Peninsula Platinum Era

Chapter 17 "A Bitter Year"

"Serving tea and water? I'm not going. You wish!"

Xiao Yuan thought, how could she possibly serve him? Impossible, absolutely impossible. She had consulted a fortune teller who predicted that she was destined for great success and happiness.

"You're talking to me about this? I'd be disgusted even if you were just a poorly educated person serving me tea and water. Do you even know that the rate of higher education among young people has reached 70%?"

Chen Shijun was telling the truth, but Xiaoyuan argued that while there are millions of college students, there is only one Yuanying, and forced him to accept this fallacy.

"When will you grow up? When we meet, I'll definitely give you a good talking to your uncle. You should at least be as good as your sister."

Chen Shijun hung up the phone with a sense of helplessness. Being an idol is arguably the profession with the lowest level of education in this country. Just look at the kids the company recruits; how could they possibly have the energy to study seriously?

Human energy is limited; even doing one thing can be exhausting, let alone doing two things that require complete dedication at the same time.

However, setting up an office is now urgent. Although the people Fang Shihe arranged for him were not unusable, he soon changed his mind.

"So Director Chen finally remembered me again? Could it be that he feels he can't do without me, his capable assistant, and wants to bring my talents to Big Hit?"

The woman on the other end sounded excited. Before Chen Shijun could even explain his purpose, she had already hooked him, which was probably related to his own situation.

“I heard that you’ve been having a hard time at the company since I left. Dunamu can’t tolerate mediocre people these days, so I’m just giving you a way out.”

As Chen Shijun's former secretary, Ms. Li's days at Dunamu became increasingly difficult. She was not capable of handling a highly specialized position, and her talent referred to her ability to understand Chen Shijun's intentions in handling certain matters.

But the situation is not good now. She has been directly reassigned to the business department. Secretary Li Enhui misses Director Chen all the time.

If things continue like this, it is very likely that it will be laid off. After all, although Dunamu is now famous, it only has less than two hundred employees.

In this situation, everyone has to demonstrate their value. To put it bluntly, if she hadn't joined the company early, she wouldn't have had a chance at all, given the current talent recruitment standards.

In the early days of a company, before it grew large, in addition to some powerful and capable individuals who led the company forward, there were also a number of people with less outstanding abilities who occupied relatively good positions.

In the later stages of the admission process, where only the best are selected, conflicts of interest are bound to arise with outstanding but less qualified candidates, making it inevitable that this woman would be ostracized.

"Director Chen is right, but what are your plans for me?"

Ms. Li Enhui was ultimately moved to tears and expressed her willingness to serve Director Chen with utmost loyalty, even at the cost of her own life, since maintaining her current salary was practically impossible in today's job market.

To paraphrase a Yonhap News Agency editorial, this year has undoubtedly been a "bitter year" for society, marked by political divisions, economic setbacks, and frequent tragedies. The entertainment industry, in particular, has been shrouded in scandals.

For Chen Shijun, this year has also been a bitter one, as those who achieve early success must always link their self-worth with their achievements.

His mentor, who is now the dean of the Graduate School at Seoul National University, sent him a message saying that compared to those who start from humble beginnings and rely entirely on hard work for success or failure, Chen Shijun, who has crossed this stage at an extremely fast pace, needs to make up for the lack of time and experience.

This mentor suggested that Chen Shijun visit him in Bundang if he had time. As a representative of South Korea's new intellectuals, he encouraged himself with the Chinese historians' saying, "King Wen was imprisoned and wrote the Book of Changes, and Confucius was in distress and wrote the Spring and Autumn Annals."

"My dear teacher, if only you had become the Grand Commander back then, you wouldn't be in this situation now." Chen Shijun replied to the text message. After reading about his teacher's difficult journey, his own somewhat depressed mood seemed to have improved a lot.

Indeed, seeing others in a worse situation can help one rebuild a sense of relative advantage and quickly alleviate anxiety.

As a doctor who graduated from Seoul National University College of Medicine, he completed his master's and doctoral studies at Seoul National University and then served as a professor and department head at Dankook University College of Medicine.

It was thought that a young medical giant was slowly rising to prominence, but the 29-year-old doctor, through self-study, developed a computer antivirus software called V3 in 1991, which was the first antivirus program and commercial software developed in South Korea.

He later founded AhnLab as a programmer and became a successful venture capitalist. After stepping down as CEO of AhnLab in 2005, he returned to academia, serving as a chief professor at KAIST and dean of the graduate school at Seoul National University.

By this time, his mentor had amassed an inexhaustible fortune, achieving a remarkably high level of success in both the literary and commercial fields. However, his mentor seemed unsatisfied with all of this and set his sights on new areas.

Back when President Roh Moo-hyun was in government, he was invited to serve as Minister of Information and Communications. The then conservative opposition Grand National Party also hoped he would join and fully supported his bid for the position of Mayor of Seoul.

In the years that followed, both the ruling and opposition parties repeatedly invited him to serve as a member of parliament or a minister in order to build his image in the political arena, but he refused each time, even though President Lee had once nominated him to serve as Minister of State.

After tentatively running for mayor of Seoul in 11, she officially revealed her ambitions in 12 and announced her candidacy for president. Her approval rating quickly rose, surpassing Moon Yeong-chul and catching up with Keiko Takagi. In a mock election, she once outperformed the first female president.

As the election campaign dragged on, he was once evenly matched with Wen Bingchang in the singular struggle of the opposition camp, but his unstable foundation ultimately led to his narrow defeat in the primary.

Wen Bingzhang's failure to consolidate the opposition camp indirectly led to the fragmentation of the progressive faction's voter base, paving the way for Huizi's historic victory.

Even so, as a third force and a political novice, its influence sweeping across South Korean politics was unparalleled for a time, but it was defeated without any suspense in the 17-year contest, and then went into a long period of dormancy.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that their debut was their peak. From shocking South Korea at the beginning to losing election after election, this is also a symbol of the complete collapse of the middle class. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that they went downhill.

He replied to the teacher and expressed his intention to visit soon. Looking up, he saw snowflakes falling in the night. This must be the first snow of the year. He opened the window, and the cold wind made him shrink his neck.

"Oh dear, my birthday is coming up soon, my 30th birthday! What are the plans?"

Since it falls on the day before Christmas, people around me rarely forget their birthdays, and a birthday signifies that a year is about to pass.

I decided to go downstairs and walk alone on the street through the thin snow. The snowflakes hit my cotton coat and made a fine sand-like sound. The streetlights illuminated the chaotic tracks of the snow curtain.

Inside the glass window of the corner convenience store, two teenagers were sharing oden. The rising steam blurred the glass, while Chen Shijun smiled and lit a cigarette in the smoking area to ward off the chill.

It's as if I saw myself at 17, and in an instant I was at 30, watching the light of clinking glasses. Life seems like an unburnt cigarette in my hand.

Life moves by very quickly. It seems as if I have transformed from a teenager into a "successful person" in a flash. I have squandered thirty years, leaving me with only inexhaustible wealth and women who have come and gone.

"Into the Unknown," the Korean theme song for "Frozen 2" sung by Kim Tae-yeon, was playing in a shop along the street. It was quite popular lately. Chen Shijun suddenly laughed. If a thirty-year-old woman could be a teenager, then why wasn't he a boy?

　Please keep reading, it's very important for a new book.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)