Peninsula: From Water Injection to Stardom

Chapter 177 There are plenty of ways to whitewash a bad reputation (4k)

When Park Jihyo asked her that question, Yoo Jeongyeon finally came to her senses.

She quickly raised her hand to rub the corner of her eye, trying to hide her flustered expression.

After making that gesture, she smiled casually and said, "Really? Maybe it's because I just yawned."

"yawn?"

Park Jihyo still had some doubts, but seeing what Yoo Jeongyeon had said, she gradually let go of her doubts.

Then, she quickly turned her attention back to the video itself and continued to exclaim, "But to be honest, oppa's performance on stage is really amazing. Not only is he singing live, but he can also keep his breath steady while running around so much."

As she spoke, she couldn't help but rewind the video and relive the moment.

"Look here, and here too, this part is absolutely amazing!"

Park Ji-hyo's tone at this moment was full of admiration.

Hearing this, Yoo Jeongyeon nodded slightly and simply replied, "Yeah—oppa's typhoons are always really strong."

.

However, while she appeared to be responding to Park Jihyo, her thoughts were actually still on the video content from earlier.

At this moment, what kept replaying in Yu Dingyan's mind were the image of snowflakes falling on her shoulders, the white breath that Jiang Yan exhaled every time she opened her mouth to sing, and the other person's hair being blown by the cold wind.

She didn't quite understand why Jiang Yan, who had already achieved so much success, still needed to work so hard.

Why does it have to go to this extent?

To others, his actions might seem like dedication, enthusiasm, and respect for the stage.

But these things, seen by the sensitive Yu Dingyan, evoked an indescribable heartache in her heart.

It's clearly unnecessary to go to that level anymore.

Just as Yu Dingyan was lost in thought, someone walked in from outside the waiting room.

Lim Nayeon skipped and hopped in with light steps, her face still bearing the good mood of having finished filming.

After she walked in, she went straight to Yoo Jeongyeon and Park Jihyo, smiling as she asked, "What are you two talking about?"

"Unnie, you've come at the perfect time." Park Jihyo responded immediately, picking up her phone and pulling Lim Nayeon closer to her: "You should also come and see oppa's stage performance."

"What kind of stage?" Lim Na-yeon asked curiously.

"It's the NFL event, right? Oppa was invited to participate in the event, and the full video of his performance has already been released," Park Jihyo explained.

"oh--"

Lim Nayeon looked enlightened and said, "Oh, it's that. Let me see~"

Park Jihyo nodded, woke up her phone from its off state, and then dragged the video progress bar back to the beginning.

Lim Nayeon sat down next to Park Jihyo and stared intently at the screen with expectant eyes.

However, at this moment, Yoo Jeong-yeon, who had been silent all along, suddenly stood up.

"You all see, I'm going out for a bit."

"Hmm? Where are you going?" Lim Nayeon looked up and asked casually.

"I'll go check how the other members' filming is going," Yoo Jeongyeon casually offered a suitable excuse.

"oh."

Neither Lim Na-yeon nor Park Ji-hyo thought much of it after hearing it.

After standing up, Yu Dingyan quickly left the waiting room.

She walked all the way to the emergency exit at the end of the corridor and stopped only after confirming that no one was around.

Taking her phone out of her pocket, Yoo Jeong-yeon found the familiar profile picture and opened the chat window.

Her fingers hovered above the keyboard for a moment before she quickly typed a string of text.

[Oppa, why did you take off your jacket to perform in the snow? Are you crazy?]

After typing it, she looked at the line of text that clearly conveyed her emotions, hesitated for a moment, and then pressed the delete button.

The new text reappeared in the input box.

[Oppa, I saw your performance stage in the US. Remember to keep warm after your performance in this weather!]

After pressing the send button and sending the message, Yu Dingyan patiently stood there and waited for a while.

But after a few minutes, there was no reply in the chat box.

She then realized that Jiang Yan should still be on the plane and wouldn't be able to see the message yet.

Thinking of this, Yu Dingyan couldn't help but sigh softly, then put away her phone and turned to walk towards the waiting room.

at the same time.

Inside the waiting room, Park Jihyo was surrounded by several members besides Lim Nayeon.

Mina, who was originally sitting in the corner, and Tzuyu, who had just finished filming and returned, were also present. Even Sana Minatozaki, who was originally doing a live broadcast with Momo Hirai, temporarily left the live broadcast camera.

It turns out that not long after Yoo Jeongyeon left, these people were called over by Lim Nayeon's loud voice to watch the video together.

They also saw the stage where Jiang Yan took off her coat at the end of the video.

Upon seeing this, Tzuyu's eyes widened, and Sana Minatozaki also looked surprised and said with some concern, "Wow, oppa, why did you take off your jacket? That's too much of a sacrifice! What if you catch a cold?"

Lim Nayeon, standing next to him, said optimistically, "It should be fine. Oppa must have considered these possibilities beforehand since he dared to perform like this."

However, Mina, who was standing nearby and overheard their conversation, showed a momentary unease.

A barely perceptible hint of worry also flashed in her clear, cool eyes.

Having made up her mind, Mina suddenly said softly, "I'm going out for a bit."

"Um?"

Upon hearing this, Sana Minatozaki instinctively turned her head and asked, "Mitan, where are you going?"

Minami smiled faintly without changing her expression and said softly, "I'm going to the restroom."

After saying that, she quickly got up and left.

Sana Minato watched Mina walk away, her gaze lingering on her retreating figure for a second before she returned her attention to the video without any suspicion.

Meanwhile, in the corridor outside the waiting room, Yu Dingyan, who had just returned from the emergency exit, was walking towards the door of the waiting room.

When she was just a few steps away, she ran into Mina, who was coming out of there.

Upon seeing each other, the two simultaneously stopped in their tracks, startled.

Yoo Jeongyeon spoke first, asking, "Mina, why are you out here?"

Mina smiled naturally and replied, "Unnie, I'm going to the restroom."

"Oh, then you should hurry up and go. I reckon it'll be our turn to be called over for a solo photoshoot soon."

Yu Dingyan nodded, without any doubt, and even kindly reminded her to pay attention to the time.

"Um.

""

Minami gave a soft reply.

The two then passed each other, and Yu Dingyan continued walking towards the waiting room.

Minami continued walking forward.

However, after taking a few steps, she suddenly stopped and quickly looked back.

After confirming that Yoo Jeong-yeon had entered the waiting room, Mina turned around without hesitation and walked quickly in another direction.

Her target was the stairwell at the end of the corridor, inside the emergency exit.

Within China, a few hours after Jiang Yan's performance, various entertainment media outlets, having obtained firsthand information, also wrote articles praising Jiang Yan and posted them on Weibo along with several photos from the event published by foreign media.

[Live from Jiang Yan's stage performance in the United States: Just how popular is this rising international superstar abroad?]

The first Chinese singer to perform at the Super Bowl—he is a source of pride for the Chinese people!

[An epic performance! Jiang Yan pays tribute to Michael Jackson]

【————】

Some media outlets used deceptive and exaggerated headlines, downplaying the fact that it was just a Super Bowl pre-festival music festival, in order to trick unsuspecting passersby into clicking.

But I have to say, this method works.

A large group of netizens who don't pay much attention to the entertainment industry will click in out of curiosity after seeing this kind of title.

This group of people usually dislike the current top influencers in the domestic entertainment industry, feeling that they lack ability but still occupy public resources, and that even trivial matters are attributed to them.

Now, seeing that Jiang Yan, who also has a young face, seems to be very popular abroad, I immediately have a good first impression of him and think that he is a capable person.

In these people's minds, being welcomed by foreigners is a sign of being awesome.

Especially when you click on the various video clips released by these media outlets and see the black and white people in the audience screaming and cheering for Jiang Yan, you feel inexplicably satisfied with the scene.

And when they saw Jiang Yan say "This is Jiangyan from China," these people felt even more proud.

In their minds, stars who go international have a higher status than stars who only develop their careers domestically.

This is actually the thought of many people in China who follow the entertainment industry.

The reason why Hendrik Willem Van Loon has such a high status in China is because he made a name for himself in the United States and even received an Oscar Lifetime Achievement Award.

And now, through this Super Bowl LIVE performance, Jiang Yan's status in mainland China has also made a substantial leap.

This is the kind of situation that even the opposing team can't stop.

Those top-tier fan groups in the Chinese entertainment industry did not remain silent after seeing such news. Instead, they actively engaged in various sarcastic remarks and stirred up trouble in the comments section below these articles.

"Hilarious, it's just a commercial event, why are you making it sound like a halftime show?"

"What's so great about singing a bunch of English songs? In the end, it's just pandering to foreigners."

"The entire performance was in English, without even a single Chinese song. What kind of Chinese singer is this?"

"I'm afraid they'll make money in the domestic market, but then go and fawn over foreign markets."

"Foolish Fu, are you all ignoring the fact that Jiang Yan said he's from China when he was active abroad?"

"According to your logic, Yao Ming going to play in the NBA would also be considered a sign of worshipping foreign things."

"Isn't cultural export about letting others get to know you first? If you're not smart enough, don't post online. Go back and read more books."

Although those who consider Jiang Yan their adversary are trying hard to sway public opinion and label Jiang Yan as "foreign worshipper," this tactic is not very effective.

The video content is there; if you randomly click on one and see those foreigners looking at Jiang Yan with such excitement that their faces turn red, then this kind of hype doesn't seem convincing.

Most passersby would naturally prefer to believe what they see with their own eyes rather than such childish and low-level slander.

Jiang Yan arrived at Seoul Airport more than ten hours later.

Because it was a semi-public trip, unsurprisingly, he encountered fans who had been waiting there, as well as some local fans, at the airport.

Jiang Yan has a lot of experience in dealing with fans who come to pick her up at the airport.

It's impossible to pretend you didn't see it; fans who can follow him to the event in person are undoubtedly die-hard fans.

Jiang Yan would naturally give very positive feedback to such fans, making sure they didn't come for nothing.

He actively interacted and chatted with them for a while, and even struck a few poses to make it easier for the fansite admins to take pictures. In the end, he also picked a few fans to sign autographs for them.

As for the gifts that some fans had carefully prepared for him, Jiang Yan still followed his usual practice and only accepted handwritten letters; he didn't easily accept valuable gifts.

In order not to disrupt airport order and reduce the pressure on airport security personnel, Jiang Yan left the airport very quickly after doing all this.

-

After getting into the nanny van that was picking him up, he finally had time to take out his phone.

At that moment, he saw the messages sent to him by Minami and Jeongyeon Yoo.

Although it was a little strange that the two people sent him such similar messages, he didn't think too much about it.

Mina sent these messages out of concern as his girlfriend, and he wasn't surprised that Yoo Jeongyeon, with her motherly personality, sent them to him.

After quickly replying to both of them, Jiang Yan opened Twitter to check the situation.

Just as he expected, since appearing on the US trending list, discussions about him overseas have become mixed.

The reason, of course, is related to the title "Asian MJ".

This title didn't actually come about naturally; it was deliberately promoted and marketed by his team.

As promised, Epic Records promoted his song at the same time he finished his Super Bowl LIVE performance, with the headline of the ad being "This song is a tribute to a legend."

The NFL also posted a clip of Jiang Yan's performance on their official Twitter account, along with the tweet, "His performance was like MJ reincarnated!"

For Jiang Yan at this stage, as a fan of Michael Jackson, there is no harm whatsoever.

He doesn't care if he gets criticized; what he wants is massive attention so that more people can quickly remember his name and form an impression of him in their minds.

As for the possibility that such marketing might damage his reputation, Jiang Yan didn't care too much.

There are plenty of ways to whitewash a bad reputation, and besides, he hasn't reached the point where everyone hates him.

After checking the Twitter feed, Jiang Yan briefly opened Spotify to check the status of his English single.

On the global singles chart, after more than ten hours of streaming, "StandingNettoYou" has climbed to the 30s.

In the US region, the ranking isn't very high; it just barely made it into the top 100.

Jiang Yan was fairly satisfied with the result, as it met his expectations.

It's normal that the song isn't ranked high right now. Once Epic Records gives it a few radio airplay appearances, its ranking will continue to improve.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, "StandingNettoYou" will appear on the Billboard Hot 100 next week, and it will even rank higher than "That's What I Like" when it first entered the charts.

However, the subsequent ranking changes should be implemented relatively quickly.

Ultimately, this isn't a very popular dance track; it's the kind that looks amazing at first glance when paired with a dance, but isn't very listenable over time.

Jiang Yan doesn't expect this song to stay on the charts for very long; if it stays on the charts for more than five weeks without any padding, he'll consider it a success.

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