Chapter 230: Where Did Chairman Jiang Go?
The meeting's content remained unchanged, and Liu Zhimin was distracted throughout. Fortunately, she wasn't required to speak, so her distraction went largely unnoticed.
Due to Jiang Shu's absence, there was less content for the publicity department, so Li Duohui made some modifications. Everyone seemed preoccupied.
Previously, Jiang Shu's presence had consistently proven his decisions correct. They only needed to strictly follow his arrangements to complete a successful comeback.
But this time, with Jiang Shu absent, they felt uncertain, unsure if the comeback would succeed.
This situation mainly affected mid-level management. DM Entertainment's executives were seasoned industry veterans. While they were also somewhat worried, they weren't as anxious.
Moreover, this was Aespa's comeback, involving not just DM Entertainment but also S.M. With two companies co-managing, the pressure on them was present but not overly exaggerated.
The four Aespa members, the subjects of the meeting, were the most oblivious in the conference room.
Based on the information they had, it was difficult for them to clearly understand the issue of Jiang Shu's absence. Ignorance is bliss, precisely because they didn't know there was a problem, so naturally, they weren't worried.
After the meeting, Liu Zhimin walked behind her teammates, casually holding her phone, looking at the chat window with Jiang Shu, her face filled with hesitation.
Looking at their last chat record from February 17th, Liu Zhimin bit her lower lip, thinking about how to start the conversation.
“Should I… just ask directly?” Liu Zhimin mumbled.
“Ouni, are you coming?” Kim Minjeong called out to Liu Zhimin.
“Coming.” Liu Zhimin was startled, looking up at her members already waiting for her in the elevator lobby, and quickly walked over.
“What are you doing, Ouni?” Kim Minjeong asked while pressing the door close button.
“Nothing.” Liu Zhimin subconsciously hid her intentions. “I was thinking about what to eat later.”
“Eat what! The teacher said I’m fat!” Kim Minjeong pouted.
Ning Yizhuo at the side twitched her lips and muttered softly, “The teacher also said I’m fat.”
Kim Minjeong glanced at Ning Yizhuo upon hearing this and sneered.
“You’ve been told since debut, I was just told once.”
“Alright, you have the aura of a bully now.” Liu Zhimin nodded in approval from the side.
Kim Minjeong’s face darkened.
Ning Yizhuo covered her mouth and laughed.
Giselle?
Giselle was in stealth mode.
Just as Kim Minjeong was about to speak, the elevator doors opened with a ding. Seeing the staff standing at the entrance, Kim Minjeong swallowed the words she was about to say.
She glared at Liu Zhimin and walked forward angrily.
Liu Zhimin followed with a smile.
Ning Yizhuo quickly caught up, while Giselle yawned and slowly trailed behind the three.
Back in the practice room, after receiving their respective tasks from their manager, Liu Zhimin found a corner, squatted down again, and picked up her phone.
Karina: Why aren't you back yet?
As soon as the message was sent, Liu Zhimin subconsciously switched out of the page, as if trying to hide her panic this way.
She unconsciously looked at various messages, but in reality, she was waiting for Jiang Shu's reply.
After waiting for a while, Liu Zhimin couldn't resist and switched back, only to find the message still unread.
“Is he that busy?” she mumbled, staring at the screen for a while. Seeing that Jiang Shu still hadn't replied, she reluctantly put away her phone. Never mind.
…
On May 1st, Aespa made their first comeback after half a year.
Like their debut, their first comeback was also a single, which was unique among DM Entertainment's groups. For a group that became so popular right after debut to have their first comeback be a single was truly unexpected for many. However, the fact that Jiang Shu fully produced it still endorsed the song, attracting countless passersby who weren't interested in Aespa but loved listening to music and watching performances.
At 9 AM, during Aespa's album release event, many fans were surprised to find that Jiang Shu's familiar figure was absent this time, with only the four Aespa members present.
Before the album release event even ended, related hot searches had already appeared online.
Is it right for this most popular K-pop Chairman to be absent from his artists' album release event for the first time?
Marketing accounts also seized this opportunity, heavily publicizing Jiang Shu's first absence from an album release event, and various conspiracy theories emerged like mushrooms after rain.
Such conspiracy theories intensified after Aespa's music show performance in the afternoon. Jiang Shu's channel still hadn't updated; after running out of pre-recorded content, it had been dormant for two months. This abnormal situation led many to start believing these conspiracy theories.
Rumors such as Jiang Shu being dead, Li Duohui successfully usurping power, or Jiang Shu being ousted were rampant.
DM Entertainment, usually quick to respond to negative news, did not play dead this time. Instead, they responded immediately upon detecting anomalies in public opinion control.
DM Entertainment's official account stated that Chairman Jiang Shu was handling official business in China and could not leave, expressing regret that he could not attend Aespa's first comeback after their debut, and similar statements.
Naturally, some believed this response, while others did not.
Those who believed thought that DM Entertainment would never joke about their own Chairman, and that Jiang Shu genuinely had something important keeping him busy.
Those who didn't believe also had their reasons: What kind of business could take two months? There must be a problem! They all rushed to DM Entertainment's announcement to leave comments demanding Jiang Shu show up and respond.
Well, well.
The people at DM Entertainment actually really wanted to know what their Chairman was up to in China, but no one at DM Entertainment, including Choi Ji-yeon, truly knew what he was doing.
They only knew he was alive and in China; beyond that, they knew nothing.
Given this situation, how else could they respond?
In response, DM Entertainment could only choose to ignore it.
The topic of “Where did Jiang Shu go?” grew hotter and hotter, even overshadowing Aespa's comeback. The topic became so popular that even DM Entertainment artists attending scheduled events were asked by other artists, “Where's your Chairman?”
Most artists replied that they didn't know, weren't sure, and to not ask them.
A small number of artists who had a good relationship with Jiang Shu stated that those rumors were false, that Jiang Shu was fine, just busy with something in China and couldn't get away.
And besides these two groups of artists, there was one more artist.
Others who wanted to know Jiang Shu's situation could only send messages, like Liu Zhimin, who couldn't leave. But some people were truly action-oriented.
As a seasoned veteran nearing thirty, Bae Joo-hyun understood that instead of guessing, it was better to act directly.
And so…
On May 5th, at 2 PM, a flight from Seoul landed at Qingdao Jiaodong International Airport.
