Chapter 372: Filthy Rich
Hearing about Min Xizhen coming to borrow resources and matters related to YG, Jiang Shu’s expression subtly changed.
“I’ll wait for him in his office.”
Upon hearing Jiang Shu’s words, Secretary Kim quietly breathed a sigh of relief, bowed again to Jiang Shu, and gestured for him to follow.
“Executive Director-nim, this way, please.”
Soon, Jiang Shu arrived at Kim Young-min’s office.
This office was still the one Kim Young-min used before he was reassigned; he was supposed to move into Li Xiuman’s, but Kim Young-min refused, saying he was more familiar with this one and didn’t need to move.
Thus, Li Xiuman’s office became the office of the new mascot president.
As for Jiang Shu and the Chairman Jiang sent by Kakao Entertainment, they hardly came once a week, so no offices were set up for them.
It wasn’t about being stingy; it was just that S.M.’s pathetic little building didn’t have that many offices to spare. Since they didn't come often, there was no need for such a superficial project; every inch of space was valuable and utilized.
Kim Young-min’s office, compared to Jiang Shu’s office at DM Entertainment, could be described as a dog kennel without exaggeration.
With a total space of less than thirty square meters, it was undoubtedly miles apart from Jiang Shu’s 120-square-meter office.
In terms of facilities, there was only an office and a sofa; there wasn’t even projection equipment for remote meetings, let alone a refrigerator, guest table, or wardrobe.
However, an office set up like this was more in line with Kim Young-min’s personality. After all, it wasn’t that S.M. was stingy, but rather that Kim Young-min insisted on it.
Li Xiuman’s office was more than twice the size of Kim Young-min’s, and it had everything it should, so it didn’t seem so… well, miserable.
Jiang Shu looked around Kim Young-min’s office for a while. Not waiting for Kim Young-min to arrive, he simply sat on the sofa and continued to read emails.
Ding-dong.
A message notification suddenly popped up, and Jiang Shu clicked on the message sent by Liu Zhimin.
Xiao Liu: 【Image】
Jiang Shu clicked on the image and saw a box of tea leaves.
Ding-dong.
Ding-dong.
Xiao Liu: Just arrived at the company. Tonight I have to go to a Consolation performance . I’m taking a box of tea leaves for the Grand Colonel in charge.
Xiao Liu: I didn’t take the best one, I took one from the second row.
“Grand Colonel” is the second highest military rank in Korea. Excluding the highest rank of Marshal, the first rank is General, and the second rank is Colonel, equivalent to Colonel in China.
A Grand Colonel can be considered a Brigadier General, a half-step to the General rank, a perfect completion!
This was also the typical rank of the general manager for comfort performances, so bringing a gift to such a person was normal.
Shu: Okay.
Shu: When you give it, remember to be sweet with your words. Think about how Xiao Yuan would speak.
Xiao Liu: I know, I know.
Through the text, Jiang Shu could almost hear Liu Zhimin’s impatient tone.
There was nothing else to instruct. This wasn’t her first comfort performance, and Liu Zhimin knew exactly what to do. Such procedures didn’t require Jiang Shu to explain them to her bit by bit anymore.
Liu Zhimin’s message was just a small interlude. After Liu Zhimin stopped sending messages, Jiang Shu continued to read the emails in his inbox.
He hadn’t looked at these old emails for a long time, mainly because he couldn’t finish reading them; there were simply too many.
At least five emails arrived every day. He hadn’t even finished reading the old ones when new ones arrived.
There was nothing he could do. Jiang Shu could only try his best to read them, browsing them broadly when he had time, just looking at the key points.
If there was truly something particularly important, Choi Ji-yeon would call him directly to report it, not send it to his inbox for him to read one by one.
After all, Choi Ji-yeon and the others who sent emails also knew that Jiang Shu might not read emails, and what if he missed something important?
As Jiang Shu browsed through the emails one by one, time slowly passed.
About twelve or thirteen minutes after he arrived at Kim Young-min’s office, the office door opened.
Jiang Shu, who was just reading emails to pass the time, immediately looked up when he heard the movement.
Kim Young-min’s figure then came into view.
“Executive Director, long time no see.” Kim Young-min greeted Jiang Shu with a smile.
Jiang Shu also held a position at S.M., and now he was inside the S.M. company, so Kim Young-min didn’t use the title “Chairman Jiang” but rather the more familial “Executive Director.”
“What is Min Xizhen doing here?” Jiang Shu put down his phone, leaned back on the sofa, and asked curiously.
“Big Hit formed a new girl group called NewJeans, which is debuting at the end of this month. But Big Hit was only recently established, and even though Fang Shihe and Min Xizhen both have their own connections, resources are still a huge problem.”
Kim Young-min said, walking around the sofa where Jiang Shu was sitting and taking a seat opposite him.
“They came to me this time hoping to get some exclusive resources for new artists from us.”
“You know the situation with YG and JYP recently. New artist resources are basically concentrated in our S.M. and DM Entertainment. DM Entertainment just disbanded IZONE, and according to DM Entertainment’s past practice, a new girl group will debut this year or next year, so Big Hit didn’t even think about exchanging resources with DM Entertainment.”
“All that’s left is us.”
Kim Young-min’s analysis was indeed sound.
DM Entertainment was not only debuting a new girl group but two at once.
Whether it was LESSERAFIM or IVE, both were major resource consumers. Even if Min Xizhen came, he couldn’t give her any resources.
“How about it? What price did they offer?”
Kim Young-min looked at Jiang Shu in front of him, feeling a bit strange telling his company’s confidential information to the head of another company.
But his own company’s head was an Empress Dowager who only cared about profit and not content, which led to the strange situation S.M. was currently in.
Now S.M. and DM Entertainment exchanged information, so calling them sister companies seemed to be no problem, right?
A jumble of thoughts flashed by, and Kim Young-min composed himself and spoke.
“Min Xizhen offered three B-grade resources and one A-grade resource, and promised to secure a script, though she couldn’t guarantee it would be a popular one.”
Listening to the conditions offered, Jiang Shu’s expression became a bit strange.
The top-tier exclusive resource for a new artist was only A-grade, and that was the absolute maximum. Because new artists were destined not to get very high-grade resources.
This wasn’t a question of whether the company was powerful; resources were a two-way street between the company and the publisher. The company would certainly want it to be as high as possible, but how much appeal could a new group have? The publisher wouldn’t be willing.
Even with a top-tier company like the Big Four guaranteeing it, the highest resource a new group could get was A-grade; it couldn’t be any higher.
Back then, IVE and IZONE also only had A-grade resources; they didn’t have the higher A+-grade or the highest S-grade.
And S.M. currently couldn’t exchange A-grade new artist resources with Big Hit; at most, they could give B-grade.
But…