Peninsula: From Water Injection to Stardom

The place where I met Lee Ji-eun was a French restaurant in Apgujeong, Gangnam District.

When Jiang Yan arrived, Li Zhi'en had not yet arrived, so he sat down in the reserved private room first.

However, it didn't take long. Less than twenty minutes later, Lee Ji-eun pushed open the door to the private room and walked in.

He wasn't late, he just arrived earlier.

Seeing that Jiang Yan had been waiting there for some time, Lee Ji-eun asked with some surprise, "Jiang Yan-ssi, you're here so early. Have you been waiting for a long time?"

Jiang Yan smiled and said, "It hasn't been long. IU sunbaenim arrived quite late, and it's not yet time for our agreed meeting."

After Lee Ji-eun sat down opposite him, she smiled at Jiang Yan and said, "Oh my, you're being a bit too formal with me. You don't have to keep calling me 'senior'."

"So... it's called IUxi?"

"Okay, let's call it that for now."

Lee Ji-eun nodded in satisfaction, then picked up the menu on the table and flipped through it.

Have you ever eaten French food before?

"I've never eaten it."

Jiang Yan answered very simply: if you haven't eaten it, you haven't eaten it, there's nothing wrong with saying that.

"Then take a look at the menu too. The dishes at this restaurant are all quite good." Lee Ji-eun said, handing the menu to Kang Yeon.

However, after Jiang Yan took the menu, he only pretended to look at it for a while before handing it back.

"If IUxi has tried it before, then you should order some. I'm sure our tastes won't be too different."

"Haha, don't blame me if it tastes bad."

Lee Ji-eun didn't stand on ceremony anymore. She smiled and started ordering, then handed the menu back to the waiter.

After the waiter left, Lee Ji-eun turned her gaze back to Kang Yeon and got down to business: "I really like the melody and arrangement of the song 'All I Wanna Do.' After listening to it, I thought that if possible, I would like to collaborate with the creator of this song."

"So I told the team about this idea, and they got your contact information from Cube."

Jiang Yan replied in a more formal manner: "I'm glad IUxi likes it. It's an honor for me to have this collaboration."

Upon hearing this, Lee Ji-eun continued, "However, I can't find any other time recently, and it may take another month or two before I can free up my schedule for the collaboration."

"It's okay, I can finish the demo first and send it to you, that will save some time."

"Does Jiang Yanxi mean that you already have an idea?"

Upon hearing this, Lee Ji-eun looked somewhat surprised; she hadn't expected the other person to be preparing to start writing a demo.

"Actually, I already had some ideas yesterday after learning about the collaboration with IUxi."

Jiang Yan wasn't just saying that casually; he had actually already made a preliminary selection of several collaborative pieces last night.

The current first choice is "GANADARA", which was originally intended to be a collaboration song between IU and Jay Park.

The other party's collaboration with GD, "Palette," is also good. The collaboration with Hwasa, "Don't Give Me," and Baekhyun's "DREAM" are also among the options.

But Jiang Yan is still considering which song to choose in the end.

But it doesn't really matter; if you really can't choose, just roll the dice to decide later.

"Jiang Yanxi truly deserves to be called a producer who writes famous songs," Lee Ji-eun praised him with high emotional intelligence.

"Not at all, it's still far behind IUxi," Jiang Yan replied modestly.

After the two finished praising each other, Lee Ji-eun asked curiously, "Speaking of which, the other singer of that song also has a very nice voice. Is she your friend?"

"The alias is someone I met when I was a trainee at JYP."

"Oh my god, you were a trainee at JYP Entertainment?"

"That's right, I spent most of my training period there. Later, because I didn't want to wait any longer, I debuted with BTS."

"Wow, that's a very interesting story."

"It's alright, it's just so I can debut."

"..."

After chatting with Lee Ji-eun for a while, the dishes we ordered were served one after another by the waiters.

After taking a few sips of the restaurant's signature French onion soup, Lee Ji-eun said, "I will be touring China again next year. If Jiang Yanxi's schedule allows, perhaps he could be my special guest."

Hearing Li Zhi'en say this, Jiang Yan also thought that the other party would make some groundwork for breaking into the mainland this year, such as participating in Hunan TV's Spring Festival Gala this year.

Although Lee Ji-eun was very popular in South Korea at this time, she was not very well-known in China. It would be a few years before she became truly popular.

And it's hard to say whether she's lucky or unlucky. I remember that the other party just finished their tour in China next year, and then suddenly they were banned.

"If it's an invitation from IUxi, I'll definitely cancel it even if I have other commitments," Jiang Yan replied politely, since the matter was still far from being settled.

"Then I'll take that as a yes. Oh, right, there's one more thing I need to ask you."

"What is it?"

"I want to give back to my fans in China who support me. Do you have any good Chinese songs you can recommend?"

"Hmm... I can recommend one of the most popular singers in China, his name is Jay Zhou."

When it comes to recommending songs, Jiang Yan really didn't know what to recommend for a moment, but he could still recommend the most popular singers in China without any problem.

Moreover, these two happen to have some interesting wit, so he's killing two birds with one stone.

If Lee Ji-eun herself reveals that he was the one who recommended her, Huaguo Aina might even have to thank him.

……

After finishing the meal, Jiang Yan and Li Zhi'en's meeting came to an end.

The collaboration will have to wait another month or two. Jiang Yan will take some time to write a one-and-a-half-minute demo and send it over.

After they parted ways, Jiang Yan took a taxi straight back to his dormitory.

The following evening, at Kyung Hee University's open-air theater, Kang Yeon had just finished his performance for the night and was walking off the stage during the university's anniversary celebration.

Tonight's performance was just a normal one; he definitely wouldn't do the same gimmick twice.

After taking a few sips of water from Jiang Zhennan, Jiang Yan casually inquired about his upcoming schedule.

After learning that he would have a commercial performance every two or three days on average during his subsequent schedule, he estimated that at this rate, he could pay back all the money that Yuehua Entertainment had advanced for him in less than two months.

This is also the advantage of playing solo; the cost required is significantly lower compared to playing with a group.

Moreover, Jiang Yan wrote all of his own songs, saving him the money of buying songs.

He even felt that the timeframe would be shorter than he had anticipated, and once Du Hua secured the endorsement deal, he should be able to receive payment immediately.

Jiang Yan didn't know how long it would take to reach the fastest conclusion of his debut, but he felt that he should be able to compete for that title.

Or, how about we include this marketing in the plan?