New Times, New Hell

Chapter 24 - Boss is Not a Person

At first Yu Manjiang was adamant that Shang Que was scamming him, but when Old Mr. Yu’s family members brought him his appraisal equipment and everyone gathered around the broken pieces of ceramic to examine them and sigh, he finally started really panicking.

Finally, to accurately determine the value of this set of black glaze ceramics, Old Mr. Yu advised them to send it to a respected accreditation office for appraisal.

Nobody expected for the accreditation office to send back a response with a price a lot higher than the one Shang Que had initially said. Because there were very few Rabbit Fur Black Glaze tea sets made in ancient Jian kilns remaining, and because the one Shang Que had gifted to Yu Zhengdu’s family was exceptionally well maintained, the final value determined by the office was over 60 thousand per cup.

When Yu Manjiang received this news he almost passed out. After all, he had bluffed to Shang Que that he would compensate them ten times the price.

But this really wasn’t him pretending to be rich. At the time, he couldn’t possibly have known that this young man was even better at acting than him; he owned antiques from the Song Dynasty, but still complained about having to save money to buy the treasure chests in his mobile game?

How could he have known that this person was so hardcore, daring to let Yu Zhengdu’s family use antiques as normal tea cups?

This was definitely a legendary level of truly breaking ceramics, in all senses.

At first Yu Manjiang wanted to go back on his words, because after all, antiques were priceless and the office had only given them an approximate price, not the actual market price.

But he didn’t manage to persevere for long, because starting on the first night that he decided to go back on his words, he started having endless nightmares. In these nightmares, he was harassed by evil ghosts; each ghost would stare at him with their bloody face, a poster similar to those migrant workers used to demand unpaid salaries in their hands: Pay off your debt.

When he was awake he would also continuously have visual and auditory hallucinations constantly yelling in his ear, “Pay up……pay up……pay up……” It was really terrifying!

Yu Manjiang belatedly realized that Yu Zhengdu’s company had the technology to communicate with the Underworld. He reasonably suspected that Yu Zhengdu and them had invited some ghosts from the Underworld to scare him……

After visiting many doctors and still being unable to determine any sign of illness, he finally surrendered and paid up. After all, no matter how unwilling he was to spend money, he had to be alive to spend it.

At least Yu Zhengdu’s family wasn’t the type to loot a burning house. They didn’t actually make him pay ten times the compensation, only the value that the accreditation office had given.

Actually, considering how much Yu Manjiang owned, paying over one million in compensation was nothing. But for him, this was only the beginning. After this incident, he finally experienced the hardships of life.

First, his business was met with several difficulties. The projects currently in motion encountered trouble one by one; his wealth started rushing away like floodwater. And in the eyes of the Yu Clan’s clansmen, his social status hit rock bottom in an instant. After all, they weren’t idiots. Though it had never been confirmed outright, they quite easily figured out who the person that had stolen all the Yu Clan’s luck was.

Yu Manjiang’s life had gone smoothly for 20 years, but now he had finally used up all his luck. Seemingly overnight, his life changed drastically.

……

But the events with Yu Manjiang all came later. Right now, Yu Zhengdu’s family had plenty of other things to stress about.

After learning that the Rabbit Fur Black Glaze tea cups were actual antiques from the Song Dynasty, Father Yu didn’t dare to keep them anymore, wanting to return them to Shang Que at all costs. But Shang Que’s method of showing courtesy was slightly different. He didn’t care what Father Yu said at all and only sat there ignoring him, playing his mobile games.

After Father Yu tired himself out, he finally nonchalantly said, “If you guys don’t want them, then you can just toss them on the ground and break them.”

Father Yu: “……”

Why is this person so overbearing about giving presents!

Yu Zhengdu originally thought accepting such an expensive gift wasn’t right either, but now he kind of had an idea of what Shang Que’s temper was like. He knew that if the man said it, he would definitely be able to do it. Thus, he immediately charged over to protect the tea cups, “I want them!”

Shang Que was finally slightly satisfied at this. He raised his chin, pleased, and bravely said, “……Then I want to buy two more treasure chests!”

Yu Zhengdu: “……” Boss who owns antiques is still so frugal that it hurts.

Actually the compensation from Yu Manjiang had been directly deposited in Luofeng’s company funds, yet compared to the amount needed to keep a business running long term, it was clearly not enough.

But the most tragic was still Father Yu. As a middle-aged man who had nothing to do with elegant, he knew nothing about antiques. After suddenly receiving a priceless set of Song ceramics, he was so anxious he had insomnia for several nights.

In the end, it was Mother Yu who persuaded him to act normally about it. This, along with the pep talks he gave himself, finally allowed him to recover.

In the time after that, though, the number of guests who visited their house obviously increased. Among them, many were authoritative figures who rarely kept in contact with their family in the past. Without a doubt, they were there for the Golden Rabbit Fur tea set. Because of this tea set, Father Yu’s status rapidly rose not only in the Yu Clan, but also in all of Jintan Village.

***

Shang Que didn’t care about the reactions the Rabbit Fur Black Glaze tea set caused in Jintan Village. Yu Zhengdu didn’t bother with this either. For them, the most important thing at the moment was something else entirely.

As they were resolving the issue with Yu Manjiang, a non-stop flow of villagers contacted them through Father Yu. They wanted to pay to contact their relatives in the Underworld. It turned out, in the past few days, the incident in front of the Yu Clan’s public ancestral temple had been spread throughout the entirety of Jintan Village.

The Three Gods’ demise caused people to sigh, but for those outside of the Yu Clan, it was at most a piece of gossip to be shared during tea time. What really caught everyone’s attention afterwards was the YinYang Communications Technology developed by Yu Zhengdu and his company.

When it had first been talked about, those who weren’t at the scene thought it was only tomfoolery, and many mocked those sharing the story. But quite soon after, more and more people present that day stepped up as witnesses. When Old Mr. Yu and Daoist priest Kou also said they could provide evidence, everyone finally realized, the story was actually real.

Not only this, but according to the rumors, the situation with the Three Gods of the Yu Clan had also been resolved by them.

In one night, all the residents of Jintan Village became surrounded by question marks. Things can be done like that???????

With Old Mr. Yu and Daoist priest Kou’s confirmation, Luofeng’s technology immediately became famous in Jintan Village. Though many still thought it was just a scam, there were also others on the fence about it. They came to Yu Zhengdu’s house with the mentality of simply trying it for fun. Many of these people had money and authority, so the amounts they offered were quite large.

Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que had a discussion and decided that they could develop a service in this area. Allowing communication to the Underworld was technically the same as the tongji performing divination. Their technology just allowed the messages to send faster and more accurately is all.

To make a not completely accurate comparison, divination conducted by tongjis was similar to the communications of the past. You had to work to handwrite a letter and ask someone to deliver it. The journey was difficult and dangerous, so the letter might not even make it to its final destination. If it did arrive, you might not receive a response. And if you did, there was no guarantee that the message wasn’t somehow changed along the way.

But Luofeng’s YinYang Communications Technology was the equivalent of modern messaging, and it had directly skipped over telegrams and telephones to make its way straight into the age of the Internet. It could be considered a great technological advancement.

But when the tongji performed divination, there were taboos. Similarly, the YinYang Communications would have taboos too. The amount of times a human could contact someone in the Underworld needed to be closely monitored, as well as the content of their conversations. Topics bringing up the secrets between the two worlds or the balance between the two worlds had to be strictly forbidden.

Because there were a lot of things to be aware of, Yu Zhengdu wasn’t in a hurry to agree. He only had Father Yu give everyone a customer support phone number; they would only release this service after they got back to the company and created complete product service content for it.

By the time everything was resolved, their Qingming mini vacation was over too. Thus, Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que made their way back to Fu City.

Before leaving, Father Yu held onto Yu Zhengdu’s hand and wouldn’t let go. “Zhengdu ah, how about, you just don’t accept Xiao Shang’s pay.”

Father and Mother Yu already knew now that Shang Que wasn’t a normal coworker, but Yu Zhengdu’s boss.

Yu Zhengdu felt very wronged. “……Dad, I need to eat.” It’s not like he could eat the black glaze tea set!

Father Yu thought about it. “How about, you eat less?”

Mother Yu slapped him on the head. “Is that how you should act as a dad?”

Shang Que had both his hands in his pockets. He lifted his chin and said, “I won’t let him go hungry.”

***

Because they were about to start a new project, as soon as Yu Zhengdu returned to Fu City, he was full of motivation. Of course, a large reason was also because of the Rabbit Fur Black Glaze tea set. This was the supposed taking from someone who didn’t have much. In the past, when he thought of their company’s lack of finances, he could still pull through by thinking about how he was only working there one year anyways. But after coming back this time, he subconsciously started considering the eventual future of their company.

He couldn’t help but be suspicious that this was all part of Boss’s conspiracy!

That night in his dorm room, Yu Zhengdu looked through some product designs and business plans, then asked Shang Que for the proper etiquette and taboos of communicating between the Underworld and mortal realms. He wanted to prepare a plan ahead of time.

Shang Que had no written materials on the topic, so could only verbally tell him. Thus, Yu Zhengdu was simultaneously on his computer organizing the plan and talking to his boss through voice messages. His three roommates were quite speechless.

Finally, Zhu Yan couldn’t help it anymore and sneakily asked, “Who are you sending voice messages to?”

Yu Zhengdu remained staring at his computer, casually answering, “My boss.”

Zhu Yan was shocked. “Is your boss a person? We’re still on break but he’s already making you work again?”

“Un, he really isn’t a person,” Yu Zhengdu said.

Zhu Yan cussed. “You should invite those types of bosses over for Qingming.”

Yu Zhengdu smiled mysteriously, “I already did.”

Zhu Yan didn’t get the message behind his words, so asked him very anxiously, “Zhengdu, you haven’t been looking for work these days. You’re not really planning on staying at this company forever, right?”

Yu Zhengdu was in a tough spot but couldn’t say anything about it, so could only hold back tears and nod. “I am.”

“But, you have such great skills, you don’t need to……” Zhu Yan thought his heart was going to break from over-worrying. He added, “Oh right, isn’t our graduation ceremony next month? I heard that Jiao Shanlan will come too, and will give a speech as outstanding alumni……”

Yu Zhengdu thought about it and nodded. “Oh, right. He’s about to come back to the country.”

Zhu Yan paused for a moment. “How come you know more than me?”

At this time, Yu Zhengdu’s boss sent an unknown message over. Yu Zhengdu yelled into his WeChat: “Not possible! You really aren’t a human, a normal human wouldn’t think like that……”

Zhu Yan: “……”

“Fuck, what a brave man!” Zhu Yan looked at him in admiration as he gave him a thumbs up. “You dared to tell your boss exactly what you thought?!”

Their other two roommates also couldn’t help but turn their heads over and compliment his courage. “Good job!”

Yu Zhengdu coughed lightly, vaguely saying, “Uh, I was just telling the truth……”

“As expected, you can do what you want when you have the skills.” Zhu Yan was truly envious and lamented for a bit before finally dragging the topic of conversation back. “Oh right, continuing with Jiao Shanlan. Isn’t he one of the important techies at Nova? I still think your Nova offer falling through was suspicious; I bet that during the graduation ceremony you’re going to give a speech as student representative. How about taking the opportunity to ask Jiao Shanlan, maybe he’ll know what happened?”

The more he spoke, the more Zhu Yan thought this was a good idea, but Yu Zhengdu seemed uninterested. He was still completely focused on his computer. “Let’s talk about this later.”

“Can you care a little more about your career!” Zhu Yan scratched his head, then leapt over to hang onto his back. He was just about to shake Yu Zhengdu’s head.

At this moment, Yu Zhengdu’s WeChat buzzed and another notification showed up.

Wei Xiao:【Student Xiao Yu, can I ask if you’re going to be at the office tomorrow? If it’s convenient, I hope to make a personal visit. Mr. Shang Que told me to discuss with you.】

Zhu Yan: ??????????

Zhu Yan blinked. He looked at the WeChat page and then at Yu Zhengdu. “Wei Xiao? Which Wei Xiao? Wei Xiao from Ox Factory?”

Yu Zhengdu picked up his phone to reply. He nodded, “That’s him.”

Yu Zhengdu:【I’ll be there tomorrow. What does Boss Wei need?】

Zhu Yan was shocked. “……The people you come in contact with now are already so high class?”

As soon as he finished, Wei Xiao’s message popped up again.

Wei Xiao:【It’s still about the product.】

Wei Xiao:【Other than myself, I have two other friends, the CEOs of Wind Riders Technology and Excellent Jade Corporation, who also wish to visit. Please agree to see us.】

Zhu Yan: “……”

Wind Riders Technology and Excellent Jade Corporation. These two companies were the dream businesses of every up and coming graduate. If you could get hired as an intern, that was enough to brag to your classmates about for a long time.

Zhu Yan held out his fists in a salute. “I think your job now is fine. You don’t need to switch.”

The author has something to say:

Zhu Yan: An impressive social circle, and can directly tell the boss he isn’t a human. I’m jealous.