Peninsula: Aiming for a Grand Slam

Chapter 87 Are you home tonight?

Chapter 87 Are you home tonight? (Seeking first subscription)

"Minister Park, Chen Jixian has never even played a single professional match!" Chief Kim reminded him.

"I've said it before, I don't trust him, Chief Kim. Take a look at this set of data."

Park Jung-soo swiped his finger twice on the tablet, pushing a chart to the center of the conference table.

The chart only shows two sets of numbers.

On the left is Alcaraz, whose total prize money for the 2021 season was $22.3.

On the right is Kwon Soon-woo, whose total season prize money at the same point in time was $18.2.

Chief Kim glanced down and recognized Kwon Soon-woo as the current number one male tennis player in South Korea!

He is a top 100 player in the ATP rankings and participated in the Australian Open earlier this year.

Chief Kim asked, puzzled, "What does this Spaniard have to do with our topic today?"

Park Jung-soo began, "ASA's CEO, Schneider, used to work at IMG. When he signed Alcaraz, the boy was only 12 years old."

"There are no rankings, no bonuses, and no data to prove his value."

Five years later, in the same season, Alcaraz earned $40,000 more in prize money than South Korea's top tennis player!

"The Spaniard was born in 2003, while Kwon Soon-woo was born in 1997."

The meeting room fell silent.

Park Jung-soo took the tablet back: "What Schneider identified in Aka couldn't be quantified by any data in the early stages."

"Now he says he sees the same thing in J.Chen."

Chief Kim was slightly taken aback.

The implication is that J. Chen is at least the next Alcaraz?

impossible?

Park Jung-soo sighed inwardly.

Was it for Schneider?

No.

He didn't want to back out.

If he withdraws, not only will the project be lost, but his influence within Starship will also diminish.

He has already damaged his credibility in order to persuade higher-ups not to veto the proposal.

If we stop it now, and then launch any new project in the future, this incident will be brought up again.

These things cannot be said.

"I reserve my opinion," Chief Kim finally said.

Park Jung-soo nodded, saying that reserving his opinion was enough, but this matter was not over yet.

As expected, Chief Kim did not close the folder.

He continued, "Cooperation can be maintained, but there is one thing that cannot be tolerated."

Leak!

Director Kim is in charge of risk management.

Chief Kim said, "Today's public opinion storm was only triggered by Ko Dong-hyuk's manifesto. What really dragged us into this was the leak of the details of the agreement."

"Without that email, without those details, no one would have connected Zhang Yuanying and Chen Jixian together."

"Go Dong-hyuk was criticizing capitalism, not our Starship. Jang Won-young could have stood on the shore and watched the show without any fuss."

Chief Kim moved the screenshot forward by half an inch.

"But now, we're sitting in this conference room, discussing how to deal with it."

"It's not because Chen Jixian was criticized, it's because someone within our ranks handed us a knife!"

Park Jung-soo did not object.

What Chief Kim said is true.

The leak turned Starship from an observer into a party involved, and into a very passive position.

If there were no leaks, Chen Jixian would win his debut and board the Starship; if he lost, the Starship would secretly leave.

Clean and tidy.

They can advance or retreat with ease.

But now, people outside are speculating about the relationship between Zhang Yuanying and Chen Jixian. Starship is forced to stand within the range of public opinion. If they don't speak, they will seem guilty. If they do speak, they will confirm the speculation.

Director Kim concluded, "If the loopholes aren't plugged, the next time something gets exposed, it might not just be the letter of intent."

Park Jung-soo snapped out of his thoughts.

He looked at Zhang Yuanying, who had remained silent.

"Yuan Ying, what are your thoughts? After all, you're the one who's ultimately standing on the stage."

Zhang Yuanying raised her head, her face expressionless.

She didn't look at the two printed sheets of paper; she just asked two questions.

"After J.Chen won, can his contract with FILA be upgraded from a collaboration to a brand ambassadorship?"

Park Jung-soo was taken aback.

He only thought about this issue in his mind, but never brought it up in a meeting.

"—Win or lose, he is very likely to become a FILA spokesperson in the future. FILA is betting on ASA's vision, not his record."

A playful look appeared in Zhang Yuanying's eyes.

She saw a fact:

When Chen Jixian had no points at all, FILA released a collaboration product for him—this wasn't waiting for him to win, but waiting for him to grow up. Zhang Yuanying nodded and then asked, "When we were shooting the collaboration product, was he standing next to me, or was I standing next to him?"

Why would anyone fight for the center position?

Park Jung-soo laughed: "He's standing on the field in Tunisia—J. Chen won't be participating in this filming."

"Let him win for now," she said, as if finalizing a trivial matter. "Anyway, if he loses, we won't have to answer these questions."

After saying that, she got up and walked towards the door.

Watching her retreating figure, Chief Kim turned to Park Jung-soo and asked, "Is she supporting or not supporting her?"

Park Jung-soo put away his tablet, stood up, and patted Chief Kim on the shoulder.

"She doesn't support Chen Jixian. If that person wins, she wants the biggest slice. If that person loses, she'll be the first to disembark."

He paused.

"These are the people of our Starship."

Chief Kim was taken aback.

Starship, Starship, does that mean disembarking at lightning speed like a shooting star?

The latter half of April is almost over.

Chen Jixian's next destination was already set: Monastir, Tunisia.

The night before his departure, Xiao Chen sat on the floor, surrounded by a pile of things.

Golf bag, sweatband, passport, health certificate.

He flipped open his passport and glanced at it. The photo was taken two years ago, back when he didn't have a system, a PD racket, or any of those messy scandals.

Chen Jixian closed his passport and stuffed it into the side pocket of his bag.

The bag is already packed. It contains a PD racket given to me by Wang Hao, two spare rackets, two rolls of spare sweatbands, and a pair of unopened badminton shoes.

He zipped up his golf bag, pushed his suitcase to the side of the entryway, and placed it against the wall for stability.

My flight is tomorrow morning. Everything is packed and ready. All I need to do is get some sleep and then I'm off.

But he didn't sleep.

Chen Jixian sat on the sofa, picked up his phone, and opened Kakao.

A few days ago, he sent Liu Zhimin a message: "I'm going to Tunisia in a couple of days for my first professional tournament. It's a special time, so traveling back and forth is not very convenient. I may stay for a few months."

Read.

No reply.

In the following days, Liu Zhimin still did not reply.

He picked up his phone and put it down again, typed and deleted, and in the end, he didn't send anything.

Chen Jixian couldn't understand it.

Perhaps she's busy with her schedule?

Maybe he simply doesn't want to reply?

Or is it both?

Wait a minute, I haven't offended her recently.

Chen Jixian told himself: Don't overthink it, she had no obligation to reply to his messages.

But this comfort did not make Xiao Chen feel any better.

My phone finally vibrated this evening.