Chapter 156: An Unexpected Invitation
Coming out of the “Produce48” studio, Jiang Shu felt a headache when he saw the cameraman walking towards him with a camera.
It was ridiculous how a big boss like him lived such an unfree life every day, even more tired than the workers under him.
At this moment, Choi Ji-yeon also walked over, and Jiang Shu looked at her.
“Chairman, you have a call.” Choi Ji-yeon handed Jiang Shu his phone.
“Whose?” Jiang Shu took the phone, unlocked it, and saw two missed calls.
“I don’t know,” Choi Ji-yeon said truthfully, “But Chairman, you should hire two assistants. I’ve been with you all the time, and the company’s work can’t proceed.”
“You’re good to use,” Jiang Shu said without looking up.
Choi Ji-yeon showed a helpless smile on her face.
“I’m honored by your recognition, but I’m only one person. As the Chairman of DM Entertainment, it’s not acceptable for you not to have enough staff around you.”
“We’ll talk about it later,” Jiang Shu looked at Du Hua’s missed calls, casually replied to Choi Ji-yeon, and then dialed the number.
The call connected shortly after ringing.
“President Du.”
“Director Jiang, are you busy right now?” Du Hua’s cheerful voice came through.
“I just finished. What can I do for you, President Du?”
“It’s like this: CCTV is about to launch a program that combines music with ancient poetry, called “Classic咏流传”. They are currently recruiting singers and music producers, requiring all major music companies to actively participate.”
(Homophone, direct writing always gets censored.)
“I thought of you, Director Jiang, immediately. This variety show has very high attention from both the authorities and the public. If you can be selected, it will be of great help to your future development back in China.”
Jiang Shu understood when Du Hua said this.
Her meaning was to use this variety show to help him gain fame in the Chinese music scene. This could also be considered a favor she was doing for Jiang Shu. After all, among those in Korean Entertainment, who wouldn’t want to get involved in the Chinese market? Not to mention Jiang Shu himself is Chinese.
The idea was good, but the problem was that Jiang Shu was a fake.
Jeon Soyeon could help him with K-pop music, but for “Classic咏流传”, which is mainly Chinese-style music, even if she could write something, it would be out of place and likely criticized.
As for himself…
Damn it, didn’t he know his own level?
“I have a lot of things going on here and can’t be a regular resident,” Jiang Shu found an excuse to refuse.
“Music producers don’t need to be regular residents. After the theme is released, music producers can all participate in creating songs, submit the finished products to the singers responsible for performing, and the program team and singers will jointly select the most suitable works for recording,” Du Hua explained the rules.
Hearing this, Jiang Shu suddenly remembered something.
“Is this show new?”
“Yes.”
Yes my ass!
“Classic咏流传” Season 1 was in 2018, he remembered it very clearly. The singers in Season 1 included Harlem Yu, that old guy.
But now Du Hua was telling him this was Season 1?
Wait, then doesn’t that mean…
“President Du, please wait a moment.” Jiang Shu said, looking at Choi Ji-yeon, “Give me your phone.”
Choi Ji-yeon unlocked her phone and handed it to Jiang Shu.
“Do you have Kugou Music?”
“Yes, I also follow the Kugou Music charts.”
That’s good.
Jiang Shu found Kugou Music, then found the singer Xu Song, searched for “Last Night’s Book,” and found nothing.
He then found the singer Jason Zhang, searched for “Road to Shu is Hard” and “Young China Speaks,” and also found nothing.
Finally, he checked Phoenix Legend, “Lingering Fragrance,” “Crossing the Mountain,” “Cloud Mountain,” and he couldn’t even find “Rivers and Mountains” from the Qixi Festival Gala.
Huh?
Jiang Shu deleted the search history, then returned the phone to Choi Ji-yeon, and picked up the call that hadn’t been hung up yet.
“Help me sign up.”
“Okay, with Director Jiang’s status in Korean Entertainment, the program team will likely approve your application,” Du Hua said with a smile.
Jiang Shu didn’t have many works, and even fewer Chinese works, but his status in Korean Entertainment was enough to influence the program team’s judgment.
He wasn’t being asked to be a music director, just a music producer.
“Mm, thank you, President Du.”
“No trouble.”
They exchanged a few pleasantries and then hung up the phone.
“Do you need me to arrange your schedule?” Choi Ji-yeon asked when she saw Jiang Shu hang up the phone.
“No hurry, wait until the show starts recording,” Jiang Shu said casually, “How far along is the promotional work for “Produce48”?”
“It’s basically complete, just waiting for April 1st.”
Jiang Shu nodded upon hearing this.
“I wonder how these guys will edit me.”
…
On March 20th, following “Bad Boy”, Red Velvet, who returned with “Ice Cream Cake”, stormed into public view with a wild and unbridled momentum.
While IU’s sweet song still had lingering effects, another sweet song from Red Velvet entered the Melon chart.
However, having lost a monstrous rookie like IVE, neither IU nor Red Velvet managed to break into the top ten, both hovering around the top twenty. But such a result, compared to last time, was a good improvement.
At least compared to themselves, they were progressing bit by bit.
If it were ten days ago, IVE’s fans would definitely be calling for IVE, but now…
It’s all minor stuff.
April 1st, ten days from now, our IVE will rise from the grave and be resurrected!
Perhaps because “Produce48” was about to air, Red Velvet’s popularity far exceeded IU’s, who had returned last month, even with the added boost of her “slipping hand” incident with Jiang Shu.
And while Red Velvet was promoting their comeback, CCTV in China also officially announced “Classic咏流传”, a new variety show that combines ancient poetry and modern pop music, and also released the list of all musicians participating in the production of the lyrics and music.
Normally, such a list wouldn’t attract much attention, because compared to the glamorous singers and artists on stage, these behind-the-scenes workers are rarely known. Only someone like Lin Xi, who has reached the pinnacle of the industry, is widely known, but if you ask what he looks like, people have no idea, only that there’s such a lyricist king, and he’s also a loner.
But that’s only under normal circumstances. This time, there was an unusual name on the announced list.
Jiang Shu.
As the most famous executive in K-pop in recent months, Jiang Shu’s almost daily video updates successfully made himself and DM Entertainment the Remy of K-pop.
Many K-pop fans, even those who weren’t fans of DM Entertainment artists, would watch Jiang Shu’s videos, not for anything else, but mainly because they genuinely released some industry insider information that outsiders would find very difficult to access. You could really learn things from watching them.
Over time, this accumulated a massive viewership.
Such a large viewership might be insignificant in the entire country, but a considerable portion of K-pop fans also pay attention to C-ent.
And then…