Chapter 71.1: Farewell
Xue Yi, as usual, gave everyone five minutes to discuss. When time was up, he continued to follow his principle of being fast, precise, and decisive, and spoke up: “You’ve finished watching? Then let’s wrap it up for today.”
“Huh, what?”
“That was as fast as a tornado.”
“Say no more, my head is completely full right now. I haven’t even had time to process everything.”
Xue Yi noticed that the staff had already arrived at the entrance of the practice room. Seeing that the trainees had also noticed them, he didn’t say anything more.
He simply said, “Goodbye.”
With that, Xue Yi waved to the trainees and left coolly.
[Feels like the emotional part is about to start.]
[The pace is so fast, if there’s going to be emotional pain, it doesn’t feel as intense somehow.]
The trainees immediately understood what was going on. But considering how easily the production team had agreed to let them go out for dinner before, everyone had already been mentally prepared. There was only a brief moment of silence.
“Well, I’m gonna head back to the dorm.”
“Let’s go, let’s go—together.”
“I’ll go too.”
Everyone gradually left in groups. The staff saw the trainees voluntarily heading back to the dorms and understood that they had gotten the message from the production team, so they didn’t say anything directly in front of them.
The practice room quickly emptied out, leaving only the nine who made it into the final debut lineup.
Just sitting around like this was getting awkward. Zhuang Yi, who was seated furthest to the right, stood up and tilted his head to look at the others: “Well then, shall we go too?”
“Yeah.”
“Let’s go.”
“Heading back.”
The others got up one after another and quietly left the practice room on the 10th floor.
[Even though I was expecting this, seeing everyone like this still feels heavy.]
[Sigh, there’s always a farewell. But theirs was already pretty dignified and joyful, unlike a certain season—aside from the officially pushed contestant, literally all the fan-voted and cannon-fodder trainees ended up with tragic endings. Just thinking about it gives me chest pain.]
[Decoded that in one second. But looking at how that official pick ended up now—I’m satisfied. Villains will always get their comeuppance. The fact that the person who brought him down came from this same show? Peak comedy, honestly. Hahaha.]
—
After watching the third public performance, Tang Yiling went back and that same night opened her tablet. After thinking it over, she picked up her stylus and spent several hours bringing to life the inspiration she felt during the third stage performance, rendering it on her drawing tablet.
In the illustration, Shen Xiu sat on a black leather single-seater sofa, his body slightly leaning to the right. His right elbow rested on the sofa’s armrest, with the back of his hand lightly touching the right side of his face.
His skin was a healthy tan. His bare upper body was adorned with a thin golden chain that draped across his chest and well-defined abs. A giant black-scaled python coiled from behind him, its head extending forward. Its golden vertical pupils mirrored Shen Xiu’s own cold gaze, staring menacingly at someone beyond the picture’s frame.
The next day, after getting a good night’s sleep, Tang Yiling got up, opened her computer, and, after double-checking that the artwork was fine, logged into her Weibo account and clicked post.
@LanYueQingFeng: Demon King Xiu and the Snake! A bit of personal interpretation here, inspired by this sis—thanks @QianQianEatsMeatButDoesn’tGainWeight~ [image]
Tang Yiling may have appeared to be just another fangirl, but in reality, she was a big name in the art community with over six million followers.
The moment the illustration went live, the comments jumped into the hundreds. Another refresh—and it shot past a thousand.
Tang Yiling knew that once she started reading the comments, she wouldn’t be able to stop. So after skimming just a couple, she restrained herself, put down her phone, and went to quiet the rumbling in her stomach.
—!!! Oh my God, Holy Mother Mary, LOOK at what I just scrolled into! I never would’ve guessed that my favorite hidden gem artist is actually a fan of the same idol as me—double stan, double joy! Ma’am, you are my goddess! I love you so much!
—What kind of divine blessing is this? Instant follow! Master artist, I’m begging you, please keep drawing more!
—Xiu-Baby, come look at this god-tier fanart @ShenXiu
—This totally hooked me! Saving it immediately. I officially declare this my new wallpaper. Oh my god, now I get to see my cold and regal Demon King Xiu every time I unlock my phone. The snake and the Demon King are such a power duo. Life is beautiful!
—Abs, chest, suit pants, gold chain, black python! All the elements are here! I never imagined someone would actually draw this—and do it so gorgeously! The style is bold and handsome, I’m about to pass out. My god, who are you trying to seduce, ma’am? Your taste is immaculate!
—Demon King Xiu’s gaze is so sharp and cold—I’m obsessed! Such a perfect capture of his vibe. Hugging this treasure artist tightly, mwah mwah mwah!!
—Waaah, all the big fan artists who like Xiu-baby are so insanely talented… Why can’t I be just a little talented too?! Ugh! I’m just gonna smooch Xiu-baby through the screen twice to calm myself down!
The live broadcast of Youth Unstoppable had left a tiny bit of sadness lingering today. Ren Qianning had planned to go online and see if any fellow fans were feeling the same way. But the moment she opened Weibo, she saw a tagged post from someone on her special follow list.
“I’m not hallucinating, am I?” Ren Qianning muttered to herself.
Still uncertain, she tapped the post. And less than a second later—her pupils dilated in shock.
Ren Qianning: “!!!”
“I–I–I just saw my special-follow fan artist draw my special-follow Xiu-baby!!!” she stammered, practically vibrating from excitement.
When her trembling fingers finally tapped open the comment section, it had already exploded with tens of thousands of replies.
Ren Qianning never would have imagined that the girl who had sat beside her that day, chatting with her through a face mask, was actually a legendary fan artist with over a million followers in the fandom—a top-tier artist who even personally cooked for her and invited her to try it!
With trembling hands, Ren Qianning saved the artwork and collapsed onto her bed, hugging her phone. The happiness had come so suddenly, her brain could barely keep up.
A second later, her parents heard excited shouting coming from her room.
“Ahhhh I’m so happy!!!”
“My precious Xiu-baby and my precious artist—double stan joy, who else gets to feel this kind of bliss?!”
“How can anyone in this world be this happy?!”
Mother Ren and Father Ren exchanged a glance. Seeing the amusement in each other’s eyes, it was clear they were already used to their daughter being like this—and didn’t find it strange at all.
#DoubleStanJoy
#LanYueQingFeng, Demon King Xiu and the Snake
#TheSnakeandDemonKingXiuAreSuchAMatch
The comments on @LanYueQingFeng’s post were overwhelming, and the post climbed multiple trending topics.
As the post kept climbing the hot search rankings, more and more Xiuologists discovered it through the trending hashtags. The Weibo post about Shen Xiu saw an explosion of comments, and with the rankings soaring, its reach only expanded further.
For the Xiuologists, this was pure bliss—but not everyone shared their joy.
At first, Duan Mingfei didn’t connect those trending topics to Shen Xiu. But when he clicked in and realized it was about Shen Xiu, he was so angry he nearly coughed up blood.
Ever since his last attempt to shift blame onto Shen Xiu had backfired—when Crossing the Primeval Forest and Youth Unstoppable joined forces to publicly slap him in the face—he had already lost several commercial deals.
To make matters worse, Lin Jiashi had completely humiliated him and snatched key resources right from under their shared boss’s nose, which left Duan Mingfei too sickened to even spare energy hating Shen Xiu.
But seeing Shen Xiu suddenly back in the spotlight today—especially watching Shen Xiu’s follower count skyrocket at an absurd pace—made Duan Mingfei so furious his head was spinning.
In order to find something to smear Shen Xiu with, Duan Mingfei forced himself to watch Shen Xiu’s most recent third stage performance.
But after watching it, his eyes were red with jealousy.
He couldn’t understand it—how could someone stand out so much on stage, so flawlessly… so perfectly that there wasn’t even a single flaw to nitpick?
Refusing to give up, Duan Mingfei went on to watch the behind-the-scenes footage from the third performance that had just been released. As someone who debuted from a boy group survival show himself, he knew how desperate everyone was to get famous. He didn’t believe for a second that so many people locked in a room together wouldn’t have conflicts, wouldn’t be scheming to step on each other just to climb up.
Fighting over center positions and line distribution were classic triggers for drama—surely Shen Xiu couldn’t come out clean from that?
Dragging the progress bar through the video, Duan Mingfei’s eyes lit up with satisfaction when he reached the scene showing the voting results for parts and center position.
Shen Xiu had secured both the center and the first chorus line in one go—if that wasn’t shady, what was?
Immediately, Duan Mingfei drafted a message and sent it to his studio staff, instructing them to purchase a black-topic trending post targeting Shen Xiu, based on his wording.
Ever since Du Heng had become Lin Jiashi’s manager, Duan Mingfei had rarely been able to rely on him. Now, he had to handle these things himself by directly giving orders to his team.
When asked, Du Heng always shrugged it off, saying Lin Jiashi needed him around all the time. That only made Duan Mingfei angrier.
Fueled by money, the negative trending tag Duan Mingfei bought began to climb quietly.
#ShenXiuBulliedHisWayIntoTheSpotlight
Duan Mingfei clearly understood the golden rule: buying a trending topic works best with a flood of paid comments.
So he didn’t stop there—he bought upvotes and pinned comments for the front page as well.
—Deliberately choosing himself for the spotlight? Disgusting.
—Snatching the highlight moments? This is blatant b*llying within the team. What are the rest of the members doing, just standing around? Center and chorus line both go to Shen Xiu and nobody speaks up? Scared of him? Think just because he has backing, he can get away with anything?
To the Xiuologists, seeing Shen Xiu on the trending list was nothing unusual. But when they saw this particular hashtag, their minds were filled with question marks.
Confused but curious, they clicked in—only to see the top comments. As seasoned stans, they immediately understood what was going on and began typing with cold smirks.
—From a vocal standpoint, this is clearly someone stepping up to take responsibility. Who’s this sour little chicken throwing a tantrum? If you’re not gonna use your ears, please donate them to someone who will. Thanks!
—If I hadn’t already watched the entire behind-the-scenes footage, I might’ve fallen for this nonsense. But after hearing everything? Every single member picking Shen Xiu made complete sense. Don’t believe me? Click and listen for yourself —
—It’s obvious the entire Heaven team is made of honest, grounded people. Isn’t it refreshing to see a group that doesn’t stoop to shady tactics? And now someone’s attacking Shen Xiu for “hogging the spotlight”? Please. Could you even handle it if we gave it to you?
—Exactly. Boss Xiu choosing himself came after hearing everyone’s vocals—it was a decision made with full confidence, not blind arrogance. Whoever bought this trending tag, what are you really after?
—As someone who actually listened: this trending tag is clearly paid for. Shen Xiu’s popularity must be making your eyes bleed.
The paid trolls, of course, were only in it for the money. Once the comments were posted, they disappeared. If you wanted them to stick around and keep steering the narrative, that’d cost extra.
But Duan Mingfei had only bought the bots to stir up initial momentum—he expected the random viewers to carry the torch afterward.
What he hadn’t accounted for was the Xiuologists dropping well-edited clarification videos and patient explanations into the comments. And once the neutral viewers watched those, the tide didn’t just fail to turn against Shen Xiu—it turned on the trolls.
When Duan Mingfei saw the comment section going completely off-script, he couldn’t understand what went wrong. Clicking on the video shared by the Xiuologists, he watched it all the way through—only to feel a mouthful of blood surge up into his throat from pure rage. He was seconds from exploding.
—
While the internet buzzed noisily with activity, the training camp itself had gone quiet and somber.
In the still-open livestream, the viewers had also fallen mostly silent, quietly watching as the eliminated trainees packed up their belongings.
When everyone first arrived at the training camp, most of them only brought two suitcases. With so few belongings, packing up didn’t take long.
While the internet was in chaos, the trainees had already finished packing and were silently dragging their suitcases out of the dorms.
