Chapter 148: BLACKPINK?
Inside the office, Liu Zhimin and Jiang Shu stared at each other.
"Where's my group?" Liu Zhimin finally couldn't help but ask.
"As you can see, it's gone," Jiang Shu said, spreading his hands.
"So what do we do?"
"Just stay at the company for now. I'll arrange some individual schedules for you to run, and when you're free, practice singing and dancing. Wait for your next debut," Jiang Shu said, leaning back in his chair.
"Can we really debut again?" Liu Zhimin asked suspiciously.
"When have I ever lied to you?" Jiang Shu retorted.
Liu Zhimin pondered for a moment, then nodded.
"You really haven't lied to me much."
"The ideological work for Xiao Yuan and the others is up to you. I won't make you wait too long; you will definitely debut a second time this year," Jiang Shu said, giving a precise timeline.
Liu Zhimin nodded upon hearing this. She had come this time to ask about the situation on behalf of her members.
To be honest, they didn't even know their group was gone until they saw the announcement. Not even their management team knew; the higher-ups hadn't told them about it before making the decision.
"Then I'll go tell the members now!" Liu Zhimin said, turning and leaving with such speed that by the time Jiang Shu reacted, she was already gone.
A large question mark couldn't help but appear on his forehead.
So decisive?
"Because in ~ a thousand years later ~"
Jiang Shu picked up his phone, raising an eyebrow at the incoming call from Min Xizhen.
"Director Min."
"Listening to your voice... it doesn't seem like you've been affected much?" Min Xizhen's surprised voice came through.
"What, is Director Min calling specifically to offer condolences?" Jiang Shu teased.
"That's secondary. I mainly wanted to ask you if Red Velvet's mini-album title track is ready."
"It's ready. It won't delay Red Velvet's comeback," Jiang Shu said with a smile.
"Send it to me as soon as possible. I'm waiting to use it," Min Xizhen said.
"Okay, I'll send it to you shortly."
"IVE has disbanded. What are you planning to do with Karina and Zhang Yuanying? If you don't want them, you can give them to me," Min Xizhen inquired.
"You don't need to worry about that, Director Min. I have my own arrangements," Jiang Shu said with a chuckle.
"Mmm, if you need any help, just ask."
"No problem."
Jiang Shu hung up the phone, found "Ice Cream Cake" in the Red Velvet folder, and sent it to Min Xizhen.
Jiang Shu's original idea was to use "Russian Roulette" or "Rookie," but the concept Min Xizhen provided wasn't suitable for those two songs, so he sent "Ice Cream Cake" instead.
Anyway, he was just a ruthless song-copying robot.
Oh, right, how was his own ITZY doing?
Jiang Shu woke up his computer and checked ITZY's work schedule.
ITZY, who made their comeback on February 1st, had considerable popularity, but a series of major events had stolen much of their debut limelight. Especially with their senior group IVE disbanding in less than a year, it brought some negative news to them as well.
However...
Looking at the data, it wasn't bad. Although not as good as Red Velvet, it wasn't too far off, and ITZY's popularity was cumulative; the initial popularity didn't really matter.
Just as Jiang Shu was about to close the internal webpage, a notification popped up in the bottom right corner.
YG Entertainment announced they would debut a new girl group in April.
Jiang Shu: "?"
YG? New girl group?
Jiang Shu clicked on the webpage in confusion.
"YG Entertainment will debut a new girl group, BLACKPINK, in April this year."
Upon seeing the first sentence, Jiang Shu's heart stopped.
What the f*ck?
BLACKPINK?
He didn't know if other companies could trigger bonds, but if they could, with BLACKPINK's streaming girl group bond combined with YG's habit of frantically buying trending topics, they really could make it big.
At that time, YG really could capture a large share of the girl group market.
Damn it!
Although Jiang Shu had never thought of monopolizing the entire market, the thought of his arch-rival YG getting a piece of it first made him sick and uncomfortable all over.
He continued reading down, and then...
Jiang Shu laughed.
It turned out that when people reached the height of speechlessness, they really would laugh.
BLACKPINK, leader and main dancer Lisa, main vocalist Heo Yunjin, lead vocalist Isa Lee Chae-young, visual Kim Jixiu.
Good!
Very good!
Excellent!
So this was the BLACKPINK.
Jiang Shu couldn't hold back.
He had thought that Isa and Heo Yunjin, whom he couldn't take with him from YG back then, would be kept by YG and debut, but he never expected them to debut in this way.
Of these four people, three of them were connected to him.
Lisa was someone he traded to YG, Heo Yunjin and Lee Chae-young were trainees he couldn't take with him, and only Kim Jixiu had no real connection to him.
These four people...
Although Lisa and Kim Jixiu both had the streaming girl group bond, the streaming girl group bond required four people to activate; two people were useless.
Isa only had the STAYC bond, which was also a multi-person bond, even more than the four people needed for the streaming girl group bond.
And while Heo Yunjin had many bonds, like 'Seraphim' and 'Buffalo,' these were also group bonds.
If he had to say, this group could only trigger three bonds: one was Lisa's 'Crazy Horse Empress,' and the other two were...
Kim Jixiu (S)
Bonds: Streaming Girl Group (4), Visual Mountain Range (1), Pseudo-All-Round Artist (1).
Visual Mountain Range: Kim Jixiu's exclusive bond.
Effect One: Increases the chance of gaining fans, with peak attractiveness for visual fans, but significantly increases the number of toxic solo stans.
Effect Two: Significantly reduces fans' sensitivity to the artist's skill level and lowers the chance of unfollowing, but inappropriate styling will temporarily negate this effect.
Effect Three: Fans of artists with the divine beauty bond and world's most beautiful bond are immune to Effect One and Effect Two of this bond.
Pseudo-All-Round Artist:
Effect: Once activated, will achieve certain results in film, television, and music fields, but at most one field will reach top-tier, while the other two will remain at a low level.
The divine beauty, Visual Mountain Range, and world's most beautiful bonds, all related to visuals, were very strong and mutually immune. There was nothing more to say; they were all powerful tools for attracting visual-oriented fans.
But Pseudo-All-Round Artist...
Lee Ji-eun's All-Round Artist bond meant achieving certain accomplishments, where accomplishments meant both reputation and results. The Pseudo-All-Round Artist bond, however, only focused on results.
Having results doesn't necessarily mean having a good reputation, like...
The infamous 'Flower King.'
Furthermore, compared to the All-Round Artist bond's negative effect of two top-tier fields and one field that couldn't be top-tier but could be high-level, the Pseudo-All-Round Artist bond meant one field would achieve results while the other two would be completely stagnant. The difference in their effects was more than just a little.
But overall, the effects of Kim Jixiu's card were still very strong. At least her commercial value was undeniable; she could quickly create an artist who could be very profitable without much effort.
To be honest, if he could, Jiang Shu would have wanted Kim Jixiu too, but he couldn't find her, so he had to let it go.
He hadn't expected that Kim Jixiu would still debut at YG, and with Lisa too, but...
Where were Park Chae-young and Jennie Kim?
Looking at this rather peculiar BLACKPINK, Jiang Shu couldn't help but feel a bit amused and frustrated at the same time.