The production company today issued a naming announcement confirming that the younger brother, until now referred to only by a nickname, is formally named 刘贝 (Liu Bey). Overseas releases will use the romanisation Liu Bey uniformly, rather than leaving each territory to transliterate.

What set off the discussion was not the given name but the surname. His is Liu. His brother’s is Niu.

For two years audiences have treated the pair as blood brothers — the series never said so, but never denied it either. This announcement answers the question with a single character: they are not.

Why he is not a Niu

The studio set out the background in a note attached to the announcement: the younger brother was not born into the Niu family. He was taken in as a small child, and the family chose not to change his surname.

None of this had been stated directly on screen, but after the announcement a good many viewers went back through the first two seasons and found the groundwork had been laid all along — the two never share the same family emblem, and the elder brother addresses him differently from the way he addresses the rest of the household.

We never hid it. We simply never spelled it out. Some relationships do not need blood to explain them.— The producer, in the naming announcement

Who chose 贝

As for the given name, the studio says the Niu family chose it. Once he had been taken in, the household felt he should have a proper name, and picked 贝 for its sense of something treasured. The surname is his own; the name is what the family gave him.

Viewers noted that 贝 is the radical underneath 财, 货 and 贵 — wealth, goods, precious — because ancient Chinese money was cowrie shells. A name meaning "treasured", written with the character that sits at the root of value itself.

From the naming announcement: Niu Lai in the centre, his newly named brother Liu Bey on the left, and the leopard character travelling with them on the right, whose name has yet to be announced.
From the naming announcement: Niu Lai in the centre, his newly named brother Liu Bey on the left, and the leopard character travelling with them on the right, whose name has yet to be announced.
  • Named: the younger brother, as 刘贝 (Liu Bey)
  • Key detail: his surname is Liu, not Niu — no blood relation
  • Backstory: taken in by the Niu family as a child, kept his own surname
  • Unchanged: Niu Lai’s name, design and characterisation

The reaction ran hotter than the studio expected

Comments under the announcement passed ten thousand within hours. Most were not disappointed but relieved — it made sense of things. The younger brother has always been the one who walks behind and steps forward when it counts, and this backstory gives that loyalty a source.

One long-time follower wrote: "He did not stay because he was the brother. He stayed because he chose to. That is a big difference." The comment drew more likes than the announcement itself.

The third character still has no name

The leopard appearing alongside them in the announcement image is a new regular for the coming season. The studio said naming is still in progress and will be announced before the season starts.

The new season is confirmed for next month, running to twelve episodes released weekly. The studio also said the relationship between the two brothers will be one of the season’s main narrative threads — a line that reads rather differently this week than it did last.