New Times, New Hell

Chapter 7 - Boss’s Favor

The firefighters: “……?”

The workers: “……?”

Chinese tunic suit: “……?”

The atmosphere was suddenly a little awkward. Even Zhang Qingqing, who was hiding off to the side, was stunned.

Yu Zhengdu looked at his magical right hand, pleased. He muttered to himself, “As expected from being enlightened.”

The confused crowd had no time to figure out the situation, as the elevator had already reached the 18th floor. The doors slowly opened and a group of people who had been trapped for ages finally saw the light again. They screamed in exasperation as they pushed their way out.

“We’re out, we’re finally out……”

“That scared me to death, I almost cried!”

““Wuwuwu”, my makeup is ruined from how stuffy it was.”

“This elevator is really so weird, one moment it was cold and another it was hot. I was simultaneously sweating and sneezing……”

……

The firefighters hurried to put the tools left outside back while the maintenance workers were busy trying to restore order, frightened that pushing or stampeding might accidentally occur.

The firefighter squadron leader and the head of maintenance, both with red faces, paused in the middle of their argument to stare at each other. The squadron leader’s mouth twitched. “What’s wrong with your elevator?”

The head of maintenance had on an expression of confusion. “I don’t know either, you guys couldn’t open it earlier too, right?”

The leader thought about it and realized he was right. The two continued to silently stare at one another, suddenly forgetting what they were supposed to say.

Those in the elevator managed to safely exit under the direction of the workers, although all of them were sweaty and no longer looked put together due to the stuffy environment inside. Many of the females’ makeup had come off while the males’ hair became tousled and their outfits messy.

After everyone evacuated, the maintenance department declared that the elevator would be closed for repairs for the rest of the day.

But strangely, the elevator that had clearly just started functioning normally again now couldn’t close its doors.

The head of maintenance was really going crazy. If the big boss weren’t here, he would very likely have started tugging the worker’s ear. “What’s wrong with this elevator? It’s either that the doors can’t open or they can’t close?”

The maintenance worker was very innocent too. “We checked it already, there’s really nothing wrong.”

The head of maintenance scolded: “You’re saying nothing’s wrong, if nothing’s wrong then why isn’t the door closing?”

Yu Zhengdu looked at the head of maintenance and his workers in pity, and then looked at the scene inside the elevator. His entire being: “&#k2026;&#k2026;&#k2026;&#k2026;&#k2026;&#k2026;”

Only to see that now that the elevator was empty of living people, a group of ghosts emanating cyan and white puffs of air were holding their heads and squatting as they faced the wall. Their butts were in the way of the elevator exit, causing the door to become stuck.

Each of these ghosts were quivering in fear. If you listened closely, you could almost hear the sound of their sniffling. Among them, one person spoke with a shaky voice, “B-Boss Shang, we, we know we were wrong. Sir please, please, please don’t, don’t eat us!”

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

Seems like the legend of the Ghost King eating ghosts wasn’t only known by the few at the company, but deeply influenced the entire Underworld too.

Yu Zhengdu turned his head to look at Shang Que, but saw that he only casually glanced at those ghosts. He neither spoke nor displayed any expression on his face.

Seeing as this was Yu Zhengdu’s first time out on an excursion with the Boss, he didn’t have much experience and wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do in this situation. He pondered for a moment and when nobody else was paying attention, quietly told the ghosts, “You guys come out first. Don’t get in the way of them fixing the elevator.”

Those ghosts didn’t dare to disobey. Upon hearing his words, they stood up one by one and walked out in a line, automatically standing against the wall with their heads down.

Yu Zhengdu was very pleased. “Quite organized.”

Shang Que’s tone of voice was light. “When they were alive who knows how many times they were arrested, of course they have a lot of experience.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

As the group of ghosts left the elevator, the door slowly closed behind them.

The head of maintenance had just finished yelling at his subordinates and was just about to personally offer an explanation to Chinese tunic suit when the elevator door slowly closed in front of everybody’s eyes.

The elevator was working; everything was normal.

The head of maintenance: “…………???”

He looked at Chinese tunic suit and gulped. “Boss, I will diligently inspect this. The same situation will not happen again.”

Chinese tunic suit only nonchalantly hummed, however his eyes were glued in Yu Zhengdu’s direction. Perhaps the others had not noticed, but ever since that young man had pressed for the elevator, he had kept his attention on him. He clearly saw that the elevator door only closed after the young man softly said something.

He gently rubbed one of his fingers, face displaying a look of contemplation.

At this moment, the entire administration department of Double Horn Technology arrived and began receiving and comforting those who had just been rescued from the elevator. Among them, one group of people were given extra attention. This was exactly the visiting group of workers from Nova Technology that Hou Guangzong was a part of.

The leader of Nova Technology’s group was Hou Guangzong’s supervisor, named Zhou Ke. The person in charge of receiving them at Double Horn Technology was Manager Chen. To show his sincerity, Manager Chen personally went downstairs to greet them, but didn’t think that he would just so coincidentally get stuck in the elevator with them too.

Manager Chen was of certain importance in the company. He felt that he had lost face in front of his customers, so was currently taking his anger out on the administration.

The hairdo that Hou Guangzong had used half a “catty” of hair gel to style was ruined from the incident. He was extremely displeased as well, but being only an intern, he couldn’t express his annoyance. He could only stay in the back and watch Manager Chen and Zhou Ke rant.

But seeing the administration department’s respectful and sincere attitude, he could tell that Nova was viewed quite highly, and thus was a bit smug.

Off in the distance, Zhang Qingqing recovered her wits. After much difficulty, she finally found Hou Guangzong in the crowd and quickly lunged forward, calling out: “Guangzong, you are okay right.”

Hou Guangzong suddenly saw her and was quite surprised. “Qingqing, how come you’re here too?”

Zhang Qingqing said, “Zhengdu heard that you were stuck in the elevator so specially rushed over to see you. I was the one who brought him in.”

Hou Guangzong’s expression instantly became very strange. “Yu Zhengdu? Came to see me?”

Zhang Qingqing nodded and praised their friendship. “Yeah, he’s really very loyal. In the middle of work, and he specially came over. You’re really touched, right?”

Hou Guangzong’s mood was already quite agitated from being stuck for such a long time, so he couldn’t stop himself from saying, “Is he crazy? Did he come just to see me make a fool of myself?”

Zhang Qingqing furrowed her brows. “How could you say that?”

Hou Guangzong scoffed. “It must have been so difficult for him, he must have been so happy hearing that I was stuck in the elevator, even hurrying over. It’s probably because he has nothing to do in that trashy company and was bored.”

Zhang Qingqing was a little cross, and said, “Guangzong, your words are too much. And to think that Zhengdu cares so much for you.”

Hou Guangzong was so close to rolling his eyes. “He cares for me? You should ask him, are we close enough for that?”

“So we aren’t that close after all.” Yu Zhengdu’s voice suddenly rang out, accompanied with a sigh, “I saw how often you worried about my situation in the group chat recently, and you were fretting over my job too. I thought you cared a lot about me.”

Zhang Qingqing angrily criticized the enemy. “Right! You are too much!”

Hou Guangzong: “…………”

Hou Guangzong didn’t think that Yu Zhengdu would use his messages in the group chat against him, but to his frustration he couldn’t come up with even half a sentence in retaliation. His face quickly became green from his pent-up emotions.

They were ultimately all classmates. Zhang Qingqing thought it would be bad for the situation to continue down this track, so she played mediator for them. “Guangzong, today you really need to thank Zhengdu. If it weren’t for him, you might still be stuck in the elevator for who knows how long.”

Hou Guangzong was so angry he laughed. His tone of voice was full of ridicule. “What, did he fix the elevator? He switched from coding to repairs at his new company?”

As soon as he finished speaking, a middle-aged man in a Chinese tunic suit walked over and nodded at Yu Zhengdu. He held out his hand and said, “Student, thank you very much for aiding us in opening the elevator door.”

Yu Zhengdu shook his hand, smiling slightly. “You’re welcome.”

Hou Guangzong: “…………???”

At this moment, Manager Chen, who had just been pulling rank with the administration department, charged over to bow to Chinese tunic suit. His tone was full of ingratiation as he spoke, “Boss Wei is here ah, my head was not right after being in the elevator for so long, so I didn’t see you at first.”

Chinese tunic suit nodded, looked at Manager Chen and the people from Hou Guangzong’s company, politely stating, “It’s been rough for you guys. Later the administration department’s workers will have a gift for each of you, as an apology for your hardships.”

Hou Guangzong’s supervisor Zhou Ke immediately began cozying up. “It’s nothing, it’s nothing. I didn’t think Boss Wei would get disturbed by this matter too.”

Hou Guangzong only realized, belatedly, that it was very likely this man in the Chinese tunic suit was Double Horn Technology’s big boss, Wei Xiao.

Wei Xiao and Zhou Ke were ultimately not on the same level. Zhou Ke and his team also had Manager Chen receiving them already, so Wei Xiao only entertained him briefly. After doing his part in comforting them, he once again turned to Yu Zhengdu. “Student, thank goodness you were here. If you don’t mind, let’s speak inside.”

Yu Zhengdu was a bit baffled and said, “Ah, it was nothing, no sweat at all. There isn’t anything to talk about.”

“I think being able to open the elevator isn’t as ‘no sweat’ as you say.” Wei Xiao’s words hid a deeper meaning; his attitude was sincere too, “I definitely owe you a gratitude fee.”

As soon as Yu Zhengdu heard the words “gratitude fee”, he swallowed the farewell that was already on the tip of his tongue and reached behind to grab Shang Que and push him forward. “This is our boss, you can give the money to him.”

Hou Guangzong was originally very displeased at the amount of respect Wei Xiao was showing Yu Zhengdu, and upon witnessing Yu Zhengdu’s actions, he couldn’t keep the expression of distaste off his face. A small company is still a small company. They only see money, what a lack of composure.

Even though Shang Que was being tugged around by Yu Zhengdu, the expression on his face was still very indifferent, as if he didn’t care for these trivial matters. His posture was graceful as he said, “We don’t need money……”

Before he finished speaking, Yu Zhengdu pinched his forearm and scooted in closer to chant under his breath, “Development budget development budget development budget……”

Even after being pinched, Shang Que’s facial expression still remained unchanged. The angle of his smile was the same, too; the only difference was his change in speech. “How much are you planning on giving?”

Wei Xiao didn’t expect them to be from the same company, and was momentarily stunned. He looked at Shang Que and asked, “May I ask what your company does?”

Yu Zhengdu straightened himself and said, “We work in health management.”

He elbowed Shang Que. “Boss, your business card.”

Upon hearing his words, Shang Que very cooperatively took his phone out from his pocket and opened his WeChat business card to hand over. He asked Wei Xiao, “Do you want to scan me?”

Wei Xiao: “……”

Manager Chen and everyone from Nova Technology after seeing this scene in its entirety: “……”

Hou Guangzong scoffed, they are really so embarrassing!

Only to see Wei Xiao quietly retrieve his own phone and scan Shang Que’s barcode. Not only this, he even took the initiative to ask Yu Zhengdu, “Student, give me your WeChat to scan too.”

Hou Guangzong: “………………????”