Chapter Fifty-Five: The Forbidden Medicine Gate

e."That's it..."After that, Park Jung-Hyung took Ji Kyeong-Won for a brief tour of the left building. They spent about ten minutes looking around before heading upstairs for a meeting together.The lef..."What company are you with"

Qi Jingyuan glanced at the man and interrupted him before he could finish speaking.

"...I am from xxx Entertainment Company."

The man paused for a moment before quickly resuming his bright smile and continued, "I'm Liu Fan. Here's my business card." He extended his hands towards Chi Jingyuan, offering the card. "Mr. Chi, you must have heard of our company We are very influential in Mainland China, especially in the film and television industry with a wide network of contacts. To show our sincerity, our CEO Li specifically stated that we would offer a lead role in an A-grade movie as a welcome gift, and guarantee at least two TV dramas every year. The collaborating artists will also be..."

Chi Jingyuan didn't stop to admire the scenery but kept walking forward, while Liu Fan followed closely behind, enthusiastically introducing his company and expressing his sincerity.

"Do you have any data"

池 Jingyuan glanced at him and, at the same time, lifted the takeout bag in his hand and shook it. "You also see that I'm in a hurry to go back, but if you keep following me, it's easy for people from our company to see... If there is any information, just give it to me, I will read it carefully when I get back. If you're interested, give me a call, how about that"

"Okay, okay. This is the information we prepared specifically for you. It includes some of our company's works and commitments listed above. Mr. Chi, if you're interested, please remember to give me a call."

Liu Fan nodded repeatedly and took out a stack of bound A4 papers from his briefcase and handed them to Chi Jingyuan.

Then I'll go first.

Qi Jingyuan picked it up and put it into his shoulder bag. He nodded at him and quickened his pace.

Mr. Chi, walk slowly…

Bidding farewell to Liu Fan, Chi Jingyuan strode into the hotel and stepped into the elevator. After pressing the floor button, he let out a sigh and shook his head gently.

This wasn't the first time he had been scouted by a talent agency in Xia Guo. Since last year's hit drama "The Heirs," whenever he was active in Xia Guo, someone would secretly reach out to him, and some even went as far as camping outside his apartment on the Peninsula to show their sincerity.

Ki Joo-won is very popular in China due to his television dramas and EXO, and he lived in Xia Guo for several years when he was a child. His fluent Mandarin makes him feel close to both fans and passersby in China. Although he is not from the Korean Peninsula, despite these Chinese economic companies' lack of clarity about his family background, it is rumored that he also has some Chinese bloodline. All of these factors make Ki Joo-won a pure gold mine for these companies.

Until this year, as EXO grew increasingly popular, the frequency of entertainment economic companies visiting increased significantly. The promises and sincerity they offered became more and more exaggerated with each visit.

If Qi Jingyuan hadn't seen the world, he would have been beaten unconscious by them long ago.

Walking out of the elevator to the room door, he didn't even bother with his card, just knocked on the door directly. Soon Wu Shixun came over and opened the door, looking at him and casually asking:

"How come it's so slow"

"Have you finished your phone calls I thought you were going to be on the phone for hours." He walked into the room, put his bag on the table, and without answering, said something before going to wash his hands.

"Where does it take so long To be honest, I've already wanted to hang up..."

Wu Shixun replied, walked to the table and curiously looked at the things in the bag. Then he suddenly thought of something and turned around, looking suspiciously at the direction of the toilet: "By the way, how come I've never seen you call your girlfriend Isn't that a must-do homework for couples in a relationship Could it be that you are still single"

"I told you so…"

After drying his hands, Chi Jingyuan walked out, glanced at him, opened the bag, took out a bag that had been separated and handed it to Wu Shixun: "Bring this for you guys, take it to Jiuxiu ge and the others and divide it up."

"This is authentically spicy Sichuan hot pot. You can't find this in Seoul at all. If it weren't for my kindness, you guys would be miserable and never get to taste this."

"Spicy~Hot~," Wu Shixun said in broken Chinese, with a hint of glee. He raised an eyebrow at her, then opened the door and walked out, carrying his bag. "Thanks,"

Ji Jingyuan pulled over a chair and sat down at the table. While he started eating his own meal, he also took out the file Liu Fan had given him earlier and casually flipped through it.

The sincerity was truly impressive, with various schemes and gimmicks, boasting extravagantly. Just the guaranteed number of assistants and security personnel in the plan astonished him, and what followed was a grandiose path laid out for Chi Jingyuan leading all the way to becoming a film emperor.

If what's written above is true.

It's a pity that he isn't very interested.

After flipping through it a few times, he put the file away. It's probably best not to show this kind of thing in front of members, even if you're close.

He often receives offers to join other groups. I wonder if the other members have had similar experiences, especially those from China. Logically, they should be highly sought-after as EXO is incredibly popular in China. BTS, where Wu Sike is from, isn't on the same level.

If Wu can get so much favor and resources, let alone someone like xo.

But this kind of thing is not something the company considers, and it's not his concern either. Chi Jingyuan can only make his own decisions and can't control other people's thoughts.

It's best if there are fewer people like that.

This Mala Tang is really delicious.

Chi Jingyuan was eating chili peppers with gusto, his mouth watering from the spice. He started to sweat and looked around before taking a large step over to a small fridge beside him. He grabbed an ice-cold beer, popped it open, and took two big gulps, sighing contentedly.

"Awesome!"

It's a pity that it will be difficult to eat here again after leaving tomorrow, and I don't know if the owner of this store has any plans to open a branch on the Peninsula....

…………

The next morning, EXO left the mountains and flew to Qingdao to pre-record "Happy Camp" at Qingdao Television Station.

This recording was mainly a stage performance with two songs: "Addiction" and one of the mini-album's tracks, "Moonlight".

This song "Moonlight" is also one of Chi Jingyuan's favorite non-title songs. Like last year's "Butterfly Girl", when he learned it, he felt the song was very good.

Take a closer look and you'll find that the non-title tracks in EXO's albums are generally of high quality. Especially this mini album, besides two title-track level songs, all the other included ballads are top-notch works, like , and Moonlight. These songs are all very good.

It's no wonder that in many music forums, especially fan discussion groups, most people have very positive opinions about xo's latest mini album, feeling that the quality is very high and that many songs can be on repeat.

In comparison, the lead single < > seems a little bland, and perhaps doesn't quite overshadow the other tracks on the album.

This time, the stage for "Quick Book" is entirely team-based. Team K plays as support and sings the Xia Wen version throughout.

After finishing recording, EXO split into two teams on June 30th. Team K flew directly to Hong Kong Island for a performance at the "Hong Kong Coliseum Music Festival" tomorrow. Team and staff returned to the peninsula together.

Just moments after they took off, a bombshell news story exploded across the peninsula's internet.

According to media reports, there are rumors that 2NE1 member Park Bom allegedly smuggled prohibited drugs from the US back into Korea. The news immediately caused a stir among the public, and discussions about Park Bom's alleged drug use have been trending online.

Back in , 2NE1 faced a lot of criticism due to their poor performance. However, their powerful comeback with their second regular album, "", just fourteen months ago revitalized their sales and music charts. The album swept all the charts upon release, but unfortunately, they missed out on the top spot on the weekly chart because of "so" by Ji Sung and Suzy Bae.

However, 2NE1's results this time are already very good. They returned after Girls' Generation's "r.r.", and while they couldn't exactly overshadow them during their comeback period, in many aspects including digital charts, their performance somewhat outshined the veteran rival group.

And now 2NE1 is on its second world tour, unexpectedly breaking out with such an unimaginable news.

This news fermented very quickly, and it's unknown where it started. The rumor of "smuggling prohibited drugs" spread and evolved into the claim that Park Chun is a drug addict.

The news is still spreading rapidly. When Pool Jingyuan went online, he found that most of the forums on the peninsula were discussing this matter. The heat surrounding Bian Berhyen's love affair had dropped considerably all of a sudden.

Currently, this is just a report without concrete evidence. The police haven't gotten involved and the parties involved haven't responded. However, public opinion has begun to shift, with many netizens transitioning from questioning Park Chun to accusing him.

By the time they landed, things online had taken a turn for the worse. However, YG and Park Bom still hadn't given a direct response or reply.

I don't know what I'm doing.

The 'Hong Kong Island Coliseum Music Festival' was held at the Runway Park of the Kai Tak Airport on July 1st. exo-k performed as a guest performer with a stage consisting of five songs.

"Wolf," "Howl," "" and "Addiction" add up to almost twenty minutes of performance time.

This performance's guests include exo-k, as well as Hong Kong local band 'r.', and boy groups. All the other performers are from s' agency, including sj-.

Looking at this lineup, you'd think it was a Stoun family concert.

Backstage at the music festival, k ran into some former colleagues from their company. Since they had checked into the hotel late yesterday, they weren't in the mood to go out, so this was their first time saying hello.

After chatting with boa and the members of shee for a while, they saw several people from fx walking over. Leading the way was Choi Sulli, followed by na and Jung Soojung, and then two other people.

"Aren't you hot wearing hats like this"

Ji Jingyuan glanced at them, his gaze lingering on Choi Soo-ri and Jung Soo-jung's heads, and smacked his lips: "They look a bit like old-man hats..."

These two young idols both have thick knitted hats on their heads, one black and one dark red. They look very warm, but it's already July now.

"Ah Jingyuan, you think it's ugly too, right! I think it's not good-looking either! But this is what dy Oni arranged... It's really hot inside, I'm about to sweat. It's okay outside, the weather has been cooling down these days, hasn't it"

Choi Se-ri smiled mischievously at Ji Kyeong and gave him a playful nudge. She then frowned and nodded vigorously, shaking her head as if trying to shake off her knitted beanie, but it was fastened very tightly and wouldn't budge.

Jeong So-jeong didn't say anything, and she also looked up at the hat with a sullen expression. She seemed quite awkward as well.

“Yeah, it's definitely gotten cooler here.”

Qi Jingyuan remembered that there had been a lot of typhoons in Southeast Asia recently, including Hong Kong Island, where many places have been experiencing rain and cooling temperatures.

Today's weather is a bit overcast. Although it didn't rain when we arrived, he saw from the bus window that many music festival attendees were wearing raincoats.

And then Choi Se-ri smiled and made some polite small talk with him. Then, he looked at Jung Soo-jung beside her: "Didn't you say that the styling for this comeback was going to be special It's been seven days since their comeback, how are they still looking like this"

"You still know we're coming back with our 7th comeback, huh..." Jung Show-jung glanced at him: "The company doesn't allow early release of styling information, so dy Oni dyed it back for me."

She also added: "The seventh is the official return with an album, but the first stage is on the third."

Although they kept in touch occasionally over the phone, it had been quite some time since Ji Jingyuan and Zheng Xiujing had seen each other. However, they weren't really out of touch.

Their relationship is quite strange, but it's strangely natural.

After a short chat, it was quickly two in the afternoon, and the music festival was about to officially begin.

But in the past half hour, the observatory has issued a level 3 strong wind signal, indicating that there may be heavy rain later, which could greatly affect the open-air music festival. The host went on stage to ask the audience for their opinion on whether the performance should go ahead as scheduled.

The nearly 20,000 audience members in attendance had little desire to leave, and a large portion had already donned their raincoats, prepared to enjoy the performance in the rain.

The enthusiasm was truly overwhelming, and the organizers decided to go ahead with the event as planned, putting aside any thoughts of postponement or cancellation.

Hong Kong local band "r." took the stage first, hoping to kick things off with a bang. Unfortunately, just as they started singing, the skies darkened and rain began to fall, getting heavier and heavier until it obscured visibility.

But the crowd kept cheering.

The heavy rain came on quickly, lasting for a while before disappearing just as fast. It dwindled down to a light drizzle soon after, and by the time EXO took the stage, there wasn't a single raindrop left.

The appearance of the k-team truly sparked a wave of enthusiastic screams. However, jumping through these five songs in a row really exhausted the six members to the point of death.

Even at concerts, singers usually only sing two or three songs consecutively before transitioning to a solo performance or a special stage segment to give them a break. Everyone has their limits, and it's incredibly demanding to maintain that level of high-intensity singing and dancing for extended periods.

But this time, besides a ten-second greeting segment in the middle, today's stage was completely five songs without interruption.

Both Ji Chang-wook and Do Kyung-soo are the main vocalists of team K and have the most parts. They not only have to dance but also sing, and by the fourth song, "eedu," Ji Chang-wook was actually out of energy.

The last song, "Addiction," he didn't even know how he got through it. He gritted his teeth and tried hard to keep his movements from distorting, finishing the whole stage. After bowing and taking his leave, as soon as he returned to the backstage area, several members couldn't stand anymore and collapsed, while Ji-seong stood with his hands on his waist, constantly gasping for air, head bowed.

I'm too tired.

After a long wait, the agents and assistants finally arrived and hurried to get them all seated on chairs, providing some relief. Two minutes later, they brought over several bottles of mineral water and opened them for them.

Even though the performance was only twenty minutes long, it felt more tiring than their hour-long concert.

The music festival lasted from two o'clock to six o'clock, a total of four hours that gave all the audience a great time.

After the event ended, everyone returned to their hotels. EXO-K also flew back to the peninsula the next day to reunite with the rest of the group.

The group was invited to be one of the promotional ambassadors, the other being well-known actress Bae Doona from the peninsula.

According to the organizers: "In order to broaden the recognition of the fashion culture festival and increase customer and visitor participation, we have specially appointed Bae Doona, who is at the center of Hallyu, and EXO as promotional ambassadors. Next, EXO and Bae Doona will meet everyone in promotional videos and various activities."

The Peninsula Fashion Culture Expo is held to promote the potential fashion designers on the peninsula. Since 2013, it has been hosted annually by the official Cultural, Sports and Tourism Department of the Peninsula. It is a new-concept fashion celebration that integrates renowned designs and brands from both inside and outside the peninsula, showcasing fashion orders and fashion shows.

This year's meeting will be held on July 16th.

Anything related to fashion is a hot commodity for Peninsula artists, regardless of gender. Getting a face known or boosting their fame can lead to collaborations with big brands, which can be very beneficial for them.

Many members are very interested in this aspect, such as Kim Jong-in and Woo Shi-hun. They all like to try out unique styles in private and are also willing to take on fashion-related schedules.

Pool Jingyuan was alright. Although he was quite popular in the Peninsula fashion world, he just felt that his personal style differed slightly from those designers.

The underlying concept is somewhat different.

Over the next few days, they were busy filming and promoting their promotional videos, as well as participating in some related publicity events.

On the other hand, f(x) released preview tracks of two songs from their upcoming album on June 30th and July 1st to build hype. However, news quickly spread online that KBS deemed the title track of f(x)'s comeback, 《》 , to contain sensitive wording and failed its review, thus refusing them a performance slot on this week's "Music Bank" comeback stage.

This news sparked a lot of discussion, with people wondering if the song had any borderline or suggestive lyrics.

However, soon after the announcement was made, KBS ruled that < >’s lyrics contained specific product mentions of Caterpillar (a heavy equipment manufacturer), which they deemed to have advertising intent and therefore failed the review.

As a state-owned television station, its censorship is the strictest.

《Music Bank》is also the program with the most precautions among all music shows. It does not allow advertising, liquor names, etc., to appear in the lyrics of songs participating in the program.

In order not to affect fx's comeback stage on this week, they quickly changed the suspected lyrics and resubmitted them for review, and were quickly approved.

And Park Chun's "Drug Gate" incident also had the latest developments these two days. The Peninsula media dug out the specific process of this matter, saying that Park Chun received a package from the United States in October 2010 and was caught with drugs prohibited on the Peninsula. At that time, the police launched an investigation into Park Chun, but the investigation ended at the end of November of the same year, and the news was not released at the time.

It's probably been shut down by YG.

"After the economic company YG released a response: "Although those drugs are banned in Korea, they are legal prescription medications in the United States. Park Chun suffered psychological trauma after witnessing an accident on a sports field involving a friend and has been taking prescription medication prescribed by a doctor for a long time in America. Because he was unaware that the drug was classified as a prohibited substance in Korea, he unknowingly asked his family to send it back."

Park Chun also explained the situation, but unfortunately, her efforts had little effect in stopping the growing public opinion. Moreover, the direction of public opinion had unknowingly been swayed. Many people, influenced by previous reports, began to accuse and berate her with righteous indignation. Park Chun started facing resistance.

Although YG hasn't officially announced anything yet, given the current trend and direction, it seems Park Bom will have a hard time continuing her activities for now, at least until this heat dies down.

Because of this incident, 2NE1, who had just returned to the spring this year, was greatly affected. Their newly expanded star path suddenly dimmed a lot.

Among their fan club, there are worried messages from fans:

"This comeback probably won't be 2NE1's last one, right"

It looks magical, but it's also very possible that it comes true.

…………

"Annyeonghaseyo, I'm the promotional ambassador of , EXO's Yuan."

"It is an honor to have EXO as our promotional ambassadors."

Today is July 3rd, and Ji Jingyuan is in a video recording studio filming promotional videos. He is currently facing the camera with a smile and speaking.

At this time, the surroundings were full of staff members, and he was the third out of twelve to be interviewed and filmed. The other members stood in front of Chi Jingyuan smiling and watching his interview.

Although it was an interview, there wasn't a host. Instead, the stagehand held up signs with pre-written questions for Ji Jingyuan to see and respond to.

What kind of style does yuanxi like

"A more relaxed style, showcasing its own unique characteristics on the basis of comfort and nature, is what I prefer in fashion."

What is the main place for shopping

Seeing this question, he couldn't help but hesitate for a moment.

Most of his private clothes are limited edition collaborations with Japanese anime, many of which he obtained through special channels thanks to family connections there. Some of these styles are not even available on the market.

Chi Jingyuan doesn't often go to shopping malls. Every season, new clothes from brands are delivered to their house for them to choose from. If they need anything, they just make a phone call.

However, as a seasoned artist, he is not fazed by this kind of issue.

"This I go everywhere, brands and prices don't matter... if I like it, I want to buy it."

He said nothing of substance.

What is your favorite color

"Black and white."

Facing the camera, Jingyuan let out a light smile.

Have you seen my crossbody bag, black and white dragon, so cool.

This novel is first published oned back to the village by a cat carriage."Phew..." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, adjusting his mindset before opening them again to look at the several members who were eyeing him helples...