Chapter 130 Chapter 130
Winter in Los Angeles is the Christmas season.
The street windows are filled with dazzling displays, and giant Christmas trees are wrapped in twinkling lights. The air is filled with the aroma of caramelized nuts, cinnamon mulled wine, and coffee, and the occasional saxophone performance of a street performer can be heard. The whole city is poised for action.
A grand holiday celebration was brewing. After returning home, Lia spent the most peaceful days. Her parents thought she was overworked, and they were distressed and tried every possible way to supplement her nutrition. The house became a huge sanatorium. Within a few days,
His cheeks, which were once slightly sunken, have become rounder again. Kwon Ji-yong is still touring around the world, and as his group activities are coming to an end, he's starting to prepare for his solo concert.
In the past, when both of them were busy, Lia didn't think it was a big deal. But now, he still has a tight schedule, and she has free time alone, and the gap is magnified infinitely. The sixteen-hour time difference,
The vague uneasiness in her heart was even more difficult to resolve. The irregular phone calls every day not only failed to comfort her, but made her miss the person on the other side of the ocean even more. She could only find something else to do - taking advantage of the rare free time,
She went to meet Isaac. Isaac's studio was in a small, ordinary-looking building in a small town less than an hour's drive from her home. The room was small, half occupied by equipment, and boxes left over from tours were piled in the corners.
Several music festival posters were haphazardly pinned to the wall. Although this was their first meeting in person, they had already established a tacit understanding online over the past year. Isaac was a trendy guy with a buzz cut and was a bit shy when they first met.
After getting to know each other, they became surprisingly talkative, making me think of an old friend back in Seoul. "Next time, I'll introduce you to Kush," Lia suggested seriously. Isaac didn't understand why, but he readily agreed.
With his introduction, Lia gradually came into contact with people in the local music circle, the first of whom was his friend Sarah who worked at Sony.
Sarah is of American and Korean descent, with her father being Korean. She is usually based in the New York headquarters and is responsible for Sony
A&R related matters. Her job is to discover potential creators, match suitable singers and producers, and coordinate copyright management and international cooperation.
K-pop's growing influence in North America was something she sensed earlier than anyone else. She even flew from New York to Los Angeles specifically to meet Lia, motivated both by personal connection and professional instinct.
"Sony is building a more international network of creators," Sarah explained. "We're not just focused on the US market, but also on the trends in pop culture. People like you and Isaac may be the key to connecting the two systems in the future."
For Lia, this was undoubtedly a great opportunity. But she also had concerns. She was still under contract with YG, and all external collaborations required the company's approval. The last thing she wanted was to lose control of the contract terms again.
She explained her considerations frankly.
Sarah smiled and explained: "Don't worry, I'm not talking about a binding contract. We prefer publishing cooperation, and you are the creator. If your work has potential, we will give priority to recommending it to Sony artists or through Song
Camp has entered the industry's vision." This means that Lia only needs to provide good work in exchange for good resources. Things are progressing much more smoothly than expected.
From Sony's perspective, everything is almost ready, just waiting for Lia to sign. The rest depends on Lia returning to Korea and negotiating with YG to secure a certain degree of independent creative space.
This is not without precedent. YG can still get a share of the profits, and Sarah is very optimistic about the progress. In addition, Lia also entered a wealth management company for the first time.
Over the past few years, she has accumulated a considerable income from production shares, royalties and her YouTube channel.
However, she had little interest in investing, and had simply kept the money she earned in the bank until now, when it had grown into a figure that could no longer be ignored. — She was a wealthy woman.
Although not on the rich list, it is clearly far beyond the average person. This company was recommended by Zheng Lai Cai and specializes in serving high-net-worth clients with assets over one million.
Although her mother guessed that she had made some money from the furniture she had bought, she was still stunned when she walked into this place with her. She was greeted by Jen, a senior consultant.
Lia's income structure is clear and diversified: copyrights of popular songs, production revenue sharing, a well-run YouTube channel, and potential future overseas collaborations and copyright affiliations, which means she has the potential to continue generating revenue for the next twenty years or even longer.
For wealth management companies, such clients are not only high-quality clients at present, but are more likely to grow into ultra-high net worth clients.
In particular, almost all of her income is in the form of cash and account balances. She has neither real estate nor long-term investments, which allows her to build a solid asset structure from scratch.
Jen drew up several plans, ranging from prudent cash management to medium- and long-term fund and bond allocations, and even possible real estate investments several years from now. Lia carefully reviewed them and chose the more conservative option.
For her, this wasn't a game of speculation, but a form of security. * Because the consultation ended earlier than expected, after leaving the consulting firm, Lia simply took her mother to Rodeo Drive as a last-minute detour.
This is a luxury landmark in Los Angeles, with Hermès, Chanel, and Cartier lined up, and people and sports cars intertwined on the street.
She had no interest in these things originally, except for her mother who would occasionally buy some small items. Moreover, Quan Zhilong himself was a frequent shopper of luxury fashion brands, so over time, she was also influenced by them.
As expected, her mother was in high spirits. When Lia offered to pay, she began to choose with great interest, not forgetting to tease, "Do you want to buy something for your boyfriend as well?"
She hadn't deliberately hidden her relationship from her family. Because of the time difference, he often called during the day, and over time, her parents naturally knew she had a boyfriend in Korea.
When she learned that the other person was Quan Zhilong, she was very worried for a while - after all, the other person was too famous, and the slightest movement could cause an uproar. But in the end, she did not interfere with her choice.
Her mother's remark was casual, but Lia put down her phone and began to carefully select items. He certainly didn't need anything, but flagship stores often had exclusive or limited-edition items. She remembered he had mentioned wanting a sweater before.
While explaining her needs to the salesperson, she took out her phone and prepared to search through her chat history. The next second, a message popped up on the screen: Naver Entertainment: "Kwon Ji-ryong was spotted at a Gangnam bar the day after returning to Korea, and his absence until the early hours sparked heated discussion."
Lia was stunned. It was around 4:00 AM in Seoul, and this news item had been published a minute ago... This shouldn't count as her deliberately stalking her boyfriend, right?
I silently said "I'm sorry" twice, but my finger couldn't help but click on it. Damn her curiosity. The article's content was the same as the headline: he went to a bar overnight after returning from his tour in Korea.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t click it. With just one click, other related push notifications immediately popped up - "Frequent late-night parties? GD appeared in Gangnam nightclubs for several consecutive days" "GD left Gangnam bar with friends in the early morning, suspected of supporting a mysterious woman"
The headlines were all pretty much the same. She was familiar with the media's style, but she couldn't help but click through them one by one. Bar, nightclub, bar...
The salesperson who had been chattering away just now noticed her expression was off, and had already tactfully stepped aside. Actually, there was nothing out of the ordinary about it. Quan Zhilong loved being in a crowd, but after they started dating, he'd been spending less time with her.
But her heart couldn't help but sink. The last message in the chat box was from half a day ago, a message he sent when he landed after returning from Japan. Was he afraid she'd be angry?
It was as if he had deliberately concealed these activities. The parts he showed her were just about work and missing her. As if they were telepathic, before she could think any further, her cell phone rang. — It was Quan Zhilong.
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