Chapter 77: Final Preparation (2)
Not even three minutes after Weibo’s exposé dropped, the entire livestream chat was flooded with messages debating whether it was real or not.
Terms like “sugar daddies,” “resource-hunters,” and other unsightly words floated through the comments, and with the sudden spike in viewers, it was impossible to believe there weren’t paid trolls involved.
[Are you kidding me? Our Demon King Xiu has a sugar daddy? People saying this—your brains must be confused with your intestines. Most folks put their brains in their heads, but you? Looks like you stuck your poop-pipe up there instead.]
[I’m dying laughing. With Boss Xiu’s presence and talent, he needs a sugar daddy? Take your spiral-up-to-heaven nonsense elsewhere!]
[Just a passerby here for the drama, but somehow I’ve been converted by Xiu-stans’ sarcasm. What’s going on?]
[Slightly off-topic, but since when did earning your own money through hard work become something to be mocked in an exposé? That’s something to be proud of!]
[I went back and watched his past streams—no way. With that kind of skill, why would he need to stoop that low? Also, who in their right mind would even dare try to ‘sponsor’ someone with the aura of a king like Demon King Xiu? You’d have to be out of your mind.]
Shen Xiu was the undisputed top pick in Youth Unstoppable, overwhelmingly popular. Any news about him spread like wildfire.
The show’s livestream was monitored in real time by staff, so they noticed something was off immediately and reported it to the directors.
When the assistant director showed the exposé post on Weibo to Shi Buwen, he took off his glasses and squinted at the screen.
Muttering to himself, he said, “I recognize every word here, but somehow when they’re all put together, I’m not sure I get what it’s trying to say.”
“Director Shi! Come on, this is serious—don’t joke around right now!”
The assistant director looked visibly anxious.
“Look, we’re already in the final phase of the show,” the assistant director said anxiously. “We’re just about to wrap things up with the debut group formation—perfect finale. And now, at this crucial moment, the top-ranking contestant both in popularity and ability gets hit with a scandal. The exposer even claims to be Shen Xiu’s college roommate and swears there’s more dirt to come. He’s clearly trying to destroy Shen Xiu!”
Shi Buwen nodded. “Yeah, keeping quiet all this time, only to drop this now that Shen Xiu’s about to debut—it’s obvious he’s doing it on purpose.”
“But still…”
“It all started with one image—a screenshot of a conversation between the exposer and a gossip account. Not even a single screenshot of Shen Xiu’s own social media. This kind of method? So low-level.”
“In the world of corporate warfare, this kind of ‘attack’ wouldn’t even make it past appetizers.”
The assistant director couldn’t help but recall a previous incident and said faintly, “You tricked me into throwing milk tea at Du Heng. And now you’ve got the nerve to call this exposé low-tier? Was that milk-tea attack of yours some kind of high-level corporate tactic?”
Shi Buwen replied with righteous confidence, “At least I didn’t make you water Duan Mingfei Studio’s money tree!”
Making money isn’t easy. The assistant director sighed. “So, are we paying to take Shen Xiu off the trending list, or do you have a better idea, Director Shi?”
“Take it down? Why? That would just make people think Shen Xiu’s guilty.”
“Besides,” Shi Buwen scowled at the chat logs, “What’s wrong with having a job? Making money with your own two hands is something to be respected.”
“And also…”
Shi Buwen pulled his laptop over and opened the freshly edited video for the assistant director to watch.
“He lives in a mansion worth hundreds of millions. Judging from the trainees’ conversations, he’s barely even stayed there, which suggests he probably has several of these places under his name.”
“And yet you expect me to believe someone like that would be so desperate for money they’d do anything for it? That he’s being ‘kept’ by multiple sponsors? Who would believe that?”
Assistant Director: “…Then what about the job…?”
Shi Buwen patted the assistant director on the shoulder. “It’s called life experience… or wait, no, this kind of situation really isn’t that rare. People just don’t talk about it. Take me for example—can you believe that before I went abroad, my parents made me work in a restaurant kitchen for six months just so I wouldn’t starve overseas?”
Back then, the first thing he thought every morning when he woke up was: Am I really their biological child?
The assistant director chuckled. “Clearly, it worked out great.” Not only did he survive abroad, but he returned and is now wreaking havoc on the entertainment industry with complete equality.
“Heh.”
Shi Buwen sneered, “Then when I actually got overseas, I found out my family had already arranged a chef, a driver, and a house on wheels for me.”
To this day, he still suspected his parents had done it on purpose. Those six months in the kitchen? Might as well have been spent in silence—it was all for nothing.
The assistant director shook his head. “I really don’t get you rich people.”
Shi Buwen continued, “Anyway, I still can’t find any background info on Shen Xiu. You really think a normal person could keep that kind of profile?”
The assistant director was finally convinced, but still expressed concern. “Even so, if we just let it sit there and do nothing…”
“Who said we’re doing nothing?” Shi Buwen pushed the laptop over. “This edited vlog video—release it.”
To achieve the effect he wanted, Shi Buwen had already told the crew yesterday to hand over all the raw footage they filmed. He planned to cut a short preview out of it.
And wouldn’t you know—right after he finished editing, this “low-tier business warfare” scandal broke out.
The assistant director looked uneasy. “But if we release this now, and the trainees later upload their own vlogs, won’t it reduce the sense of mystery? That could hurt their ability to attract fans.”
“Relax,” said Shi Buwen. “The vlog I edited is just a teaser—only three minutes long. It won’t reveal too much. On the contrary, it’ll make people even more curious about the trainees’ own vlogs.”
No one knew how to tease an audience better than him.
Five minutes later, the assistant director posted the edited video to the official Weibo account of Youth Unstoppable.
Given that Shen Xiu’s name was already trending, the moment the video went live, a flood of gossip-hungry netizens rushed in to watch.
In the vlog, the nine trainees first visited Xiang Yueting’s home. After checking out his pet snake, they went to Shang Yu’s house at his invitation.
But then—cut.
The camera jumped from the entrance of Shang Yu’s home to a stunning scene: the group was suddenly standing before a luxurious white gate adorned with intricate carvings.
In the frame, the tall figure of Shen Xiu stood beneath a black screen. Then, a crisp, mechanical voice echoed:
“Iris scan verified. Welcome home, Master.”
As the electronic voice rang out, the white gates slowly opened before the stunned trainees.
The vlog ended.
—No one knows more about Shen Xiu than your production team. I was this close to posting something, but thank god I didn’t. Only three seconds of footage, and what is this—heaven on Earth?!
—My brain is now on loop with “Iris scan verified. Welcome home, Master.” Help. No one understands Demon King Xiu better than us Xiuologists. That line may just be a greeting, but the dominance dripping from it is unreal!
—That’s it?! That’s all we get?! I REFUSE to accept this!!!
—Waaah I can’t believe I live in the same area as Shen Xiu! Don’t get it twisted—though we’ve lived in the same place for years, I only just realized who the owner of that house is!
—I never imagined I’d end up eating melon right in my own neighborhood. And for anyone trying to spin a sugar daddy story—here’s the deal from an insider: that property has only ever had one owner. It was reserved from the start of construction. Only the owner’s iris can unlock the gate. It’s never been sold on the market.
—Wait a sec… Are you from Keta Corp’s core tech team or something?!
Seeing that “code phrase” comment, Qin Mo’s hand trembled—he immediately shut off his phone and dared not say a word.
Wait a minute… which Keta Corp’s core team member is scrolling gossip posts while on the clock?
Then again, he himself was slacking off during work hours, so… best to pretend he never saw anything.
Qin Mo pulled open the drawer in front of him, took out a document, and examined it carefully.
After reading it through, he confirmed his approach, then made a call to Keta Corp’s legal department.
The unexpected call from Assistant Qin made the legal team instantly nervous.
“Assistant Qin?”
“I’ll send you a few images shortly. File a lawsuit against the two individuals shown.”
Just before hanging up, Qin Mo added, “Sue them under a different name.”
A few minutes after Qin Mo hung up, the legal team received the images and were utterly confused.
“Xiao Wang, what do you think Assistant Qin means by this? These people don’t seem to have anything to do with Keta.”
“Maybe… Assistant Qin is a fan? Or… just a really kind person?”
“Heh. You actually believe that?”
—
Under the vlog post, a comment claiming to be Shen Xiu’s university roommate quickly climbed to the top with a flood of likes:
—Shen Xiu?!!! That’s my old college roommate! I just spent some time living at a temple to cleanse my soul, and suddenly he’s in a boy group survival show?! I thought his dream was to become a director? Wait… that is Shen Xiu’s house?!
—What?! You’re Boss Xiu’s college roommate?! Tell us everything! Who’s the anonymous exposer—someone from your dorm?
—It’s not that hard to guess. There was one guy in our dorm—always a sour lemon. Jealous that Shen Xiu didn’t include him when leading projects, and wasn’t picked when Shen Xiu worked with professors. Bet he’s furious and making stuff up online. If I weren’t worried our counselor would come after me, I’d post his full name right now so he can see what it feels like to be slandered by lies.
—Fellow student and loyal Xiuologist checking in! I’ve been holding this in for so long—finally I can say it: I went to the same university as Brother Xiu!!! (😭😭 I was so scared of causing trouble before that I nearly exploded keeping it in!)
With the release of the official vlog and confirmation from Shen Xiu’s college roommate, the marketing account and anonymous accuser were almost drowned in a tidal wave of public backlash from netizens and Xiuologists alike.
[Damn it, I’m furious! Making up lies about our precious Xiu having multiple sugar daddies right before the finals? Malicious beyond belief!]
[Thank goodness Boss Xiu didn’t see this… or wait—no, even if he did see it, it wouldn’t shake him one bit (firm belief) because he’s the kind of person who’s too powerful to care about such nonsense!]
[This is too vile. They must be sued!]
[Um (shyly)… is no one else curious what Demon King Xiu’s house looks like inside? Why did the show only show that short clip? Did they not film the interior? I’m dying to see it!]
…
Meanwhile, Shen Xiu, completely unaware of the online storm, was deep in training at the boot camp.
Even while eating, the group had already mapped out the flow of their afternoon practice for breaking down the new song.
…
After releasing the vlog, Shi Buwen kept refreshing the official account’s comment section.
The toxic, slanderous remarks had disappeared. No one was talking nonsense anymore.
Once he finally backed out of the comments, Shi Buwen went to check the marketing account that had originally posted the accusations—only to find the defamatory post had vanished.
“Deleted it?”
Shi Buwen growled, “Think deleting it makes it go away? Good thing I took screenshots.”
He turned to the assistant director.
“I’ll send you the images. Get in touch with the lawyers—we’re suing those two under the program’s name.”
The assistant director silently handed over his phone and said: “Uh… no need for us to sue. Someone already beat us to it.”
“…Who?”
Before Shi Buwen could even finish asking his question, he caught sight of the name of the lawyer filing the lawsuit—a renowned figure with the nickname “Iron Mouth, Never Loses.” Mid-sentence, he changed his tone: “…Never mind. My apologies!”
Clearly, Shen Xiu didn’t need his help at all.
Shi Buwen muttered in confusion, “But hasn’t that guy always taken on big-time corporate and criminal defense cases? His whole career’s been about putting rivals behind bars—why would he take on something this small?”
Thanks to being thoroughly influenced by the mega-rich Shi Buwen, the assistant director now felt like a seasoned pro. With confidence, he replied: “Money makes the world go ’round.”
—
The next day, 6:00 a.m.
In the phone-free isolation of the training camp, Shen Xiu was already awake and deep into his morning practice.
To support the trainees, the production team had continued assigning them personal practice rooms. Each door was clearly labeled with the trainee’s name—there was no room for confusion.
[Ahhh it’s finally time to see what song Xiu-baby drew for his solo stage!]
[It’s six in the morning. I’m still lying in bed watching this livestream—how is Xiu-baby already up? Wait… why is the stream on so early? 😭😭 The production team must really want us to see the trainees early today. Actual decent behavior from them for once—rejoice!]
At 6 a.m., only night owls and extreme early birds were watching. The chat was fairly quiet, with most of the comments celebrating the production team’s rare competence.
But the moment Shen Xiu pushed open the door to his designated practice room, the livestream chat exploded with confusion.
[Is it just me or is the screen pitch black?]
[I thought my connection dropped, but seeing everyone else saying the same thing… No, it’s not my network that’s busted—it’s the damn production team AGAIN! Damn, I praised them too early!]
[No wonder they started the livestream so early—turns out they’re just giving us hallway cam at this point. We’re in the finals and all we get is corridor surveillance while the inside gets blacked out? (slithers around twisted and bitterly) Great, between the cursed cat filters and flower emojis, the production team decided to just not show us anything! (transforms into a furious monkey screeching in all directions)]
—
Inside the practice room.
Shen Xiu opened the envelope, and the moment he saw the song title written on the card inside, a smile spread across his face.
As expected—his prolonged prayer time had finally paid off!
After so long in the show, he had finally drawn a song he’d learned before!
In the past two days of solo stage prep, the production team had deliberately shut off livestreams from inside the practice rooms. Viewers had no choice but to watch the hallway feed—eagerly awaiting brief glimpses of trainees coming out during mealtime, while grumbling sarcastically about the crew.
Of course, despite the gripes, the tone stayed relatively civil.
There were no brainless insults—after all, the audience had accompanied Youth Unstoppable from the very start. They weren’t blind—they knew the production team did care about the trainees.
This secrecy was clearly to preserve the surprise of the finals stage.
[Every day we get to see Xiu-baby is just way too short. It’s only been two days, but it feels like years. I wish I could just skip ahead to Day Three so I can see him all day!]
[Ahem… Even though, based on Xiu-baby’s grind-hard tendencies, he’ll probably stay behind and train, it would make sense if he went home for a day—he hasn’t seen his parents in forever, and with the finals coming, he might want to see them.]
[Personally, I’m fine either way. Whether he stays to train or takes a break—I just want to see that vlog Yueting teased us about! The one that was supposed to make our pupils quake!]
[I want to see Xiu-baby’s bedroom!]
The backstage staff responsible for monitoring the livestream viewer count noticed that even though the audience wasn’t being shown the trainees’ solo practice sessions, the number of viewers hadn’t significantly dropped.
The monitoring staff sighed in amazement—after so many years in the industry, they had never seen fans with such strong loyalty and engagement.
As expected, when the production team takes things seriously, and the trainees take things seriously, the audience responds with the same level of seriousness.
—
As the viewers endured what felt like an eternity, eagerly awaiting updates, the two days of solo stage training finally ended, and the third day arrived.
After receiving his phone back from the production team staff, Shen Xiu hadn’t yet decided what he wanted to do for the day when he overheard the excited chatter from the people nearby.
“My parents must really miss me. I’m going home today—what about you?”
“Yeah, I’m going home too. My mom must miss me a lot.”
After speaking, Song Chengwang turned to look at Shen Xiu, who had been silent the whole time, and asked curiously, “Shen Xiu, what are you planning to do today?”
