Chapter 150: Spicy
Not long after, Lee Ji-eun returned.
Seeing Lee Ji-eun, the people in the office tacitly rose to bid farewell.
Lee Ji-eun stood in place nervously, and only after hearing the door close behind her did she look up at Jiang Shu.
When she noticed Jiang Shu staring intently at her, her heart skipped a beat.
"Chairman, I—"
"Listen to me." Jiang Shu directly interrupted Lee Ji-eun, who was about to say something, "Was this matter intentional, or did you accidentally slip?"
"I didn't do it on purpose!" Lee Ji-eun shivered, shaking her head like a rattle drum.
No matter how much she thought about the position of the boss's wife, she couldn't possibly do something like that; intentionally exposing this matter would bring her no benefit whatsoever.
"Really not?" Jiang Shu asked with a frown.
"Chairman! I truly couldn't do such a thing!" Lee Ji-eun emphasized again.
With the world law of 'every thunder point must explode' and the angle of 'no profit to be gained' mutually corroborating, Jiang Shu was actually more inclined to believe that she had genuinely slipped.
Thinking of this, Jiang Shu looked deeply at Lee Ji-eun.
"You should understand that even if it was a genuine slip, the incident has had an irreversible impact, and I need to punish you," Jiang Shu said, looking at Lee Ji-eun.
"I understand," Lee Ji-eun said with a sigh of relief.
Being merely punished instead of being frozen meant that Jiang Shu had a high tolerance for this matter, and he wasn't too angry.
"Your comeback on March 1st will be moved up by ten days to February 20th; prepare yourself," Jiang Shu said.
"Yes."
"All your earnings from this comeback will be deducted. Do you have any objections?" Jiang Shu asked.
Originally, he had planned to freeze Lee Ji-eun for a period to teach her a lesson, but after thinking about it, doing so would not only affect the phased plan for Lee Ji-eun's popularity growth but also cause the company to lose a lot of money.
The subsequent impact of IVE's disbandment was significant, and the company was now short on money again; Lee Ji-eun, a cash cow, couldn't be left idle.
So he simply deducted her earnings, making her work for free for one comeback.
Actually, Jiang Shu could have been harsher, deducting her earnings for half a year or even the entire year, but considering her future high achievements, it was better not to be so ruthless; a small punishment to serve as a warning would suffice.
Of course, a small punishment to serve as a warning only applied to smart people like Lee Ji-eun; she would understand the purpose of his actions and wouldn't think that causing trouble would be taken lightly.
"No objections!" Lee Ji-eun quickly shook her head. She had prepared herself for severe punishment from the company, but she didn't expect the company's punishment to be so lenient, which was completely acceptable to her.
"Since that's the case, let's go. We'll shoot the MV as soon as possible and resolve the matter."
Thinking of the song for this comeback, Jiang Shu felt a bit helpless.
"cherry blossom ending," IU Unnie's most representative sweet song, adding a bed photo to the MV would be too suggestive.
Moreover, he still had to shoot many more scenes to expand the MV's footage, because...
The male lead of the MV was someone else entirely.
Things were going to be busy now.
...
On February 7th, Lee Ji-eun accidentally posted a bed photo with Jiang Shu. After three days of fermentation, when the public and fans had given up hope, believing it was a prelude to an official announcement, DM Entertainment, which had urgently filmed new MV scenes, finally responded on February 10th.
They released the newly recorded MV footage, along with an unreleased audio snippet of the song "cherry blossom ending."
They also issued a statement explaining that the bed photo was merely a scene from the MV but was accidentally posted by IU Unnie. After internal discussions among DM Entertainment executives, it was decided to move the comeback, originally scheduled for March 1st, to February 20th, with the album release event also being moved up.
Additional flight and hotel expenses incurred due to the change in the album release event schedule could be reimbursed by presenting relevant receipts at DM Entertainment.
As soon as this news was released, it quickly attracted widespread attention both within and outside the industry.
Some people thought this was pure nonsense: if it was really an MV scene, why didn't they clarify it earlier? If this was a marketing strategy, why delete it in seconds? Isn't that just showing a guilty conscience?
Another group believed it should be a marketing ploy; otherwise, why wait so long to clarify? If it were true, the entertainment company would have responded immediately to save face, not drag it out until everyone knew. DM Entertainment had done something similar when Red Velvet debuted; it was the same black-and-red marketing strategy.
And finally, the fans began to unleash their fury. DM Entertainment had already handed them the knife, so what else was there to say? Charge!
Coupled with the public relations and marketing departments pushing from behind, Lee Ji-eun's accidental slip ironically became the source of buzz for Lee Ji-eun's comeback.
The next step was to win over the general public with the quality of the song upon its comeback.
When the quality of the work is strong enough, most negative points will be overlooked.
This public relations crisis was now resolved, but Jiang Shu's crisis was not yet over.
Chairman's office.
Jiang Shu looked awkwardly at Liu Zhimin, who was staring at him with wide eyes.
He had been working non-stop shooting the MV for the past few days, so much so that Liu Zhimin, after seeing the news, was almost fainting from anger but couldn't find Jiang Shu.
Now that the matter had been handled by public relations, Liu Zhimin finally found Jiang Shu.
"What's going on between you and IU Unnie?" Liu Zhimin demanded, staring at Jiang Shu with wide eyes.
"Uh..." Jiang Shu instinctively wanted to lie, but how could he?
The excuse of it being an MV scene could only fool others. Liu Zhimin was an artist within the company; she could easily find out what the original MV was like with a little inquiry.
Such an excuse would only make Liu Zhimin more furious and serve no other purpose.
"Don't lie to me!" Liu Zhimin immediately added when she saw Jiang Shu remain silent.
The lie that was on the tip of Jiang Shu's tongue was swallowed back down.
He lowered his head in silence, and after a moment, Jiang Shu sighed.
"That photo is indeed real."
Hearing Jiang Shu personally admit the authenticity of the photo meant that his relationship with Lee Ji-eun was truly...
Liu Zhimin unconsciously clenched her fists. Looking at Jiang Shu across from her, she really wanted to break up with him directly, but the words were on the tip of her tongue... she hesitated.
She hesitated!
Jiang Shu lowered his head, listening to the heavy breathing beside him, not daring to breathe loudly.
After an unknown amount of time, Liu Zhimin's breathing gradually stabilized.
"I'm leaving first," Liu Zhimin's normal voice sounded in his ear.
Jiang Shu couldn't help but look up, finding Liu Zhimin staring at him with red eyes.
"Xiao Liu..."
"Let me think about it carefully," Liu Zhimin said, looking at him with red eyes.
Jiang Shu opened his mouth, but in the end, he said nothing.
Liu Zhimin took a step back, bowed to Jiang Shu, and then exited the office without looking back.
Jiang Shu watched Liu Zhimin's retreating back, his mouth twitching.
He chopped off his second brother!