New Times, New Hell

Chapter 84 - Ghost King Outfit Changing Competition

The next day at work, Yu Zhengdu visited Peppa-the-egg, as per Shang Que’s requirements. However, as soon as he walked into Shang Que’s office, he became shocked.

Surprisingly, Shang Que was listening to Mozart in his office.

Yu Zhengdu felt like he had been both physically and spiritually purified. In astonishment, he looked at Shang Que. “Boss, since when did you start liking classical music?”

Shang Que, who diligently remembered that they were still in the midst of a cold war, coldly glanced at him. He made a sh gesture. “This is Peppa’s fetal education music.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

Shang Que’s expression was full of fatherly responsibility. “It’s important to start teaching them from young. I’m going to ensure that Peppa becomes a goose who can escape the claws of poor taste.”

Yu Zhengdu was speechless. He practically trembled while squatting down in front of the hatching nest. The big white duck – who was in the middle of hatching the egg – was very conscientious too. Upon noticing his arrival, she silently scooted her butt away, revealing a little less than half of the egg.

Yu Zhengdu reached a hand out and caressed the egg’s shell. His gaze was full of pity for modern goslings.

Peppa, if you don’t become a rocket scientist or musician in the future, you won’t be living up to your Ghost King father’s painstaking efforts.

Even though you’re only a goose.

In order to avoid negatively affecting the natural hatching process, Yu Zhengdu stood up after stroking the egg a few times. As soon as he stood up, though, he became shocked once more.

He stared at the computer screen, then turned to stare at Shang Que. His expression was extremely conflicted. “……Boss, don’t you want to give Peppa a good fetal education environment? How come you’re still gaming?”

And even opening three client servers at once.

Shang Que’s expression didn’t change. “I muted it. Peppa can’t hear.”

Yu Zhengdu couldn’t help scanning the chat. “……You’re even arguing with someone.”

“I didn’t turn my microphone on. If you don’t say anything, Peppa won’t know.” Shang Que lowered his voice and said, completely justified.

What else could Yu Zhengdu say? He obviously nodded with a smile on his face. “You’re right.”

Shang Que glanced at him once, then glanced at him again. A while later, he silently typed into the chat box:【Rebound】

After, he closed the server and opened the company’s financial reports.

Yu Zhengdu chuckled before preparing to leave. “Then I’ll head out now.”

“Wait a moment,” Shang Que stopped him.

Yu Zhengdu: “Un?”

Shang Que tapped on the time display on his phone screen. “You still have ten minutes of visiting time.”

……Boss was truly very principled!

Yu Zhengdu made a U-turn and sat across from Shang Que once more. “Thank you, Boss.”

As soon as he sat down, he saw Shang Que pull a bag of takeout out from under the desk. “Eat breakfast.”

Yu Zhengdu was slightly surprised. “I still have the honor to eat your breakfast?”

“This it this; that is that.” Shang Que turned his head away, somewhat awkwardly stating, “You’ll only have the energy to continue the cold war after eating.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

Very logical. Irrefutable.

While eating breakfast, he scanned Shang Que out of his periphery. Shang Que’s eyes were glued to his computer screen, but his inattention was obvious.

Yu Zhengdu almost burst into laughter. Coincidentally, Shang Que secretly glanced over out of the corners of his eyes. Their gazes met.

Yu Zhengdu: “&#k2026;&#k2026;”

Shang Que: “&#k2026;&#k2026;”

The atmosphere suddenly became a bit awkward.

Shang Que’s expression instantly became solemn. He leaned slightly back and crossed one leg over the other, posing elegantly. He lightly said, “Eat faster. You still have three minutes left.”

Yu Zhengdu purposefully stated, “It’s a bit hot. I can’t eat so fast. How about I take it outside to eat?”

Shang Que paused for a moment, then very generously offered, “……I’ll give you ten more minutes.”

This time, Yu Zhengdu really couldn’t resist the urge to burst into laughter. Then, he quickly apologized before Shang Que could throw a tantrum, tone sincere, “Boss, I’ve already reached a deep understanding about my mistakes. In order to express my regret……”

He pulled out his own phone and opened an app before handing the phone over. “I made this last night. Please don’t be angry anymore.”

Shang Que glanced at the phone screen. It was surprisingly the homepage of the Ghost King changing game. His brows immediately furrowed. Just as he was about to take back the precious ten minutes he had extended to Yu Zhengdu, he saw Yu Zhengdu rapidly tap the “change” button; the closet items in the game became revealed.

Shang Que froze. “……What’s this?”

Yu Zhengdu: “I replaced all the clothes in the game.”

Only to see that the original two hundred-some women’s outfits had disappeared from the closet. The new closet had been replaced with different versions and styles of men’s outfits, such as exercise clothes, casual clothes, historical clothes, contemporary clothes, etc. Upon closer inspection, there was even a newly released haute couture outfit designed by a certain luxury brand.

Yu Zhengdu clicked that outfit and changed the Ghost King into it. He softly said, “I saw this on the fashion week trending topics list and thought that it would suit you, so copied it. I don’t have the copyright license, which means you’ll have to help me keep this secret. Don’t leak the game to the general public, okay? Let’s just secretly play amongst ourselves……”

The Ghost King in the game had a cold expression. He truly looked tall and handsome while wearing the newly released haute couture outfit. Though he was only 2D, he still appeared very extravagant. Yu Zhengdu praised from the bottom of his heart, “Ah, Boss looks really good wearing this. Much better than that celebrity who was walking on the runway in it.”

“Really?” Shang Que coldly watched as Yu Zhengdu changed his outfits. After a moment of hesitation, he finally grabbed the phone, quite reserved. “Let me see.”

In the next five minutes, Yu Zhengdu quietly sat in his seat and watched Shang Que furiously change himself.

Yu Zhengdu: “……” Silently eating breakfast.

Until he noticed that Shang Que was actually starting to secretly take screenshots. He finally couldn’t take it anymore and said, “Boss, how about I download it onto your phone too. This is my phone……”

Shang Que finally came back to his senses. He froze, but quickly returned to his aloof countenance. He handed the phone back to Yu Zhengdu and calmly said, “Don’t think that this matter is over just like this.”

Yu Zhengdu accepted the phone and sighed to himself……As expected, Boss was really hard to placate.

The next second, Shang Que’s phone appeared before him. “Download the game. I need to inspect it.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

By the time he had finished downloading the game for Shang Que, Yu Zhengdu had also finished breakfast. He checked the time and conscientiously said, “Boss, then I’ll head back to work now.”

Shang Que very casually opened the newly downloaded Ghost King changing game. Like usual, he coldly nodded. “Un.”

After Yu Zhengdu stood up, Shang Que suddenly looked up at him again. “You made this last night?”

Yu Zhengdu nodded.

Shang Que temporarily fell silent. He was slightly displeased. “It was already so late when you got back last night. And then you stayed up longer?”

Yu Zhengdu smiled. “That’s unimportant.”

“Don’t be like this again in the future,” Shang Que seriously stated. “Otherwise, I’ll get even angrier.”

Despite Shang Que’s severe expression, Yu Zhengdu didn’t feel the slightest bit unhappy in his heart. He only warmly replied, “Okay.”

As he walked out of the office, before he could close the door, he seemed to notice that Boss had suddenly revealed a……strange smile? He didn’t know if this was just an illusion or not.

Yu Zhengdu had a slight premonition that something bad was going to happen.

Half an hour later, his premonition came true.

Lu Lingxi made an official announcement in the company’s group chat. In order to give everyone a means of making up for their mistakes, and to create a harmonious, healthy work environment, Boss was requiring every employee to download the new version of the Ghost King outfit changing game. Additionally, the entire company was holding “The First Annual Luofeng CEO Appearance Design Contest”; the contest was to last three days and Boss would personally be judging. The first three winners would get their monthly performances doubled, while the last three losers would be punished to clean the bathrooms for a month.

The entire company: “……”

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

Wait a moment. Could “first annual” mean that this was going to be a recurring contest?

At the same time, Shang Que finally released Yu Zhengdu from his blocked users list on WeChat.

My Broke-ass Boss:【I think that there can be a few more shoe styles】

My Broke-ass Boss:【Same for accessories】

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

Yu Zhengdu:【I’ll do my best to upgrade the version 0.0】

My Broke-ass Boss:【Don’t stay up late to do it】

My Broke-ass Boss:【Also】

My Broke-ass Boss:【You need to participate too】

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

The following three days were the most serious and nerve-wracking three days at the company that Yu Zhengdu had witnessed since entering Luofeng. During breaks, no employees were casually chatting. All the ghosts were glued to their computers as they solemnly and seriously……styled the Ghost King’s clothes.

……Luofeng’s only three living employees weren’t excluded either.

Zheng Yan had worked at Luofeng for a long time now. Additionally, as the product manager, he had previously already suffered through a bunch of Boss’s crazy ideas. Thus, he didn’t have too great of a reaction.

Zhao Ruola felt like there was no joy left in life. She was in disbelief that she, a legendary Internet master who had given up on innumerous projects by investors willing to give her tens of millions, was actually required to participate in Luofeng’s 2D outfit styling contest.

And her fellow competitors were a bunch of ghosts.

She formally reminded Yu Zhengdu, “Don’t you ever tell anyone outside of this company that I’ve participated in such a competition……Oh, it’d be best to simply not let anyone outside of this company know that our company held such a competition. Prior to my death, I still need to go out and see people.”

Yu Zhengdu gave her a deadpan look. “You think I don’t need to go out and see people?”

The two made eye contact. Their expressions were both sympathetic.

Zhao Ruola complained, “It’s all your fault. Why did you have to use Boss’s face when making a stress relief game……”

Yu Zhengdu was unimpressed as he retorted, “Well you clearly had a lot of fun playing it earlier!”

It needed to be known that Zhao Ruola was one of the few people who had owned the limited edition Cleopatra outfit.

And she had earned it illegally through writing a cheat code.

Zhao Ruola posed like the silly panda smoking, extremely regretful. “The temporary joy of changing outfits……”

“It’ll be a permanent joy if you permanently change outfits,” Yu Zhengdu comforted her. “Look on the bright side. Your monthly performance is already so high. If you win the competition, you’d also be winning a large fortune.”

“Makes sense!” Zhao Ruola’s eyes lit up. She seemed to have come back to life. She rubbed her hands together and said, “Wait for me to write a code that will automatically choose the best outfit pairs……”

Yu Zhengdu was completely speechless. “Writing another cheat code? Can’t you have a sense of fair play at all?”

Zhao Ruola gave a reasonable explanation: “A competition between technical skills is still a competition!”

Yu Zhengdu saluted, “Farewell.”

Actually, he wanted to simply write a cheat code and illegally compete as well. However, the next morning, when he visited Peppa for fetal education, Shang Que handed him two fashion magazines. “For reference.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

Nevermind, it’d be better to rely on his own skills. If Shang Que happened to find out about the cheat code, who knows what he’d have to do to salvage their relationship.

Thus, in the next three days, aside from working, Yu Zhengdu spent all his time trying his best to style the Ghost King using his programmer aesthetic.

It could be said that the original intention for this minigame was stress relief. Now, though, it had become their entire company’s greatest stressor.

As expected, what goes around, comes around. Karma’s a bad bitch.

……From a certain perspective, this technically satisfied their company’s mission statement.

Three days later, all of Luofeng’s employees submitted their final masterpieces to Shang Que, right on the dot.

Not even five minutes after submission, Shang Que revealed the results in their WeChat group:【First place for this competition: Yu Zhengdu】

Kang Jin:【What about second and third place?】

Shang Que:【What’s the rush? I haven’t looked over the outfits yet】

Group chat:【………………】

Kang Jin:【Holy fuck. Boss didn’t even look at anyone else’s outfits but already decided on first place. Does he dare to be more obvious about how rigged this competition is?!】

Once again, a minute of silence appeared in the group chat.

Yu Zhengdu sent Kang Jin a private message:【You switched to the wrong group chat again?】

Kang Jin:【Aaaaaah, I’m going to go unsend the message!】

Yu Zhengdu:【Too late.】

Official company group chat, Shang Que:【You have a problem?】

Kang Jin:【No!!】

Kang Jin:【Good one, Boss!】

Kang Jin:【I’m going to clean the bathroom now. Goodbye, Boss!】

At the same time, Yu Zhengdu also received a private message from Shang Que.

My Broke-ass Boss:【Seeing as you won first for this competition, I hereby announce that our cold war is over】

Yu Zhengdu:【……Thank you, Boss】

The author has something to say:

Shang Que: Principled ghosts must end cold wars in a principled manner.

Zhengdu: Oh.