Chapter 37

For Li Shungui, Moon Jung-woo had come to understand her a bit. She had a bit of a spoiled girl's temper, but she didn't have the bad habits of a spoiled girl. She was generous, meticulous, and responsible, not cold on the outside, but warm at heart. Her recent provocation reminded Moon Jung-woo of their first meeting. She would retort to every word he said, never backing down. Even if he made her cry, she would make sure he got a bruise too.

But she was by no means unreasonable. When she suddenly treated him like this today, Moon Jung-woo was not angry, but rather surprised. When he walked out the door and saw her not coming out, Moon Jung-woo seemed to understand something. When he came back and saw the assembled computer, Moon Jung-woo was not too surprised. It was just that the fish-shaped rice cake he had hidden lost its purpose as a midnight snack.

After he had a realization... it seemed his emotional intelligence wasn't low either. To guess such a thing had little to do with IQ. Rationality didn't work; it relied on intuition. In the future, they might still clash, as she wouldn't back down to him because of his calling her an ugly girl. Moon Jung-woo, who had already formed his character, wouldn't change because of her calling him a brat, but he would continue. However, he still owed her a "thank you."

Li Shungui subconsciously felt a bit uncomfortable, stepping back and looking at him, still biting the fish-shaped rice cake: "You... why... why are you suddenly like this? The... the old computer..." Moon Jung-woo glanced at her, smiled, shook his head, and turned to look at the system finishing the automatic installation. Moon Jung-woo started connecting to the internet, setting up the desktop, and downloading software.

After a while, he noticed no sound behind him. Moon Jung-woo instinctively turned around and saw Li Shungui absentmindedly biting the fish-shaped rice cake, her head lowered in a daze. Shaking his head, Moon Jung-woo said, "Aren't you going home today? The president will come to pick you up, right?"

Li Shungui looked up blankly and hurriedly stood up: "Oh no. My dad said he would wait for me at the company. I left my phone in the dorm, he must have called several times." Before she finished speaking, the knocking sound came. Li Shungui went to open the door and saw a trainee from upstairs holding her phone. Picking it up, it was indeed from Lee Soo-young.

Li Shungui didn't come back, turning to wave: "I'm leaving, you handle it yourself." She then closed the door. Moon Jung-woo walked to the window and watched as Li Shungui ran down the stairs toward SW. Moon Jung-woo chuckled, turned around, and sat down. His expression became serious. He said he would practice as usual, but he knew what he truly thought.

Moon Jung-woo didn't like Leslie Cheung, nor was he a fan. Lee Soo-young probably didn't mean for him to emulate anything else from Leslie Cheung. The focus for both of them was only on one thing: the dual achievements in the music and film industries. Not knowing until he got involved, the Korean entertainment industry was complex but full of variables.

A country of fifty million people, yet a major cultural exporter in Asia. Having developed to this point, Moon Jung-woo was not a blindly arrogant brat. Success was not accidental; one had to make efforts and strive. Even so, it was not guaranteed that one would reach the desired level. A dual star in music and film, a special era had only produced one such person. Looking at the world, Moon Jung-woo found that even the most developed entertainment industry, the United States, seemed to have no one like that.

King of Pop Michael Jackson was a world-class music king. No one else. But he did not venture into the film industry. Big-name actors in the million-dollar club, earning two to three million dollars per film, had few who ventured into the music industry. Even if they did, it was mostly for fun. As a goal, for an artist, this was basically an impossible task.

In Hong Kong, during the same period as Leslie Cheung, there was a music superstar who could be mentioned in the same breath, Alan Tam. However, in terms of film achievements, the comparison was far off. Excluding Europe and America, excluding Hong Kong, and focusing on South Korea. Big-name actors like Bae Yong-joon, who had sparked a Korean wave in Japan, were now a source of pride for South Korea. He was very popular among Japanese fans, even boosting South Korea's tourism.

Big-name singers like Seotaiji, the lead singer of Seotaiji and Boys, whose real name is Jeong Hyun-jae. In 1992, he released his first album "Seotaiji and Boys 1," which was a groundbreaking album that rewrote Korean music history. The representative song "I Know" was the first in Korean pop music history to use dance and rap as its foundation and push it to the extreme.

The new style swept the nation like a flood, selling 1.7 million copies. The Korean music industry, which was dominated by Korean folk songs and slow ballads, saw a significant change with the release of this album in 1992, and its influence continues to this day.

The two could not be compared in every aspect. Although they were both artists, they were not in the same profession. However, without discussing who was better, just in terms of their achievements in their respective fields, they were what many artists could not achieve in their lifetimes. Now, Lee Soo-young's dream was to combine these two achievements in one person. On the surface, Moon Jung-woo said he would continue to practice as usual, but in his heart, he was gradually setting this goal.

I decided to become an artist not because I liked it, but to break away from the tool-like personality and lifestyle and find my true self. Debuting by practicing singing, dancing, and various skills was too easy and had the suspicion of being a tool. What is a tool? It is something that can be used to achieve a certain purpose.

But if no tool or skill can guarantee that you will achieve your goal, then the goal is completely unrelated to tools and skills. Clearly, what Lee Soo-young recommended and what Moon Jung-woo confirmed in his heart was this. No matter what I learn, how well I learn it, or what I do in the future, I may not reach such a goal, but it is worth challenging and worth trying.

After setting the goal, he no longer thought much about it. It was like what he said in the president's office today; these things were not different. Artists and idols who can debut are basically all talented. But only a small part of them can survive and become popular. High IQ and management skills were of no use; he had to start from scratch.

Even if he had confidence, it didn't necessarily mean he could achieve it. The unknown and unpredictable nature of this was precisely what he was pursuing, wasn't it? Forcing me to learn various skills, no matter how well I learned them, they would not play a decisive role. The most important thing was that the profession you explicitly forbade me from pursuing was the one I would strive to achieve.

Without saying more, Moon Jung-woo put Leslie Cheung's DVD back into the computer, put on his headphones, and watched. My goal is set and will not change. What I should do now is take action.

When Li Shungui got home, she saw her second sister, Li Yinggui, sitting there lazily, propping her head on the dining table. Li Shungui put on slippers, pouted, and approached: "Why are you like this, Unni? After work, you push all the housework onto Mom. Be careful, you might never get married." Lee Soo-young handed the bag to a woman in her forties who was smiling and approached, then playfully patted Li Shungui's head: "You're talking to your second sister without respect."

Li Yinggui glared at Li Shungui: "Brat, if Dad doesn't hit you, I will. Have you been staying in the dorm every day? Have you helped with the housework?" Li Shungui sat at the dining table and smiled at Li Yinggui: "I help Dad manage the trainees without asking for a salary. Unlike Unni, who takes the money Dad gives her to be Sugar Unni's manager and acts like a princess at home, doing nothing."

Li Yinggui, holding chopsticks, leaned over to hit her, and Li Shungui giggled and dodged, running behind the woman. The woman was Lee Soo-young's wife, Li Yinggui and Li Shungui's mother, Wu Min-young. She scolded and put down the soup, then hugged Li Shungui and patted her: "Don't mess with your second sister, go help me bring the dishes... there's your favorite steak."

Li Shungui pouted and pulled her mother toward the kitchen, still making a face at Li Yinggui: "Unni doesn't do housework, so Mom pushes it all onto me. One day, I'll report all of you to the Children's Rights Protection Association. I help Dad at the company, and when I come home, I have to help Mom, and I still get bullied by Unni."

Lee Soo-young, who had just changed clothes, heard Li Shungui's complaint and looked at Wu Min-young, who was rubbing Li Shungui's head, with a mix of amusement and exasperation. Sitting at the dining table, Lee Soo-young stretched: "This girl, she's complaining. But it's true, she has helped a lot." Li Yinggui was surprised and asked curiously: "Dad, are you talking about... that rich kid trainee?"

Lee Soo-young was taken aback and his expression became strange.