New Times, New Hell

Chapter 30 - Before Yama Begins Court, He First Swallows an Iron Ball

As soon as the words escaped Hou Guangzong’s mouth, the crowd went into an uproar.

The students looked at each other. Several of them suspected they had heard wrong.

Father and Mother Hou, who had originally had their chests puffed out in pride waiting for their son’s speech, were bewildered too. They looked at each other. Mother Hou asked in confusion, “What is Guangzong saying?”

Older people didn’t really understand Internet slang as much, but the word “trash” was simple and direct. Anyone could tell that it wasn’t meant as praise.

Hou Guangzong himself was shocked too. The phrase that he had just said hadn’t been in the script he had prepared……But, it was what he had been thinking in his head. The question was, how did he randomly blurt out what he wanted to say?

He panicked inside and tried to calm himself down. He thought that maybe he was too excited so forgot to uphold his image. That would explain why he had suddenly lost control of his mouth and accidentally spoke the truth.

At least his words could be taken as an Internet joke. He could still save this.

At this time, all the audience’s gazes were on him. If anybody had been having small conversations on the side before, now everybody’s attention was captured by Hou Guangzong after the shocking statement he had just made. They wanted to see what kind of speech would lead with such a strange opening.

Hou Guangzong smiled stiffly. He cleared his throat again and said, “I was just joking with everyone before. What I really wanted to say was, you guys——you guys……”

He wanted to say something smooth to casually change the topic, but at this time, it felt like something flooded into his brain. It banged around, left and right, causing immense pain in all his organs. It felt like his muscles were about to tear apart. He held onto the plastic microphone but couldn’t speak at all.

Hou Guangzong’s face paled. He started sweating intensely as he freaked out internally. An urge to speak the truth brewed inside him. He looked into the audience, lost. Coincidentally, he met his father’s gaze. Father Hou mouthed, “Guangzong, hurry and say something……”

Hou Guangzong nodded, then spoke, “None of you are as good as me. Even though in the past four years, my grades haven’t been as good as your guys’, but isn’t my job now still better? My girlfriend is prettier than yours, and even the person giving the speech today is me……”

These were all the most sincere thoughts hidden deep in his heart. He didn’t dare to say them normally, but now that he had just blurted them out, he suddenly felt so much more comfortable. The pain shooting through his organs dissipated slightly too.

But the audience had already exploded like a drop of water falling into a pot of oil. His classmates caused an uproar, turning around to converse with each other in disbelief. Even the school’s administrative staff were shocked. They temporarily forgot to take action and stop him.

A student with a bad temper couldn’t hold himself back anymore. He stood up and pointed at Hou Guangzong, then shouted, “Hou Guangzong, what the hell are you saying, you dumbass? I dare you to say it again!!”

Zhu Yan was surprised too. He started telling the classmates around him, “Holy shit, Hou Guangzong has become a bit too hubristic. He’s bragging in front of all these people?”

“Seems like the class group chat and his WeChat Moments weren’t enough for him. He needed a bigger stage!”

At this time, Hou Guangzong realized what he had just said too. He panicked internally and wanted to explain, but as soon as he opened his mouth, the unknown energy inside his body started churning his insides again. His face paled as the extreme pain forced him to speak the truth. “You guys don’t know, right. My uncle is an important government official for the city. He has a lot of power. All it takes is one word from him for me to get into companies like Nova. And after, I get to go into Jiao Shanlan’s laboratory too. Either way, the distance between us keeps getting bigger and bigger. All you guys can do in the future is be jealous of me……”

As soon as he said this, Jiao Shanlan’s expression changed from where he had just stepped offstage.

Jiao Shanlan spun on his heels and returned onstage. He grabbed the microphone from the emcee’s hand and told Hou Guangzong, “This student, I recall that I haven’t approved your entry into my laboratory yet?”

Hou Guangzong really wished his mouth would just glue itself shut. But as soon as he thought of refusing to answer, the pain inside his body started again. He couldn’t help but continue to reply as a way to relieve the agony, “With my Uncle backing me up, you won’t be allowed to refuse me.”

As soon as he said this, Father and Mother Hou and his auntie who had just been anxiously watching him offstage couldn’t hold themselves back anymore. His auntie stood up in a rush and yelled, “Guangzong, hurry and stop talking!”

Hou Guangzong didn’t even dare to look at his auntie aymore. If he could, he wished he would just fall off the stage, but he couldn’t control himself at all.

He held his chin high and puffed his chest out, righteously saying, “No, I want to speak!”

As soon as he said this, he felt the horrifying pain in his chest greatly diminish. This made him reflexively scold his aunt, “Auntie, even though Uncle has a lot of abilities, you need to stop acting like you’re on top of the world. It’s quite annoying.”

Hou Guangzong had said this into the microphone. Each word was clearly relayed to every corner of the assembly hall. With this, all the students inside were shocked out of their minds.

Though Hou Guangzong’s auntie was arrogant, she still knew the basic rules of being the wife of a government official. At least……a sensitive topic such as using the government’s power definitely couldn’t be publicly discussed.

As soon as Hou Guangzong said this, her eyes had rolled into the back of her head as she almost fainted. She pointed onstage and panted, “You, you——you traitor!”

At least Father and Mother Hou had fast reflexes and caught her, preventing her from really taking a fall. Mother Hou couldn’t help but stomp her foot. “Guangzong, what are you trying to do!”

Even Zhu Yan gave him a thumbs up. “Fuck, I looked down too much on this dumbass before. Suicidal bragging, respect!”

A student next to him also praised, “Too exhilarating!”

Jiao Shanlan was ultimately someone who had witnessed important things before. At this time, he could still maintain a calm front and continue to inquire, “I remember that the student from your school who should’ve entered Nova was Yu Zhengdu. Later on, his offer got rescinded. You’re the one who took his place, right?”

At this time, Hou Guangzong had really let himself go, completely giving up on saving his own image. He knew that as soon as he tried to be dishonest, the strange energy inside him would immediately cause him immense pain. Pain so bad that he wished he was dead instead. He could only surrender and say, “Yes. I haven’t liked him since early on. He’s just an asshole, pretending to be hot shit every day. Worse yet, there’s a bunch of stupid people who like him. What’s more, even though my uncle helped me get in, I still had to show that I possessed some abilities so others wouldn’t talk about me behind my back. So I stole Yu Zhengdu’s program to apply with. I couldn’t let him show up at Nova again.”

Their classmates: “…………”

Everyone’s attention turned onto Yu Zhengdu. Their gazes were filled with sympathy and rage at the injustices against him.

Yu Zhengdu as well: “……” Actually he had known this for a while, but he hadn’t expected the truth to be exposed in this manner.

A long time ago, he had already uncovered evidence in Hou Guangzong’s computer and phone. Hou Guangzong was so defensive against him because of a very simple reason; other than the fact that the two of them had never gotten along, it was also because the project Hou Guangzong had submitted to Nova to get accepted was stolen from something Yu Zhengdu had made during his university years.

Not only this, but he had also taken other projects created by Yu Zhengdu and passed them off as his own experiments. He had used these as the qualifications for his entry into Jiao Shanlan’s laboratory.

So no matter what, Hou Guangzong was determined to prevent Yu Zhengdu from entering Nova. Even to the point of wanting to obstruct Yu Zhengdu from getting into any large company that Nova collaborated with.

Upon seeing the gazes of everyone around them falling on himself, Yu Zhengdu’s mouth twitched. He ultimately could only cover his mouth and lower his face.

Their classmates: ……Tragic, really too tragic!!!

The honorable best student of their major has to find out such a tragic truth at his graduation ceremony. No wonder he couldn’t help covering his face and crying publicly.

If this were anyone else, they would cry too!

Truthfully, Yu Zhengdu really was on the verge of a mental breakdown: I’m begging you to please stop looking at me! I almost can’t stop myself from laughing!!!!

In the end, Yu Zhengdu actually couldn’t hold himself back anymore, so he simply leaned his forehead on Shang Que’s shoulder, burying his face in the crook of the other’s neck and softly asking, “Boss, what was the iron ball? Hou Guangzong was such a normal show-off before. How come he’s gone insane so quickly?”

Shang Que smiled elegantly and explained to him, “In the past, because Hell was so busy, sometimes we would choose certain officials from the mortal realm to substitute in for the role of Yama judges……”

Honest and fair government officials in the mortal realm would occasionally be chosen to take on the role of Yama. At night, horse carriages from the Underworld would pick them up and take them to Hell for work. Because they feared that these mortal judges would be biased towards their fellow mortals, before court, these officials would be forced to swallow an iron ball. The iron ball was created by the Heavenly Emperor and could be used to control people’s hearts. After work, they would spit out the iron ball.

If they did things against their original intentions or lied, the iron ball would activate, slamming against their organs. The pain would ensure the officials judged each case fairly and honestly.

The pigeon’s egg that Shang Que had just prepared to gift to Yu Zhengdu was the iron ball created by the Heavenly Emperor. Now, the ball was in Hou Guangzong’s stomach, so he couldn’t say anything he didn’t think was true. All that he said and did were in line with his most genuine opinions.

Yu Zhengdu couldn’t help saluting, “You ghosts still always have the best solutions!”

No wonder people used to say, if you don’t do bad things normally, you won’t be scared of ghosts knocking on your door in the middle of the night!

Onstage, the situation was already completely out of control.

Jiao Shanlan’s expression spoke volumes. “Then your uncle must really have some abilities.”

Hou Guangzong’s auntie felt her vision go black after hearing this. She shakily looked behind her; to no one’s surprise, almost all the students had their phones trained on Hou Guangzong, filming. She yelled in panic, “Hurry and get that traitorous bastard off the stage! Hurry——”

As expected, Hou Guangzong appeared to want to continue exposing himself, but the school’s staff had already charged onstage to tow him off under the administration’s orders.

“Let me finish talking before I go——” Hou Guangzong seemed determined to answer this question. He clung onto the podium and refused to let go, taking this last opportunity to continue speaking, “My uncle is a government official for the city. Of course he has a lot of abilities. With one order from him, the dean had to hand over the role of student representative to me——”

As soon as he spoke, the students went “hua——”. Of course, this wasn’t because they were surprised. Their dean’s reputation was pretty bad normally. In recent years, institutes of higher education were no longer ivory towers. Everyone more or less knew about how corrupt their dean was, but now that this truth had been publicly exposed, the situation was somewhat different.

It had to be said, the students truly felt a little elated.

The dean hadn’t expected to be dragged into this mess in the very end. His eyes instantly rolled back into his head and he fell on his butt, hard.

The students were engrossed in this drama. As soon as they saw that Hou Guangzong was about to be dragged away, they couldn’t help but feel regret. They all started shouting, “Don’t leave!!”

“Encore encore!! Please come back!”

“Hou Guangzong hurry and come back——I’m willing to buy scalper tickets to hear you talk!”

Zhu Yan couldn’t help himself from applauding. “Hou Guangzong, you’re right! I apologize for all the bad things I said about you before. You’re a real man. Brave enough to be a kamikaze!!!”

He was scared that his classmates would misunderstand, so quickly added, “I’m adding a doge head to my own words ah, students!”

With him taking the first step, all their classmates also started clapping. The entire assembly hall was filled with thunderous applause.

“Hou Guangzong, even though you’re a dumbass, this time we are truly full of respect for you!”

“We will remember you forever!!!!”

Student Hou Guangzong finally received the most respectful and sincere round of applause and admiration he had in all four years of his university life!

This was the legendary ‘anti-corruption schemes need to rely on direct relatives’!

Student Hou Guangzong set an example personally, disregarding sacrificing himself. What a good role model!

This graduation ceremony destined to be written into history books ended in pandemonium.

But for the people who Hou Guangzong had publicly mentioned, the chaos had just started.

After getting dragged backstage, Hou Guangzong’s hair was already soaked with sweat.

The thing inside his body was seriously too vicious. If he even thought about being dishonest, it would start ricocheting around. Until now, his stomach still burned like there was a fire raging inside it. He was in so much pain.

The school’s administrative staff was so outraged that his face had turned into the color of pig liver. “Hou Guangzong, what you did today was seriously too out of line. The university has decided to rescind your diploma.”

Hou Guangzong wanted to cry but had no tears. He pointed at his own mouth in an attempt to explain, but couldn’t say anything untruthful whatsoever.

Fang Mingyi who had originally finished getting her makeup done and was preparing to go onstage to perform was shocked by this sudden episode too. She tugged on Hou Guangzong’s arm and asked, “Guangzong, what’s wrong with you? Why did you say those things in front of everyone?”

Why are you asking another question!!!

Every time I hear a question now, I have the urge to answer, don’t you know!

Hou Guangzong gripped Fang Mingyi’s hand carefully, praying that his heartfelt gaze could comfort her, ensuring that she wouldn’t get pissed to death by his upcoming answer.

He sincerely said, “Didn’t you know from the start? Didn’t you only get together with me because my uncle could help you get into the TV station?”

Fang Mingyi’s expression immediately changed upon hearing this. “What blasphemy are you saying?”

Hou Guangzong’s eyes were teary. Honest to God, he really was crying, but the words out of his mouth were enough to enrage anyone. “I still remember when you were tailing Yu Zhengdu around two years ago. You know how many times you took the initiative to ask him out.”

At this time, there were a lot of workers still present backstage, including all the other people performing with Fang Mingyi. These students were pretty close with Fang Mingyi; normally, they all called her “goddess” in flattery. Upon hearing what Hou Guangzong said, they all reacted with shock. Though no one openly discussed it, they all started communicating through their gazes.

Fang Mingyi immediately panicked. She swung her arm and slapped Hou Guangzong. “Bullshit! I truly wanted to be in a relationship with you, but you’ve turned around and slandered me like this!”

Hou Guangzong held onto his face and started crying. He stammered out as he cried, “Truly wanted to be in a relationship with me? I pursued you for three years but you didn’t even budge. The day before you found out my uncle’s true identity, you even went to the movies with Yu Zhengdu. Have you forgotten?”

Fang Mingyi’s face alternated between turning green and white. She didn’t even dare to look at the gazes of those around them. In the end, she could only stomp her foot and scream, “Hou Guangzong, I want to break up with you!”

After, she covered her face and ran off.

At this moment, a soft gust of icy wind suddenly blew through the backstage area. Hou Guangzong’s throat felt cold once more, as if something had passed through his esophagus and left his body.

He only felt a sensation of dizziness. Afterwards, he stared at the scene in front of him, bewildered. He asked in a daze, “Yi? What happened? How did I get backstage? Wasn’t it time to start the speech?”

Substitute Yama judges from the mortal realm would spit out the iron ball before dawn and return to their physical forms. When they opened their eyes once again, they would forget all that had happened overnight.

Hou Guangzong’s brain was currently mush. He still couldn’t get a clear understanding of what was happening in front of him, only to suddenly hear his auntie screech loudly, “Hou Guangzong, you son of a bastard. You’ve caused your uncle to get on the trending list——”

Outside the assembly hall, Shang Que held his palm out to Yu Zhengdu. A small iron ball the size of a pigeon’s egg with a chilling glint rested in his hand. “For you.”

Yu Zhengdu looked at the iron ball. The disdain on his face was 120%. He said, “Isn’t this the one you just fished out from Hou Guangzong’s stomach? I don’t want it!”

Shang Que: “……”

He calmly threw the iron ball away, pulled out a wet wipe from who knows where, and began to wipe his hands.