Chapter 152: The Beginning of aespa
On February 20th, at 9 AM, IU’s first comeback album release event was held as scheduled.
Jiang Shu and Lee Ji-eun distributed albums to fans as if nothing had happened.
With the groundwork laid by the first ‘good day’, although the ‘hand slip’ incident occurred, its impact on Lee Ji-eun was not that significant.
This is the benefit of timely public relations; many things can be completely salvaged if PR is handled promptly after they happen.
Jiang Shu and Lee Ji-eun stood on either side, flanking a male fan, smiling for a photo.
“Thank you, Chairman Jiang! Thank you, IU xi!” The male fan bowed and thanked them with a smile.
Jiang Shu waved his hand cheerfully, and then, the next fan came onto the stage.
“Chairman Jiang, IU, hello.” The female fan greeted them with a smile. Just as Jiang Shu thought this would be an ordinary album distribution, the female fan across from him spoke.
“Chairman Jiang, are the bed photos of you and IU really from the MV?”
Lee Ji-eun’s eyes flickered, but the smile on her face remained unchanged, and she made no movement.
Jiang Shu’s expression was normal, and he said with a cheerful smile: “Of course they’re MV scenes. It’s not like IU xi and I actually took them after the fact, right? I don’t have a habit of taking pictures after finishing.”
As he spoke, he subtly glanced at a staff member nearby.
“Oh, is that so? But I—”
“Madam, everyone’s time is limited. Please collect your album and take a photo as soon as possible.” The staff member, receiving Jiang Shu’s look, immediately said.
The female fan was a bit unwilling, but seeing the unfriendly glances from other fans and staff behind her, she could only give up.
Fortunately, there was only one fan who was so confrontational. There wasn’t a second one until the end.
“Blacklist that person just now. I don’t want to see her at any future DM Entertainment events,” Jiang Shu said calmly to Director Jiang (of the administrative department).
“Understood!”
Although Jiang Shu didn’t blame him, Director Jiang still felt a chill down his spine. The Chairman was confronted like that, and it was right at the company’s entrance.
As the direct person in charge, he had an undeniable responsibility.
Jiang Shu then looked at Lee Ji-eun, said nothing, and turned to walk away.
Lee Ji-eun looked at Jiang Shu’s back with a puzzled expression. She felt that Jiang Shu was in a bad mood, but having just made a big mistake, she didn’t dare to approach him. What if she angered Jiang Shu?
Thinking this, Lee Ji-eun also withdrew her gaze and stopped paying attention to Jiang Shu.
On the other side, after instructing Choi Ji-yeon not to let anyone into his office, Jiang Shu returned to his office.
He took out the folder named ‘Exclusive Trainees’, which contained individual profile sheets. He pulled out the profile sheets for Kim Minjeong, Ning Yizhuo, and Nænagae Yijili. Then he took out the IVE profile sheets, specifically pulling out Liu Zhimin’s profile and placing it with Kim Minjeong and the other two.
He took out his phone and dialed Li Xiuman’s number.
The call connected in just three or four seconds.
“Chairman Jiang, what makes you have time to call me?” Li Xiuman’s cheerful voice came through.
“I’m preparing to create a girl group with S.M. If Chairman Li is interested, let’s meet and talk.”
A large question mark appeared above Li Xiuman’s head on the other end of the phone.
What the heck?
A new girl group?
“When should we meet?” Li Xiuman pondered for a moment before asking.
“Now.”
Twenty minutes later, at a certain cafe.
Li Xiuman looked at Jiang Shu, who was calmly drinking coffee across from him, showing no sign that DM Entertainment’s biggest cash cow had disbanded half a month ago.
“What do you mean by a new group?” Li Xiuman couldn’t help but ask.
“Just what it means.” Jiang Shu cheerfully took out a folder from his bag and handed it to Li Xiuman.
Li Xiuman took the folder, and the first thing that caught his eye was Liu Zhimin’s profile sheet.
He quickly flipped through it; there were only four members.
“Having Karina lead a new group seems feasible, but what about this group’s configuration and concept?”
“It’s not important.” Jiang Shu waved his hand, “I remember you really like the AI concept?”
Li Xiuman raised an eyebrow, but didn’t ask how Jiang Shu knew. He guessed it might have been Min Xizhen who told him.
“Yes.”
“You can use the four of them to create an AI concept.”
Li Xiuman was stunned, but then spoke.
“Karina doesn’t fit my concept. If I were to arrange the people for it, the core of the concept would be chosen from the other three.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Jiang Shu’s lips curved upwards, “Not being the concept core doesn’t mean their popularity won’t be the highest.”
The concept core highlights the center, but as long as the individual is outstanding enough, they can still be the core.
The concept core of aespa was never Liu Zhimin, but many people believed she was the concept core.
In reality, aespa’s original plan was not for a post-apocalyptic female warrior style. It was only changed to that style after Nænagae Yijili joined the debut lineup.
“It seems you’re very confident in Karina.” Li Xiuman said with a smile.
“Of course.” Jiang Shu raised his head.
Are you kidding? This is Liu Zhimin.
But then, as if remembering something, Jiang Shu’s eyes darkened. Although he recovered quickly, Li Xiuman still noticed it.
Li Xiuman raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything more.
“Working with our S.M., what do you want?”
The trainees Jiang Shu brought out were all from DM Entertainment, and he clearly understood the concept. If he wanted to, he could also create it himself. Since he chose to cooperate with S.M., besides the purpose of dragging them into it to absorb firepower, he also had the idea of gaining something from them.
“Chairman Li certainly has a short memory.” Jiang Shu laughed, “I said before, I want a seat on the S.M. board of directors.”
Li Xiuman frowned.
He frowned not because he didn’t want to give Jiang Shu a board seat, but because he found Jiang Shu’s attitude strange.
Putting himself in Jiang Shu’s shoes, if IVE was forced to disband, Li Xiuman himself would definitely be very upset. Even if he had to arrange for a new group to debut to cut losses, he wouldn’t be completely unaffected.
But Jiang Shu’s attitude was very peculiar; there was a sense of… deliberately disbanding IVE to facilitate using Karina to re-form a group and obtain a seat on the S.M. board of directors.
This feeling was very strange, but it truly existed.
But… it doesn’t make sense, does it?
IVE is so important; Jiang Shu would have to be crazy to deliberately disband them.
He couldn’t figure it out.
“The board seat can be yours,” Li Xiuman said after a moment of thought, “but I want half of the new group’s profits.”
“Three-tenths at most. If not, I’ll go to JYP. They just suffered a setback in the European and American markets, and I believe they’d be very happy to cooperate with us.” Jiang Shu said with a smile.
Li Xiuman’s mouth twitched.
JYP’s aggressive expansion into the European and American markets was known throughout K-pop, and their humiliating return was also common knowledge.
The American venture had almost blown up JYP, and now they were desperate to launch a group to recover. If DM Entertainment approached them now…
“Three-tenths it is!”