Peninsula: From Water Injection to Stardom

On June 2nd, Jiang Yan and his small team flew directly from Seoul Airport to Shanghai, China, to hold their first fan meeting (FM) in China.

There's a difference between a fan meeting and an autograph session. To participate in an autograph session, you need to spend at least several thousand yuan to buy an album and enter a lottery for a spot, and even then, you're not guaranteed to win.

You can simply buy tickets for the meet-and-greet, provided you can actually get one, as there are limited spots available.

Yuehua Entertainment announced the dates of their fan meeting in China two weeks ago, and within ten minutes of tickets going on sale a week ago, all 6000 tickets for the three shows in Shanghai were sold out.

Even so, a large number of people still left comments on Yuehua's Weibo account saying they couldn't get tickets and asking if two more shows could be held.

In fact, Yuehua Entertainment had considered adding one or two more shows, but before they could even discuss it with Jiang Yan, Du Hua vetoed the idea outright.

The concept of scarcity marketing will never go out of style.

On the same day, Jiang Yan and his team landed in Shanghai and quickly checked into the hotel they had booked.

After taking a few photos of the hotel with Kim Seolhyun on Kakao and chatting briefly, he and Kang Jinnam went downstairs to wander around the neighborhood.

It's fair to say that Jiang Yan hadn't been back to China for several years. Walking down the street and hearing everyone speaking Chinese made him feel incredibly warm and familiar.

He then took a few photos, and after returning to the hotel, he would pick two to post on Weibo to update his account.

The company's registered personal Weibo account can't just sit idle. Although it's usually handled by the company's operations department, I still need to log in occasionally to interact with my followers.

The two strolled around until dinner time before returning to the hotel. After dinner, they had no other activities and went back to their respective suites to rest.

The following morning, Jiang Yan arrived at the venue for the FM radio show, the concert hall of the Oriental Art Center.

Before he even got out of the van, he could already see a long queue outside the entrance where the meeting was being held.

There were huge crowds of people, almost all of them female fans.

Yes, almost, meaning there's a tiny bit of male fan mixed in.

Jiang Yan hadn't expected that there would be male fans among the people who came.

This surprised him quite a bit.

However, it's hard to say for sure if he was a male fan; he might have just come with his girlfriend. That's all possible.

After getting off the car through the back door, Jiang Yan led his team into the FM backstage lounge, where the makeup artist began to style his hair and makeup.

Jiang Zhennan then coordinated with the person in charge of the venue today and confirmed the procedures with the MC in charge of the event.

While preparations were underway, ticket checks and entry began at the main gate.

When the time came to 9:30, the first meet-and-greet officially began.

On the stage of the concert hall, a background screen consisting of a huge horizontal screen and two vertical screens was projecting Jiang Yan's image, along with the words "Jiang Yan Shanghai Fan Meeting".

The hall was pitch black, with only two floor lamps lit on the stage.

As a slender female host wearing a floral dress walked onto the stage from the side, a spotlight shone on her from above.

"Hello, good morning to all the Felix fans here. Welcome to Jiang Yan's fan meeting."

"Without further ado, let's give him a warm welcome on stage!"

As soon as the female host finished speaking, the 2000 fans sitting in the audience waved the light sticks they had just bought outside and cheered.

Amidst the cheers, Jiang Yan walked out from the side of the stage with a microphone, waving and saying, "Hello everyone!"

"Aaaaaaahhhhh"

"Jiang Yan, I love you!"

"Ahhh, he's so handsome!!!!"

Some female fans were screaming and wailing, completely disregarding their usual ladylike image.

Jiang Yan could hear everything clearly on stage, but he could only pretend not to hear it and stood smiling next to the female host.

The next step is quite simple: the official team collects some questions in advance and then asks them in the Q&A session, which Jiang Yan is responsible for answering.

They will also select a few lucky fans to come on stage for photos and interactions, sing a couple of songs in between, and finally take a group photo with all the fans in the audience.

A complete session takes a little over an hour.

Of course, there was also an emotional segment at the end.

A fan-made support video will be projected on the background screen, featuring clips of Jiang Yan from her trainee days, her early debut, and her re-debut.

Jiang Yan was deeply moved after watching the video, and rubbed her eyes as she thanked her fans.

Fans at the scene cried out in distress upon witnessing this scene.

But Jiang Yan didn't actually shed any tears.

I was truly moved, and I was genuinely grateful to my fans, but it was also true that I couldn't cry.

He wasn't the kind of person who was easily sentimental or whose emotions fluctuated easily; shedding tears was too difficult for him.

……

After the first day of the fan meeting, Jiang Yan took a van back to the hotel for lunch.

However, he had just finished eating and returned to his suite to rest for a few minutes when he received a call from Yoo Jeong-yeon, who was far away in South Korea.

"Oppa! Why didn't you tell me about the recall for music show appearances sooner?!"

Even over the phone, Jiang Yan could hear the barely concealed excitement in Yu Dingyan's voice.

"You found out?"

"Yes, PD Park called me to his office at noon today and told me about this," Yoo Jeongyeon replied.

"So now that you know, what are your thoughts?"

"Of course we're excited! We're going to perform on TV!"

Jiang Yanneng's words made him imagine how excited Yu Dingyan must be on the other end of the phone.

However, he continued to remind him, "Don't get too excited yet. You should know that this also means that for the next period of time, in addition to recording the show, you will also have to do choreography rehearsals with me, which will be very tiring."

However, upon hearing this, Yoo Jeongyeon nonchalantly replied, "It's okay, it's alright to be on stage with oppa to perform, even if I'm a little tired~"

"Alright, let's talk about this when I get back. You should focus on preparing for the competition in the show right now."

"Okay, but oppa, when are you coming back?"

"It will be a few more days. I'll contact you again when I get back."

"Okay, oppa, I'll hang up now. Nayeon unnie is coming to call me to rehearsal."

"Okay, go ahead."

The phone call with Yu Dingyan ended quickly, and after hanging up, Jiang Yan continued to rest on the sofa in the suite.

He has no other plans this afternoon and can rest until tomorrow.

However, in addition to the second fan meeting tomorrow, he will also be signing an endorsement contract with the professional team sent by Yuehua Entertainment in China. Du Hua will also be present at the event.

His schedule in China wasn't too tight, but after the last fan meeting, he would fly back to South Korea that afternoon.