Chapter 41 The Third S-Card
"Come, sit and chat."
Jiang Shu gestured to the chair opposite him.
Bae Joo-hyun hesitated for a moment but chose to sit opposite Jiang Shu.
Money can be earned anytime, but opportunities like this are not always available.
"You'd best Google me first to confirm my identity, to avoid any unpleasant misunderstandings," Jiang Shu said to Bae Joo-hyun, taking a bite of the seasoned squid with his chopsticks.
Bae Joo-hyun didn't refuse. Having worked in society for many years, she was different from those younger girls; it was always right to be cautious.
She searched for "DM Entertainment chairman" on her phone, and the photos that appeared on Google Search largely matched the man in front of her.
"Confirmed?" Jiang Shu asked, looking at Bae Joo-hyun.
Only after seeing Bae Joo-hyun nod did he continue.
"How old are you?"
"'91, twenty-seven years old," Bae Joo-hyun said, a little nervously, stating her age.
Twenty-seven years old, in the idol industry, was definitely "old." Many twenty-seven-year-old artists could already be preparing for retirement, yet she was auditioning to be a trainee?
It was simply absurd!
But the DM Entertainment chairman opposite her seemed to be deep in thought.
Could she really have a chance?
Jiang Shu pretended to consider whether to accept Bae Joo-hyun into the company, but in reality, he was recalling Bae Joo-hyun's bond information.
Bae Joo-hyun (S)
Bonds: Mao Xuewang (5), Qilin (2), divine beauty (1).
divine beauty:
Activates this bond when popularity reaches tier three.
Effect One: Suitable styling greatly enhances visual impact, unsuitable styling greatly reduces negative effects, but the more facial cosmetic surgeries, the weaker the bond effect, until the bond disappears.
Effect Two: Greatly reduces the impact of age on appearance, but will decrease singing and dancing ability with increasing age.
Effect Three: Increases the chance of attracting fans, reaching the pinnacle of attraction for visual fans, but will greatly increase the number of toxic solo stans.
Only two people possess the divine beauty bond: Lin Yun'er and Bae Joo-hyun. TWICE's Chou Tzu-yu does not have this bond; she has a different one.
The activation of the divine beauty bond has prerequisites, but even with prerequisites, as long as the activation standards are met, the speed of popularity growth, while not as fast as a top-tier artist who is a dual center from the start, is still astonishingly rapid.
Moreover, the reason Jiang Shu didn't care about Bae Joo-hyun's age was because of the second effect of the divine beauty bond. With this effect, as long as Bae Joo-hyun doesn't undergo multiple cosmetic surgeries, there's no need to worry about her age.
As for the issue of singing and dancing ability declining with age...
I'm already in my thirties or forties, so it's perfectly reasonable if I can't sing well or dance much, right?
Besides, isn't there the Qilin bond?
Once the Qilin bond is activated, the stats are shared. Bae Joo-hyun is indeed older, but Kang Seul-gi is strong enough.
After the stats are shared, Bae Joo-hyun will have Kang Seul-gi's level. And in a large group, she's already positioned as the visual center, bringing visual effects to the audience. For stable vocals, there's Sun Shengwan; for dancing, there's Kang Seul-gi, and even Park Soo-young and Kim Ye-rim are pretty good. It's never her turn to showcase Red Velvet's strength.
When someone questions if Bae Joo-hyun is just a pretty face, just bring out the Qilin sub-unit, and the doubts will resolve themselves.
Perfect!
As for the third effect, it can only be said that having many toxic solo stans is a common problem for high-visual artists.
"Age is not a big problem for me," Jiang Shu paused, then looked at Bae Joo-hyun and said, "I have a way to mitigate your age issue, but I want to know, are you willing to debut? Or rather, can you give up everything you've established now for the sake of debuting?"
"Yes." To Jiang Shu's surprise, Bae Joo-hyun opposite him gave her answer with almost no hesitation.
"Won't you consider it carefully?" Jiang Shu asked, surprised.
"Ever since I first encountered K-pop at eighteen, I've wanted to become an idol artist. But after training for a while, the company still didn't arrange for my debut. I could only console myself that it wasn't something I was good at. As I got older, I had no choice but to leave." Bae Joo-hyun paused here, looking at Jiang Shu opposite her with a strange gaze.
"I don't know why, but I really want to tell you what's on my mind. I've always had a feeling that I belong on stage."
Bae Joo-hyun chuckled self-deprecatingly.
She seemed to be mocking herself for feeling like she belonged on stage, even though she couldn't even make it as a trainee.
But Jiang Shu opposite her couldn't smile.
He looked deeply at Bae Joo-hyun.
"I'm giving you a chance to be on stage. What can you give me?"
"My future." Bae Joo-hyun looked into Jiang Shu's eyes and said seriously.
At twenty-seven, choosing to trust Jiang Shu and follow him to debut at DM Entertainment was essentially placing her future in the hands of this man she had just met for the first time.
It was absurd, but Bae Joo-hyun had already missed nine years, and she didn't want to miss this opportunity again.
This time, perhaps, would be the last time in her life.
Jiang Shu felt the heavy weight.
He hadn't felt it so clearly with the company's trainees, but facing Bae Joo-hyun, a twenty-seven-year-old woman whom even he would call 'noona,' Jiang Shu truly felt for the first time what it meant to have a dream, and what it meant to have responsibility.
She chose to place her future in his hands, and with it came a responsibility he could choose to refuse or accept.
"Why?" Jiang Shu looked at Bae Joo-hyun, puzzled. "Why would you choose to trust me and join my company in such a short time?"
"I don't know." Bae Joo-hyun smiled, her face blooming like a peony, stunningly beautiful.
"I only know that if I don't take this gamble, the dream I set in my heart at eighteen will truly remain just a dream."
She didn't know what Jiang Shu would do with her, nor did she know what her future at DM Entertainment would be like, but she didn't want to miss this opportunity.
One cannot understand her inner thoughts without being her age.
It was already rare for her, at twenty-seven, to still harbor a glimmer of hope for debut, and when that glimmer had the possibility of becoming real, Bae Joo-hyun chose to seize it at all costs, even if it meant her present and future would become a mess.
Jiang Shu opened his mouth, but stopped the words before they came out.
It was just a gacha pull, so why did he feel such a sense of determination from Bae Joo-hyun?
A gacha pull?
Jiang Shu was silent.
This might be a game world, but when he came here, this world was already clearly real.
Could an NPC in a game world truly possess such determination as Bae Joo-hyun before him?
At twenty-seven, she resolutely chose to gamble her future. The heavy weight of this determination made Jiang Shu silent for a moment.
After a moment of silence, Jiang Shu looked up at Bae Joo-hyun opposite him and extended his right hand.
"Welcome to DM Entertainment!"