New Times, New Hell

Chapter 27 - Center of Attention

Actually Yu Zhengdu didn’t want to be scaring Zheng Yan so early on either, but though it was easy to fool someone in a different position, it would be impossible to do the same for Zheng Yan because his work was to be directly responsible for the web design of the Life and Death Accounts.

He just didn’t expect that his reaction would be so big……What happened to the descendant of a Daoist family who had witnessed many things before?

Only to see Zheng Yan’s face turn ghastly pale in an instant. He started screaming on the spot and sounded like a chicken. At the same time, he began hurriedly pulling out yellow talismans from his pockets while chanting, “Demon, demon king be controlled. Serve m-me Xuan……Aaah, I forgot the second half……”

He stuck his arm out and tossed, throwing the yellow talismans all over the room. Then, he began flipping through his backpack, grabbing a small peach wood sword the length of his palm and an eight trigrams mirror. He yelled, “Don’t come over here. I’m the direct disciple of Ledu’s Zheng Daoist Clan. If my sword reaches you, your blood will spatter everywhere!”

Yu Zhengdu, Lu Lingxi: “……”

The two of them silently stared at Zheng Yan, who had so confidently told them he wasn’t superstitious, and watched as he kept pulling out device after device. Yu Zhengdu almost spat out the classic line: Chang Wei, you still say you don’t know martial arts!

After Zheng Yan had finally pulled out everything from his backpack, Yu Zhengdu finally speechlessly said, “As expected of someone from a family of Daoists. You’ve really got all the equipment.”

Zheng Yan had a peach wood sword in one hand, an eight trigrams mirror in the other, and prayer beads around his wrist……For a moment, the atmosphere in the meeting room was so awkward it almost solidified.

Zheng Yan realized he had just proven himself wrong too, but there was a living and breathing ghost standing in front of him right now. He had no time to care about his reputation, so lied through his teeth, saying, “I-I-I, I was fooling you guys before……Actually I-I, I’m the most talented disciple of our Zheng Clan. I once killed 300 ghosts in one night. Ones like you, I can easily……one a sword blow. I’m warning y-y-you, you guys. If you’re knowledgeable, you’ll hurry and run now……”

Yu Zhengdu: ……Little old brother, did you know that you’re shaking?

He slowly said, “Mr. Zheng, please calm down. I’m a human.”

Zheng Yan was bewildered for a moment and picked up the eight trigrams mirror to wave in front of him. He scooted closer to get a better look, than went “yi” in confusion. “You really are. How come you’re with a ghost?”

Yu Zhengdu’s heart was tired. “Because I work here ah……”

Zheng Yan, with a shocked expression: “How are you so brave?”

He held out the peach wood sword and poked Yu Zhengdu, extremely confused, “And there’s no Underworld energy on you……”

Yu Zhengdu obviously wouldn’t willingly share the story of how he was greedy about wanting social insurance and consequently fell into a deep pit of ghosts. He could only dryly relay what Shang Que had told him back then, “Don’t worry, we’re an official business registered with the Industry and Commerce Bureau. Also, we work 9 to 5, get the weekends off, and have the 5 insurances and housing fund……”

“Official employees also receive many benefits. Not only will you be impervious to all evil beings, if you accidentally run into a ghost, the company will help you take care of that too……We are a good business that deserves your trust.”

Lu Lingxi couldn’t help but glance at him out of her periphery: ……She had to admit, Student Xiao Yu’s ability to adapt was truly too strong.

Zheng Yan, with a look of confusion: “……What?” There are such good things?!

Under Yu Zhengdu’s placation, Zheng Yan finally calmed down. But mainly this was because Yu Zhengdu really was a human, so Zheng Yan’s trust in him was that between two of the same kind.

As Yu Zhengdu explained the company’s circumstances to him, Zheng Yan’s expression became more and more broken. After he finally finished listening, he felt that his entire worldview had been shattered and remade in those ten short minutes.

Zheng Yan and Yu Zhengdu looked at each other for a long time before he finally regained his wits. “Are you guys telling the truth?”

Yu Zhengdu nodded, and even took out his photo with Wei Xiao and them to introduce their previous successful cases. “Look, these are some of our past collaborators; they’ve maintained a close business relationship with our company……”

Zheng Yan’s ultimate goal was to work in the Internet related field. He knew all about Wei Xiao and the other famous people within the field, so immediately recognized him. He suddenly went “ah——” and asked, “Is that Wei Xiao?”

Yu Zhengdu didn’t understand why he was suddenly so excited and said, “Yeah, he’s one of our biggest customers. He comes to the company once a month!”

“He’s my idol!” Zheng Yan stared at the picture and couldn’t even shift his gaze. “I bought his《Double Horn Product Reasoning》; it was written so well! He’s definitely the best in the nation regarding product reasoning!”

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

He didn’t expect that the idol of the successor of a Daoist family would be the boss of a game development company……

No wonder he couldn’t comprehend the Dao.

Yu Zhengdu asked, “So do you want to join our company?”

Zheng Yan replied without any hesitation, “Yes!”

A company that even Wei Xiao collaborates with, it must be a good company!

……

With Zheng Yan’s addition, one of Luofeng’s biggest problems was also resolved. Except, though Zheng Yan had good sense and a grasp of the basic concepts, he ultimately was still a novice. In the beginning, he couldn’t completely enter into work mode.

But they solved this problem pretty quickly too. Because Zheng Yan asked Yu Zhengdu to get an autograph from Wei Xiao for him, Wei Xiao casually inquired about it and discovered that their company had recently hired a newbie product manager.

These days Wei Xiao didn’t only want to be Luofeng’s client. He knew better than anyone what prowess this company had. Especially because of his daughter, he had continually been searching for the chance to further his relationship with Luofeng. Thus, he took initiative and suggested that he could help Zheng Yan with his work, of course, disregarding the parts that would expose the product’s secrets. He would only point out a few product concepts and methods.

To be personally taught by Wei Xiao was almost every product manager’s dream. With this, Zheng Yan completely forgot the horrors of working with ghosts and developed boundless energy towards work.

At the same time, the new ghostly employees their company had hired all entered their roles too. Because the office space in the technology park was limited, they could only hold the beginners’ training session at the ancient well reincarnation point. At least there was a whole tourist attraction there for them to use, which was plenty of space.

But soon after, several local news channels reported:《Temperature in Three Chambers’ Assembly Hall Suddenly Drops, Likely Related to Underground River Connected to Ancient Well》

《Temperature in Three Chambers’ Assembly Hall Uniquely Different, May Become New Place to Hide From the Heat》

After predicting that their company would be hiring a bunch of new employees soon, always using a tourist attraction wasn’t the best plan, so Yu Zhengdu couldn’t help but ponder, “Should our company upgrade to a bigger office?”

***

Yu Zhengdu’s work started going smoothly, but for some reason, he recently always felt that something was off.

He thought about it very carefully for a bit before suddenly realizing that in the past few days, Shang Que had very rarely come to bother him.

Upon recalling the exact time a little more specifically&#k2026;&#k2026;it seemed to have started from after the day he said that he originally only wanted to work for two months and then leave.

Yu Zhengdu didn’t think that Shang Que would get angry over a small thing like this……Boss’s petty image is so consistent!

Yu Zhengdu didn’t know why either, but he just felt a little uneasy. But specially going to explain to Boss also seemed a bit like declaring there was no silver here.

He was concerned for two days. Then, his class’s group chat exploded:

Zhang Qingqing:&#k3010;Did you guys see the notification? The student representative for our school’s graduation is Guangzong?&#k3011;

Classmate A:【I did! Guangzong is so cool! Fist salute.jpg】

Classmate B:【That’s not it. Didn’t someone say master Jiao Shanlan is going to come back this year to donate to the school? Won’t the student representative be able to see him backstage?】

Classmate C:【!!!!! I’m jealous. Jiao Shanlan is my idol. Guangzong can you get an autograph for me?】

Hou Guangzong:【Un, that’s nothing. landry is Nova’s CTO. I work at Nova, so there’ll be plenty of opportunity to meet him later on. I’ll get one for you when I get the chance】

Classmate A:【I almost forgot. Guangzong was the one who got an offer from Nova】

Hou Guangzong:【Haha, actually there’s something else I haven’t told anyone yet. You guys don’t spill the beans ah】

Hou Guangzong:【After landry comes back this time, he won’t be the CTO anymore. He’s arranging to start his own independent laboratory that will be in charge of specially developing new products. It’s considered preparation for our factory’s future plans】

Classmate A:【Wow, as expected from someone on the inside. Knowing more news than the rest of us】

Classmate B:【The real winner of life, I’m kneeling】

Zhu Yan:【Heh heh, Student Guangzong trusts us so much. Everytime he knows news that can’t be shared, he tells our group. Fist salute.jpg】

Hou Guangzong:【……】

The conversation continued in the chat, but there were also some classmates close to Yu Zhengdu who messaged him privately. Among them, Zhu Yan was the most agitated:

Zhu Yan:【Zhengdu, what happened? How come the student representative is that Hou Guangzong asshole?】

Zhu Yan:【What level is he and what level are you? If this isn’t a py transaction I’ll eat my shoelaces!】

Zhu Yan:【Even if it’s not you, it shouldn’t be him? So many people in our school are going to graduate school or going abroad. Which one isn’t better than him!!!】

Yu Zhengdu:【Calm down!】

Yu Zhengdu:【It’s only a student representative position, not something big. It’s not like he’s stealing my eggs】

Zhu Yan:【Is it just about being student representative!!!! That position is a symbol of four years of glory!】

Zhu Yan:【And there’s the chance to interact with Jiao Shanlan in close proximity!】

Zhu Yan:【Do you know how rare of an opportunity that is?】

Yu Zhengdu:【……It’s okay.】

Zhu Yan:【Choking you.jpg】

……

Yu Zhengdu ignored Zhu Yan’s wailing and stood up to go to Shang Que’s office.

Shang Que was sitting in front of his computer, his chin resting on his hand, eyes blankly staring at the screen. Yu Zhengdu couldn’t tell what he was doing.

“Boss.” Yu Zhengdu stuck a hand out and waved it in front of his face.

Shang Que focused again and glanced quickly at him before turning his attention back onto the screen. After, his eyebrows furrowed and he angrily shouted, “Who! Who is so brave that they dared to kill me!”

Yu Zhengdu: “……” Didn’t expect for Boss’s condition to be so serious already. He didn’t even notice he got killed……

Shang Que unwillingly exited his game before asking, “What?”

Yu Zhengdu: “The day after tomorrow our school is taking graduation pictures. I want to take a day off.”

Shang Que made a noise of acknowledgement. “Okay.”

Yu Zhengdu paused, and upon seeing that he had nothing else to say, made to leave. “Then I’ll go now.”

Shang Que called out, “Wait a moment.”

Yu Zhengdu paused, only to see Shang Que solemnly looking at him. They stared at each other for a moment, silent. Yu Zhengdu finally couldn’t resist and asked, “Is there something else?”

Shang Que directly gazed at him and responded with a question, “You don’t have anything else to say?”

Yu Zhengdu was a bit bewildered. He thought really hard but still shook his head in confusion. “No.”

Shang Que continued to glare at him. “Think harder.”

Yu Zhengdu was silent. Then, he very sincerely suggested, “Or you could give me a hint?”

Shang Que crossed his arms in front of his chest. His displeasure was painted all over his face. “……You can leave.”

Yu Zhengdu walked out and stood in place to ponder for a brief period of time. He really had no idea what was going on.

***

Fu City University was famous in their province for being filled with talents. Especially the School of Information Technology that Yu Zhengdu and his classmates were in, which was the best college in their university. Every year on the day of their school’s graduation ceremony, the school parking lot would be filled with expensive cars. Occasionally someone of important standing would appear too.

But their college’s graduation ceremony was extra special this year because a legendary alumni of their school, Jiao Shanlan, the current chief technology officer of the biggest Internet-related company in the nation, jokingly known as Cosmos Factory but actually named Nova Technology, was returning to donate to the school.

Jiao Shanlan had an innumerable amount of fans at his alma mater. Because of this, on the day of graduation, the school’s auditorium was busy like never before. Several students from other colleges had come too, trying to get a look at this legendary graduate.

Instead, it was the students of the same college that had no energy to pay attention to what was going on with Jiao Shanlan, because they were busy lining up and taking graduation pictures. They only felt that the large crowd of people caused them a lot of inconvenience.

Because of his outstanding appearance and professional skills, Yu Zhengdu was somewhat famous in his college. Right now, he was surrounded by the younger students who had come to congratulate him. His hands were full of bouquets that had been shoved at him, and there was an abundance of gifts on the ground next to him. The gifts were being watched over by his dad and mom who had specially come to attend his graduation ceremony.

“My turn my turn.” A baby-faced shimei finally squeezed her way next to Yu Zhengdu. Amidst the chaos, she grabbed onto his arm. “Shixiong, let’s make a heart.”

Yu Zhengdu was extremely tired, but he knew that his shidis and shimeis meant well, so didn’t reject them. He could only bitterly smile while allowing them to do as they wished.

Though they already knew Yu Zhengdu was popular at school, nobody expected him to be so popular. His classmates had originally received the treatment of regular graduating students, but compared to him, the treatment seemed extra cold and cheerless.

Everyone was quite envious; someone shouted, “Zhengdu, go farther away to take pictures! With you standing here, my dad’s going to think that I’ve been singled out by everyone at school!”

All the others joined up in fighting the common enemy: “Exactly exactly!”

As expected, that student’s dad was sitting next to Father and Mother Yu. He looked at the large pile of presents by the two and felt grieved. “Is your son too popular? Or has my son been bullied?”

“What are you saying, aren’t they all in the same class.” Father Yu hurriedly handed him a bottle of water to relieve the other’s awkwardness.

Yu Zhengdu laughed loudly too and purposefully joined in the others’ play fighting. Their class was pretty close, so became a loud group in only a moment. The shidis and shimeis who had originally only surrounded Yu Zhengdu thus started cheering for the others too, making the whole scene even noisier.

Amidst the uproar, only Hou Guangzong’s expression was unhappy.

He had especially worn a customized brand-name suit today, and was also the student representative for the graduation ceremony. He should’ve been the center of attention, but that title had so easily been stolen away by Yu Zhengdu. Of course he couldn’t find it in himself to smile.

His parents who were holding things next to him also slightly furrowed their brows. Father Hou asked quite disgruntledly, “Guangzong, who is that person? How come everyone is gathered around him?”

Hou Guangzong lightly hummed, “That’s Yu Zhengdu.”

Father Hou’s expression slightly changed. “He’s……that person?”

Hou Guangzong gestured for him to speak softer, then nodded.

The disdain on Father Hou’s face was evident. “He’s only a trivial character with no authority or power. He’ll never amount to much.”

Mother Hou added on too, “Don’t worry. Your auntie will be here to cheer for you soon. And you’re the student representative. There’s no need to care about such trivial characters.”

At this, Hou Guangzong’s expression finally relaxed, but he still couldn’t help sneakily peeking in Yu Zhengdu’s direction. The liveliness there made him feel extremely displeased.

Thankfully, the scene that so irritated him finally changed a moment later. The crowd of people around him separated and a middle-aged woman dressed luxuriously appeared under the protection of her personal chauffeur. She walked elegantly towards Hou Guangzong, her impressive entrance and wealthy aura immediately drawing the attention of several others.

Hou Guangzong was instantly ecstatic. He shouted, “Auntie.”

“Guangzong, happy graduation. I hope you will ride on the crest of success..” His auntie smiled and grabbed a bag from the chauffeur to hand to him. “This is Auntie’s graduation present for you.”

The bag was simple but exquisite. There was a large logo on it.

There were several students of Fu City University who had seen many things before, so someone immediately yelled out the name of a famous brand.

Hou Guangzong was also overjoyed as he took a look in the bag. He reached in and pulled out a box; there was a watch inside.

A student who recognized it instantly yelled, “Fuck, the lowest price for that watch brand is 200,000 RMB!”

“Goodness, you normally can’t tell. Guangzong’s family is actually so badass?”

“Not necessarily. Isn’t that his auntie? It’s probably his auntie’s family that’s badass?”

“That’s fine too. I want an auntie that’ll gift me a watch worth tens of thousands as well.”

Only to hear Hou Guangzong’s auntie say, “I looked into it this morning, you’re already on the back-up list for Jiao Shanlan’s laboratory. From now on, you’ll be working with society’s elites; you mustn’t lose face in front of them. Auntie is giving you this watch so you’ll look more official.”

Hou Guangzong was immediately ecstatic. He promptly hugged her and said, “Thank you Auntie.”

As soon as their conversation ended, the students around them truly exploded.

“What? Guangzong got into Jiao Shanlan’s laboratory?”

“Didn’t they say it was the back-up list? It isn’t confirmed yet, right?”

“Even if it’s just back-up that’s already really good. I heard those in Jiao Shanlan’s laboratory are all the best people in Nova.”

“Guangzong really hides things well. I seriously couldn’t tell before that his family was so badass and he had such great skills.”

“Fuck, I’m about to turn into a lemon spirit.”

As Hou Guangzong spoke to his auntie, he used his peripheral vision to scan his classmates’ reactions. Upon seeing that everyone’s attention was finally on him, and especially that they all had on expressions of envy and jealousy, he finally felt an unprecedented sense of fulfillment.

So what if Yu Zhengdu had better skills and was more popular? Wasn’t he still worse than him in every other way?

He couldn’t help but turn his gaze onto Yu Zhengdu, wanting to enjoy the other’s expression of surprise and astonishment. But what he actually saw almost angered him to death.

Yu Zhengdu who was supposed to be like everyone else, envious and jealous of him, was playing on his phone with a look of nonchalance!!!

Yu Zhengdu actually wasn’t playing with his phone. It was only because after everyone suddenly turned their attention on Hou Guangzong, he finally had some free time; coincidentally, Shang Que had just sent him a message on WeChat.

Shang Que:【.】

Yu Zhengdu examined it for a while, but still couldn’t understand what Boss meant. Out of some unknown reasoning, he randomly sent Shang Que an invitation to video call.

Yu Zhengdu turned the camera to face the scene and turned in a circle, smiling as he said, “It’s really lively today.”

On the other side of the camera, Shang Que went “un”. Though his expression didn’t really change, his eyes were glued on Yu Zhengdu.

Yu Zhengdu: “……” Once again, Boss’s gaze is really hard to decipher.

At this time, Shang Que suddenly spoke. “Why is that person staring at you?”

Yu Zhengdu was briefly stunned. He followed the image on the screen to look behind and discovered that Hou Guangzong kept glancing at him from time to time.

His mouth twitched. “He’s jealous of me.”

Shang Que went “oh” and was just about to say something, when suddenly, the surroundings erupted with a sound of “hong——”. Everyone immediately exploded, like a drop of cold water dripping into a boiling pot of oil.

“Jiao Shanlan is here——”

“It’s Jiao Shanlan, he’s walking in this direction——”

“Aaaaah, landry my idol——”

“Where where?”

“Look in the direction of the parking lot. He’s walking with the principal!”

Amidst the loud crowd, a path had been squeezed out by a group of bodyguards. Through the gaps between their bodies, one could barely see an average looking middle-aged man making his way over, surrounded by a group of the school’s administrative staff. This was who frequently appeared on the news: Jiao Shanlan.

They saw Jiao Shanlan speak with the principle while they walked, occasionally lifting his face to wave at the students.

Suddenly, Jiao Shanlan paused. His gaze turned in the direction of Yu Zhengdu and his class. In the next moment, he lowered his head to say something to the principle, then stepped through the wall of bodyguards to walk in their direction.

The students parted for him like the sea parted for Moses; everyone watched Jiao Shanlan in excitement.

Among them, Yu Zhengdu’s class was the most enthusiastic. They could all tell that Jiao Shanlan was walking towards them.

“Fuck, landry is coming over??”

“Aaaah, why is he coming in this direction?”

At this time, a smarter student had already turned his gaze to look at Hou Guangzong. His voice was envious, “Why else? Isn’t there someone in our midst who’s about to join his laboratory?”

“Oh right, Guangzong!”

Everyone finally remembered the gossip they had just heard and simultaneously turned their heads to look at Hou Guangzong.

Hou Guangzong reflexively tugged on his collar and stood up straighter. Though his expression was calm, his slightly trembling fingers exposed his excitement.

His auntie had seen more impressive things than this before, so only slightly arrogantly said, “Jiao Shanlan is pretty tactful.”

Only to see Jiao Shanlan slowly come closer, finally reaching their class. Then, he took a turn and walked in front of Yu Zhengdu. He stuck out a hand and smiled, “You must be Zhengdu? I’m lan.”

Yu Zhengdu hurriedly shook hands with him politely. “Haha, hello, lan.”

“You look better in person than in your pictures,” Jiao Shanlan said. “I just sent you a bunch of messages but you didn’t respond. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to find you.”

Yu Zhengdu: “Is that so? I was taking pictures just now, so didn’t get the chance to check my phone.”

Jiao Shanlan sighed in relief, then continued, “How about it? Have you finished considering my invitation for you to join my laboratory?”

Yu Zhengdu’s expression was apologetic. “I really can’t do this year. I already accepted other work.”

Jiao Shanlan felt great pity. “Ey, I already invited you a whole year early, how come you accepted other work ah……”

As the two spoke, the mouths of the students around them all slowly became “o” shaped.

Jiao Shanlan and Yu Zhengdu knew each other?

He invited Yu Zhengdu to join his laboratory a year ago?

And Yu Zhengdu rejected him!!!!!!!!!!

One after another, these messages shocked the students so much that though they wanted to cause an uproar, they didn’t know how to make noise anymore, and all remained silent.

A classmate found the most important point. “Fuck, what company is so awesome that Zhengdu rejected Jiao Shanlan’s invitation???”

I know the answer to that question!

Zhu Yan felt incredibly proud. He put his arms on his waist and answered for Yu Zhengdu, “A company where even the CEOs of Double Horn Technology, Excellent Jade Corporation, and Wind Riders Technology have to grovel to see Zhengdu.”