star of the peninsula

"Let's go and eat."

"After talking about such in-depth issues and practicing so hard before, I'm hungry."

Chen Chen put away his phone, stood up suddenly from the ground and greeted.

I've been practicing a lot with Park Jin-young recently, and I've actually started to get used to eating at the organic farmer's canteen with soy sauce bottles.

"Let's go, today the cafeteria is full of food that girls like to eat, maybe we can even see TWICE or ITZY."

Park Jin-young put his cell phone into his clothes and prepared to leave.

They still had to practice after dinner, so neither of the two grown men took the initiative to ask to change clothes, and they had a tacit understanding.

……

As expected, Rabbit Gas was nowhere to be seen.

Even though they can no longer hold large-scale commercial performances like before, it is still somewhat far-fetched to be able to see the idol groups in their comeback period at the Soy Sauce Bottle Canteen at this point in time.

The number of schedules for the Soy Sauce Bottle idols is just like the content of their albums, which is large and satisfying.

"Hello PD~ Ah, hello PD~"

I didn’t see the Rabbit Gas, but I couldn’t escape the attack that was preparing to return in the company, and I happened to run into Huang Lizhi in the cafeteria.

"Where are the others?" Chen Chen glanced around, "You guys should be practicing together, why are you the only one in the cafeteria?"

"They haven't come yet, Oppa, they're a little slower than me." Huang Lizhi replied: "After practice, we always have to wash up before we can see people. We are female idols."

"..."

This sentence made the two PDs silent. It was too difficult to respond.

"Go get your food, and sit with us later." Park Jin-young waved his hand. "There's no point in eating with me, but if you can get some pointers from the guy next to me, you'll be very successful."

"Alas, how can you flatter someone in front of me?" Chen Chen sighed but did not refuse. "Just chat for a few minutes, there's nothing much to say."

"Haha, thank you, Oppa, thank you, President!"

Huang Lizhi bowed to the two of them and ran quickly to get the food.

Soon, other members of ITZY also arrived, and the small table in the restaurant suddenly seemed a bit crowded.

"Why don't you sit over there?" Chen Chen was not polite to Park Jin Young at all, "You are the biggest one, so you take up the most space!"

"Okay." Park Jin-young didn't have a bad temper and walked away with the food tray. "That's right."

"But before you go, let's leave a topic for now." Chen Chen stopped him, "What do you want to hear us talk about?"

"Let's talk about how to become a more popular girl group?" Park Jin-young raised his eyebrows. "If President Chen is willing to give us some advice, we will all be very grateful."

"If you really want to talk about this, I should talk to you alone. Bringing the girls along may not be a good idea." Chen Chen weighed the pros and cons in his mind and said, "But the girls also have things they need to do, so it's okay to talk about it."

Chen Chen is really good at talking about ITZY. As a fifth-generation girl group that was so powerful in the early days, he must have too much information in his head. "Which problem do you want to hear first?" Chen Chen calmly drank a sip of soup, then looked at the girls and gave his opinion, "Your problem is small and easy to solve, how about we talk about yours first?"

"..."

Naturally, they did not dare to object to what Chen Chen said.

I didn't dare to do it in the first place, not to mention that Park Jin-young was watching here.

"Oh, actually I'm under a lot of pressure." Chen Chen showed his attitude before he started, "It's too easy to get slapped in the face by picking on a popular girl group before their comeback!"

"Slap in the face?" Park Jin Young couldn't help laughing. "Who dares to slap you, Boss Chen, in the face now? With Integrate here, no one will question your authority in the girl group even if you make a couple of mistakes."

"Do you like Integrate so much?" Chen Chen smiled and set a trap for this person. "Do you think Integrate is so powerful?"

"What's so great about a new group? The C headquarters is awesome, and you are awesome." Park Jin-young remained calm. "Look at your series of actions during the pandemic. As soon as you started, you were a god-like person that everyone worshipped."

"Alright, alright, you old fox, you really know how to talk!" Chen Chen rolled his eyes at him, then turned the topic back to the girls, "All the problems you may have in the future or have already had are actually the company's problems. No matter what problems the immature girl group has, it's all because the company hasn't done enough."

"If we don't talk about the company's operations now and just talk about you guys," Chen Chen set the tone first, and then pulled out a real material, "You five are too boring."

"As an idol, she is qualified and even excellent, but as an artist, she is too boring." Chen Chen repeated the question again, "Idols are just singing and dancing, performing on stage, and serving fans, but artists are more than that. Artists must have good-looking appearance, great personality, and interesting soul."

"..."

The girls were confused, but Chen Chen's words made Park Jin-young frown.

"In this circle, strength alone is useless. Sometimes other things are more important than strength." Chen Chen simply directed his criticism at Park Jin-young. "Whether it's the company or the girls, they are all struggling with their strength and trying hard to improve themselves. This is good, of course it's good, but it's not right, because this is an era where traffic is king."

"No matter how strong you are, can you transcend the idol class?"

"No one cares how much effort you put into raising your strength from 80 to 90, because everyone believes that strength is the foundation, and improving strength is what you should do."

“You won’t be praised for doing what you should do well or even perfectly. Only when you make something that doesn’t belong to you particularly beautiful will it be surprising enough, eye-catching enough, and attract traffic.”

"In an era where traffic is king, traffic is the most correct thing, and everything else has to stand aside."

"Think about other successful girl groups on the market and think about where their traffic comes from. Is it really all from the stage? Analyze why girl groups that are not as strong as yours can be as popular as you. I think everyone will gain something."

"The 'correctness' of the previous era is correct, but it has become less correct after all. It can add points, but it can't help you soar to the top of the mountain."

"Brother Zhenying, I know you like strength." Chen Chen warned solemnly, "But if you let the girls only have strength, they will be doomed."

"..."

These few words made Park Jin-young break out in a cold sweat and he didn't even move his chopsticks.

"OK, this is a human problem, boring." Chen Chen continued, "In fact, it is also the company's fault for raising you to be boring people, but at least you should also take part of the responsibility for not becoming a particularly interesting artist."

"And if it's all about the company's problems, it's not going to be a good day to talk." Chen Chen said with a smile: "So give the company some face and take some of the blame."

...(End of chapter)