New Times, New Hell

Chapter 28 - I’ll Give You Shares

Zhu Yan’s voice wasn’t very loud, but the surrounding students were very close to him. Someone immediately asked in shock, “Really?”

Another person was somewhat confused. “What? I heard from Guangzong that Zhengdu’s company was really bad?”

Everyone else nodded too. “I heard from Guangzong as well. He said the company Zhengdu’s at right now is really small, and apparently does pyramid schemes……”

“Bullshit!” Zhu Yan was even more agitated than the person they were speaking of. His voice even raised in pitch, “Is Hou Guangzong crazy? Does he think he’s hot shit just because he got an offer from Nova? Looking down on this company and that kind of work, even starting a rumor that Zhengdu’s company does pyramid schemes?”

“I personally saw how Wei Xiao spoke to Zhengdu. He was terrified that Zhengdu’s company wouldn’t collaborate with him, okay!” Zhu Yan was scared that his words weren’t trustworthy enough, so tugged at Zhang Qingqing too. “Qingqing, hurry and tell everyone. Did your big boss beg to collaborate with Zhengdu or not?”

Zhang Qingqing thought about it. “It’s really hard for someone at my level to see the big boss normally……But our supervisor told me a couple times that when Zhengdu came to our company, the Big Boss always personally greeted him……”

Here, Zhang Qingqing finally realized something. “Goodness, I was wondering why my supervisor was better to me than to all the other interns. It wasn’t because of Zhengdu, right?”

Zhang Qingqing’s words seemed to confirm the credibility of what Zhu Yan had just shared. Immediately, their classmates were shocked.

What kind of company could make the CEOs of businesses like Double Horn Technology and Excellent Jade Corporation scramble for a collaboration?

Or could make Yu Zhengdu reject Jiao Shanlan’s invitation to join his laboratory, the dream opportunity of so many people?

On the other side, Jiao Shanlan was regretfully talking to Yu Zhengdu. Because he was on a tight schedule, he couldn’t stay for long. “It was my fault too. I thought it would be easy for you to get an offer from Nova with your skills, so didn’t let HR know beforehand. I didn’t think they would rescind your offer.”

Yu Zhengdu thought it was nothing, so said, “No worries. Getting the offer or not really doesn’t affect me much.”

“It affects me a lot.” Jiao Shanlan sighed. “I had already planned the lineup for my founding team. You were supposed to be the best young member, I even came up with a plan for dividing shares too. I haven’t found another young person with the same skill level as you yet. When I’m done working on the things currently at hand, I definitely need to pay a visit to HR and ask for an explanation for you.”

Yu Zhengdu lightly coughed. “You could, but it’s really not necessary.”

Jiao Shanlan chatted with him some more before regretfully leaving.

But the shock he had brought with him didn’t dispel so easily. Instead, after he left, the students who previously only dared to chat quietly began to gossip without fear.

“Fuck fuck fuck, landry personally invited Zhengdu to join his laboratory? And as a shareholder?”

“Am I the only one who thinks it’s reasonable? Zhengdu is the best in our major; he even got a national award before. If landry wants to find a young person to join, isn’t he the most reasonable choice?”

“Ke, what was it, didn’t someone say Guangzong was on the back-up list?”

“Wasn’t he the one who said whether or not he was on the back-up list? The most we can confirm now is that Jiao Shanlan doesn’t know who he is.”

“Not that I’m trying to imply anything, but Zhengdu is really too lowkey. He never even mentioned this?”

“No shit!” Zhu Yan butted into the conversation, “Zhengdu’s really busy. He doesn’t have the time to announce all his little accomplishments in the group chat.”

Hou Guangzong’s face alternated between turning red and white. His palms were slightly sweaty. He had never imagined, not even in his wildest dreams, that the halo and attention he had worked so hard to get could be so easily taken back by Yu Zhengdu. He had also never imagined that Yu Zhengdu and Jiao Shanlan knew each other from long before.

Unwillingness, awkwardness, and terror rose in his heart. He stood in place and felt that his limbs could no longer move.

Coincidentally at this time, Zhu Yan enigmatically made a quip at him. Everyone present was from the same class, who couldn’t tell who Zhu Yan was talking about? In a moment, all the eyes previously on Yu Zhengdu subtly moved onto Hou Guangzong.

Hou Guangzong felt even worse. He looked at his auntie in panic. “Auntie, I’m really on the back-up list, right?”

His auntie was a lot calmer than him. At this, she furrowed her brows and said, “Of course. I’ll tell you outright, that isn’t a back-up list, you’ll definitely get in. Does Jiao Shanlan dare to disrespect your uncle?”

Hou Guangzong felt more confident, but lowly asked again, “But Jiao Shanlan knows Yu Zhengdu. That……won’t be a problem, right?”

His auntie scoffed. “You mean that broke student? Who is he? Can Jiao Shanlan really stand up for him? Forget the fact that he didn’t get into that whatsit laboratory. Even if he did, I can make him leave.”

She caressed Hou Guangzong’s head, “Guangzong, don’t worry. You’ll move on to do great things in the future, so you need to set your sights further in the distance. There’s no need to keep your eyes on such trivial characters who will never amount to much. You’re lowering your own price by doing that, you know?”

Mother Hou agreed, “Exactly. Think about your uncle’s abilities. As long as you listen to your auntie and do well, everything will be fine. You don’t need to worry about anything else.”

Hou Guangzong finally completely relaxed. He looked at Yu Zhengdu, satisfied, only to find that the other hadn’t even glanced in his direction once. At a time like this, he was playing on his phone again!!

Yu Zhengdu didn’t have time to pay attention to him. As soon as Jiao Shanlan left, he heard Shang Que’s voice coming out from the phone, “So you wanted to run off with that guy?”

Yu Zhengdu finally remembered that he was still video calling Shang Que. He hurriedly held up his phone to look, only to see that Shang Que was staring at him through the screen. He was elegant as usual, and his eyes were trying to communicate something Yu Zhengdu couldn’t understand&#k2026;&#k2026;as usual.

And also what kind of question was that……

Yu Zhengdu didn’t know why he felt so sheepish, only vaguely replying, “……That’s all in the past.”

Shang Que was silent, then ended the video call.

Yu Zhengdu: “……” What’s the situation? Is he angry or not?

He was in the middle of being confused when Zhu Yan yelled at him from the side, “Zhengdu, it’s time for our class to take a group photo……Who were you video calling?”

Yu Zhengdu put his phone away and answered, “My boss.”

Zhu Yan went “fuck”: “Your boss really isn’t human. Making you work overtime at night and not even giving you a break for your graduation ceremony!”

Yu Zhengdu glanced at him, speechless, then threw an arm around his neck as they walked off. “Shut up. Let’s go take the picture.”

……

After taking the group photo, everyone split into their separate groups once more. Because of Jiao Shanlan’s appearance, the crowd surrounding Yu Zhengdu became even larger. Whether or not they knew him, they still gathered by him, wanting to see what kind of student could be so favored by landry.

On the other hand, the area around Hou Guangzong’s family, who thought they were better than everyone else, seemed a bit desolate. Mother Hou felt embarrassed, so found a random topic. She asked her son, displeased, “Guangzong, how come your girlfriend still isn’t here? They’ve already finished taking the group photo.”

“Just wait a moment more. She’s on the way,” Hou Guangzong explained as he looked at his phone, “She’s one of the performers at the graduation ceremony today, so just finished rehearsals.”

As they were speaking, they heard a sudden commotion. The crowd of shidis and shimeis surrounding Yu Zhengdu announced in surprise, “Wow, Mingyi shijie is here too.”

“Mingyi shijie is still so pretty!”

Everyone looked over, only to see an exceptionally pretty girl walking over from not far away with a bouquet of flowers. She was the major flower of the broadcasting major. Because she was good looking and quite talented, she participated in almost every school-wide performance and was the dream girlfriend of an innumerous amount of male students, even more famous at their school than Yu Zhengdu.

As soon as Fang Mingyi appeared, people immediately started throwing suggestive looks at Yu Zhengdu. This was because Fang Mingyi had previously been pursuing Yu Zhengdu. Last semester, it had even been rumored that they went out on a few dates. But in the end, no one knew why they suddenly stopped.

Now that Fang Mingyi had appeared here, the implication was obvious.

As expected, Fang Mingyi walked up to Yu Zhengdu and slightly smiled. She said, “Zhengdu, happy graduation.”

Yu Zhengdu politely nodded back. “Thank you.”

The surrounding classmates, shidis, and shimeis immediately caused an uproar: “Woah——————”

Before they even finished with the “oh” sound, Fang Mingyi had turned around and walked over to Hou Guangzong with the bouquet. With everyone’s attention on them, the two gently embraced. Fang Mingyi softly said, “Guangzong, sorry I’m a little late. I rushed over right after rehearsal.”

“It’s nothing. I’d never get mad at you.” Hou Guangzong grabbed the flowers from her, then pecked her on the cheek. Finally, he introduced her to his auntie. “Auntie, this is my girlfriend, Fang Mingyi.”

His auntie walked in a circle around Fang Mingyi, examining her, before nodding in satisfaction. “Xiao Fang, was it? Guangzong told me about your situation. It’s only getting into a TV station, I’ll just put in a word for you later.”

Fang Mingyi didn’t display an ecstatic reaction, maintaining her composure instead. She politely responded, “Thank you Auntie.”

Hou Guangzong’s auntie saw that her behavior was collected and was thus even more pleased.

The crowd that had just been causing an uproar while looking at Yu Zhengdu subsequently became silent. Awkward expressions appeared on their faces.

Zhu Yan couldn’t help but ask Yu Zhengdu lowly, “Zhengdu, what happened? Wasn’t Fang Mingyi pursuing you?”

“Ah?” Yu Zhengdu was currently looking at his phone. He had sent Shang Que a message, but hadn’t received a response in a while. How petty, making him so anxious. Now he didn’t have the energy to pay attention to anybody else. After being asked by Zhu Yan, he finally answered, perplexed, “I don’t know. We just went out to eat a couple of times. That’s not considered pursuing, right?”

“Why not! It’s always been others pursuing Fang Mingyi, when have you ever seen her asking someone else to hang out?” Zhu Yan hit his arm, hating that iron wasn’t becoming steel. “It was definitely because you weren’t considerate enough that our lovely goddess has been unearthed by a pig!”

Yu Zhengdu looked at him, speechless. “You don’t need to be so excited?”

“You’re really maintaining your single status through your skills!” Zhu Yan’s heart hurt. “How pretty is Fang Mingyi? Do you know how many people at our school pursued her? Yet you don’t think it’s anything important?”

Yu Zhengdu side-eyed Zhu Yan and continued to pretend that he couldn’t understand what he was saying.

Of course he didn’t really not know that Fang Mingyi was pursuing him. He had even watched a few movies with Fang Mingyi under his peers’ pressuring, trying to develop more feelings. Unfortunately, none appeared, and Fang Mingyi suddenly started avoiding him.

As a homebody dedicated to technology since birth, Yu Zhengdu’s views on love were to go with the flow. Fang Mingyi stopped looking for him, so he stopped paying attention.

Now that he saw Fang Mingyi and Hou Guangzong were together, it naturally wouldn’t be right for him to confirm that Fang Mingyi had pursued him before. He had to save some face for the girl.

But he never imagined that his classmates would feel injustice for him.

At this time, the counselor for their class squeezed into the crowd and yelled at Hou Guangzong, “Guangzong, hurry and go backstage to prepare your speech. The ceremony is about to start soon. Senior Jiao Shanlan is there too, you can chat and become more familiar with him.”

The counselor’s voice was quite loud; with this shout, everyone suddenly remembered that Hou Guangzong was the student representative who would be giving a speech during today’s ceremony.

Hou Guangzong replied, “I’ll go in a bit.”

But he was ultimately a little scared, so looked at his auntie again, “Auntie, Jiao Shanlan shouldn’t……”

His auntie waved a hand at him. “I knew you’d be worried. I just called to have your uncle let him know. All you need to do is relax.”

At this, Hou Guangzong finally smiled a real smile. “Thank you Auntie.”

Auntie continued, “Put the watch on. It’ll look good onstage.”

Afterwards, she glanced at Fang Mingyi. “Xiao Fang, how about you put the watch on for Guangzong.”

Fang Mingyi took the watch over from Mother Hou, surprise in her eyes. Then, she smiled shyly, “Okay.”

She helped Hou Guangzong put on the watch properly, then gave him a lot of face by pecking him on the cheek.

Originally Fang Mingyi’s arrival alone had already caught everyone’s attention. Now that she took the initiative to kiss Hou Guangzong, he immediately became the envy of all the boys present.

Zhu Yan was so pissed he wanted to die. He held his chest and exclaimed, “Such a natural beauty, but what a pity, she has been unearthed by a pig!”

Yu Zhengdu: = = He was deeply suspicious that Zhu Yan was the one who had a crush on Fang Mingyi?

After Zhu Yan sighed, he glued himself onto Yu Zhengdu’s neck once more. “I dare to confirm that Hou Guangzong definitely has connections. Otherwise how could he steal your student representative spot with his own abilities? And dig a hole in your wall?!”

To the side, a content smile finally appeared on Hou Guangzong’s face. He felt that the displeasure caught in his throat for the longest time had finally been removed.

So what if Yu Zhengdu was the best in their major? So what if he was surrounded by so many students? So what if Jiao Shanlan personally invited him?

Wasn’t he still stuck in a stupid little company? Didn’t he still have nothing? Didn’t the school’s most famous goddess still run into his embrace?

This was ultimately a world that belonged to those with power and authority. He would always remain stepping on Yu Zhengdu’s head.

With everyone’s attention on him, Hou Guangzong stood up straighter and adjusted the hem of his shirt. He made to follow the counselor backstage.

He hadn’t even taken a step forward when the uproar from a nearby crowd stopped him. He could faintly hear the female students screaming, “Wow——That person is so good-looking!!!”

“Is it a celebrity? Is it a celebrity?”

“I’m going to pass out. You guys hurry and call him over to kiss me ah——”

The commotion got larger and larger, even attracting the attention of Yu Zhengdu and the rest of his class. But because the crowd was packed so tight, they really couldn’t tell what was going on.

Zhu Yan couldn’t help the disdain in his voice, “Students these days, really have no restraint——”

As he was speaking, Yu Zhengdu suddenly received an invitation to video call from Shang Que. A perplexed Yu Zhengdu: “……?”

Zhu Yan saw the nickname that was on his phone too: My broke-ass Boss.

He immediately shouted, “Your boss is really too much, serial calling? Ignore him!”

Yu Zhengdu side-eyed Zhu Yan, then silently answered the call.

As soon as the image popped up, Yu Zhengdu became shocked. He saw Shang Que furrowing his eyebrows and asking, “Where are you?”

And on the other side of the camera, behind him, was a group of students dressed in their graduation gowns. There were even girls screaming, “He’s really so handsome——”

Yu Zhengdu: “…………!”

He looked up and over, only to see the crowd in front of him slowly part. Accompanied by the students’ surprised and curious gazes and inhales, a tall young man appeared in everyone’s field of vision.

He was casually dressed in a white collared shirt and informal pants, making his person seem pale and neatly put together. His eyes were deep, like bottomless pits. In his hands was a huge bouquet of flowers; he looked in Yu Zhengdu’s direction, then slowly walked over, relaxed and elegant as usual.

Everybody’s gazes followed as he moved.

He walked forward, step by step, before, under everyone’s eyes, he finally stopped in front of Yu Zhengdu and handed the bouquet of roses over. “Happy graduation.”

The students: “……?????”

Fuck, what plot was this?

Such a big bouquet of roses? Could this man be……????

These days everyone’s thinking was a lot more open, especially that of university students. The sudden appearance of such a devastatingly handsome young man gracefully holding a bouquet of roses, looking so gently at Yu Zhengdu……

Everyone immediately came up with a 10,000 word plot in their minds.

Fuck, no wonder Yu Zhengdu wasn’t together with Fang Mingyi. Turns out he didn’t like girls……

Ah, that wasn’t right. Actually, it should be said that the person he was into was extremely good looking. This had nothing to do with gender; it didn’t matter if Fang Mingyi was a boy or girl, she still wouldn’t be considered a rival.

Even Father and Mother Yu were dazed at this scene. Mother Yu almost bruised Father Yu’s arm with how hard she was pinching him. “Lao Yu, how come Xiao Shang has gotten even better looking!! Hurry and invite him over for the Dragon Boat Festival!”

Father Yu: “……”

Zhu Yan was strangely angry. “Yu Zhengdu, I’m mad! Do you smell the sour odor emanating from my body?”

Only to see that Yu Zhengdu was shocked too. He slowly looked up at the handsome young man: “Boss, why are you giving me roses?”

Shang Que casually answered, “I bought these outside your school. This was the only bouquet left.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

Everyone else: = =

So, this guy was actually Yu Zhengdu’s boss?

And he bought the roses on the way? There was no other meaning?

Everyone thought they had gotten excited over nothing, and finally exhaled out the breath they had been holding.

Only to hear Shang Que continue, “Don’t go to that whatsit laboratory. Being a shareholder is nothing. If you want them, I can give you our company’s shares too.”

Everyone else: “…………????”

The author has something to say:

The classmates: ……What kind of godly boyfriend!

…………Wait, what kind of godly boss?!!!!

Father Yu: = = Jealous