Chapter 91.2: Official Endorsement Announcement
Seeing the identical messages repeat over and over, Shen Xiu was completely lost. What had happened in those few seconds he zoned out?
As the saying goes: Things don’t happen more than three times.
Shen Xiu tried to comfort himself—he’d surely reached his daily limit of confusion!
Next time, he told himself, he would definitely be able to get on the same wavelength as the Xiuologists.
But—
Holding up the button-less shirt in his hands, Shen Xiu looked toward the camera, full of doubt and questioning everything: “Are you sure about this?”
Wearing clothes with holes was one thing… but this shirt didn’t have any buttons—none at all!
On camera, Shen Xiu was sitting on the carpet, dressed in a simple T-shirt. His long, defined fingers held up the clearly damaged shirt toward the lens. His expression was relaxed, but his gaze toward the camera was skeptical, and his cool, low voice resonated in every viewer’s ears—
[We’re sure!!! I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life!]
[Hurry up, I can’t wait any longer!]
[The fact that he even considers doing this—Xiu-baby truly cares about us!]
The whole chat was urging him on. When Shen Xiu saw the line “he truly cares about us”, the words of refusal caught in his throat—he couldn’t say no.
Thinking back to the last time he wore something questionable for an ad shoot, Shen Xiu tried to comfort himself: This time is way better than before—at least his arms and back will be covered.
“…Just a moment.”
Afraid that he’d chicken out, Shen Xiu forced himself to agree out loud.
Having cut off any escape route for himself, Shen Xiu accepted his fate, took the ruined shirt, and walked back toward the master bedroom with heavy steps.
After putting on the shirt, Shen Xiu didn’t even dare look in the mirror. Holding on to the mindset of “sooner or later, I’ll die anyway”, he braced himself and walked straight to the livestream camera.
“This is what it looks like when worn.”
Just a second ago, while Shen Xiu was away, the viewers had been frantically “coordinating” in the live chat to screen record. The very next moment, Shen Xiu’s cool, deep voice came through—and he appeared, walking toward the camera…
The white shirt, with its buttons popped off, hung open over Shen Xiu’s tall, well-proportioned frame—not bulky, but strong in all the right ways. The shirttails weren’t tucked in, hanging loosely, and the black suit pants were fastened tightly around his firm waist with a simple black diamond button.
As he moved and closed the distance to the camera, the veins along his abs became distinctly visible…
[!!! Hiss, hiss, hiss, hiss…]
[Cold and aloof demeanor, fierce and untamed gaze—but his clothes are a mess, sisters… Help, this is exactly how I imagined it would look. I’m dead!]
[This is exactly the effect we wanted—him casually showing his abs while not even realizing it himself. With that cold, ascetic expression and piercing eyes, the more restrained Demon King Xiu looks, the more we want to lose our minds!]
[We Xiuologists are just that powerful. No content? We make our own content! That’s right—this confidence comes from being loved by Xiu-baby himself!]
[So this is the beauty of a popped button on stage! (smiles in utter satisfaction) (lies down peacefully) (hands folded over chest, begins dreaming)]
While Shen Xiu hadn’t yet sat down to check the live comments, the viewers in the stream were completely unhinged.
Meanwhile, some curious newcomers who’d clicked in were shocked by the sheer chaos in the comments—and after seeing Shen Xiu’s appearance, declared: Alright, you Xiuologists talk one way in front of the man and another way behind his back. Count me in!
Shen Xiu walked up to the camera and stood there for less than three seconds before the overwhelming embarrassment made his scalp tingle. He quickly sat down on the carpet, letting the coffee table block the lower half of his body, only showing everything from his chest up.
He wanted nothing more than to bury his head like an ostrich, but he still didn’t forget to ask the livestream viewers if they were satisfied.
“Is this…”
Before Shen Xiu could finish his sentence, the livestream screen suddenly went black.
Staring at the darkened screen with the message “Your livestream has been temporarily suspended due to reported violations”, the viewers were stunned.
Shen Xiu: “?”
Livestream viewers: [???]
The report went through, and Duan Mingfei was feeling great.
Look at Shen Xiu, so desperate to please fans with such lowly behavior—he had no sense of what it meant to be a real celebrity.
Shen Xiu hadn’t livestreamed much before, and it was his first time getting banned. Not really understanding what to do, he stared blankly at the black screen for a few seconds before belatedly submitting an appeal to lift the suspension.
After submitting the request, a message appeared stating it would require time for review.
Looking at the notebook in front of him, still full of unanswered comments, Shen Xiu worried that the viewers were anxiously waiting. So, he exited the streaming app and opened Weibo.
@Shen Xiu: Sorry, I’ve been banned. Unbanning will take some time. I’ll answer the remaining questions later.
After posting the Weibo update, Shen Xiu went back to the master bedroom to change clothes, then returned to the living room, picked up his pen, and began writing replies.
Originally, he’d planned to answer all the copied comments during the stream. Since he hadn’t left space between lines when transcribing them, the page looked cramped, leaving no room to write his responses.
But the suspension had come too suddenly—he had only managed to answer a small portion before the stream was cut off.
To make things clearer for the fans, Shen Xiu recopied all the questions, and this time wrote his answers directly beneath each one.
He might not be eloquent when speaking, but when it came to writing, Shen Xiu was in his element—his thoughts flowed effortlessly onto the page.
Because the livestream room was suddenly shut down without warning, Shen Xiu’s fans and netizens were caught off guard. They exited the stream in confusion and took to social media to express their doubts.
After everyone posted their confusion in their own blogs, they clicked into Shen Xiu’s Weibo and saw that he had also posted. They flocked to the comments section.
— Who reported him? Must be crazy!
— The person who reported him must not have eight-pack abs like Xiu-baby. Jealous much? Hmph.jpg
— Am I the only one curious how Xiu-baby was going to answer all those countless questions? Will he register a new account and stream again?
— This is the first time I’ve heard that showing abs is a violation. And he only showed a tiny bit—his shirt just had a few buttons undone! The whole time it took for him to walk toward us and sit down was less than a minute. How is that a violation? I don’t get it!
Aside from Shen Xiu’s loyal fans, gossip-hungry onlookers also left comments under his post. The discussion grew increasingly heated.
#ShenXiuAbs
#ShenXiuLivestreamViolatedRulesAndGotReported
Shen Xiu’s livestream was shut down for ten minutes, and topics about his abs and the report that got his stream banned quickly shot up the trending list.
His fans uploaded full screen recordings of the livestream to their own accounts. Curious onlookers who clicked in to watch ended up with the same doubts as those who were there when the stream was cut off.
While expressing their frustration, netizens also shared dynamic screenshots of the moment Shen Xiu walked toward the camera—low-key savage and wildly flattering, which ended up unintentionally promoting him even more.
There are too many “elite, untouchable” celebs in the Chinese entertainment industry. Unless someone’s a mas*chist, who wouldn’t like a star that genuinely connects with fans and strives to better himself?
Shen Xiu’s follower count began growing at lightning speed.
— I don’t get it. What did that eight-pack ever do to you? [picture]
— The person who reported him definitely doesn’t have such tempting, veiny abs. [image]
— As a passerby, I fell head over heels into the fandom in one second. Bet the person who reported him is fuming right now. [hiss gasp]
— Let’s not even talk about his skills—don’t want to make everyone feel insecure—but can we please have more male celebrities like Boss Xiu who have solid height and physique? I’m sick of actors always faking abs with contour makeup. They get paid so much, can’t they just hire a proper coach and train for real?
Duan Mingfei honestly didn’t expect that, even though the talent show had ended several days ago, Shen Xiu would still be this popular.
Just a livestream ban, and he managed to hit multiple trending topics in such a short time?
Duan Mingfei’s delight lasted less than ten minutes. Now, his face was so dark and stormy that even his assistant Xiao Gong wanted to run away.
Duan Mingfei flung his phone onto the couch in defeat and thought bitterly: Whatever, it can’t get worse than this. I’ll endure!
—
While Shen Xiu’s fans and curious onlookers were still rallying in his defense, Shen Xiu finally finished writing his replies in his notebook.
He put down his pen, used his phone to take photos of the notebook pages, and posted them on Weibo.
@ShenXiu: I’m here. [18 images]
Netizens had assumed Shen Xiu wouldn’t post again, so when his latest Weibo suddenly appeared, they clicked in full of confusion and curiosity.
In the pictures, each comment that Shen Xiu had transcribed into his notebook had a thoughtful, handwritten reply beneath it.
A full eighteen images, all clearly written with neat handwriting—no messiness at all. It was obvious how seriously Shen Xiu had taken each question and how earnestly he had responded.
Shen Xiu’s fans were moved to tears, and even the casual onlookers, though they didn’t necessarily follow him, walked away with a much more favorable impression.
— Xiu-baby, is there any surprise left that we don’t know about? Shocking.jpg
— Boss Xiu is forever the ultimate Boss Xiu. Totally unpredictable! He surprises us every single time!
— Getting his livestream banned and all, Xiu-baby really doesn’t seem to care. He still took the time to seriously respond to us. Help, what does Xiu-baby actually care about in this world?!
— Kinda torn, sister. But from another angle—compared to his stream getting shut down, Xiu-baby clearly cared more about answering our questions. If you round that up, it means what he cares about most… is us!
—
Seeing the comments under Shen Xiu’s latest Weibo, Song Chengwang and the others—who had been quietly keeping an eye on the fallout from the stream ban—finally felt a bit relieved.
When Shen Xiu’s livestream was shut down, the eight of them already knew he was scheduled to announce an endorsement deal at 9 p.m. that evening. Because of that, they didn’t dare like or repost any Weibo posts related to the ban.
No one knew how the brand’s representatives would react to the incident.
In the entertainment industry, it wasn’t unheard of for a brand to cancel a deal if they were unhappy with a sudden controversy before the official announcement.
They were worried the issue would blow up and jeopardize Shen Xiu’s first endorsement, so they all chose to stay silent.
Eventually, they decided to meet up in a private room, quietly scrolling on their phones. They agreed that once Shen Xiu’s endorsement was officially announced at 9 p.m., they’d all repost his official Weibo to help drown out the news of the stream being banned.
As the clock ticked closer to 9, all of them started feeling anxious.
Xiang Yueting was so nervous he started shaking his leg, only to get slapped by Song Chengwang.
Xiang Yueting, squirming like he was sitting on pins and needles, couldn’t help but ask, “Do you think Shen Xiu’s nervous right now?”
Shang Yu answered firmly, “No.”
According to Shi Buwen, back when Shen Xiu visited Professor Jiang’s home, he had only met Kaiser once. But in just that one meeting, Shen Xiu had managed to make Kaiser insist on working with only him.
This was something Shen Xiu had long since taken control of. Now it was just a matter of following through. There was no way Shen Xiu would be nervous.
If Shen Xiu were actually nervous, he wouldn’t have had the focus or patience to carefully handwrite all those replies to his fans.
The only ones nervous were the rest of them, afraid that something unexpected might happen. After all, to Shen Xiu, even if an accident did occur and the endorsement got canceled, he wouldn’t really care. According to Shi Buwen, the endorsement fee wasn’t even enough to buy the front gate of Shen Xiu’s house.
Xia Wenhao looked at Shang Yu. “I get the feeling you’re hiding something from us.”
Song Chengwang slapped Xia Wenhao on the shoulder, excited. “Agreed!”
Shang Yu shrugged. Seeing that it was almost nine o’clock, he picked up the rimless glasses on the table and put them on. Only then did he speak: “If you’re that curious, go ask Shen Xiu yourself.”
Until Shen Xiu spoke up on his own, he wasn’t going to spill anything.
Xiang Yueting glanced between them all. “I don’t get it. I seriously don’t get it. I hate how you guys always talk in riddles with a thousand hidden meanings!”
Ding-ling-ling!
A sudden chime rang out in the private room. The eight of them exchanged looks, then all lowered their heads to refresh Shen Xiu’s Weibo page.
At exactly 9:00 PM, as scheduled, Shen Xiu’s pre-set post went live…
