Be reborn and be happy to the fullest

Li Shuo has always adopted a go-with-the-flow attitude towards his fame, so any personal information that can be made public can actually be found online.

Unfortunately, "becoming famous" requires management for most people. Li Shuo's attitude meant that although he achieved good results, he never broke into the mainstream and his fame only spread within a small circle.

This time it's different. The concert is a top-tier program in China, hosted by CCTV and broadcast by major TV stations and online platforms. In addition, it is exclusively broadcast by SBS in South Korea, making it extremely influential.

Then, Li Shuo himself has a series of labels and titles:
A young and outstanding art student from a prestigious university, a wealthy conglomerate owner, and a highly talented screenwriter, novelist, and songwriter!
As a series of labels are unearthed, the person digging feels as if they are digging a treasure pit that can never be fully explored. So, amidst endless amazement, they naturally work even harder to dig!

"Waaaaah, he's only 22 years old this year, how come? We're both 22, how come there's such a big difference between us?"

"Is Li Jiulin some kind of prodigy? Putting aside his age, his achievements are something that even some elites couldn't accomplish in a lifetime!"

"So this is what makes the front row seats at the China-Korea Song Concert so prestigious! No wonder he's surrounded by a bunch of old men!"

"Upstairs, the first row isn't all old men, there are some beauties too. The great beauty next to Li Shuo is named Lan Ying'er. Not only is she a campus belle from the Central Academy of Drama, but rumor has it that she's also the only daughter of a listed company's boss!"

"Damn it!" "Holy crap!" "Envy is making my body tremble!"

On various forums such as Tencent, Baidu Tieba, Tianya, and Hupu, discussions about Li Shuo began to increase, or more accurately, discussions about "Li Jiulin". Netizens always habitually refer to celebrities they know as names they are hearing for the first time.

Because no one was pushing it forward, the discussion didn't spread very quickly, but it wasn't just one or two people talking about it, because "Li Jiulin" was just too damn enviable!
This trend quickly caught the attention of the relevant departments at Shuoguo Culture, a company specializing in and deeply involved in online operations. The department promptly submitted a report to Lu Tingyu, who was still in Hangzhou at the time. Upon receiving the report, Lu Tingyu couldn't help but laugh in exasperation:
"This guy's womanizing in Beijing has actually sparked a heated discussion online!"

Knowing the relationship between the beautiful CEO and the big boss, the subordinate cautiously asked, "President Lu, how should we handle this wave of discussion?"

Lu Tingyu thought for a moment and asked, "What are these people trying to find out about 'Li Jiulin'?"

The subordinate replied, "It's to find material for online arguments with South Koreans!"

Bingo

Lu Tingyu snapped her fingers and instructed, "Since that's the case, why don't we guide public opinion and make 'Li Jiulin' a hero in the fight against South Korea? Note that it's the identity of 'Li Jiulin'! The Boss's real name still needs to be hidden a bit. Well, not the kind of hiding that involves deleting information, but rather highlighting 'Li Jiulin' even more. After all, he's still an artist under Sony Entertainment!"

The subordinate's eyes lit up, and an idea struck him: "That's right! Sony's management has a strong influence in many major media outlets, which is precisely our weakness. Therefore, we can also inform Sony's management about this matter and seek a joint effort to guide public opinion!"

"That's a great idea, approved!"

When Li Shuo took Li Yitong to a hot spring resort and they were enjoying a comfortable private hot spring bath, the online discussion about him reached its peak. At this time, Tencent Entertainment published a gossip article, starting with "The Invisible Guardian" and introducing its male lead, and then revealing that the male lead, Li Jiulin, was the composer and lyricist of "Da La Beng Ba", "Ordinary Disco" and "Little Apple"!

The article concludes by stating, "After digging into numerous connections within the industry, we finally found the answer at Sony Music Entertainment, a renowned international agency. It turns out that Li Jiulin has signed with the company for his 'special talent,' and his work with the new agency will be announced soon. If you are interested in Li Jiulin, please stay tuned for further reports..."

Anyone in the industry would immediately recognize this as a low-quality article at a glance. To put it bluntly, it's an article that a big company pays for, instructing editors to write according to an outline. The content has no requirements for independence or originality; it must be written according to the demands of the client!
Unfortunately, the public is blind to the truth, and even those in the industry who see it are more aware of the connection between Li Shuo and Li Jiulin, and understand the power of Shuoguo Culture, so they naturally won't speak out rashly.

The news quickly shifted to Sony Entertainment, and everyone discovered that Sony Entertainment's official website had updated information about "Artist X." Although the information didn't mention his background, the photo of 'Li Jiulin' was unmistakable, and there was something even more eye-catching!

"Holy crap, awesome! From today onwards, I'm a fan of 'Ninth Master'!"

"what's the situation?"

"Go check the official website yourselves, Li Jiulin is actually a Sony International S-level special contract artist!"

"Huh? What does this mean? I don't understand..."

"Hehe, you'll see when you look. Sony's official website lists all their artists, including the late Michael Johnson! That superstar used to be a special S-level contract artist with Sony. Rumor has it that these special contracts are negotiated directly between the two parties! But that's not important. What's important is that Ninth Master, Li Jiulin, is even more awesome than 2PM. That damn 2PM group is just a regular A-level contract artist group with Sony, hahahaha..."

Some people deliberately explained the truth on various forums, directing traffic to Sony International, so more and more people discovered the truth and their emotions began to change!

"Awesome! Just a head taller than 2PM! Hahaha, awesome!"

"I'll take it to the internet right now, and I'll see what those damn Koreans have to say!"

"What's even better is that these are the signing terms offered by the Japanese company. Haha, in my opinion, our Ninth Master alone is more valuable than the entire 2PM group!"

Public opinion has shifted subtly, from "uncovering the behind-the-scenes boss who was flattered by a South Korean female idol" to "a talented Chinese man who was valued by Sony, surpassed the 2PM group, and signed the highest-level contract!"
So, when Li Shuo was getting a little tired from soaking in the hot spring—well, mainly because he was with that little vixen Li Yitong—because of his various temptations, the little vixen used all her tricks and countless positions to absorb a lot of his nutrients.

A large group of people on the internet who had nothing better to do, or who didn't even have girlfriends, excitedly hailed Li Shuo as an "anti-Korean hero" and a "talented idol"!
After midnight, when Li Shuo fell asleep with Li Yitong, the first beauty of the opening ceremony of the China-Korea Song Concert and the school beauty of Beijing Dance Academy, the news had already spread to foreign websites, especially in South Korea!
"Damn it, who is this man? Why is a Chinese man all over the screen at the China-Korea Song Festival?"

"What the heck? Why are there gossip stories about 'Li Jiulin' everywhere today?" "Looks like he's some kind of romantic interest for the 'Beautiful Legs Era' group? Pshaw, trashy entertainment tabloids, they don't even bother to act, they're just desperately making things up to smear our idol!"

Many South Koreans who were unaware of the situation were initially confused, but they quickly discovered the key points:
"What? My Ok oppa didn't make it to the China-Korea Song Contest, and 2PM got their center position taken by a Chinese female student?"

"The 'Beautiful Legs Era' group is 'collectively' fawning over a mysterious figure in China, who is suspected to be a second-generation chaebol heir?!"

"Fei Seqi is a backup dancer for the Chinese Chopsticks Brothers group, and it's a collaboration with someone else!"

One explosive piece of gossip after another popped up the moment they turned on their phones, and everyone was furious. Discussion data about the China-Korea Song Contest on foreign websites began to increase exponentially!
But the same old rhythm continues: no matter what South Korean netizens say, Chinese netizens only need to respond with one precise sentence to immediately break the other party's defenses!
Moreover, Chinese netizens now possess a brand new killer weapon:
"Are 2PM that good? How come their contract level with Sony International isn't as high as mine, Ninth Master's?!"

"The era of beautiful legs is indeed very pretty, but sorry, they've all collectively taken the shape of Ninth Master..."

"Fei Seqi, the dance queen who's always chatting and laughing with Ninth Master and seems to have a good relationship with him?"

The others were fine, but in the end, Fei Seqi was also dragged into it. During her time in Tianjin, she was photographed by paparazzi. At that time, she and Li Shuo had just met. Since they were not familiar with each other, there was no need to hide anything. So they chatted together openly and naturally. But looking back now, it seems as if the two of them had already been having an ambiguous relationship!
Various rumors and gossip went viral in South Korea that day, to the point that SM Entertainment and other related entertainment companies had to come forward to deny the rumors, saying that the artists and the other party had only met by chance. Then, fans went to the official websites or forums of the artists' companies to inquire about the situation of "Lee Gu-rim"!

"Artist X is a special case; he is indeed an S-level contracted artist under Sony International!"

SM Entertainment responded that although Kim Young-min had repaid Lee Seok's favor, the friendship still existed, so he was unwilling to speak ill of Lee Seok and did not even reveal the name "Lee Seok"!

Nevertheless, "Celebrity X" became a hit in South Korea. On that day, the number one trending term on South Korea's largest search engine, "N Search," was "Celebrity X." As mentioned before, South Koreans' impression of Lee Seok comes from his status as an artist under Sony International, so it's natural for them to directly refer to him by his stage name.

If that's all there is to it, "Celebrity X" will likely still have a predominantly negative image in South Korea. Unfortunately, SN Entertainment is based in South Korea!

SN Entertainment is a third-tier company in the South Korean entertainment industry. Although it now has Choo Ja-sun, her drama "Temptation of Returning Home" has not yet been released, and it remains unknown in China.

Han Dazhi wasn't worried about the company not developing properly. The key issue was that the companies Li Shuo had established during the Spring Festival, such as Shuoguo Assets and Shuoguo Trading, had developed rapidly in the past month or so. Shuoguo Assets (real estate), in particular, had been acquiring land like crazy during this period. The number of real estate mortgage loans signed with Sanxing and SK Bank alone had reached more than 100 contracts!

Behind each contract lies over a billion Korean won in working capital! Its growth rate is terrifying!
There's also Sukkook Trading. Due to South Korea's penchant for luxury, its Gangnam "Sukkook Department Store" became a hit even before its opening. Its flagship Patek Philippe watches, in cooperation with the brand, launched a series of powerful initiatives.

Therefore, Han Dazhi was quite anxious. He originally had no choice, but what could he do when he found out that Li Shuo was "X"?

Seeing that "X" had become a viral sensation online, Han Dazhi instructed the company to issue a public announcement:
"Inform our beloved people that X is actually from our Republic of Korea, because he is a contracted artist under our SN Entertainment!"

This brief announcement quickly rose to the top of the entertainment sections of various platforms at 8 a.m. the following day (China time), not only because it perfectly aligned with South Korea's "take it" mentality, but also because Han Dazhi used some underhanded tactics:

"President Han, X is actually an artist from your SN Entertainment, so he must be from South Korea, right?"

"Was X first discovered by SN Entertainment? In other words, you've been supplying top talent from South Korea to major international companies!"

"What's X's real name? How did he end up at the China-Korea Song Festival?"

Within minutes, countless people flooded SN Entertainment's small official website, crashing the server. It took a long time to recover. Then, countless messages appeared in front of Han Dazhi's screen. Among them, the South Koreans cared about only one thing:

"X is South Korean? And he was trained here in South Korea?"

Lee Seok is certainly not South Korean, much less trained by SN Entertainment, but it doesn't matter to Han Dazhi. Faced with these replies, he simply burys his head in the sand and lets the public think about it.

The South Korean public is a rather peculiar group. Although they didn't get an answer from Han Dae-jik, it didn't matter. They only believed what they wanted to believe, and so...

"Breaking news! X (Lee Goo-rim) is actually from South Korea and is an artist trained by SN Entertainment!"

"Debunking the rumor: X is South Korean!"

"Only South Korea could produce such an outstanding artist as X..."

Within just a few hours, the gossip headlines of major media outlets immediately changed to those that were popular in South Korea, and the content under the headlines was even more sensational, even fabricating Lee Seok's background, saying that he was born in XX district of South Korea, and attended XX elementary, middle and high school...

In addition, there are some touching stories of arduous training. It is said that "Li Jiulin" did not have strong musical talent at first and was rejected three times by the famous agency SM. It was Han Dazhi who felt that this boy had amazing perseverance and reluctantly accepted him. As a result, Han Dazhi was not disappointed. Through his later learning, "Li Jiulin" created a lot of music...

Well, regarding the so-called "numerous music," the media only listed "Little Apple." They could find songs like "Da La Beng Ba" and "Ordinary Disco," but the problem is that all the songs are in Chinese. How can the media make up stories like that? Naturally, they can only omit them and leave only what the South Korean public knows.

Some more "conscientious" media outlets put a lot more effort into fabricating his background. They discovered that Li Shuo composed mostly Chinese songs, so they simply gave him a "mixed Chinese and Korean" origin. This immediately solved many problems... (End of Chapter)