Chapter 97.2: Group Name “TG”
[What can I say, this is classic Shen Xiu. Even water has to be distributed with fairness. Absolutely iconic.]
[Someone please @Lin Jiashi and @Duan Mingfei—click here to witness blatant favoritism in action!]
[Us Xiuologists aren’t jealous at all. Xiu-baby loves us too, okay!!]
“Wait, that’s not even all of it,” Xiang Yueting said as he held up various clear glass bowls of fruit and a mix of drinks and mineral water, waving them gleefully in front of the camera.
“All this—this and this—was personally prepared for us by Shen Xiu~”
The sight of the lavish spread of fruit and drinks on the table made the livestream chat explode with envy.
[Yeah yeah, we saw, brother. I’m begging you, stop showing off or I swear I’ll crawl through this internet cable and fight you!]
[Thank you, Boss Shen for taking care of my precious Nian Nian~]
[On behalf of my baby Xi-baby, thank you for the offering, Demon King Shen~]
[Seeing everyone getting along like this… makes us fans of the group so content!]
Xia Wenhao pushed Xiang Yueting aside and said, “You’re so childish.”
Seeing the smiles on everyone’s faces, Shen Xiu’s nerves relaxed just a little.
They liked what he prepared!
Realizing this made Shen Xiu’s heart beat a little faster. Worried that his face might be turning red, he quickly spoke up.
“You guys start first, I’ll go wash my hands.”
With that, Shen Xiu once again fled to the kitchen.
He said he was washing his hands, but really, he was splashing cold water on his face.
Once he had completely calmed down, Shen Xiu walked out of the kitchen and saw that everyone had already taken their seats on the sofa, with a space left open for him in the middle. They all had paper and pens in hand.
The livestream wasn’t being done with a phone, but with a camera connected to a laptop. The screen was fairly large and positioned far enough from the sofa that even with all nine members of the group, the view would still capture everyone sitting on the left, right, and center of the couch.
Xiang Yueting patted the spot next to him and said, “Shen Xiu, come sit here. Look, I saved you this seat~”
“…Okay.”
Xiang Yueting was as reliable as ever today.
Shen Xiu picked up the paper and pen placed on the table in front of him.
Once everyone had their materials ready, Shi Buwen, who was sitting behind the camera—directly across from Shen Xiu’s central spot on the sofa—picked up the mic and assumed the role of host.
“Welcome, everyone, to the live broadcast where the boy group from ‘Youth Unstoppable’ will be deciding their official group name! During this stream, the debuting nine-member group will confirm their group name~”
Shi Buwen had already set himself as a moderator and was reading the chat on his phone as he spoke.
“As for why we previously said the group name would only be revealed with the debut album—well, you’ll understand once this stream ends~”
“Nine members in the group, of course they should name themselves. A name that all nine agree on will have the most meaning.”
“So now, each member, please write down the group name you have in mind on the paper in your hands. We’ll do a show-of-hands vote afterwards, and the name with the most votes will be the final group name.”
“Of course, once the group name is confirmed, it’ll be announced—trust me!”
“Live call-in? That’s possible too, but only after the name has been decided.”
[Given the context, the host’s wording seems a little suspicious—something fishy is definitely going on. Once the result is out, let’s see if I’m the prophet here.]
[Am I the only one who thinks… the host’s voice sounds just the tiniest bit familiar?]
[Damn, now that you mention it, that babyish voice does sound familiar!]
As the moderator and host, Shi Buwen saw the comments pointing out his “baby voice” and frowned so hard it looked like he could crush a fly between his brows.
He definitely didn’t want to be exposed before he could thoroughly gross out Duan Mingfei.
Quickly switching topics, he said, “Let’s begin. You have three minutes—writing ends when time’s up!”
“After you’ve finished, sign your name on the paper, fold it, and don’t show it to the camera. Then get up and place it in front of me.”
This was the first time Shi Buwen had told them that each of them needed to come up with a group name, so not only were the viewers surprised—so were the nine members. That’s what the paper and pens were for!
Time was tight. No one chatted; they all bent over and started writing immediately.
A group name, huh?
In that moment, a flood of images flashed through Shen Xiu’s mind. Without the slightest hesitation, he wrote down his answer on the paper.
From the moment Shen Xiu uncapped his pen to when he clicked it closed again, the entire process took no more than five seconds.
He had a habit of capping the pen as soon as he was done writing. But once it was capped, he realized—he might’ve written it too quickly. It stood out.
“…”
At this point, pulling the pen back out would only seem weirder. So Shen Xiu simply folded the paper neatly and, as instructed, stood up and placed it in front of Shi Buwen.
As Shen Xiu’s figure disappeared from the livestream camera, the audience started buzzing with curiosity.
[Th-that fast? He didn’t even need to think?]
[Shen Xiu is the type who likes to keep everything under control—he must’ve thought about it long ago. That’s why he could write it so quickly. I mean, he finished in five seconds—there’s no way that was spontaneous.]
[I’m so curious what everyone wrote. I wonder if they’ll reveal it during the voting.]
After Shen Xiu handed in his paper and returned to his seat, Xia Wenhao and Shang Yu also stood up to turn theirs in.
Having someone else also finish early made Shen Xiu feel much more at ease when he sat back down.
Three minutes felt like an eternity for Shen Xiu, who had nothing to do but sit awkwardly in front of the livestream audience after finishing. But for Xiang Yueting, who had so many ideas and couldn’t figure out how to condense them into a short group name, three minutes felt way too short.
At the very second Shi Buwen called time, Xiang Yueting reluctantly folded his paper and handed it in.
[Shen Xiu is exactly like that top student who finishes the exam first, while Xiang Yueting is the struggling student sweating bullets trying to finish the paper but never does.]
[Xiang Yueting: “A story of me and my overachiever classmate.”]
“You guys wrote way too fast!” Xiang Yueting grumbled after handing his in and sitting back next to Shen Xiu.
Shen Xiu: “…Sorry.”
He honestly hadn’t expected Xiang Yueting to take that long!
Song Chengwang snorted, “Clearly he’s just slow. Captain Xiu, you shouldn’t spoil him like this.”
Shen Xiu: “…I’m not spoiling him.”
Xiang Yueting beamed, “Captain Xiu is the best!”
[When Demon King Xiu gets soft, it’s absolutely lethal!]
[Song Chengwang: “How is that not spoiling?!”]
When everyone handed in their papers, they also received red placards to use during the voting.
While the others were chatting with the livestream viewers, Shi Buwen read through all the group names and copied each one onto a giant sheet of paper.
While transcribing the names, Shi Buwen deliberately left out who wrote which one.
Once he finished organizing, he held up the board and picked up a pen to tally votes.
“Look here, look here—voting is about to begin.”
“There are nine group names. Each one has a unique number in front of it. Everyone, write the number of the name you want to vote for on your placard.”
To avoid being recognized, Shi Buwen deliberately lowered his voice: “Voting begins now!”
Shen Xiu knew everyone would have different ideas, but when he saw the wild variety of group names, he deeply regretted being too hasty.
Apparently, everyone had a galaxy-sized imagination!
Thankfully, a few teammates—like him—stood out for being so… normal.
[Ugh, they’re still not showing us the actual names? Rude!]
[This is such a classic tease. I swear my prediction is coming true—we won’t see the names until the group’s debut album drops. I’m betting a dime on it.]
[Shen Xiu’s calm is unreadable, but judging by Xia Wenhao’s expression, the names must be seriously ridiculous.]
In under a minute, Shi Buwen had tallied the votes.
Looking at the name with the most votes, he gave a satisfied smile. “The results are in. We’ll announce the winner shortly!”
Xiang Yueting stared at the result in disbelief: “Why did mine only get one vote?!”
And that one vote… was from himself!
“Why did option number 6 get five votes?! What is wrong with you people?! Who wrote that?!”
Sitting next to Xiang Yueting, Shen Xiu turned his head slightly and replied in a quiet voice, “…Me.”
Shen Xiu’s frosty gaze met his, and Xiang Yueting instantly backed down: “Th-then never mind!”
Shi Buwen quickly wrote down two letters and handed the paper to Shen Xiu. “As the team leader, you show it. Remember—don’t say the name out loud, just let everyone see it. The name and its meaning will be revealed on the day the group’s debut album drops.”
“Okay.”
Shen Xiu stood up, raised his hand, and took the paper. Sitting back down on the sofa, he held it up with his left hand and, without a second’s hesitation, used it to cover his face.
At the same time that the viewers saw what was written on the paper, they heard Shen Xiu’s cold, clear voice from behind it: “Group name.”
‘TG’
[TG… short and blunt, and not even a hint of explanation! Xiu-baby, wuwuwu, what on earth does it mean?!]
[Heh, I predicted this from the beginning.]
[Classic production team move—always keeping us guessing and clenching our fists.]
Shi Buwen, looking righteously indignant despite knowing he wasn’t: “I did say the group name—there it is!”
Just as he braced for the audience to roast him, he noticed the bullet comments weren’t criticizing him at all. Instead, they were all talking about a photo or video.
[OMG, y’all—check the gossip pages! There’s a huge scoop!!! All nine of them were photographed together!]
[Back from the gossip trenches, and I just want to say—my babies are badass. Fans chased the idols down just to confirm the tea, not even afraid D* might turn around and punch them. Man’s been seen punching through a sandbag, y’know.]
[Just saw it. Aside from Shen Xiu, shouldn’t there be eight members? Why are there nine people in that photo? Who’s the extra one? From the back, they look pretty young.]
[It’s definitely the baby-voiced host we’re hearing right now. Y’all chasing idols for gossip look just like wild boars tearing through a melon field. Only Shen Xiu’s above it all, doesn’t even care to eat the melon. That level of zen—respect.]
[S* is the one who leaked the scoop. But who is this S*? Shen Xiu? President Shang? Brother Wang?]
Fans always know their idols best. Even though everyone in the video and photos posted by the gossip accounts was wearing face masks and baseball caps, fans were still able to identify all ten individuals—based on height, body type, previously worn clothing, even habitual hand gestures.
Netizens marked the names of all ten people in the image using these distinctive traits.
Shi Buwen: “……”
Looks like this mysterious “S” person… might actually be him.
[The paparazzi say they’ve requested to join the livestream—connect them, connect them!]
[You promised to do a livestream call-in once the group name was decided. Hurry up! You won’t even tell us what ‘TG’ stands for, and now if you refuse to let us have this call too, we’ll come straight through the internet cable tonight, don’t test us!]
For a while, the bullet comments were flooded with viewers, all stirred up by curiosity and hungry for gossip, demanding the call-in.
Shi Buwen glanced at the request from a well-known paparazzo in the industry, then looked up to see everyone staring right at him—eyes full of blatant threat.
Who wouldn’t want a juicy scoop?
“F-fine, okay,” he stammered. When he’d asked his assistant to leak the info, he hadn’t expected the assistant and the gossip account to act so fast!
Under the pressure of everyone’s threatening stares, Shi Buwen reluctantly clicked “accept.”
