New Times, New Hell

Chapter 51 - An Important Addition

After discussing Zhao Ruola’s insight eye, the three of them finally looked at the guilong.

The guilong was like a quail, standing off to the side, head low. He didn’t dare to run away. Upon seeing them look over, he was so scared his knees quaked and he almost knelt. He said, “I wasn’t peeping, I really wasn’t!”

Zhao Ruola: “You passed under my dress!”

The guilong’s expression was extremely sorrowful. “That was because I’ve been a ghost for such a long time that I’ve gotten used to not looking at people when I walk. I passed under you because I’m short……”

Zhao Ruola: “……”

Yu Zhengdu noticed that the guilong was both sniffling and crying; it didn’t look like he was lying. Thus, he asked, “If you weren’t trying to peep, why did you go to the women’s restroom?”

The guilong paused for a moment. A while later, he finally hesitantly spoke, “I was looking for my good friend, Bei.”

Yu Zhengdu was confused. “Bei?”

Shang Que explained, “Another type of ghost that lives in the bathroom.”

This type of ghost also spent most of their time in bathrooms. But unlike other bathroom ghosts that liked playing jokes, they had very pitiful and cowardly personalities. Most were female. If you accidentally ran into one, as long as you said a few disdainful phrases towards her, you would be able to scare her away. Thus, they were called “bei”.

Yu Zhengdu spoke with sudden respect, “……Who knew that in such a tiny bathroom, there would be so many ghosts.”

Actually, this was normal, though. Bathrooms were often avoided by humans, but honestly, if one was a human, one would have to visit the bathroom. Other than the removal of waste, it also contained the ways of society and hid the deepest, darkest, innermost thoughts of people. Thus, with enough time, bathrooms birthed all sorts of demons and ghosts.

As they spoke, they suddenly heard the guilong butt in, “Bei, you’ve come out.”

They followed Guilong’s gaze and looked over, only to see a small girl with loose, long hair peeking out from the door of the women’s bathroom. The girl looked at them in panic. Finally, her eyes fell onto the guilong and she scratched the wall with her fingers. She carefully spoke, “What are you, you guys doing?”

The guilong said with a bitter expression, “They thought I was watching other people use the bathroom. Hurry and help me explain.”

Bei picked at the wall and softly said, “He didn’t.”

Yu Zhengdu remembered that these ghosts felt very inferior, so was worried about scaring her. He thought a while before speaking, “Come over here. If you explain clearly, things will be okay.”

Only to see Bei stare at him for a while then suddenly flush red. She held onto her head and screamed, “Ah——”, then yelled loudly, “I won’t——”. She curled in on herself and simply disappeared.

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

Yu Zhengdu looked at Guilong, bewildered. “I didn’t say anything that would insult her just now, right? Why did she……”

“You didn’t say anything.” Guilong looked at him with a conflicted expression. “But you’re too good-looking. Just looking at you has made her feel inferior……”

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

Shang Que scanned him with his peripheral vision. He said, “Your appearance truly could affect a bei’s mood.”

Yu Zhengdu glared back at him, unimpressed. “Look in the mirror first, then speak. Are you qualified to be lecturing me?”

Beside them, Zhao Ruola expressed with great difficulty, “……These two misters, can you not praise each other in front of a lady?”

And you were using such a strange tone of voice……

They interrogated the guilong a bit more before confirming that he truly didn’t have the bad habit of voyeurism. He only liked to hide in the men’s bathroom and occasionally visited the women’s bathroom. Since he wasn’t actually doing anything harmful to society, he didn’t meet the requirements for being arrested in the Underworld. Thus, Yu Zhengdu only warned him before letting him go free.

After resolving the issue with the guilong, Zhao Ruola turned to look at the two of them. She very meaningfully asked, “You seem to be very familiar with dealing with ghosts?”

Yu Zhengdu responded in the same tone, “You too, seem to be unafraid of ghosts whatsoever.”

Zhao Ruola very humbly said, “At first I was scared, but later on I gave up and thought, at worst I’m going to die. After I die, I’ll be a ghost too. By then, who will be scared of who?”

Yu Zhengdu: “……” As expected, the logic of the female technician with the capability of opening the insight eye is strong enough to overcome ghosts.

He very calmly handed her Luofeng’s business card and stated, “Take a better look at our services offered. Use your heart to understand it.”

Zhao Ruola: “……”

Zhao Ruola slowly put the business card away. “Right now, I very sincerely hope that I can go visit your company to get to know it better.”

***

Technology Today: #starflicker’s Three Big Cheeses Reveal True Identities# The technology summit that all eyes were on began on time today at Ancient Well Hotel. Discussions covered cloud technology, smart cities, web safety, and other hot topics. During the meeting, Jiao Shanlan and Zhao Ruola revealed their online identities on the starflicker forum. They are the famous users lan and osone, respectively. At the same time, another forum big V that many are interested in, singer, was present too [link].

Journal of An Old Internet Friend: #starflicker’s Three Big Cheeses Reveal True Identities# Today, the entire field of Internet technology had a wild celebration. Technology experts singer, osone, and lan simultaneously revealed their true identities at the technology summit. osone and lan are Zhao Ruola and Jiao Shanlan respectively. Previously, singer also received an invitation to join Jiao Shanlan’s laboratory. According to a reliable source, this reveal has caused starflicker to gain its largest influx of users since its formation. Venture capitalists have already gotten in contact with the website, seeking to invest in it.

Hidden Values: This year’s Fu City Technology Summit had lots of interesting points. Aside from the white paper published by several technology experts, there were also talks given by Zhao Ruola, Jiao Shanlan, Wei Xiao, etc., bringing exciting conversations into light. Additionally, the big V of a certain forum, singer, revealed his true identity and got on stage to give an impromptu speech. He shared with everyone the operationalization results from the battle posts about metaphysics and technology that were very popular a while ago. According to reporters, his presentation received much praise. singer himself has also become one of the most anticipated future stars of the field.

This is a Bit Too Funny: #starflicker’s Three Big Cheeses Reveal True Identities# This might be the cruellest consecutive face-slapping scene in history……[long image]

Though the technology summits of previous years had garnered a lot of attention too, this attention was mainly limited to those inside the technology field. But because of this year’s three big cheeses revealing their identities incident, the event gained a much more dramatic spin. Aside from big V technology accounts, several entertainment and marketing accounts also reposted it. This, on top of Yu Zhengdu’s topic that seemed both scientific and unscientific, made everyone extremely confused. They all reposted to show their respect.

Thus, before this year’s technology summit ended, several topics regarding it had already ended up on the trending list. Yu Zhengdu became famous in an instant. Not only was he hailed as the brightest future star of the technological field, he also gained quite a following among the general population.

The most fascinating part was……his situation was the same as when Shang Que had gotten onto the trending list. Though he got onto the list based on his prowess, he garnered fans because of his face.

【I was attracted by the revealing of true identities……then got mesmerized by singer’s face】

【Wait, this little brother is a technology expert???? Why is he so handsome? And not bald?】

【……The one in the top comments who mentioned balding, are you a demon?】

There were also attentive netizens who found the crucial point:

【Wait, isn’t this CEO’s CP, senior?】

【So not only is Amazing Future’s boss handsome? Even their programmers are handsome too?】

Following the exposure of the company Yu Zhengdu was working at, Amazing Future once again caught the attention of netizens. Overnight, their company’s official Weibo account gained an impressive number of fans. Even their product sales increased too.

At the same time, as Yu Zhengdu’s CP, From Today On I Will Be A European God once again attracted a new group of fans……CP fans.

But in comparison to normal netizens who only cared about the revealing of identities at the summit and singer’s face, the technological field was more interested in singer himself and the company he worked at.

Even though the products and services listed on Amazing Future’s official website still seemed very untrustworthy, the information Yu Zhengdu had shared during the summit was enough to make those in the field change their opinions.

There were several large factories and investment companies that even started contacting Yu Zhengdu after the meeting. They asked him if he was interested in jumping ship.

To those in the field, Yu Zhengdu was clearly a bright pearl covered in dust. With his skills, he would definitely be able to achieve much more glorious results, given he switched companies and projects. But sadly, no matter how amazing the conditions outsiders offered were, Yu Zhengdu remained unmoved.

Those in the field were extremely confused, but there were several who surmised from Yu Zhengdu’s speech at the discussion that a company capable of providing such a large database must have an unexpected project they were working on.

However, the most ridiculous were those people who really dared to think. According to the CP comments online, they suspected that Yu Zhengdu had simply been blinded by love?

Regardless, though, as Yu Zhengdu politely rejected all his invitations and Luofeng refused to respond to all the guesses made about them, maintaining their attitude of being outside of the rest of the world, everyone started losing interest in this company.

Until half a month later, when a news update appeared out of the blue and once again shocked the entire Internet field.

Zhao Ruola, who had already been back in the country for quite a bit of time but still hadn’t publicly announced her intentions, suddenly used her personal account to share her final decision: To officially join Luofeng’s subsidiary company, Amazing Future, as their vice president and technical director. She would be on the same level as CTO Yu Zhengdu.

Almost the entire field’s first response after seeing her update was to check if this account was a high-quality fake.

But there were some very impressive reporters who managed to quickly get in contact with Zhao Ruola personally. They also confirmed that she truly was joining Amazing Future and was actually going to start work the next week.

As for what project this company was working on and what conditions they had offered her, she refused to answer. She only left a mysterious, “Everyone will know in the future.”

With this, the entire field fell into confusion. Who would’ve thought that not only had everyone failed to steal Yu Zhengdu from this company, another top-tier figure, Zhao Ruola, had also decided to join them instead.

Zhao Ruola even agreed to be on the same level as Yu Zhengdu, who had only just joined the ranks of society? Even though he was singer, he was still just a twenty-something year old singer.

Ultimately what mysterious power did this company have?

Because of Zhao Ruola’s important addition, several venture capitalists who had previously only been observing the situation acted without abandon and instantly held out olive branches to Amazing Future. They expressed that they wanted to invest, but were all immediately rejected.

As such, the capital market became even more confused. In a time where every startup treated venture capitalists as the gods of fortune, how could this company be so stubborn?

What they didn’t know was, after rejecting their intentions to invest, Yu Zhengdu hung up the phone and cried silently in his heart……It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, but that he couldn’t ah. This was Hell. Boss needed to maintain absolute control over everything. Their stocks couldn’t be shared with any investment companies.

Thus, even if broke-ass Boss had to save money instead of spending on his games, he could only bite the bullet and keep working hard to earn money.

But it wasn’t that there were no upsides. Because of both singer and Zhao Ruola’s fame, along with these venture capitalists’ interest, Luofeng and Amazing Future garnered a lot of attention. Afterwards, when the company started hiring once more, things became much easier, especially in regards to technicians. There were even fans of the two who offered to lower their salaries to join. Here, we won’t say any more.

Yu Zhengdu’s university class group chat had a heated discussion about this too:

Classmate A:【Zhengdu and Zhao Ruola are on the same level……Zhao Ruola……Same level】

Classmate B:【He’s singer, singer ah!!!】

Zhu Yan:【Zhengdu, in the future, will you still be willing to be friends with me?】

Classmate B:【Back then, when Zhengdu rejected landry’s offer to join the company he’s at now, I even thought…………But now, it seems that I am too young!】

Zhang Qingqing:【I never thought that way. You guys don’t know what our Big Boss’s attitude is towards him!!! Previously, lots of coworkers secretly said that Big Boss got bewitched……】

Zhang Qingqing:【But now they’ve all shut up. Zhengdu and Zhao Ruola are already on the same level. Basically, he’s now on the same level as our Big Boss】

Yu Zhengdu:【I have nothing to say. How about I give everyone a red envelope】

***

No matter how heated the discussion was outside, it was only temporary. As Luofeng rejected all inquiries and interviews, sponsors and the media naturally started looking for other hot topics.

But for the employees of Luofeng and Amazing Future, a new phase was only just beginning.

With Zhao Ruola’s prowess, as long as she joined Luofeng, she would definitely take up one of the core positions. Thus, Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que didn’t hide anything from her. In actuality, the only thing that had attracted her enough to join Luofeng was the Life and Death Accounts system.

Thus, after Yu Zhengdu and Zheng Yan, Zhao Ruola became the third living employee of Luofeng. But, her title was under Amazing Future’s name. She was the same standing as Yu Zhengdu and was mainly responsible for the design and management of the Life and Death Accounts mobile app.

Zhao Ruola’s arrival gave Amazing Future’s technology department a great boost of faith. It also made Yu Zhengdu’s work much easier.

But in comparison, it gave Shang Que an enormous amount of pressure.

Mainly because with her experience and skill……her salary was way too high.

It was a good thing that Zhao Ruola wasn’t working here for the money. She expressed that she could take temporary IOU’s for wages. Yet, after much painful pondering, Shang Que still……posted two selfies that day on his personal Weibo account to stimulate sales.

……Better than nothing.

But now, his fans were of a much more complex composition than before. After he posted the selfies, quite a lot of people commented:【CEO post your boyfriend’s picture too】

From Today On I Will Be A European God: No

And then the comments went:【??????????】

【Wait, CEO only said he wouldn’t post a picture, but he didn’t deny that he was his boyfriend?】

【CEO and senior are real!!!】

……

Because she had heard that a pretty older sister had arrived at the Luofeng headquarters, the little belly spirit, Peppa, who had been out having a lot of fun, specially came back to visit. She wanted to see Zhao Ruola.

Yet, after only a short time back, she excitedly came to find Yu Zhengdu. “Gege, gege, I just made a new friend.”

Her new friend obviously wouldn’t be a normal human. Yu Zhengdu was slightly nervous inside, but didn’t show it on his face. He smiled and asked Peppa, “Oh, where did you make your new friend? Take me to see?”

Peppa nodded and tugged him outside. “In the bathroom.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……” How come there were now ghosts in the bathrooms of the technology park too?

He followed Peppa to the bathroom and heard Peppa shout, “Guilong, my gege wants to see you. Come out.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……???”

Only to see a short person with a black coat and large hat, carrying a sword, stick his head out and smile at Yu Zhengdu. “Hello, long time no see.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……How come you’re here? The Ancient Well Hotel’s bathrooms aren’t enough for you to inhabit?”

The guilong said very innocently, “I wasn’t the one that wanted to come. Bei did.”

Yu Zhengdu was bewildered, “What’s wrong with her?”

“I know!” Peppa raised her hand, “Bei jiejie said gege is good looking. She wants to be able to see gege every day.”

The corner of Yu Zhengdu’s mouth twitched. “……Where’s Bei?”

Guilong said, “She just took a glance at you from afar and has now hidden herself out of inferiority.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

The author has something to say:

Zhao Ruola smiling mysteriously, “Everyone will know in the future!”

Let’s have guilong give everyone a kiss this chapter =333333333333=

Peppa and Bei are recording off to the side.