New Times, New Hell

Chapter 26 - Fated Product Manager

As soon as the message that Luofeng was hiring got sent out, an abundance of applications immediately arrived.

There was no other reason except for the fact that payment would be completed with the currency of the mortal realm. This was extremely tantalizing for the people……ke, for the ghosts.

In these days where the government advocated more and more for the cultured paying of respects, all ghosts awaiting reincarnation received less and less sacrificial offerings. Food was one matter, but for ghosts like Kang Jin who were dedicated to fashion (?), they often couldn’t even get a new set of clothes before reincarnation. It truly made them melancholic.

But if they could earn money of the mortal realm themselves, along with Luofeng’s sacrificial substitute service, they could be freed from surviving off luck and start living off their own hard labor.

Especially because Luofeng was the only business in the Underworld. As soon as you were hired, you would get an employee identification number from Hell itself. The abundance of benefits made it the definite dream job for every ghost.

Overnight, HR manager Lu Lingxi received over 10,000 resumes. There were also several inquiry texts filled with wailing; the sheer number of them caused Luofeng’s server to go down:

【Even though my face is a little green, I can still put on foundation! As long as you guys give me a chance, I can turn myself into a beauty guru!!!】

【Uncle and auntie, do you need an elementary school student? I want to earn money to buy a game console?】

【Do you guys have the five insurances and housing fund? Will I get priority reincarnation?】

【You guys are prejudiced against ghosts. Even though I died somewhat tragically, I still have a beautiful heart. You guys shouldn’t take away my opportunity to work!】

【If the interviewer wants to enforce some unspoken rules: I’m okay with that!!!】

Of course there were also ghosts who were unbothered:

【I finally died after much effort. I’ll never go back to work again!!!】

【Either way I can’t starve to death, so there’s no way I’m working!】

……

Lu Lingxi almost went bald from the stress of selecting resumes. Seeing this, Yu Zhengdu gave her a small suggestion. “You can try something we use in the mortal realm?”

Lu Lingxi looked at him curiously. “What?”

Yu Zhengdu: “If a business in the mortal realm gets a bunch of resumes, they’ll use the legendary ‘Moral Character Filter’ to pick out those with bad moral character and directly throw that half away.”

Lu Lingxi was mind-blown. “……You can do that?!”

Yu Zhengdu: “Yeah, there’s a program for that……But normally there’s still so many miscreants in the remaining half that they’ll fish out the resumes they had originally tossed in the trash.”

Lu Lingxi felt great resonation with his words. “……That’s a little too realistic.” Wasn’t that exactly what had happened to her when they were hiring a programmer?

She looked at Yu Zhengdu miserably. “I think I will need to ask you to buy me a wig soon……”

Yu Zhengdu laughed loudly and comforted her. “You don’t have to worry so much. I’ll write a filter program for you.”

Lu Lingxi was overjoyed. “Really?”

Yu Zhengdu nodded. Filter programs were easy, he would only need a moment to finish one. As long as Lu Lingxi correctly set up her requirements, it would be able to automatically filter out resumes that weren’t good matches. Those too old, too young, or who had died in a bad way could all be removed in an instant. Not only this, but it could also select out priority interviewees, such as those who had prior experience working the same job when alive.

With this, Lu Lingxi’s workload decreased immensely. She exhaled a long sigh of relief and said, “As expected, the company really needs a programmer ah.”

Yu Zhengdu finally added, “Our company not only needs a programmer, but also a product manager. I strongly demand that the company hire a professional Internet product design manager.”

Lu Lingxi’s expression immediately became despondent. “For a web product designer, we’d have to hire from the mortal realm.”

This position was the same as that of the programmer. It had been created just as business related to the Internet started taking off. Yet, the development of the Internet in their country hadn’t matured until 20 years ago. Even those who had been among the first to work in the field were still in their prime; other than the ones who had died from accidents, there weren’t any ghosts in the Underworld capable in this area. Not to mention that there weren’t many ghosts who had died from accidents. As for the ones who did, many had been traumatized by the job. And Shang Que was picky too, not wanting anyone bald……

This was also the reason they had previously been forced to hire Yu Zhengdu from the mortal realm.

Yu Zhengdu looked at her and said very seriously, “If you don’t hire one, you might see the ability to have a reincarnation gift package lottery in the Life and Death Account system……”

Beautiful little Boss’s eccentric ideas never ceased to amaze him.

Lu Lingxi: “……?????”

Yu Zhengdu nodded with an expression that said you understand. “The contents of the gift package include but are not limited to: The chance to win the lottery once after reincarnation, a healthy body and spirit that will never get sick, a setting that guarantees a 100% chance of stepping in dog poo……”

Lu Lingxi solemnly nodded. “We’ll hire one! Immediately!”

***

Luofeng was a company that emphasized productivity. After confirming that they needed to hire from the mortal realm, Lu Lingxi immediately put up a notice on a hiring website.

But Luofeng’s popularity in the mortal realm couldn’t be compared to their popularity in the Underworld. Though all factions of their company were progressing rapidly, their introduction still made them look like a small startup that specialized in pyramid schemes. A week after the ad was put up, they only received a dozen or so resumes. And over half of them were mass resume submissions that didn’t fulfill the requirements of the position at all.

Skilled individuals that worked with the Internet were rare, and good product managers were few and far in between. If a company like Luofeng wanted to get a capable product manager, they would have to spend an immense amount of money……

They had to admit, that was entering their blindspot.

Finally, even Lu Lingxi couldn’t help but ask Yu Zhengdu, “Why did you apply to our company back then?”

Yu Zhengdu was silent for a second. He covered his face and said, “At the time I just wanted to get two months of intern salary before graduation……”

Who knew that their contract was so amazing!

Lu Lingxi glanced at the date, then said with great sorrow, “What a pity, all the upcoming graduates have already graduated at this time. Even if we wanted to trick a temporary intern again, we wouldn’t be able to……”

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

At this time, Shang Que suddenly peeked in from outside the door. He furrowed his brows and looked at Yu Zhengdu. “So you were originally planning on coming for two months and then leaving?”

Yu Zhengdu reflexively wanted to nod, but a sudden bout of survival instinct caused him to stop before he could. “I wasn’t, I didn’t.”

Shang Que stared at him for a bit. He ultimately didn’t say anything, only turning around and leaving.

Yu Zhengdu innocently turned to Lu Lingxi. He lowly said, “Actually I wanted to leave the first day.”

Lu Lingxi hushed him. “Don’t say anymore. Be careful of becoming a chicken in your next life.”

……

Because the amount of resumes sent in was too little, Lu Lingxi directly forewent determining if they were suitable for the position and asked everyone to come in for an interview.

The two interviewed people for over half the day. Their expectations kept dropping, until finally they found a girl who had worked for two years previously and seemed trustworthy. Yu Zhengdu didn’t dare to be choosy anymore, so discussed with Lu Lingxi about whether or not they should just hire this girl first.

Lu Lingxi had nothing to say about this decision, so asked the girl a last question. “If you have any questions about our company, you can ask them now.”

The girl nodded and asked, “Do you normally have to work overtime at this company?”

She was a bit embarrassed. “That is……I’m a little scared of the dark. If I go home too late, I’ll get scared.”

Yu Zhengdu was silent for a moment. “You aren’t scared of ghosts, right?”

Hearing this, the girl urgently shook her head, then nodded. “……I know there are no such things as ghosts, but I’m just a little frightened.”

Yu Zhengdu and Lu Lingxi looked at each other. Lu Lingxi silently walked the girl out of their company. “We’ll let you know.”

When she came back, Yu Zhengdu was sprawled on top of the table. “I almost forgot, we have to find someone who isn’t scared of ghosts……”

“There’s only one person left.” Lu Lingxi flipped through the resume and felt like she wanted to cry. “This resume doesn’t even have the major on it. After graduation, they spent a year working at home……”

Yu Zhengdu replied weakly, “……Seeing as he’s already here, we might as well tell him to come in.”

The applicant was named Zheng Yan. He was a young man who had been working for one year. The school he graduated from was pretty good, but he didn’t indicate his major on the form. After graduation, his work experience also wasn’t ideal; on the resume, it said that he had been doing business with his family.

Yu Zhengdu sighed. He could almost predict his days working with Boss and his strange ideas once more already.

As soon as Zheng Yan walked in, he first handed them a stack of materials. “These are some products I made while in university and some that I made for fun after graduation. Please take a look.”

Yu Zhengdu grabbed them from him to take a look, and suddenly sat up straighter. He didn’t expect for the designs made by Zheng Yan to be so good. Though they appeared to be created by a novice, at least there was also noticeable potential.

Yu Zhengdu was overjoyed and discussed some topics involving product design with him. He discovered that Zheng Yan was only missing hands-on experience, but aside from this, his thought process was the best out of all the other interviewees. And he had low expectations salary-wise!

Yu Zhengdu couldn’t help but feel that something was off. “If you’re so interested in product design, why didn’t you immediately get a job related to it after graduation?”

With Zheng Yan’s abilities, if he had participated in his school’s career fair right after graduation, he would have had no problem being accepted into a good business. Now that he had wasted a year and was applying as someone who was already a working member of society, it would be difficult for him to even get an interview at a good company.

At this, Zheng Yan’s expression was depressed. “My family wouldn’t let me. They were adamant about me going back to inherit the family business……”

Inherit? Business?

Little commoner Yu Zhengdu immediately became alert. “Could it be that, your family is rich?”

Only to see Zheng Yan’s mouth twitch. After a long time, he finally spoke. “No, my family is……a family of Daoists……”

Yu Zhengdu: “……????”

Instead, it was Lu Lingxi who nodded. “I’ve heard about those. Some Daoists have family legacy.”

“I didn’t expect anyone to know about it.” Zheng Yan looked at Lu Lingxi, appreciation in his gaze. “A lot of people assume that Daoists are votarists, but actually some have family legacy. Like my family. But my generation coincided with the One-Child Policy, so I was the only one born. Because of this, my dad is adamant about me inheriting his mantle; he even forced me to major in religious studies……”

Yu Zhengdu suddenly realized, no wonder he didn’t fill out the major portion of his application. After all, it didn’t seem very Internet related at all.

Zheng Yan looked at them, a little sheepish. “But after coming into contact with the Internet and product design, I knew that that was what I truly wanted to learn. I would often secretly sneak into other majors’ classes, but my dad still took me home after graduation to be a Daoist monk……”

Yu Zhengdu couldn’t help but tease him. “So you were a Daoist monk for one year. You didn’t successfully comprehend the Dao?”

Zheng Yan complained: “Comprehend my ass. I’m just not cut out for that stuff. Besides, what year is it. Who still believes in that superstitious stuff. Even they’re saying that the power of the gods is weakening……”

Here, he paused for a moment before carefully rewording his sentence, “That is, that’s what my family said. I actually don’t believe any of it, so I ran away from home earlier to pursue my previous dreams.”

He shrugged, and, as if worried that Yu Zhengdu would be biased against him because of this, guaranteed once again, “I’m really not superstitious.”

“That’s fine, that’s fine. We are a very understanding company,” Yu Zhengdu said while smiling. “We also welcome our religious friends to join.”

“Really?” Zheng Yan’s face immediately lit up with joy. Honestly, this company didn’t look that great; if this were when he had first graduated, he probably wouldn’t even be applying. But now, he was someone who couldn’t find a job. Finally there was a company that didn’t scorn his previous work experience, so naturally he was ecstatic.

“Really.” Yu Zhengdu nodded, then held a hand out. “If you have no other thoughts, we’ve already decided that we want to hire you.”

Zheng Yan excitedly shook his hand. “Thank you. I will definitely work very hard.”

After declaring his determination, Zheng Yan finally remembered the formal business. He inquired again, “Oh right, I haven’t asked yet. What product am I working on after starting here?”

“That’s a long story……” It wasn’t that Yu Zhengdu purposefully wanted to keep it a secret, but he really didn’t know how to begin explaining. He thought about it then said, “How about, I grab some files for you to look at.”

Zheng Yan nodded, so Yu Zhengdu stood up to get the materials. Coincidentally, Zheng Yan received a call from home at this time.

“Dad, say no more. There’s no way I’m going back.” Because he had been confirmed for a job, Zheng Yan was confident. Even his voice rose a few octaves without him knowing, “Science is what causes society to move forward. I’m going to fall into the embrace of the high-tech industry. I refuse to have anything to deal with gods or ghosts anymore!”

“……Yes, I’ve already found a job. How about you take on another disciple, I really have no talent in this field.”

“……How did you calculate that I’m destined to be with ghosts? Didn’t I do a year of spell-casting with you? I really didn’t sense any special powers. No is no, you need to stop lying to yourself.”

After Zheng Yan hung up, he saw Yu Zhengdu holding his laptop and looking at him with a conflicted expression.

Zheng Yan immediately explained, “That was my dad. He hasn’t given up yet, but don’t worry. He’ll understand sooner or later. After all, technology is advancing so quickly, he’ll know eventually that my decision was correct.”

“Oh no,” Yu Zhengdu interrupted him. “Um, how about, before you actually decide, first watch something.”

Zheng Yan was a bit perplexed. “What?？”

Only to see Lu Lingxi stand up and slightly smile at him. “Let me perform walking through the wall for you.”

Zheng Yan: “?????”

The next second, Zheng Yan: “!!!!!!”

Zheng Yan: “Fuck!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

The author has something to say:

Zheng Yan’s Dad: Son, you really are destined to be with ghosts……

Zheng Yan: Impossible! I don’t believe it!