Chapter 91.1: Official Endorsement Announcement
[Only once?!]
[If it were someone else saying this, I’d suspect they were lying. But the one saying it is our Xiu-baby. With Xiu-baby’s personality, he wouldn’t bother lying, so it must be true.]
[Wuwuwu, even though it’s heartbreaking, if you think about it rationally, it makes sense. No matter how amazing our Xiu-baby is, he’s just a newly debuted rookie idol. In the entertainment industry, which places so much importance on seniority, how could he possibly leapfrog so many others to get it?]
[Is it possible that this ‘encounter’ was a direct signing? Could Xiu-baby have seen it? Did you sign with Kaiser directly when you met?]
This one question rekindled hope among the Xiuologists while also making Duan Mingfei tense up. Holding his breath, he joined the live chat with an alt account, spamming the same question with other viewers.
Shen Xiu had just finished answering the previous question when he saw this new wave from netizens.
Leaning in for a closer look, he immediately responded, “No.”
He had only signed the contract recently.
And the person he coordinated the contract with wasn’t Kaiser, but Assistant Wen.
Upon hearing Shen Xiu’s answer, the Xiuologists gave up hope, but also realized how bluntly they’d asked the question. If it had been another celebrity, they probably would’ve ignored the question or changed the subject with a scowl.
But Shen Xiu answered honestly.
He didn’t find it awkward or embarrassing at all.
The Xiuologists felt pampered, but quickly came to their senses, realizing this wasn’t very appropriate.
Even if Shen Xiu himself didn’t mind, the gossip accounts probably wouldn’t let it go so easily. So they hurriedly changed the subject.
[Yes means yes, no means no—being so open and straightforward is seriously endearing.]
[Hahaha, his notebook is covered in tiny writing! Are those all the questions we left in the comment section?]
[It must be! Didn’t Xiu-baby say earlier that he’d test the quality of the shirt buttons for us during the livestream—is it happening now?]
Shen Xiu looked at the bullet comments and thought to himself how quickly everyone changed topics.
He nodded: “It can be now.”
“Just a moment.” As he finished speaking, Shen Xiu temporarily stepped away from the livestream camera and headed to the master bedroom to retrieve the shirt that the program team had given them as a keepsake.
After hearing Shen Xiu’s calm voice, the viewers saw his figure disappear from the screen.
Once they were sure Shen Xiu was out of sight, the Xiuologists started chatting in tacit agreement.
[Thinking back now, that question popped up way too suspiciously.]
[Agreed. It came out of nowhere. But considering the gossip about Xiu-baby signing with VG trended on social media, and this livestream happened shortly after, it’s probably just a bunch of curious onlookers coming in to ask about it.]
[Okay… confession time. I’m one of those curious onlookers who came from the trending topic, but I swear, I didn’t spam anything.]
[I did. But I just copied what others were spamming.]
[I checked the stream recording. When the spamming first started, the sidebar showed that all the accounts posting those comments were just strings of numbers. I’ll post the recording on Weibo—everyone can check it out and see if someone hired paid commenters to stir things up.]
Duan Mingfei watched as the Xiuologists belatedly pieced together the truth. He sneered coldly, not taking them seriously at all. What occupied his mind was Shen Xiu’s earlier response.
Just met once?
Duan Mingfei let out a sigh of relief.
So Shen Xiu wasn’t as noble or aloof as he’d imagined. Just one meeting, and he had someone leak news about an endorsement deal through a marketing account. His shamelessness was on par with his own.
Duan Mingfei relaxed into the sofa and said to the assistant beside him, “No need to worry. From the looks of it, this whole thing was orchestrated by Shen Xiu himself. He probably hired someone to spread misleading rumors just to hype himself up.”
Xiao Gong, who was also watching the livestream, naturally heard Shen Xiu’s words and nodded. “Got it, Brother Ming.”
As Duan Mingfei’s new assistant, Xiao Gong had more or less figured things out during his time working with him. The people Duan Mingfei was most bothered by were, first, Lin Jiashi—also under Qinghe Entertainment and recently exploding with resources—and second, Shen Xiu, who, like him, had debuted from a talent show and held the center position.
Xiao Gong firmly believed that someone like Shen Xiu would never stoop to lying.
If he said they’d only met once, then it must really have been just once.
And if they had only met once, at most they might’ve had a brief conversation. Who signs a contract on a first meeting? Impossible—absolutely impossible!
Wait a minute… Shen Xiu’s cold and aloof personality meant he wouldn’t lie—but didn’t that also mean he wouldn’t bother with the kind of cheap self-hype Duan Mingfei accused him of?
“Brother Ming.”
Xiao Gong hesitantly said, “I just feel like something’s not quite right…”
Duan Mingfei gave him a dark look and snapped, “Don’t talk nonsense.”
Seeing the gloomy expression on Duan Mingfei’s face, Xiao Gong hesitated, then kept quiet.
Back in the livestream.
Shen Xiu reappeared on screen, now holding the shirt.
The moment they saw Shen Xiu return, the Xiuologists tacitly stopped talking about the suspected paid commenters. They quickly flooded the chat with unrelated messages to push those earlier comments out of view.
Earlier, when they were picking which comments to respond to, fans had asked Shen Xiu to use a magnifying glass to check the shirt. So when he brought the shirt, he also brought a magnifying glass with him.
Following the fans’ request, Shen Xiu placed the shirt on the gray coffee table. With one hand, he held the magnifying glass over the button to examine its details. With the other hand, he held up his phone, using the rear-facing camera to show the magnified image to the audience.
Shen Xiu asked the fans, “Can you see it clearly?”
[…Xiu-baby, when we said we wanted to ‘use a magnifying glass to look at the button details,’ that’s not what we meant!]
[Confirmed—our great Demon King Xiu totally misunderstood what we meant. He really thought we just wanted to literally look at the button under a magnifying glass, hahaha! This gap between his seriousness and the reality is too cute—I’m dying laughing!]
[Okay, fellow Xiuologists, I have an idea. Please move over to our Xiuology HQ~]
Hearing this, the Xiuologists in the livestream grew curious and all started opening the group chat they had created back during the talent show days.
Shen Xiu looked at the scrolling comments in utter confusion.
He had thought that if he carefully transcribed the fans’ comments and tried to respond to and fulfill their requests one by one, he would eventually understand them.
But reality had proven otherwise—
Heh, he was still too naive!
All the words were right there in the bullet comments—yet he still couldn’t understand them. Not at all!
He had copied down the comment exactly: use a magnifying glass to look at the button details. Where did he go wrong?!
Shen Xiu began to question everything.
Because he couldn’t understand what the Xiuologists were saying and was trying so hard to figure it out, he forced himself—awkwardly but bravely—to ask: “Can I join the group chat?”
Lately, he found himself increasingly unable to follow what the Xiuologists were talking about. If this kept up, what was he supposed to do?
How could someone who didn’t understand a thing about his own fans ever repay their affection?
Shen Xiu was emotionally fired up on the inside, but in reality, he was so nervous after asking that cold sweat started forming in the palm holding the magnifying glass.
Asking to join someone’s private group chat like that… How did he even have the nerve to say it?
The moment of impulsive courage passed, and Shen Xiu’s reason returned. Seeing the incoming wave of bullet comments, he felt so embarrassed he wanted to flee the scene.
The fans in the livestream heard Shen Xiu’s calm voice through their headphones—and the chat froze for a split second before exploding in a frenzy of messages.
[? Xiu-baby, be good, stay far away from the daily lives of us Xiuologists —it’s for your own good (dog head emoji)]
[Hahaha Xiu-baby, don’t join, you’ll regret it!]
[I’m dying—who would’ve thought Shen Xiu interacting with his fans would be this cute?!]
[Ahhh I’m here, I’m here—what’s going on? Whatever, whatever—Xiu-baby, can you try using your strength to rip off a shirt button? I’m so curious~ (pure and innocent face)]
The Xiuologists, having returned from the HQ group chat, all started spamming the livestream chat.
At that moment, Shen Xiu was still caught in the awkwardness of being rejected. But when he saw the follow-up comments pouring in right after the rejections, he felt some relief from the suffocating embarrassment.
What was this?
They were all working together to help him save face! After all, testing the durability of a shirt button with brute force made no sense no matter how you looked at it.
He was just a stranger on the internet—asking to join their group was indeed overstepping. The Xiuologists were truly kind!
With genuine gratitude in his heart, Shen Xiu responded, “No problem.”
He put down the magnifying glass, secured his phone, then held the two sides of the shirt together, where the buttons were fastened.
Since there was only one shirt, and he was afraid the viewers might not see clearly, he gave a heads-up before starting: “I’m about to begin.”
Seeing a flood of responses in the comments, Shen Xiu counted down: “Three, two, one!”
Rip—
The sound of buttons popping echoed out as the shirt buttons scattered across the table and floor.
The buttons flew off in the blink of an eye, and the visual was over before it even began. Embarrassed, Shen Xiu said, “Sorry… I ripped it a little too fast…”
[No worries, no worries—this is exactly what we were hoping for~]
[Top-tier comedy performance. I came here just to spectate a rumor, but I now declare that I’m pitching my tent right here for the night!]
Shen Xiu: “?”
In just a single day, he had failed to understand the Xiuologists twice?!
While Shen Xiu was still confused, the Xiuologists watching the stream quickly copied another message from the group chat and pasted it into the live chat:
[Xiu-baby, can you put on the ruined shirt so we can see how it looks? It’d be even better if you wore the suit pants from the final night too~ (pure and innocent.jpg)]
The chat was now flooded with messages asking Shen Xiu to put on the shirt with the popped buttons.
