Chapter 190: The Red Velvet Vase
The original intention of the live broadcast was to promote his upcoming comeback and debut groups, but who would have thought that the Chairman would get so carried away while chatting that he started making sharp criticisms?
Moreover, he offended the largest fanbase in the e-sports circle, the SKT fans. Isn't that like lighting a lamp in the toilet, looking for shit?
On the K-pop side, it was still fine. Although “anyone with hands can do it” seemed quite arrogant, Jiang Shu clearly had the capital to be arrogant.
But why did he have to drag e-sports into it…
The controversy even grew so large that the head of the SKT club, Li Lishi, personally called Jiang Shu to ask what he meant.
Jiang Shu was also a bit bewildered, realizing that what he considered obvious might not be very conducive to unity now.
With Jiang Shu’s apology and explanation, Li Lishi accepted his apology. After all, Jiang Shu just wasn't optimistic about their team. If you break off relations with someone just because they’re not optimistic about your team, then what kind of business are you doing?
But after gaining Li Lishi's understanding, Jiang Shu remained silent. Apologizing to Li Lishi was for potential future cooperation. Apologizing to fans? Why should he apologize, honestly?
It's only been a month. Let them curse. However fiercely these fans curse now, that's how quickly they'll play dead later.
Jiang Shu's apology was only known to the management, which led many fans to believe that Jiang Shu was playing dead, so they resorted to their traditional methods.
The truck protests that K-pop fans hadn't bought were initiated by SKT fans, leaving the artists' fans outside DM Entertainment stunned.
This was their thing, right?
How could they steal their act?
Moreover, since Jiang Shu is Chinese, these SKT fans even “thoughtfully” prepared a black and white portrait of Jiang Shu and wreaths, a combination of Chinese and Korean traditions.
Jiang Shu did not interfere with this unique Korean fan culture. As long as it didn't affect the normal commute of company employees, he let them vent.
Confronting them head-on would only put him at a disadvantage.
Although the storm Jiang Shu stirred up was significant, it did not affect the groups that were about to debut or make a comeback.
For example, Red Velvet, who were the first to make a comeback, not only remained unaffected but also saw a significant increase in attention.
However, due to Jiang Shu being embroiled in negative news, he did not create a vlog for Red Velvet's comeback as promotion. He only made an appearance at the album release event on the morning of the 30th, then disappeared again.
Compared to the e-sports community's widespread condemnation of Jiang Shu, the K-pop side was focused on a new issue.
Irene is… so bad.
Actually, with Zhang Yuanying before her, the audience had developed a tolerance for artists' skill levels. Originally, everyone was strong and felt very secure, but then IVE's twin stars suddenly appeared—two artists who weren't very skilled but became incredibly popular. Later, Liu Zhimin gradually improved, but Yuan Ying remained in a half-dead state. Although it was one of her many black marks, it also indirectly “tamed” some of the audience.
Later, during the “Produce 48” period, she was heavily criticized by Min Xizhen, and Yuan Ying's skills also gradually improved significantly. By the IZONE period, she was already quite decent.
And while Bae Joo-hyun was quite bad when she first debuted, even to the point of being unwatchable, considering her age and the visible improvement in every performance, the public was quite tolerant.
But this time, her comeback suddenly made her lack of skill a trending topic. Many marketing accounts compared Bae Joo-hyun's stage videos with those of her teammates, starting to comment that she was the worst among second-generation girl groups.
Everyone had already been “tamed” by IVE, implicitly accepting the existence of useless but beautiful idols. But now, being influenced by this trend, they found they couldn't quite accept it anymore.
As a result, discussions about Bae Joo-hyun's skills also became increasingly heated.
Moreover, compared to Yuan Ying, who was somewhat lazy but not truly bad, Bae Joo-hyun, although improving with each performance, was limited by the negative effects of her divine beauty, making her progress very limited each time. This inevitably made people doubt whether she was truly working hard.
Adding to that, the skill configuration of the other four members of Red Velvet was somewhat too high.
Looking at second-generation girl groups, currently, no group can match Red Velvet in terms of average skill, not even the currently far-leading IZONE.
Only ITZY can be placed in the same category as Red Velvet in terms of dance, but if you include vocals, then they're clueless.
With Bae Joo-hyun appearing in such a visually stunning and skilled group, she seemed particularly out of place.
For a time, the negative discussions online even showed signs of replaying the scene from before Bae Joo-hyun's debut.
Such a large momentum was, of course, premeditated. Is it possible for black fans to create such a large stir without major news?
DM Entertainment, Red Velvet practice room.
Kang Seul-gi and Bae Joo-hyun watched the dancer's hand movements intently, while also trying to replicate the dance moves with their hands.
Soon, the dancer finished demonstrating this part of the movements and asked the two to try replicating them.
Then, she was stunned.
Watching Kang Seul-gi and Bae Joo-hyun successfully replicate the moves, her brain froze for a moment.
“Director Yun... is Bae Joo-hyun hiding her true abilities?”
Bae Joo-hyun blinked and shook her head.
“I don’t know why, but I seem to pick up this choreography very quickly.”
When she practiced dancing and singing before, she always felt her mind wasn't clear, memorizing it over and over again, but it still didn't work when it came to performing. But now, the company asked her and Kang Seul-gi to form a sub-unit, and they started practicing the new song's choreography for the sub-unit. Then she discovered something was wrong.
If her brain used to be on a different channel from her limbs, each doing its own thing, now it was as if the neural connections to her brain had been established.
She woke up!
“Is this… a breakthrough?” The dancer was a bit bewildered. This song written by the Chairman was choreographed by Director Yun herself, and the hand gestures were extremely difficult. Even professional dancers like them struggled greatly to learn it.
Kang Seul-gi could replicate it in a short time because she used to be in their dance studio and had special training in that area, but Bae Joo-hyun, a “second-gen flop number one,” how could she?
Yes, second-gen flop number one.
The full term is the worst performer among second-generation girl groups.
It's a derogatory term brought about by Bae Joo-hyun's anti-fans.
The divine beauty brought Bae Joo-hyun more solo fans than the other four members combined, and also more anti-fans than the other four combined.
These anti-fans were desperate for Bae Joo-hyun to retire on the spot. Normally, constrained by Red Velvet's strong popularity, they could only enjoy themselves within their own circle, but now that the public opinion is so strong, this is a favorable situation, so why not go all out and blast her?
However, such an advanced derogatory term as “second-gen flop number one” was certainly not conceived by them, but rather taught by a certain “anti-fan” who wished to remain anonymous.
As soon as it appeared, it was widely adopted by anti-fans, while the instigator, having accomplished his deed, departed, deeply concealing his achievements and fame, disappearing from the internet.
