star of the peninsula

In early July, Integrate returns.

As summer is at its hottest, Golden Era selected the work into the category of classic summer songs, hoping that Integrate can bring a cool feeling to everyone.

Most importantly, this is the starship's comfort zone.

With the successful experience of Summer Queen SISTAR, it would be difficult for Starship to do anything wrong, which made Golden Era feel a lot more relaxed.

This is Integrate, not making any mistakes is equal to a huge success.

Things developed just as Golden Era had expected, and everyone was very happy with Xia Rifeng's Integrate.

Because they have never seen it before, because they find it interesting. No matter what the reason is, as long as everyone likes it, Golden Age will be happy. At least the return of Integrate has been made, and at least it has proved to Chen Chen that he can do it.

It was particularly important to prove his ability to Chen Chen. He was very afraid that Chen Chen might suddenly decide not to hand over the Integrate to Starship. That would be more terrifying than any loss.

Chen Chen was naturally satisfied. Integrate was making a big splash in the market with its unheard-of works, which had already proved a lot.

……

From the moment Integrate returned, time seemed to have suddenly pressed the acceleration button, and Chen Chen's only knowledge of his career was about the particularly big things.

For example, Jin Liuran prepared for half a month but when it came to the actual discussion, he won the "MOVING" project in just two days. This was a big deal because it involved such an amazing work as "Superpower Tribe".

Although "Superpower" is not as big as "Squid Game", its performance is not much inferior. It is the type of movie that people who have watched it say it is good, but people who haven't watched it may not have heard of it.

Of course, there might be a lot of people watching, as if he was the world champion that year.

As for the fact that Jin Liuran obtained the copyright in just two days, Chen Chen had nothing good to comment on. He could only say that C headquarters’ reputation in comic adaptation was too loud, and even a master like Jiang Cao would be affected to a certain extent.

Chen Chen praised Jin Liuran for her adequate preparations and comforted the girl, telling her not to take her personal failure to heart. It was common in the industry to prepare a lot but not use it much. It was either a direct success or a direct failure. She should be happy about the direct success this time.

Chen Chen didn’t know whether the little girl listened to him or not, but he thought what he said was very good.

After obtaining the copyright, the only thing left is the issue of time. "MOVING" will begin serialization in mid-March. If you want to get enough content to make a 20-episode TV series, you have to wait for the creator to continue digging out the story in his head. Chen Chen is just simply occupying the spot first.

In late August, "The Hunt", which was invested and produced by C headquarters, was released.

Luansha, the champion of the same period, conquered many discerning audiences with its high-quality production.

Nothing much to say, just the expected content.

Moving forward is Shirley's work on "Dark Glory". Things are much smoother on her side. She has seen everything that Chen Chen wanted her to see, such as the cold stares, traps, rules, routines and tricks, and vicious human hearts, and has made great progress.

In the end, "Dark Glory" was chosen by JTBC TV station, which was exactly what Chen Chen hoped for.

The price is higher, the return on investment is better, and the demand is deeper. Except that the TV station itself does not have that many fixed viewers, these are all benefits to C headquarters.

It just so happens that "Dark Glory" does not need a fixed audience, it can attract many viewers by itself, so JTBC TV station is a better choice than MBC TV station here.

"Dark Glory" was officially broadcast on July 22, but the ratings on the first day were a flop.

Because this TV series C headquarters did not carry out any publicity at all, this was a decision that Chen Chen proposed to the production team and was unanimously passed by everyone.

The place where school bullying occurs is a blind spot that is invisible to many people in society. Not publicizing it represents the attitude of the production team towards this matter, and it is also a reminder to the whole society.

Everyone in the production team is convinced that "Dark Glory" is a super excellent TV series, and everyone is confident that even without publicity, the final results will definitely not be bad!
But the ratings on the first day were still a flop, with less than 10 points, a number that would have made others ecstatic.

Getting a 10-point viewership for a premiere on a pay TV station is something to be proud of no matter where it is, but it is not right that Song Hye Kyo, Kim Eun Sook, and Chen Chen only got 10 points when put together.

Any of these three names should carry a ten-point viewership rating, and no one would think this is an exaggeration.

On the 23rd, the ratings of "Dark Glory" doubled compared to the premiere, reaching 20 points.

Judging from the results, it should be those three names that have made the effort, but this situation is not unacceptable.

No matter who attracts the audience, it's a good thing as long as more people can see it.

After that, Chen Chen no longer paid attention to the matter of "Dark Glory". The regular process part was no longer worth his attention.

It's nothing more than fitting the curve of top hit dramas and then exaggerating it a little bit, and making the numbers a few points smaller. There's nothing special to pay attention to.

As for the various overjoyed Director Lee Byung-jin's advances, harassment and flirting, they were nothing worth mentioning.

If Chen Chen had the time to respond to him, he would rather spend his time with Bae Joo-hyun.

After returning, Chen Chen expressed to Bae Joo Hyun that he wanted to teach her some things so that he could entrust part of C headquarters to her in the future. Bae Joo Hyun readily agreed.

So the two assistants, Bae Joo-hyun, often met in Chen Chen's office. When Sulli was free, she would come over to serve as an assistant, and when Hara had time, she would hand over some work materials as cases for everyone to use.

There is also Zhang Yuanying, who just celebrated her birthday and has become an adult. She is the experimental material. You can also call her a teaching aid.

Zhang Yuanying, who transitioned from 17 to 18 years old in 2022, can be said to be at a level where no matter what she tries to do as an artist, there will be no problem. With her ridiculously strong popularity to back her up, even if the experiment fails, it will not cause any harm to her.

However, both Bae Joo-hyun and the two assistants knew what was going on and did not let Wonyoung do anything that might have a negative impact.

Anyway, just pretend. If you don't pretend when you can afford to, when do you expect to do something strange again?

……

"You're not here for class today. I'm here to take you and show you our house."

Around the Double Ninth Festival, Bae Joo-hyun took the initiative to find Chen Chen and asked to suspend classes for a few days.

You need to look at houses and move as well.

A two-story detached house with a yard in Cheongdam-dong.

"No wonder you have to save money for so long. If you can easily get such a big house that even I have to think carefully before buying, I will suspect that someone has bribed you!" Chen Chen took a tour of the house and expressed such emotion.

"I've worked so hard for so many years and this is what I deserve."

Bae Joo-hyun looked normal and sat down on the swing in the yard.

"How do you deserve it?! How do you deserve it?!" Chen Chen pushed her from behind, pushing her harder with every question, "Can other first-line artists work for ten years to buy your piece of land?"

"Ah~ Push it gently, it's so high~!"

The timid Bae Joo-hyun held on to the rope tightly and even closed her eyes.

But this did not stop her from giving an answer.

"It's definitely impossible to buy land, but it shouldn't be a problem to buy a house." Bae Joo Hyun replied: "Even though this is South Korea, the income of artists is much lower than in other places, but first-tier artists are first-tier artists after all, and their income is very high."

"Then how did you buy it?" Chen Chen slowly stopped the swing and asked, "Did you spend all the money you could save on it?"

"About the same." Pei Zhuxuan did not choose to lie, "All my income as an artist and the owner of Alin's Canteen is here, not a bit more or less."

"You have been investing in Arlene's Canteen without paying dividends, so you basically gave it to me at a low price."

"Don't worry." Pei Zhuxuan said with a smile: "I neither stole nor robbed, nor did I bribe or accept bribes. Every penny is clean!"

"Didn't you give the flowers to your family?" Chen Chen asked.

"I spent a little, not much, and bought a lot of things, but I haven't made any moves on big items like a house yet." Bae Joo-hyun lowered her head, "That's all the money I have. If I spend it elsewhere, I won't be able to spend it here. Let's wait a little bit for the family, Arlene's Canteen won't go bankrupt anyway."

"..."

Chen Chen had neither the qualifications nor the face to comment on this matter. As a pure beneficiary, it would be too much for him to be pretentious here.

"Pick a time to get the certificate?"

Chen Chen's thoughts drifted elsewhere.

"Okay, Honorable President Chen, just make time for it. You can let your assistant prepare the materials. Or... you can let me prepare them." Bae Joo Hyun readily agreed, but quietly added a request at the end, "At least don't make it public for the next few years, until I am a little away from the fans' hearts."

At this point, the two of them no longer feel shy or unable to talk about getting married. They both firmly believe that it is bound to happen and no longer have the pounding feeling in their hearts.

"It's not like you won't be allowed to participate in activities after you get married." Chen Chen responded, "And I think your fans have already accepted it after so many years together."

"You're not allowing me to have new fans?" Bae Joo Hyun rolled her eyes at him. "Besides, it's always different with or without an official announcement. If it's official, the fans won't even be able to deceive themselves."

"Also, male and female idols are different." Bae Joo Hyun added: "When a male idol gets married, some fans will think that there is one more person in the 'family'. If a female idol gets married, fans will think that the 'family' is gone and she ran away with someone else. The degree of hurt is different."

"Haha, that makes sense!" Chen Chen smiled and rubbed her head, "But you don't have to tell me these reasons. I will definitely choose to do what you want."

"Because the results are always good when my ideas are followed?"

Pei Zhuxuan blinked and said coquettishly.

"There is an influence in this regard." Chen Chen said without hesitation: "Your handling of the male trainees in Division I and the internal talent show really suits my taste!"

Lee Sun-kyu was absent for a long time because of Girls' Generation's 15th anniversary, which once again gave her a reason to extend the selection process, so this woman did not hesitate to postpone the selection to the end of September.

Bae Joo-hyun joined the company's top decision-making group in mid-September and came up with the final decision after discussing with everyone.

"MODHAUS and KakaoM have no intention of trying out a boy group. C headquarters has more important things to do and can't spare the energy to work hard on the idol section. So, except for those who are going to participate in the M-net audition, all the others will be dismissed, no one will be left!"

"Division I will prepare the personal information of each trainee during this selection process and send it to other entertainment companies that are preparing to debut a boy group. If the entertainment company is interested in accepting and is willing to give a place in the pre-debut preparation, we will discuss with the trainee and listen to his opinion on whether he should go elsewhere to fight for the debut opportunity."

"Those who are unwilling to leave or unable to leave will stay, and those who are willing to leave will be protected by our C headquarters for the last journey."

"how?"

"..."

It doesn’t matter. After Bae Joo-hyun said this, no one at the table dared to speak.

Lee Sun-kyu extended the time twice and consumed a lot of resources. At this time, she was not thick-skinned enough to make comments on the final decision made by C headquarters.

MODHAUS's Zheng Bingji didn't dare to say anything at all. Just a few months after confirming the joint project with KakaoM, he changed his route from a boy group to a girl group. In the eyes of C headquarters, it is not an exaggeration to call this a betrayal.

Even though the reasons are sufficient, if we form a boy group now, we will most likely clash head-on with M-net's limited boy group, which is too disadvantageous.

But it is true that he went back on his word, it is also true that he disrupted the plans of C headquarters and Chen Chen, and it is also true that he ate and used C headquarters' resources without giving back even a little bit. It was hard for Zheng Bingji not to be nervous.

More importantly, they all felt that Bae Joo-hyun's ability to sit here represented Chen Chen's opinion to a certain extent. If the big boss wanted to do this, no one would object, especially a big boss like Chen Chen.

The fact is, this was a decision made by Bae Joo-hyun herself, and she gave the trainees the most promising result after understanding all the realities.

She knew that this decision would cost a lot more resources, but she needed this expense to build her personal image, and she believed that Chen Chen would not mind this expense.

"I need someone to help me with the boy band. If there is no one willing to do it for me, then the boy band thing will stop immediately." Chen Chen elaborated on what he was satisfied with. "Before, Zheng Bingji's MODHAUS would help me solve the boy band problem. Now that he doesn't want to do it anymore, it will naturally stop. You helped me do this and didn't let me do it myself. That's great. It saved my face."

"Ha, it turns out that the best thing I did was to save your face!" Pei Zhuxuan wrinkled her nose and complained: "I thought I did a really good job!"

"Saving my face and image is also very important to C Headquarters. You did the right thing." Chen Chen's eyes were clear. "Every bit of protection you give me now will mean ten times more protection for C Headquarters in the future."

Chen Chen was able to maintain his golden body even when he retired. As long as he does not appear in the entertainment industry in the future, his image will become more and more mysterious as time goes by.

Such an image is of great benefit to C headquarters. For many matters involving C headquarters, the other party has to consider how the imaginary Chen will react.

...(End of chapter)