New Times, New Hell

Chapter 17 - Beginning to Profit

In life, Hao Wentao had a glorious track record. Since young, his grades were stellar, and he was socially adept too. He had always been the best among his peers. After graduation, he became a lawyer, and not many years later, with his savings and connections, became the associate of his own private law firm. His career and family life were both satisfactory, so he was quite impressive.

But who would’ve imagined, a person like him would end up having no one to bring him offerings in death…… And it wasn’t anyone’s fault but his own.

When he was alive, Hao Wentao was a firm materialist, scoffing at stories of ghosts and gods. Not only this, he also strongly valued science in his home, and was against his family members’ participating in superstitious activities. Under his influence, their family was the model scientific family of their neighborhood. Disregarding the normal days, they even refused to prepare offerings during the traditional holidays.

This shouldn’t have been a big deal, as most dead spirits only stayed in the mortal realm for a short period of time before being notified to reincarnate. So even if no one brought offerings for them, at most they would only go hungry for a brief time.

But coincidentally Hao Wentao still had unfulfilled desires; if a ghost didn’t let go of their obsessions, they would be unable to reincarnate. Thus, he had to stay in the mortal realm, wandering. If he continued this way, it was likely he would become a lonely and wild ghost.

Hao Wentao said sorrowfully, “After I first died, I spent some time in my home. My wife and daughter cried every day, but just refused to bring me offerings. Sometimes my friends or relatives would come to pay their respects and wanted to bring offerings, but they would stop them. My daughter told everyone, her dad hated these superstitions the most. If he was really watching from the heavens, he definitely wouldn’t want anyone to bring him offerings……”

Everyone: “……”

They wanted to comfort him, but didn’t know how. His experience was a textbook example of you reap what you sow……

Father Chen thought his old friend was a little tragic. He looked left and right, then turned to inquire Yu Zhengdu, “Little Mr. Yu, does your company have any ideas on how to help Wentao?”

“Most likely, yes.” Yu Zhengdu turned to look at Boss.

Shang Que lifted his gaze. “What desires does he have remaining. Satisfy them and it’ll be resolved.”

“Ah, right right.” Father Chen looked at Hao Wentao again. “Wentao, tell me what wishes you have. I’ll definitely try and help you fulfill them.”

“I have two……” Hao Wentao looked at Father Chen in gratitude through the phone screen. “My only wishes were to see my daughter go to college, and then get married and have kids in a happy family, and to travel the world with my wife after she retired, because normally we were both very busy with work……”

Father Chen: “……”

Everyone else: “……”

Father Chen paused, then said, “Your daughter is still in middle school this year right ……”

Hao Wentao nodded.

Father Chen: “Your wife isn’t retiring for another 20 years right……”

Hao Wentao nodded again.

Father Chen looked at Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que helplessly. Shang Que was impatient, saying, “He has too many wishes. Simply exorcise him.”

Exorcism would forcefully remove a ghost’s obsessions.

“No no no, don’t exorcise me.” Hao Wentao waved his arms and almost started crying. “I really want to see my daughter go to college, and my wife……”

Yu Zhengdu thought about it, and said, “Actually, wouldn’t it be easier to just have his family members bring him offerings?”

Father Chen clapped. “Exactly. I can go convince them.”

Hao Wentao said dejectedly, “They won’t listen to you. They might even try to persuade you to stay far away from superstitions……”

Yu Zhengdu smiled, “That was in the past. With our company here, how could they not believe.”

Everyone was struck with realization. They had almost forgotten that this company had the advanced technology of imaging ghosts……

Hao Wentao’s case was thus resolved, but the true enemy behind the scenes, Liu Ningan, still caused the Chen family great distress. But they had no evidence and couldn’t be like him and use wrongful magic to get their revenge. At the same time, they were still scared Liu Ningan had a backup plan, so became extremely torn.

Finally, it was Daoist priest Mu who had more experience, and said that in this duel, Liu Ningan’s demon priest had technically lost, so Hao Wentao had regained his freedom. The demon priest himself would also get rebounded, so wouldn’t be able to cause harm again for a short period of time.

Hao Wentao spoke up too, and said that in the time that he had helped Liu Ningan, he had found out quite a few of his and other Yaochu stockholders’ business secrets. He would tell these secrets to Father Chen so Father Chen could start retaliating against Liu Ningan.

But all this would come later. Yu Zhengdu and them wouldn’t participate in it; this time, they had more than satisfactorily completed their job. Father Chen generously gave both them and Daoist priest Mu and his apprentice a fee for their work. Though nobody pointed it out outright, they all knew that there was probably a large difference between the two sums. Other than that, Father Chen had also given each of them a red envelope. This was considered a personal gift that didn’t need to be given to the company.

Chen Siyu was adamant about buying some stones from Yu Zhengdu at a high price before finally letting them leave. At the door, Chen Siyu went to grab her car, so Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que stood there waiting.

Only to see the little Daoist run over, huffing and puffing. He took out his phone, and stammered, “Can I add you guys on WeChat?”

Daoist priest Mu was behind the little Daoist. He bowed at them and politely saluted. His voice was full of admiration, “There are people outside of people, and a sky outside of a sky. These two householders, you have taught me a vivid lesson.”

Yu Zhengdu smiled, “Priest is too humble. We only have different directions when it comes to technology. To each their own, to each their own.”

Daoist priest Mu shook his head and sighed, “Householder Shang was right, we have truly become too set in our old ways. Daoism is like rowing a boat upriver; if you don’t move forward, you will get pushed back. When we return this time, I will definitely prompt everyone in our temple to study technological concepts in the hopes of modernizing Daoism sooner. We must advance to not be left behind by the times.

The little Daoist vigorously nodded his head. “We are going to use technology to further our temple and guide the future Daoist path!”

Yu Zhengdu’s expression remained the same; he even gave the two Daoist monks a thumbs up. “Jiayou priest, I trust that Qinglian Temple will become the most advanced Daoist temple in the nation!”

Shang Que finally looked at them properly. “The youth are worth educating.”

……

On the way back, Chen Siyu drove in the front, and Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que sat in the back.

It was a bit late, and Yu Zhengdu was tired after such a busy day. He wanted to take a nap, but as soon as he leaned back, he saw that Shang Que had abandoned his normal elegant sitting posture and was sitting turned to the side, his back towards him. He was even slightly crouched over, and looked very suspicious.

Yu Zhengdu furrowed his brows, stretching his neck to peek over Shang Que’s shoulder.

Only to see Shang Que hunched over, quietly opening the red envelope Father Chen had given them personally. Father Chen was generous, so the red envelope was quite thick. Yu Zhengdu estimated that there should be around 2,000 RMB in there.

Shang Que weighed the bank notes, then gently started stuffing them into his pockets.

Yu Zhengdu was even more confused. He asked without warning, “What are you doing?”

Shang Que was scared by his sudden interruption. But the Ghost King was ultimately the Ghost King, so only his hand trembled a little; his expression remained unchanged. He turned around like nothing had happened and lightly coughed. “This red envelope is personal, I don’t need to give it to the company.”

Yu Zhengdu: “Exactly.”

Thus Shang Que started stuffing the money into his pockets bravely. “Then there’s nothing wrong with me using it to buy in-game money right.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

He couldn’t help reflecting. How strict was he to Boss regularly, that the renowned Ghost King had started to secretly hide his personal spending money……

……

After Chen Siyu sent away Yu Zhengdu and them, she finally had some free time. She took out her phone, only to see that the WeChat group she had with her friends had somehow garnered over a thousand messages in one afternoon.

She opened the chat to see that they were teasing Li Tiantian as usual. In the beginning, Li Tiantian had tried to defend herself, but in the end she clearly was no match for everyone, so went diving. Several people were even constantly @’ing Chen Siyu to be a witness.

Chen Siyu:【……】

As soon as she appeared, the group chat that had finally managed to quiet exploded once more.

Friend A:【Siyu, you finally appeared!】

Friend B:【The moment to witness the truth has arrived!】

Friend C:【Tiantian was bluffing to us this afternoon, saying that you invited the people from the magnet-selling company to your home. We laughed so hard and almost believed her!】

Friend A:【Isn’t that right! But thankfully we remembered the things you said in the past. With no need to say anything else, we posted screenshots of what you said before. Don’t worry, your woman of the times image still remains. We gotchu】

Chen Siyu looked at the screenshots of previous messages she had sent in the chat and suddenly felt like her face was swollen.

She took a picture of the stones she had bought from Yu Zhengdu and uploaded it to the chat.

Chen Siyu:【……Um, Tiantian wasn’t bluffing. I bought a dozen magnets from that company】

Everyone:【…………………………………………】

Friend A:【Jeez, who are you?】

Friend B:【Did you get hacked??????】

Friend C:【A dozen????????】

Li Tiantian:【A dozen???????】

Chen Siyu:【That company is truly very impressive. I think you guys should go buy some of their magnets to carry around too】

Everyone:【…………………………】

Friend A:【Siyu wake up. Those are just pebbles!】

Friend B:【I can dig up 2 kg of those rocks for you from the flower pot under my house. If you have so much money to spare, can you sponsor me?】

Friend C:【My goodness, these days you can use pebbles to collect intelligence tax??】

Chen Siyu looked at the wailing in the chat and decided to tell them what happened with the haunting at her home, exactly as it happened. Of course, she left out the part about the mess with the Yaochu stockholder. After she finished, the chat was silent.

Chen Siyu waited a long time and still got no response. She thought no one believed her, so spoke again.

Chen Siyu:【What I’m saying is the truth. Tiantian was unlucky before because she had run into a ghost too. It had nothing to do with astrology】

Chen Siyu wasn’t stupid. After witnessing what happened in her home, she guessed that Li Tiantian’s situation probably wasn’t that simple either, so asked Yu Zhengdu about it. Yu Zhengdu told her the truth, so she shared this story in the group chat too.

When she was finished, someone in the group finally regained their wits.

Friend A:【……I’m not listening I’m not listening I’m not listening. There are no such things as ghosts!!!】

Friend B:【Can you make up a more believable story. What do you mean modern evil removing technology, and handcuffs to catch ghosts??? Siyu, wake up ah】

Friend C:【Then take out some evidence】

Where would Chen Siyu get evidence? Her phone couldn’t take pictures of ghosts. But she did have some pictures of when Daoist priest Mu was preparing to cast his spells. She looked through her album and picked two to randomly upload.

Chen Siyu:【It’s up to you if you want to believe it or not】

Rest of the group:【………………】

In the group, Li Tiantian, who had originally been the one to believe in the luck-changing magnets the most, lost her mind first.

Li Tiantian:【……………………Aaaaaah, why couldn’t you let me happily live in my astrology fantasies!!】

Chen Siyu:【Why are you complaining. My worldview shattered more completely, okay】

***

The next morning, as soon as Yu Zhengdu walked into the company, Kang Jin and his other coworkers sniffed and huddled around him like dogs.

Kang Jin walked in a circle around Yu Zhengdu and asked, “What is it, it smells so good!”

Yu Zhengdu shook the bag in his hand and took an item out. He smiled, “How come all your noses are so good?”

Kang Jin’s eyes lit up as soon as he took a look. “Incense!”

Yu Zhengdu said, “Yesterday I earned some extra money, so I’ve brought some afternoon tea for everyone.”

In this period of time, he had learned that ghosts mainly relied on offerings from humans for food and items they used daily, but in the mortal realm, offerings were only given during special holidays or memorials. Even though ghosts didn’t need to eat three meals a day like humans, these offerings were still valuable, so after receiving them, many ghosts were unwilling to eat them all at once.

After seeing Hao Wentao’s tragic situation yesterday, Yu Zhengdu strongly felt that it was hard being a ghost too, so used the money from the red envelope Father Chen had given them to buy some offerings for everyone.

Kang Jin started crying then and there. He grabbed Yu Zhengdu’s hand and refused to let go. “Starting from today, you’re my best friend in the entire company!”

All the other ghosts butted him away. “Move, he’s my best friend.”

Shang Que came out of his office and furrowed his brows. “What’s everyone arguing about so early in the morning?”

As soon as Boss appeared, nobody dared to fool around anymore. They all threw a significant look at Yu Zhengdu, then obediently went back to their seats.

Yu Zhengdu showed Shang Que the incense in his hands. “I got some takeout for everyone.”

Shang Que stared at the items in his hands, then slowly spoke up a moment later, “Where’s mine?”

Yu Zhengdu looked surprised. “You want it too?”

Shang Que: “……Are you saying I don’t get any?”

“You do, you do.” Yu Zheng laughed, then pulled out an incense that was the thickness of a fist from his bag. “Heh heh, this was the store treasure of the incense store. It can burn for three continuous days.”

Shang Que hrmph’d, then added, “I also want braised pork.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……Why have you started ordering food?”

Shang Que gazed at him, silent.

A moment later, Yu Zhengdu automatically surrendered. “Fine fine fine, if you want braised pork, then you get braised pork.”

……

When Li Tiantian arrived at Luofeng’s office carrying a basket of fruit, she saw Yu Zhengdu burning incense.

Li Tiantian: “……”

Li Tiantian looked around warily. She wanted to smile, but couldn’t, so only muttered, “Student Yu, you guys really know how to catch ghosts……”

Yu Zhengdu didn’t lie to her again, nodding while vaguely explaining, “The Underworld energy on ghosts is directly linked to one’s health, so it’s included in our scope of business too.”

Li Tiantian: “……Your scope of business is quite large.”

“It’s alright.” Yu Zhengdu smiled and teased her, “Oh yeah, the ghost who was harassing you last time is still here. Do you want to see her?”

Li Tiantian hurriedly shook her hands, “No need no need.” Let her live in her astrology fantasies!

Li Tiantian had come this time to specially thank them. After learning the truth from Chen Siyu, she felt embarrassed about having misunderstood them before. Even though she was terrified of ghosts, she still brought the fruit basket, and even gave him a red envelope.

Yu Zhengdu wouldn’t take it, saying it wasn’t hard to deal with at all.

Li Tiantian still had to go to work, so after chatting for a bit, said she needed to leave. Before she left, she added, “Oh right, I have a few other friends who want to buy your magnets……”

Yu Zhengdu: “Ah?”

Li Tiantian: “And, they heard that your company provides Underworld energy detection, so they want to ask you guys to do an Underworld energy check-up for them……”

Yu Zhengdu: “Huh?”

Li Tiantian asked him, “There’s no problem right?”

Yu Zhengdu: “No problem, no problem.”

Who would’ve thought, the company’s first products to gain profit were detectors and magnets……