His car today is a 2001 Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph Extended Edition, also known as the Silver Seraph Park Ward. This model is 25 cm longer than the standard Silver Seraph, and most of the space is given to the back seats.
Song Yi's car is the 100th one in the world. In fact, this car was discontinued in 2002, and a total of 127 cars were produced before discontinuation.
Liu Huiying originally wanted to drive her Hyundai Equus to SM Entertainment. Equus is Hyundai Motor's flagship model launched in 1999. Compared with Song Yi's Silver Angel, it is a bit inferior.
Song Yi opened the back door and told Xu Zhuxian, "Zhuxian, you sit in the middle, your mother and I will sit on both sides of you."
Seo Ju-hyun obediently got into the car first. She looked at the leather seats in the car. Although she didn't know much about cars, the luxurious interior of the Silver Angel was beyond her understanding.
Jin Xiyuan said to Liu Huiying, "Sister Huiying, this Silver Angel just arrived this month, and it's my first time riding in it. I don't dare to drive such an expensive imported car, for fear of bumping or scratching it."
Liu Huiying and Jin Xiyuan joked, "Don't worry, the Rolls-Royce is driving on the road. It has the effect of clearing the road. The cars next to it will consciously avoid it. The car insurance they bought is not enough to pay for the repair fee."
Liu Huiying sat in the car, she experienced the daily life of a wealthy family today. She sighed in her heart, she would never have this blessing in her life, she secretly glanced at Song Yi who was talking patiently with Xu Zhuxian, wondering if Xu Zhuxian's future husband could be one tenth as good as Song Yi?
SM Entertainment's headquarters building is located in Apgujeong 2-dong, and is in the same Gangnam district as the New Asia Building. In less than half an hour, Song Yi and his team arrived at the parking lot downstairs of SM Entertainment. Next to the SM Building is the Korean sales headquarters of Kia Motors, which was merged into Hyundai Motors in 2000.
When the Silver Angel parked in the parking space, Lee Soo Man came downstairs to greet Song Yi and his group. When Lee Soo Man saw the blue Silver Angel, he couldn't help but envy it. Even though SM Entertainment has been listed for more than a year, he couldn't spend a lot of money to buy a Flying Goddess.
The bodyguard opened the door for Song Yi, and Song Yi got out of the car. Lee Soo Man trotted over to Song Yi and greeted him politely, "Hello, President Song. I have wanted to visit you for a long time, but I never had the right opportunity. Welcome to SM Entertainment to guide you."
Song Yi extended his hand. "Hello, President Li, I have heard of you for a long time. As an entertainment agency, SM Entertainment is our predecessor. We are here today to learn from you."
Anyway, Song Yi's words made Lee Soo Man feel comfortable. Lee Soo Man then introduced the other two internal directors of SM Entertainment one by one, "Chairman Song, this is Nam So Young, the representative of SM Japan."
Song Yi took a look and found that Nam So Young was the third person in SM Entertainment. She was previously the manager of the Artist Management Department and later the legal representative of SM Entertainment Japan Branch. During Boa's activities in Japan, Nam So Young had been managing her schedule in Japan.
"Hello, Representative Nan," Song Yi and Nan Zhaoying shook hands.
Lee Soo Man continued to introduce, "This is Director Kim Young Min, who is also the representative director of the online music website FANDANG KOREA."
Kim Young-min is the second-in-command of SM Entertainment and has been the representative director of SM Entertainment since 2005. He joined SM Entertainment in 1999 and served as the head of the overseas business team. Kim Young-min is also the nephew of the current president, Chung Hyo-tong.
"Hello, Representative Jin," Song Yi and Jin Yingmin continued to greet.
Although it was the first time that Jin Yingmin met Song Yi, he had already heard of Song Yi's name. Although Jin Yingmin was Zhong Xiaotong's nephew, in terms of closeness, he was not as close as Zhong Xiaotong's other nephew Zhong Heng.
Song Yi was able to snatch Song Hye Kyo from Zhong Heng of Au Entertainment, but Jin Yingmin didn't think he was qualified to take Qiao from Song Yi.
Jin Yingmin bowed to Song Yi honestly and said hello: "Hello, President Song."
This is Song Yi's first visit to SM Entertainment today. The three giants of SM Entertainment, Lee Soo Man, Kim Young Min and Nam So Young, are all present, which shows how much importance SM Entertainment attaches to this meeting.
After saying hello, Song Yi began to introduce Kim Hee-won and the others to Lee Soo-man, "President Lee, this is Kim Hee-won, the managing director of our New Asia Media."
After introducing Kim Hee-won, Song Yi began to introduce Liu Huiying and Xu Zhuxian, "President Li, this is my good friend Ms. Liu Huiying, and her daughter Xu Zhuxian."
Liu Huiying stood next to Song Yi, and when Song Yi said "good friends", she could feel the strange looks from Jin Yingmin and Nan Zhaoying.
She felt that Jin Yingmin and others might have misunderstood the relationship between her and Song Yi. It sounded a bit ambiguous for a married woman like her to become good friends with the unmarried Song Yi. People who didn't know might think she was Song Yi's secret lover.
But she would not refute Song Yi's statement. Didn't Song Yi specially send her and her daughter here in a Rolls-Royce just to support her? If Lee Soo Man and others misunderstood the relationship between her and Song Yi, wouldn't it be better to protect Xu Zhuxian from being bullied in SM Entertainment?
Thinking of this, Liu Huiying pulled Xu Zhuxian and stood next to Song Yi, just like a family of three. Xu Zhuxian felt a little strange, but she was too young to understand the meaning of her mother's action.
"Hello, President Li. Song Yi said he is free today, so he wanted to bring us to SM Entertainment to learn more about your company. After all, as elders, we are still very concerned about the future working and living environment of our children." Liu Huiying said.
When Li Xiuman heard Liu Huiying calling Song Yi by his name, he did not dare to be arrogant. "No problem, you are welcome to supervise our work at any time. It's too cold outside, let's go in early."
Kim Hee-won listened to the verbal confrontation between Song Yi, Lee Soo-man and Liu Huiying. She admired Liu Huiying's wit. She "confirmed" the relationship between her and Song Yi with just a few words and was very good at taking advantage of the situation.
She thought it was funny, "Little Seo Ju-hyun, if you really sign with SM Entertainment, I'm afraid you will have to call Brother Song Yi uncle when you see him next time."
Lee Soo Man brought Song Yi and his party to visit the company. In the lobby on the first floor hung huge posters of Kangta and BoA. These two artists are currently the top stars of SM Entertainment. After the HOT group disbanded in 2001, Kangta renewed his contract with SM Entertainment personally, and he also holds a small amount of SM shares.
Song Yi pointed at BoA's poster and joked with Seo JuHyun, "JuHyun, train hard and strive to debut early. Become a role model for your juniors like BoA."
When Lee Soo Man and Kim Young Min heard what Song Yi said, they looked at each other and couldn't suppress their joy. It seemed that Song Yi supported Seo Ju Hyun to join SM Entertainment. With Seo Ju Hyun as an excuse, they didn't have to worry about not being able to climb the big tree of Shinya.
Nam So Young thought the same thing. She walked behind, with Seo Ju Hyun, patiently explaining every facility in the SM Entertainment building.
Seeing that Xu Zhuxian was always calm and composed, she couldn't help but like her. She couldn't help but remind Xu Zhuxian, "Xu Zhuxian, if you come to the company as a trainee in the future, you must not mention to other trainees that you have known Chairman Song since childhood, do you understand?"
Xu Zhuxian seemed to understand, and she originally wanted to tell Nam Zhaoying that she had known Song Yi for less than two years, but her intuition made her subconsciously keep her mouth shut.
"Everyone in the company has their own little thoughts, so don't tell others your family background easily."
"Some people see that you have a good financial situation and try to please you deliberately, actually hoping to take advantage of you. Some people know that you come from a poor family and try to make things difficult for you, because they know you have no ability to resist," said Nan Zhaoying.
Nam So-young thought about what happened to Bo-ah, and she was a little dissatisfied with Kim Young-min. If Bo-ah had such a strong background as Seo Joo-hyun, would he still dare to try to get involved with Bo-ah? "I see, you mean that other trainees in the company might be jealous of me and even form a group to exclude me?" Seo Joo-hyun said.
Nam So Young was a little surprised. She didn't expect Seo Ju Hyun to understand so quickly. "That's right. After all, not every trainee can debut."
"For example, Jung Yunho from TVXQ, who will debut next year in our company, was the best dancer in the first SM Youth Selection Best, when 5,000 contestants took part in the preliminary selection. He had to beat 4,999 contestants to win the chance to sign with SM Entertainment."
Xu Xian was very shocked. She never thought that idols would have to work so hard for a chance to perform on stage. Can she really become an excellent multi-talented artist like Liu Zhen?
Nam So Young certainly didn't want to discourage Seo Ju Hyun. "We at SM Entertainment have visited your school to inquire about your situation. We know that you have always been very self-disciplined and love to study. You already have what it takes to become a top idol."
"SM Entertainment's future business focus will definitely be on overseas markets, especially the Japanese and Chinese markets. When you go home later, you can talk to your mother about mastering Chinese, English, and Japanese. Or you can consult Chairman Song, he will definitely make arrangements for you." Nan Zhaoying advised.
"Thank you, Mr. Nam, I understand." Xu Zhuxian nodded in thanks. She could feel Nam Zhaoying's kindness, but she had already guessed that Nam Zhaoying wanted her to relay these words to Brother Song Yi.
The second floor is a store selling SM Entertainment merchandise. The name of the store is SMTOWN&STORE, and it sells everything from CDs, albums, photos, star posters, accessories, mugs to dolls.
Some fans noticed that the three giants of SM Entertainment accompanied Song Yi and his group to visit. They also noticed Xu Xianxian in the crowd. After all, she was the only little girl.
"Wow, this girl is so pretty, could she be a new trainee of SM Entertainment?" a female fan speculated.
Her companion immediately retorted, "How is that possible? Didn't you see that the person accompanying her was SM's Director Nam So Young? How could she be an artist? She should be the little princess of a chaebol family."
The two little girls tried to take a picture of Seo Ju-hyun, but Song Yi's bodyguards stopped them from taking pictures.
Just when these fans were angry, Lee Soo Man stepped forward to apologize, "I'm sorry, these guests are business partners of the company, please understand. So, in order to express our apology, the peripherals you just picked will be paid for by us at SM."
When Lee Soo Man returned to Song Yi, Song Yi couldn't help but praise Lee Soo Man, "President Lee really respects the fans of SM Entertainment. It's very rare that he treats two little girls so politely." Song Yi could see that Lee Soo Man did this very naturally and was not putting on a show in front of Song Yi.
As Korea's star factory, SM Entertainment pays great attention to maintaining good relationships with fans, both the company's management and artists.
Unlike some idols in the domestic entertainment industry, who either treat their fans as suckers and exploit them crazily.
The work attitude of idols who debuted in the Chinese entertainment industry is far worse than that of Korean idols. Korean idols at least know that fans are their bread and butter, and the income of companies and artists comes from fans, so they treat fans with enthusiasm.
These idols in the domestic entertainment industry are enjoying the support from their fans, but they treat their fans with two different faces in front of and behind their backs. They have no idea of their own position and are really shameless.
Lee Soo Man answered naturally, "Because fans will follow the schedule of some artists, but TV stations or some production companies do not allow taking photos or videos, then we at SM Entertainment will prepare some small gifts for the fans, or sign autographs for the fans after the announcement. People come all the way here, we can't let them come with excitement and leave disappointed, right?"
Lee Soo-man took Song Yi to visit the core departments of SM Entertainment, including the audition department that discovers "future stars", the training department that trains trainees, the record production department that conducts recording and post-production, the publicity department that contacts the media, and the business agency department that discovers the potential value of singers, plans advertisements and actors' clubs.
Kim Young-min originally wanted to take Song Yi to meet the trainees from SM Entertainment who had not yet debuted, including TVXQ, whom they were very optimistic about.
All five members of TVXQ were discovered and trained through SM Entertainment's new talent selection and training organization. They initially served as captains in different groups, and through continuous training and selection, they initially formed a five-member group consisting of Jung Yunho, Shim Changmin, Kim Jaejoong, Park Yoochun, and Kim Junsu.
What Jin Yingmin didn't expect was that Song Yi knew TVXQ quite well, TVXQ debuted in 2003. In 2009, Kim Jaejoong, Park Yoochun and Kim Junsu terminated their contract with SM Entertainment with the support of C-Jes president Baek Changsu, and the three formed JYJ to resume activities, but were banned by SM Entertainment and Avex Japan.
The reason why Kim Jaejoong and the other two terminated their contract with SM Entertainment was due to the contract terms and compensation distribution issues. This was the first time that SM Entertainment's slave contract entered the Korean public's view. When JYJ group sued in the Seoul District Court, all members of Girls' Generation attended the hearing as witnesses and denied the slave contract.
However, the continuous contract termination scandals between TVXQ and Super Junior also attracted the attention of Korean government departments.
In December 2010, under the supervision of the Korea Fair Trade Commission, SM modified the unreasonable parts of the agreement and re-signed contracts with all the company's artists using the new agreement.
After the revision, the effective period was changed from 13 years from the original signing date or 10 years from the debut date to 7 years from the debut date. This means that the contract between SNSD and SJ has become 5-7 years.
Girls' Generation debuted in 2007, so their contracts expire in 2014. Members who originally had contracts of 5 years or less will have to keep pace with members with longer contracts. In 2012, they may renew their contracts for 2-3 years until the end of 2015. Members with longer contracts, such as Im Yoona, may end their contracts at the end of 2014.
As a result, the other eight members of Girls' Generation were dissatisfied with Jessica's focus on her personal beauty brand and she was absent from group activities more and more frequently. Moreover, when Jessica promoted her personal beauty brand, she always used the name of Girls' Generation to promote it.
So the eight members, led by Im Yoona, teamed up to force SM Entertainment to kick Jessica out of Girls' Generation. If Jessica renewed her contract, the other eight members would not renew their contracts. Between the eight members and Jessica, SM Entertainment would definitely choose the former.
That’s why Jessica Jung posted a bilingual statement on her Weibo on September 30, 2014: “I was looking forward to and preparing for the upcoming fan meeting, but I received a notice from the company and 8 members saying that I will no longer be a member of Girls’ Generation from today. I was shocked.”
In fact, Jessica Jung's contract with SM Entertainment was not due to end until January 2015, and she also terminated her contract with SM Entertainment in January 2015. After leaving SM Entertainment, Jessica Jung released three albums, but none of them made much of a splash.
When she finally got on the bandwagon of Chinese capital and circumvented the restrictions of the Korean ban as an American, she participated in Mango TV's "Sisters Riding the Wind and Waves". Mango TV still wanted to promote Jessica Jung, but the audience didn't buy it, and Mei Yi Li Ya was still the most popular.
After recalling the journey of Girls' Generation, Song Yi said to Kim Young Min: "Since Seo Ju Hyun is going to join SM Entertainment as a trainee, I should not bring Seo Ju Hyun to meet other trainees. We should still treat everyone equally in the company and try not to make any special arrangements. We should keep a low profile if possible."
Jin Yingmin nodded, but he was complaining in his heart, "If you don't want to be special, you shouldn't come with Xu Zhuxian and her daughter! Not to mention driving a super luxury car worth billions of won and parking it downstairs of the company. Does this look like you want to keep a low profile?"
Nam So-young understood Song Yi's idea, and Song Yi took Seo Joo-hyun to meet the three giants of SM Entertainment. Lee Soo-man, Kim Young-min and Nam So-young must take good care of Seo Joo-hyun in the company.
If something happens to Xu Zhuxian in SM Entertainment, or she is hurt, even if Kim Youngmin asks for help from the current president Zhong Xiaotong, I am afraid that the president's face will not be saved by then.
Lee Soo Man introduced SM Entertainment's plans for the next few years to Song Yi, "We plan to launch three male groups and one female group in the next five years. If Seo Ju Hyun is willing to join SM Entertainment, she can be the lead singer and lead dancer in this group."
"If Chairman Song wants to arrange for Seo Ju-hyun to appear in commercials or film and television dramas, we at SM Entertainment will not interfere and will cooperate with Shinya Media's work," said Lee Soo-man.
Three boy bands? Song Yi was stunned. Except for TVXQ and Super Junior, none of the current EXO members have joined SM Entertainment. What is the other boy band? Lee Soo Man showed his sincerity. The lead singer and lead dancer have a high proportion of shots in concerts or MVs. However, Seo Ju Hyun's singing skills are not as good as Kim Taeyeon and Jessica Jung, and her dancing skills are not as good as Kwon Yuri and Kim Hyoyeon, so it is still difficult for her to become popular.
Song Yi would not agree to Xu Zhuxian signing a 13-year contract with SM Entertainment. If the contract is signed this year, it will not end until at least 15 years. He plans to let Xu Zhuxian sign a 6-year contract with SM Entertainment.
After Girls' Generation debuts, Seo Ju-hyun will sign a 3 to 5 year contract with SM Entertainment. By this calculation, when the two contracts are over, Seo Ju-hyun will be about 22 years old and will have just graduated from Dongguk University. This contract is most beneficial to Yoo Hye-young and Seo Ju-hyun.
Even though Lee Soo Man was polite to Song Yi today, he might not be able to give in easily when it comes to Seo Ju Hyun's contract. So how should Song Yi convince the three giants of SM Entertainment? (End of this chapter)