Chapter 38 The Whereabouts of the S Card
Shin Ryujin stood behind Jiang Shu, looking at the excited Kang Seul-gi, and blinked.
When Jiang Shu said that to her just now, Shin Ryujin's expression was very strange.
So, that's how the President talks to everyone. I was fooled like that too at the time.
Thinking of this, Shin Ryujin's expression became even stranger.
It has to be said, if her President didn't run an entertainment company, he'd be a great speaker.
After Yin Huilin finished discussing her deal with Jiang Shu, about 80% of the dancers chose to go to DM Entertainment with her, while the remaining 20% chose to continue as dancers at the dance studio. Yin Huilin also stated that she would recommend them to other studios.
Although not all of them came, 80% coming is still very good.
The most important thing is the unexpected gain of Kang Seul-gi!
Counting the two sisters in S.M.'s hands, Red Velvet already has three major generals.
“Teacher Sun, I don't know if she's in Seoul or Canada, but if Bae Joo-hyun hasn't debuted, then no company would want her as a trainee at her age, so she's most likely in her hometown of Daegu!”
Jiang Shu's eyes flickered slightly.
It's hard to determine if Sun Shengwan is in Canada or Seoul, so let's set that aside for now. But Bae Joo-hyun's location is much easier to determine.
Bae Joo-hyun, born in '91, is already twenty-seven years old. No entertainment company would accommodate a “high-aged” twenty-seven-year-old who hasn't debuted, and since Jiang Shu is sure she hasn't debuted, there's a high probability she's in her hometown of Daegu.
After all, unlike Kang Seul-gi, who excels in dance and can be a dancer, Bae Joo-hyun isn't particularly outstanding in singing or dancing, so why would she stay in Seoul?
However, Bae Joo-hyun's skills are not bad. Many people have a misconception of her being a 'flower vase,' just like they treated Lin Yun'er back then.
But if you take her out of the group, you'll realize, is this a flower vase?
It's just that Bae Joo-hyun's visuals are too high, so high that they overshadow her skill. Plus, with Sun Shengwan and Kang Seul-gi in the group, her skills are overshadowed, making her seem weak, which is completely understandable.
But an idol's skill is still an idol's. How many people can reach the level of Jung Eun-ji or Heo Sol-ji?
An idol's skill is still not quite enough outside the K-pop circle. Dance is a bit better, like Kang Seul-gi is currently a dancer at a dance studio, but she's not among the best.
And vocal skills are even more clueless.
Heo Sol-ji being able to be a music professor means her strength is super-standard, not comparable to the 'first of this generation' or 'first of that generation' among idols.
Therefore, Jiang Shu feels that the probability of Bae Joo-hyun working in her hometown of Daegu is infinitely high.
“Looks like I need to find a time to go to Daegu,” Jiang Shu muttered softly.
If he can gather Red Velvet as soon as possible, he can also block Min Xizhen's idea. The birth of NewJeans can be delayed for as long as possible.
At least none of the cards Jiang Shu currently holds can defeat a full NewJeans.
Uh...
It seems even a full IVE can't beat them?
Damn it!
Jiang Shu was a bit clueless. He wasn't particularly familiar with NewJeans. He only knew Kim Min-ji and Hanni. When playing games, he subconsciously ignored this actually very strong card set.
If only he had played a few times more intensely!
Now, besides Kim Min-ji and Hanni, he can't recognize anyone else even if they stood in front of him.
Jiang Shu thought carefully. It seems that besides those two top-tier bond card sets, the only ones that can stably suppress a full NewJeans are ITZY and IZONE, when their Wangdao Passion is stacked up.
It's still more reliable to count on ITZY with their stacking layers.
Forget it.
Jiang Shu shook his head.
Coming back to his senses, he looked at Yin Huilin, who had already finished talking with the dancers, and began discussing the choreography for IVE's mini-album title track, “Love Dive.”
After chatting for over an hour, Jiang Shu had conveyed all his ideas to Yin Huilin.
Yin Huilin was, after all, the dance performance director for SEVENTEEN, and even if SEVENTEEN didn't exist in this world, her professional level was completely up to par.
Yin Huilin was basically able to have the dancers under her replicate the moves Jiang Shu described, which of course included the classic thumb gesture before the chorus and the face-to-face moves that highlight the double C positions.
Starship's double C + four hangers-on model wasn't as thorough as DM Entertainment's IVE. Jiang Shu remembered that Lee Seo also stood in the C position during the chorus.
However, for DM Entertainment's IVE, the C position only rotated to the hangers-on during the verses; the chorus C position would only be Liu Zhimin or Zhang Yuanying.
Jiang Shu's idea was simple: if you're going to do it, do it to the extreme. He wasn't Park Jin-young, and DM Entertainment wasn't JYP. There was no need to suppress anyone; he wished that Liu Zhimin and Zhang Yuanying's popularity could absolutely crush everyone.
After bidding farewell to Yin Huilin, Jiang Shu and Shin Ryujin returned to the car.
“Did you learn anything?” Jiang Shu asked Shin Ryujin in the passenger seat casually, while fiddling with his phone.
“No,” Shin Ryujin replied honestly.
Besides gaining some insight and understanding the operating model of a dance studio, she didn't learn anything else.
“You're as honest as Xiao Liu. You two will probably have a lot in common,” Jiang Shu said with a smile.
“Karina senior?” Shin Ryujin muttered. The President said so, so maybe they really do have a lot in common?
Jiang Shu dialed Qin Zhen's number.
After a moment of ringing, the call connected.
“President,” Qin Zhen's Korean, which could not be described as unfluent but rather completely unlike Korean, came through.
“Speak Chinese,” Jiang Shu frowned.
“Okay, Chairman!” Qin Zhen also breathed a sigh of relief. Although he was already learning Korean, it was really hard to learn.
“IVE's mini-album is currently in production. I need the Public Relations Department to cooperate with the Administration Department to solicit songs nationwide. Can you do it?”
“Mission accomplished!” Qin Zhen said with a chuckle. This was the first task Jiang Shu assigned them after they started their jobs. Although it wasn't difficult, it had to be taken seriously.
“Mm.”
Jiang Shu hung up Qin Zhen's call and then dialed Qu Fan's number.
“President nim!”
“Director Qu, just speak Chinese in private.” Qu Fan understood Korean, but Jiang Shu didn't want to speak Korean.
“Okay.”
“Has IVE's marketing model been created?”
“It's still in production. According to the ideas you provided, it should be ready by tomorrow at the earliest,” Qu Fan replied.
Jiang Shu roughly described some marketing plans from the real world to Qu Fan, a professional. As a seasoned marketing professional, even though Jiang Shu's description was vague, he still extracted useful information and began creating IVE's marketing plan after Jiang Shu finished speaking.
“Include marketing promotion in China,” Jiang Shu said.
“China... Okay, I will give you both the Korean and Chinese marketing plans together.”
“Also tomorrow?” Jiang Shu said in surprise.
“Yes.”
“Alright, I'll wait for your plan.”
Xiao Liu and Youzhen are good friends. One of the videos posted on ITZY's Bilibili account was filmed by Xiao Liu.