Peninsula: From Water Injection to Stardom

Jiang Yan only had to sing three songs on stage for this commercial performance. After finishing his songs, he waved to the audience and then turned to leave.

After stepping off the stage, he happened to meet all the members of EXID, who were about to go on stage to perform.

Jiang Yan didn't think much of it. She simply greeted them and said "fighting" before continuing backstage to find Jiang Zhennan.

Meanwhile, Jiang Zhennan had already prepared a water cup, which he handed over to Jiang Yan when he returned.

"How was it? Was my performance alright?" Jiang Yan said meaningfully after taking a few sips of water from the glass.

"Speechless, one word—perfect." Jiang Zhennan smiled and gave a thumbs up.

If he hadn't known from the beginning, Jiang Zhennan would have had no idea that the performance mishap just now was staged.

Jiang Yan's quick thinking and quick reaction were so natural; his performance was flawless.

Of course, all of this requires solid strength to support it.

Without the necessary skills, doing this will only expose your weaknesses completely.

After tidying up quickly, Jiang Yan said again, "Let's go, or we'll get stuck in traffic after the school anniversary celebration."

Jiang Zhennan asked, "Don't you want to watch a little longer?"

"There's nothing to see."

In his previous life, Jiang Yan might have joined in the fun and kept watching, but now he just wanted to go home.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Zhennan shrugged and agreed, "Alright, let's go then."

The two reached an agreement and then quickly left the backstage area together, returning to their van.

In the car, Jiang Yan, who had just sat down, casually picked up his phone and opened the NAVER website.

He glanced at the trending topics and found that there were currently no related entries about him.

This is normal, though, since the school anniversary celebrations are not over yet.

After a moment's hesitation, Jiang Yan put down his phone and casually asked Jiang Zhennan, who was sitting next to him, "Did that manager contact you again afterward?"

The manager he was referring to was naturally the person who had previously handled their water injection business.

"Yes, they even messaged me before to promote their other services."

"What kind of business?"

"I forgot a bit, let me check."

As Jiang Zhennan spoke, he opened his chat history with the manager, scrolled through it to confirm, and said, "The most recent time was when they promoted their fancam view count accumulation service to me."

"What's the price?"

When Jiang Yan heard that it was a business of adding water to straight shots, he immediately became interested.

"He didn't say it directly. If you want to know, ask him now."

"Then let's ask."

"Okay, I'll ask now."

Jiang Zhennan quickly typed a message and sent it out, and the other side seemed to have seen the message just in time, responding within minutes.

"Look, this is the price they offered. It seems pretty cheap."

Jiang Zhennan handed over his phone, and Jiang Yan took it and glanced at it.

The price quoted above is 20 million Korean won for a million-dollar fancam, which is less than 100,000 Chinese yuan.

No wonder even Jiang Zhennan said it was cheap.

But Jiang Yan still felt it was too expensive, because he knew that in a few years, it would only cost 1 yuan to watch a million-dollar straight shot on YouTube.

The reason it's so expensive now is probably because their water injection technology hasn't been updated, resulting in higher costs.

After glancing at it briefly and returning his phone, Jiang Yan spoke again: "Tomorrow, communicate with Yuehua Entertainment and arrange a photographer with a fixed camera position specifically for me on the 20th, the day of Kyung Hee University's anniversary celebration."

Because it's just a commercial performance, Jiang Yan's team doesn't have a cameraman with them right now.

His team now consists of only four people: the two brothers, a driver, and a cody.

"No problem, should I place the order now?"

"No need for now."

Jiang Yan shook his head, saying that there was no need to rush into this matter.

Every marketing campaign needs a legitimate reason. Releasing your first fancam video and then immediately breaking a million views seems a bit fake.

……

That evening, less than half an hour after the end of the Konkuk University anniversary celebration, the hashtag #KangYanKonkukUniversityAnniversaryStageAccident# suddenly appeared on NAVER's real-time trending topics.

Video clips taken by passersby also spread rapidly on South Korean websites.

"This really isn't a pre-recorded video?! The vocals are as clear as a studio recording."

"This level of live performance, very few active idols can match?!"

"His mental fortitude on the spot is incredible. The moment the sound system went out, he acted like nothing had happened and kept dancing."

"I was indifferent to him before, but after watching this video, I appreciate him a bit more."

"Why was he positioned as the main vocalist when he debuted with BTS? His skills would make him an absolute ACE in any boy group!"

"Such an honest live performance, I'm starting to become a fan."

"..."

During this school anniversary stage "accident," Jiang Yan's professional skills, as demonstrated by his performance, sparked numerous discussions about his abilities.

As time went on, more and more people joined the discussion, and it took the top spot on the trending topics list in less than ten minutes.

Furthermore, on music streaming websites such as Melon that same night, the daily listenership of all four songs from Jiang Yan's album began to surge.

Two non-topic singles that had previously fallen off the daily charts have re-entered the charts and are now ranked in Central.

Needless to say, the title track was ranked 46th on the year-end chart just a few hours ago, but it has now risen to 27th.

Another song that made it onto the year-end chart, "All I Wanna Do," rose from number 95 to number 76.

The number of members on the official fan cafe also increased that night, with a rough estimate of two to three thousand new members joining.

But the effect of trending topics goes far beyond that.

The next day, CUBE called to tell him that they had received some more commercial performance invitations, and the prices had increased compared to before.

In addition to commercial performances, several variety shows have also extended invitations.

However, Jiang Yan did not directly ask CUBE to accept the invitation.

While appearing on variety shows can bring him continuous exposure and increase his popularity, it also has its advantages and disadvantages.

Jiang Yan knew the nature of some South Korean programs; they would definitely ask him some difficult questions about his nationality.

He knew all too well what kind of people they were.

Moreover, variety shows often require him to do things that don't fit his established persona for the sake of the show's effect, which he dislikes.

It's impossible for him to lower his standards and become a comedian; he's not going to spend his whole life working in South Korea.

His current goal in South Korea is very clear: to gain widespread popularity and cultivate a small number of die-hard local fans.

Once he has developed sufficiently here, his next step is to leverage the K-pop platform to officially enter the overseas market.

The South Korean domestic market is ultimately too small; relying solely on Han Hong will not lead to a future.

Han Han's fans' love has an expiration date; it usually only lasts for 3 to 5 years.

Once the time comes and Korean fans stop spoiling you, if you haven't expanded into overseas markets by then, the result will be that you'll simply disappear from public view.