New Times, New Hell

Chapter 102 - Sending Off the Ghost of Poverty

Fu De True God definitely didn’t dare to let Yu Zhengdu and the goose princess worship him. Fortunately, Mother and Father Yu very quickly started socializing with the other worshippers present, leaving them with no time to keep an eye on Yu Zhengdu. Yu Zhengdu sighed in relief. He took this opportunity to drag Shang Que outside.

More and more people started passing through the empty lot in front of the Yu clan’s public ancestral temple. Yu Zhengdu casually scanned the crowd, only to discover that many of them weren’t even part of the Yu clan. Exactly as Mother Yu had said, Fu De True God had a pretty good reputation. He had attracted many people of other surnames to come worship him too.

Yu Zhengdu joked, “During this year’s employee rating, we can raise Fu De True God’s salary.”

Shang Que nodded. “Un, the plans for performance appraisal and worker promotion this year have already been completed. After the break, we’ll have a discussion meeting. If there are no problems, they can be very quickly implemented.”

As a boss with ambitions, the current Shang Que was no longer only invincible in games. He had also achieved some impressive accomplishments in business management. He had already successfully passed his dissertation defense and earned his MBA certificate, meaning he could now work with the professionals in each department to create work plans.

Yu Zhengdu watched as Shang Que clearly listed out his plan for performance appraisal and lamented in his heart, as expected from the Ghost King. Even though he was normally as cocky as could be, when he needed to be professional, he could also be more professional than most normal people.

Ah, his boyfriend was honestly so charismatic.

He couldn’t help wanting to praise Shang Que a bit, only to hear Shang Que happily say, “I’ve already placed you in first for the ratings.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……Can you not be so obviously biased?”

Shang Que seriously inquired in response, “For example?”

Yu Zhengdu: “At least wait for the ratings to be completed before placing me in first.”

Either way, Boss couldn’t possibly let him appear in any place other than first. He could only remind Boss to do his best to be a bit more lowkey.

Shang Que nodded in contemplation. “Makes sense.”

Yu Zhengdu looked at Shang Que, speechless. Suddenly, a voice sounded out from nearby. “Are you Zhengdu?”

Yu Zhengdu turned around to look in the direction of the voice, only to see a thin young man who looked rather familiar walking towards him.

Yu Zhengdu thought for a long time before finally remembering who this was. He hurriedly greeted, “Weiqin, long time no see.”

This person was named Zou Weiqin and was also a Jintan Village native. He and Yu Zhengdu were middle school classmates. However, during high school, the two of them had attended two different schools. Gradually, they had lost contact. They only occasionally chatted a bit when encountering each other on the streets. By university, though, these chance meetings had become few and far in between. Because of this, Yu Zhengdu hadn’t managed to immediately recognize him.

Yu Zhengdu smiled and asked, “How come you’re here too?”

Zou Weiqin didn’t look like he was in great shape. Upon hearing this, he waved his hands around. “My mom said that the Yu clan’s Fu De True God is very effective. She dragged me here to worship him.”

The two of them made small talk. A woman dressed in a simple outfit ran over and tugged Zou Weiqin. “Weiqin, what are you wasting time here for? Hurry and come worship the god.”

This person was Zou Weiqin’s mother. Zou Weiqin replied, “Got it.”

After saying this, he bid farewell to Yu Zhengdu. At this time, Mother Zou’s eyes suddenly lit up. She stared at Yu Zhengdu and asked, “Isn’t this Yu Chuan’s son?”

Yu Zhengdu politely nodded at her. “Hello, Auntie.”

“Ey, you’ve become quite outstanding. These days, the entire village knows that you have a good job. When they speak of you, everyone is full of praise. Your parents are more respected too. Our Weiqin is so much worse compared to you,” Mother Zou sourly stated.

Upon hearing this, Zou Weiqin’s expression darkened. “Mom, why are you saying these things?”

“They’re all the truth. What’s wrong with saying them? Besides, weren’t you classmates with Xiao Yu? Given the opportunity, you can ask him to help you or something.” While saying this, Mother Zou glanced at Yu Zhengdu. “Isn’t that right, Xiao Yu?”

Zou Weiqin felt incredibly embarrassed. He gave Yu Zhengdu an apologetic look. “Don’t take that to heart.”

“It’s fine.” Yu Zhengdu waved his hands around. Mother Zou was your typical small village-dweller. She was both fussy and liked trying to take advantage of people. Though Zou Weiqin was a pretty great person, none of his classmates had liked going to his house in the past.

Zou Weiqin tugged at his mom, trying to get her to leave. Only to see Mother Zou’s eyes dart around in thought. She cheerily asked Yu Zhengdu, “Oh right. Xiao Yu, doesn’t your company have an Underworld energy detector or something? How about performing a checkup for me?”

“Mom!” Zou Weiqin rolled his eyes. “Their company charges fees for that! Can you not say such foolish things?”

Mother Zou confidently responded, “It doesn’t take that much effort anyways. Weren’t you guys classmates? What, is he going to charge me for just one checkup?”

As she spoke, she didn’t even wait for Yu Zhengdu to respond. She started making plans of her own accord. “Xiao Yu, you don’t know this, but our family has been extremely unfortunate this year. I’ve worked hard my whole life, finally making it to the day that Weiqin found a job. I was hoping to better our family’s living conditions, but who knew that we would encounter an unlucky situation? Seems to me that we’ve most likely been targeted by something dirty. Just perform a checkup for me, please?”

Yu Zhengdu ignored Mother Zou. He only looked toward Zou Weiqin. Zou Weiqin’s expression was very dark. “Don’t listen to her.”

Thus, Yu Zhengdu wanted to reject Mother Zou. Shang Que, who had been acting like a wallflower this entire time, suddenly said, “There’s no need for a checkup. Neither of you are clean.”

Zou Weiqin and Mother Zou’s expressions both changed. Especially Mother Zou, who instantly became very rude. “Ey, young man, watch your tone!”

Yu Zhengdu was slightly surprised too. He had ignored Mother Zou just now because he hadn’t seen any strange entities around Zou Weiqin. But after hearing Shang Que say this, he hurriedly pulled out his Luofeng phone and opened the Underworld energy detector to scan both Zou Weiqin and his mom. The results revealed that the Underworld energy surrounding them had exceeded the usual levels. Additionally, Mother Zou’s situation was worse than Zou Weiqin’s.

Yu Zhengdu instantly went on high alert. He told Zou Weiqin, “Weiqin, how about we go take a look at your house?”

Zou Weiqin didn’t understand. “What’s wrong?”

Yu Zhengdu’s expression was solemn. “Your house might be haunted.”

On the way to Zou Weiqin’s house, Mother Zou was still muttering on and on. “How could it be haunted? You’re not making stuff up and trying to make our family buy your company’s products, right?”

Though Mother Zou had previously suspected that she had been targeted by something dirty, that had actually only been a complaint she had made to try and take advantage of Yu Zhengdu’s company. Now that Yu Zhengdu had confirmed that they had truly been targeted by something dirty, she instead started feeling suspicious.

Yu Zhengdu knew what kind of person she was. Thus, he was too lazy to bother explaining to her. He acted like he hadn’t heard anything and instead continued chatting with Zou Weiqin.

Zou Weiqin told him that last year, after he had graduated university, he had gotten hired to be a client manager by a bank during his school’s career fair. There weren’t too many people from little places like Jintan Village who could stay in school until university. Additionally, Zou Weiqin was very hardworking. He got up early every morning and slept late every night. His work performance had always been pretty great. As such, the Zou family had originally been exceptionally pleased. Mother Zou had also had bragging rights for a short while.

The only bad thing was, Mother Zou was always worried about him randomly spending money. She was adamant about managing his income for him. When he refused, she threatened suicide. In the end, Zou Weiqin honestly had no other options; he could only give her a portion of his monthly salary.

Unexpectedly, Mother Zou, who had been stingy her entire life, actually imitated others and started lending when she finally got some spare money in her hands. In the end, the person she had lent the money to was a shameless deadbeat. The money had all disappeared.

“In the beginning, she kept everything a secret from me. I have a good housing provident fund at the bank, and also get discounts when borrowing money. Originally, I was thinking of borrowing some money at the end of the year to pull together a down payment and buy a little house. She stubbornly told me to keep saving my money away regularly and said that I should buy the house next year. Eventually, the house prices kept increasing. I honestly couldn’t keep waiting. Only then did she tell me the truth.” There was resentment in Zou Weiqin’s voice. “If she had discussed with me in the beginning, I absolutely wouldn’t have let her start lending.”

“Well, didn’t I do all of that for you?” Mother Zou felt displeased after hearing all this. She lifted her chin up and rebuked, “You don’t even know. That person and I reached an agreement for 20% interest. Other people only get 10% when they lend money out. If I had gotten that money back, I would’ve earned double what everyone else was earning.”

Yu Zhengdu was very exasperated after hearing this. “20%……Auntie, how could you believe that?”

Zou Weiqin scoffed too. “That person had never planned on returning your money. Of course they would let you name any amount of interest.”

“Well everything was just bad luck. He lost money while doing business.” Mother Zou was a bit embarrassed, but remained stubborn. “He said that he would pay me back after earning money later.”

Zou Weiqin furiously rolled his eyes. “If he lost money while doing business, where would he have the money to buy a luxury car? The lender is still living in a rundown home, but the lendee is living a life of luxury.”

Yu Zhengdu felt very surprised upon hearing this. “He even bought a luxury car? Your mom wasn’t the only one who got scammed?”

“Un, that person was very experienced. He scammed a bunch of people like my mom who covet trivial advantages,” Zou Weiqin said in exasperation. “The money has all gotten transferred away. It’s not that he doesn’t have money, he just purposefully doesn’t want to return any of it. Calling the cops is useless too. He’d rather go to jail.”

During their conversation, they reached Zou Weiqin’s home. Zou Weiqin’s family had been born and raised in Jintan Village. Their house was in the middle of the village. About twenty years ago, this had been a rather luxurious area. Now, though, it looked somewhat shabby.

Mother Zou pulled out her key and unlocked the door. Yu Zhengdu was instantly hit with the same kind of shock that he had felt when he had first visited Zou Weiqin’s house during middle school. He hadn’t thought that after so many years, nothing had changed in the other’s house. Everything was still as cramped and crowded as before.

Speaking of, though Zou Weiqin was from an ordinary family, their family wasn’t broke. However, his mom was honestly too stingy. After all these years, it was fine that she hadn’t renovated their house. Apparently, though, the furniture in the house was still the same set that had been bought when Mother and Father Zou had gotten married. The paint had almost completely chipped off, but she still refused to get new furniture. Not only so, but their house also contained piles of old things: old clothes, old shoes, old towels, old toothbrushes, etc. She couldn’t even bear to throw out an old, holey sock unless she had used it to wipe the floor for long enough that it had completely turned black. The corner of the wall was filled with a pile of cardboard boxes and empty water bottles and aluminum cans that Mother Zou had collected from outside.

This room was basically a waste recycling center.

The most important reason why none of their classmates had liked coming to Zou Weiqin’s house in the past – aside from Mother Zou’s stingy and mean personality – was because the environment of Zou Weiqin’s house honestly wasn’t great.

As soon as Yu Zhengdu walked into the door, he heard a lazy whistling sound from the corner of the house. He turned around to look, instantly furrowing his brows.

Only to see that the corner of the Zou family’s living room was filled with a pile of cardboard boxes and aluminum cans, just like it had been before. What was different was the fact that there was a short, small ghost laying atop that pile of useless things. He was skin and bones and was wearing a rundown outfit.

That ghost leisurely rested on the pile of useless things. While whistling, he offhandedly checked through the aluminum cans, trying to find any remaining liquid. When he heard the sound of the door opening, he instinctively glanced over lazily. Unexpectedly, he made eye contact with Shang Que.

“G-Great King!” The ghost was so scared he trembled and directly fell off the pile of cardboard boxes. He sprawled out on the ground in front of Shang Que. “This little one didn’t know that the Great King would be visiting. I’ve failed to welcome you. Please spare me, Great King.”

Yu Zhengdu: = = What ghost was this? It was so unclassy.

Slight disgust could be seen in Shang Que’s gaze. He told Yu Zhengdu, “Didn’t you say that you’ve never seen a ghost of poverty before? This is one.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

According to legend, encountering a ghost of poverty would cause one to lose wealth…… No wonder the Zou family had been scammed out of money.

Yu Zhengdu silently took out his Luofeng phone, opened the ghost imaging camera, and handed it over for Zou Weiqin to see.

Upon seeing the ghost, Zou Weiqin said, “Fuck.” He was so scared he almost jumped on top of the table. “What is this thing?”

Yu Zhengdu: “The ghost of poverty.”

A string of question marks popped up over Zou Weiqin’s head. “Huh?”

Yu Zhengdu felt that this situation was a bit comical too. “The one that everyone was sending off today.”

“H-h-how come our house has this kind of thing?” By now, Mother Zou’s legs had already started trembling in fright. She no longer dared to suspect Yu Zhengdu’s company’s technology. “W-w-what should we do? Can you guys catch him?”

Only now did the ghost of poverty realize that Shang Que actually knew this family. He was instantly so terrified that his eyes widened. He started trembling even harder than Mother Zou. He yelled, “Great King, don’t catch me! I didn’t do anything bad or illegal! I haven’t broken the Underworld regulations!”

Yu Zhengdu furrowed his brows and asked, “You’re already in a living human’s house. And you’re still saying that you haven’t broken any regulations?”

“I didn’t! This family invited me in!” The ghost of poverty loudly wailed. He felt greatly wronged. He pointed at Mother Zou and said, “She has so much garbage and useless stuff saved at home. Also, she doesn’t send off the ghost of poverty during the new year. Doesn’t that mean she’s inviting me in?”

The corner of Yu Zhengdu’s mouth twitched as he listened to this. “Is that so?”

Unexpectedly, Shang Que actually nodded. “It’s true.”

Shang Que gave Yu Zhengdu a brief explanation; only now did Yu Zhengdu understand what was going on.

It turned out that aside from the earliest ghost of poverty – basically, aside from Zhuanxu’s son – all the supposed ghosts of poverty following him had actually all been born from laziness, filth, and the darkness in human nature that appeared in relation to wealth. This was also why the custom of sending off poverty always emphasized clearing out trash and debris.

Mother Zou had collected old and useless objects in her house for so long. Many things were essentially the equivalent of garbage, but she still refused to throw them out. Wasn’t this exactly the environment that ghosts of poverty loved the most? Also, because of the fact that Mother Zou was stingy and petty, it was very easy for her to not get any blessings from other humans. After enough time, the stingy air around her naturally made it easy to attract ghosts of poverty.

As Zou Weiqin listened to Yu Zhengdu relay the ghost of poverty’s complaints, he fell into a long silence……because he actually had no way of refuting them!

Instead, Mother Zou still refused to admit her mistakes. “But I clearly sent off the ghost of poverty. Weiqin knows too. I woke up really early this morning to send off poverty.”

Only now did Zou Weiqin remember this fact. He hurriedly nodded. “Yes, our family sent off poverty this morning.”

“Sent off my ass!” The ghost of poverty said while pointing at Mother Zou. “Halfway through her sendoff, she pulled a steel plate out of the trash bag and took it back home. It’s in the pile of useless objects in their house. If you don’t believe me, you can go check.”

Yu Zhengdu repeated this to Zou Weiqin and his mom. Zou Weiqin stared at his mom in disbelief. “Mom, you brought that plate back in?”

The Zou family had used stainless steel silverware for over ten years. Over the new year, Zou Weiqin had bought a new set. He hadn’t expected for Mother Zou to only use the new silverware for the first three days of the new year. After, she put the new ones away and started using the old stainless steel plates again. One of them was already so scratched up that it couldn’t be looked at anymore. Zou Weiqin honestly couldn’t stand it, so he had thrown that plate into the trash. Who would’ve thought that his mom had brought it back in?

Mother Zou said in embarrassment, “I can still sell it for money, though.”

The ghost of poverty had proven that he hadn’t done anything wrong. He held his hands out and said, “Great King, please conduct a thorough investigation. I’m honestly innocent.”

Yu Zhengdu sweatdropped. He asked Shang Que, “Since he hasn’t broken any regulations, how should we deal with him?”

Shang Que: “Just send off the ghost of poverty one more time.”

The poverty sendoff ritual wasn’t hard. Additionally, Shang Que was overseeing everything. The ghost of poverty didn’t dare to say anything else. Though he was very reluctant to leave Zou Weiqin’s house, he ultimately still did, all while looking back every three steps he took. He didn’t forget to wave goodbye to the two Luofeng bosses: “Boss Shang, Boss Yu, I’m leaving. If we’re fated, we’ll see each other again.”

Yu Zhengdu hurriedly waved his hands around. “Don’t. Let’s do our best to not see each other again.” Who wanted to have fate with a ghost of poverty?!

The Zou family’s second sending off of poverty shocked their neighbors. One neighbor saw Zou Weiqin setting off firecrackers outside the door. While eating an apple, the neighbor asked, “How come you guys are setting off firecrackers again? Do firecrackers not cost any money?”

Mother Zou’s stingy image was engraved into everyone’s hearts. If fireworks only needed to be set off once, the Zou family absolutely wouldn’t set them off twice.

But immediately after, the neighbor saw something that made her feel even more confused. Only to see Mother Zou pull several big bags out of her house, huffing and puffing. With a pained expression, she headed downstairs.

The neighbor was shocked. “Mother Zou, what are you doing?”

“Throwing out the trash,” Mother Zou replied. Her tone was filled with infinite reluctance. “Throwing out all the old clothes and shoes at home.”

“What? You’re throwing those away?” The neighbor seemed to have witnessed a great miracle. Her chin almost landed on the floor. “Don’t you often say that you can keep those things around to wipe stuff with? Isn’t it such a pity that you’re throwing them out?”

Mother Zou had unspeakable sorrows. It wasn’t like she could say that her family had stockpiled so much trash that they had attracted the ghost of poverty. They would definitely become the laughingstock of the entire village in that case. Thus, she could only force herself to say, “If I need them, I’ll just buy new ones.”

With a plop, the neighbor’s apple fell on the ground.

Actually, Mother Zou had originally still been fairly reluctant. But Yu Zhengdu had told Zou Weiqin that if their family continued in this manner, they might attract another ghost of poverty. At this point, Zou Weiqin absolutely wouldn’t compromise with his mom again. He forcefully threw out all the useless old objects in their home at once. Additionally, he made plans for after New Year’s break to immediately buy new furniture and find someone to renovate their house.

However, even without renovation, the entire Zou house already looked a lot nicer and brighter after throwing out all the piles of trash. Zou Weiqin felt like he had exhaled out a breath of polluted air. “I feel like my mood is a lot better now.”

Shang Que had a pretty good impression of him. Upon seeing this, he gave a rare reminder, “Even if there are no ghosts of poverty, it’s still not good to keep too many useless things at home.”

Certain parts of Huaxia believed that the space in a room was limited. Thus, periodic cleanings needed to be conducted. If too many useless objects got collected in one room, the space would be taken up by this waste. Wealth fortune wouldn’t enter this area.

Zou Weiqin sincerely agreed with this. “That’s very true.”

“Actually, you can reach this conclusion through dialectical thinking too.” Yu Zhengdu said with a smile, “Normally speaking, it’s easier for hardworking and generous people to earn money. It’s also easier for them to receive help from friends. This is also the ‘good wealth fortune’ we often talk about. Additionally, these types of people aren’t the ones to let their houses be filled up with trash.”

Thus, the only things that could truly change life were willingness to work hard and personality. These things just happened to be commonly portrayed through a person’s attitude towards life.

For example, the real reason that Mother Zou had been scammed was because she coveted little advantages. Even if there had been no ghost of poverty, she was going to have to suffer sooner or later. The ghost of poverty had only sped up the process.

“Un.” Shang Que stroked Yu Zhengdu’s neck. “You learned dialectic analysis quite well.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

“If my mom can change in the future, then she wouldn’t have been scammed for nothing,” Zou Weiqin said with a sigh. “At the end of the day, money can be earned back.”

Yu Zhengdu glanced at him and smiled. “How about you let our company try and help you debt collect?”

But Zou Weiqin wasn’t hopeful at all. “That scammer would rather go to jail than return our money. What could you guys do?”

Yu Zhengdu rubbed his hands together. “Well, let’s try and see.”

Upon seeing this, Zou Weiqin hurriedly shook his hands in refusal. “You guys aren’t going to use force to collect the debt, right? That’s illegal. No matter what, don’t do that! ”

Yu Zhengdu smiled mysteriously. “Don’t worry. We’re a legal company.”

That night, a hiring post appeared on the Fengdu Forum:

Heading: Hiring For a Part-Time Position, Someone Who Died As Tragically As Possible

Building owner: What the heading says. Requirement is that you must know how to appear in dreams. Pay is per night.

The following responses were all in celebration: Us ghosts who have died a tragic death have finally welcomed the spring of our careers too!