Peninsula: From Water Injection to Stardom

Since releasing Jiang Yan's first debut teaser, CUBE has been releasing more and more materials about Jiang Yan on social media over a period of time, all of which were prepared in advance.

Yuehua Entertainment wasn't idle either; in addition to updating materials simultaneously, they also opened a personal account for Jiang Yan on Weibo.

The account reached 100,000 followers in just a few days after it was opened.

However, this data is actually inflated; a large portion of it consists of fans bought by Yuehua Entertainment, and the actual number of fans in the backend is probably only a few thousand.

This account has only posted one Weibo post so far, which was on the day the account was opened, saying, "Looking forward to seeing you again."

However, the comment section of this Weibo post has now been filled with a huge number of comments.

Looking forward to Yanbao's re-debut!!!

When will the album pre-orders be announced? I can't wait to support it!!!

I really want to see your music show performance soon, I'll definitely go to the show to cheer you on.

It's so hard for our Yanbao to debut again, and this time we'll protect you until the very end!! #heart #heart

【…】

The comments were overwhelmingly from mothers, so Jiang Yan's re-debut after leaving the group can be considered a heart-wrenching move for her fans.

Those who remain are undoubtedly the most devoted and loyal fans.

However, once a fan stops supporting someone, the situation can be completely reversed, with the fan turning into a staunch hater.

Domestically, the news of Jiang Yan's re-debut didn't generate much buzz. Aside from the first day when it received considerable attention, it was mentioned less and less in the industry afterward.

However, the situation in South Korea has generated quite a bit of buzz.

Ultimately, it's still a group of Korean men who keep bringing up the issue every now and then, calling for a boycott of Kang Yeon's re-debut on social media.

To be honest, Jiang Yan should thank them.

Thanks to them, quite a few people in South Korea now know that BTS's Green Card, who previously left the group, will be making a solo comeback.

This is practically free publicity for him, saving him a lot of advertising costs.

Moreover, compared to the large-scale protests last year, the current outcry against him on various Korean online platforms is relatively mild.

The reason is simple: after BigHit's subsequent public relations efforts, many people on Korean websites also believe that Kang Yeon was indeed misunderstood at the time.

The group of Korean men who are still attacking Jiang Yan are largely doing so because they've seen many Korean women choose to support her after learning about her comeback.

So they broke through.

The thought that someone they dislike is being supported by women in their own country is disgusting to Korean men, like swallowing a fly.

Then he'd better keep hurling insults at Jiang Yan online.

Unfortunately, their insults were like those of an incompetent husband, utterly incapable of stopping his comeback.

……

Meanwhile, Jiang Yan has also been quite busy during this time.

After the music video for the title track was filmed, in addition to continuing rehearsals at Starship, there will also be a photoshoot for the album.

The set design for the music show stage also needs to be discussed in meetings, and the stage costumes and styling also need to be negotiated with the team multiple times.

In short, there are many trivial matters.

After working on this for a while, it was already the end of March.

However, the next day, April 1, Jiang Yan was unexpectedly called back to CUBE from Starship for a meeting at noon.

The reason is that at 9:00 AM today, YG Entertainment announced the comeback of their popular group BIGBANG.

YG Entertainment confirmed that BIGBANG will make a comeback on May 1st and introduced the release format of their MADE series album.

This news naturally sparked widespread discussion on South Korean online forums.

This is also why Jiang Yan was called back to the meeting, because BIGBANG's comeback date is only a few days away from his debut date.

Two weeks ago, Jiang Yan held a meeting with CUBE and Yuehua Entertainment to set the official debut date as April 28th.

However, if this date is not changed, then Jiang Yan will be competing against BIGBANG this time.

Moreover, it's not a collision in the next week, but a direct collision during the same period.

At that moment in the CUBE conference room, Marketing Manager Song Zhiying suggested, "Perhaps it would be better if we postponed the date to next month."

If BIGBANG hadn't been there, they would have had a pretty good chance of winning first place on a music show.

However, with the return of this popular group, many second, third, and fourth-tier groups will inevitably shift their focus to smaller stages, and the competition is expected to intensify.

Delaying their debut and avoiding popular groups and fierce competition is indeed a good choice.

However, Jiang Yan never considered changing the date.

He had his sights set on this timeframe from the very beginning when they were discussing his debut date.

How could he not know BIGBANG's comeback date this year?

He not only knew that BIGBANG would make a comeback in May, but EXO would also make a comeback in June, and Girls' Generation would officially start the girl group head-to-head battle in July and August.

If, as Song Ji-young suggested, a major group debuts and the schedule is postponed by a month, then his debut might as well be scheduled for September.

Avoiding their sharp edge? What he wants is to clash with the dominant forces at the same time.

"No need for postponement, let's proceed as usual according to the previous process," Jiang Yan expressed his insistence.

Are you sure?

"Sure."

The topic of delayed debut was eventually dropped.

After the meeting ended and he left the CUBE office building, Jiang Yan planned to find a restaurant nearby to have lunch.

He had only walked a few steps when he received a phone call from Jiang Zhennan.

The other party has now officially become his agent and has started to take on some work recently.

"I have bad news and good news. Which would you like to hear first?"

"Let's hear the bad news first."

As soon as Jiang Zhennan opened his mouth, Jiang Yan roughly guessed what kind of matter it was about.

Two days ago, he asked the other party to contact that record marketing company to place an order for the full album of his solo album to be inflated with digital music.

The manager replied that it would take two days to come up with a solution.

"The bad news is that they said they didn't have many slots available for us that month, and many had already been reserved by other customers."

"And what's the good news?"

"The good news is that if we increase the down payment percentage, they can use a portion of other customers' allocations for us to use on the first day of the song's release."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Yan realized that it meant they wanted to pay more money.

"How much should the proportion be increased?"

"Previously, we paid 30%, and the other party's idea was that if we paid half upfront, they would prioritize allocating resources to us."

"If the deposit remains the same, what ranking can be predicted?"

"They said they could only guarantee the entire album would be in the top 30 on the first day, but the main track's performance would depend on the overall market situation, and they couldn't guarantee it would consistently be in the top 10."

"Then we'll stick to the original payment method."

After thinking it over for a moment, Jiang Yan made a decision.

On the first day, pushing all albums into the top 30 was basically in line with his expectations, although it deviated somewhat from the initial goal of the top 20.

But such exposure is enough to attract passersby to listen.

Similarly, this was one of the reasons why he insisted on not changing the debut date in the meeting room.

I've already paid to add water, and if I keep avoiding this and that, then I'm just wasting my money.