would vote for this work.

In the Best Short and Medium Award, Li Mu's first work "Moon" also won nearly half of the support rate.

Unexpectedly, all three awards have a chance of winning, especially the book "The Martian", which has almost constituted a dimensionality reduction and attack advantage over other candidates.

A few months ago, these three works were far from having the advantage they have today, and it seems that as the sales of the three works are getting higher and higher, and as Li Mu's personal fame in the Western world is growing, Li

Mu's three candidate works also rose accordingly.

Back at the hotel where he stayed, all the members of the Huaxia troupe were in the room of the deputy editor-in-chief Yao Haijun at this moment, but it was obvious that Li Mu had already occupied the absolute C position, and at this moment he was surrounded by everyone to ask about the "Inception" movie.

"Okay, okay, everyone don't surround Li Mu, you're all right, Li Mu still has something to do."

"What can I do?" Li Muqi said.

Qin Li smiled: "The day after tomorrow is the Hugo Award ceremony, have you written your acceptance speech?"

"Not really, I'll write it." After speaking, Li Mu really got up and went back to his room.

Qin Li is right, the acceptance speech does have to be prepared in advance, although he is sure whether he can win the award or not, but it doesn't take much effort to write a testimonial.

In his previous life, Liu Cixin did not attend the conference when he felt that he had no hope of winning the award, and this incident became a big regret for him.

After returning to the room, Li Mu began to seriously conceive the acceptance speech, since the time crossing, he has copied the movie, can't he even write an acceptance speech now?

……

In this way, the time quickly came to September 1, and today, the winners of the 65th Hugo Award will be officially announced.

At this time, there was a lot of laughter and laughter in the room of Qin Li, the president of Science Fiction World Magazine, and all the members of the Huaxia Group looked extremely excited, and everyone was looking forward to the arrival of that historic moment.

Perhaps at around 6 o'clock tonight, the first Hugo Award work in China, and the first Hugo Award work in an Asian country, will be officially born.

"I'm excited, I don't know if I can witness history!"

"Although I know that "The Martian" has a very high probability of winning the award, I still feel a little unbelievable in my heart, China's first Hugo Award work is really about to be born?"

"The science fiction circle is too small, except for Li Mu, Liu Cixin already belongs to the ceiling of domestic science fiction, right? But how many people in the country have heard of Da Liu? I don't think there are many! I don't know if the current situation of the domestic science fiction circle can be improved after Li Mu really wins the Hugo Award."

"Hanging, Li Mu is hot enough now, right? But what should the sci-fi circle be like?"

At this time, President Qin Li's mobile phone rang suddenly, and she first booed everyone to quiet down, and then answered the phone with a smile on her face. ….

"Hello."

"Uh-huh."

"Huh?"

"Are you sure?"

"I see, thank you."

Qin Li answered the phone call for more than half an hour, and her face gradually developed from a smile at the beginning to a cold face at the end.

"President Qin, is something wrong?" Yao Haijun asked solemnly.

Qin Li saw that everyone was looking at her with concern on their faces, she sighed and said: "A friend just told me that there is a group of writers headed by Vaux Dai who is attacking Li Mu and Li Mu's works in tandem, and they claim that the Hugo Award is being dominated by more and more foreign writers, ethnic minorities, women, and young writers, and this situation does not come from the fact that the works of these foreign writers, minorities, women, and young writers are more excellent, but entirely because the jury attaches too much importance to the so-called political correctness. The rise of foreign writers and ethnic minorities is the result of political manipulation."

"And this situation has reached its peak this year, with the unprecedented and absurd result of the same person receiving three nominations at the same time, and this person happens to be a yellow person from China."

"Is the problem serious?" Yao Haijun asked.

Qin Li nodded:

"They put together a nomination form for works that fit their own aesthetics and called on members of the World Science Fiction Association with similar political views to vote on the list, and I heard that they have received almost half of the support."

For a moment the whole room fell silent.

"Sister Li, can you help me see how I wrote my acceptance speech?" At this time, Li Mu suddenly happily pushed the door in, and then immediately found the room

The atmosphere is not right.

"What's wrong?" Li Mu was surprised.

Qin Li glanced at the acceptance speech written by Li Mu twice, and then smiled a little reluctantly:

"Actually, we don't have to pay too much attention to this Hugo Award, the award for foreigners, fairness is just the same thing, it is also full of all kinds of political manipulation, and the resounding sales performance is the biggest and most precious award for a work."

Li Mu nodded and said, "I know, by the way, Sister Li, do you think my acceptance speech still needs to be changed?"

"No need." Qin Li shook her head and said.

How can she still be in the mood to study the acceptance speech now?

……

Qin Li is not the only one who has noticed the undercurrent behind this science fiction convention, but in recent years, the Hugo Awards have indeed become more diverse, and foreign writers, ethnic minorities, women, and young writers have indeed appeared more and more in the list of winners.

Because this phenomenon happened to be in line with the overall politically correct atmosphere at the time, when writers led by Vaux Day united to attack Li Mu's works, they were actually attacking politically correct values that were becoming more and more mainstream.

Because sometimes it's hard to hide your disgust, especially when you're trying to express your political leanings, and their extreme dislike for other minorities is quickly noticed.

Then it will develop to the stage of complete opposition to all the authors you oppose, and we will fully support all the works you support.

Immediately after that, Vaux Day and others became more and more disgusted with colored people, and the radical remarks of minorities, women, young writers, and foreign writers were widely exposed, which finally aroused the extreme disgust of the vast majority of science fiction writers, including many writers who also previously supported not choosing Li Mu.

To be honest, everyone does feel glaring when they see Li Mu winning three nominations at the same time, but when they look at the increasingly radical remarks of Vaux Dai and others, they feel that Vaux Dai and others are even more disgusted.

In this way, the results of this year's Hugo Awards are destined to be full of suspense.

Finally, at 6 p.m. on September 1st, the Hugo Awards at this year's World Science Fiction Convention officially began.

Extraordinary ordinary