New Times, New Hell

Chapter 50 - Insight of Technology

There were a lot of famous people on the starflicker forum, but the three big cheeses of metaphysics were definitely the ones that garnered the most attention. Several postulations regarding lan, osone, and singer’s true identities had been made by the public. Though they hadn’t been able to guess correctly in the end, what they could confirm was that with their skills and knowledge, they definitely worked at the top factories. A lot of people had guessed Cosmic Factory, but nobody had dared to actually suspect Jiao Shanlan.

Who would’ve thought that at today’s summit, they would unexpectedly be able to witness the true identities behind all of their masks simultaneously. For the technological field that always admired the skilled, this was the equivalent of a large festival. In mere seconds, the atmosphere at the scene could be considered white-hot.

The media were also beyond excited. Regardless of whether they understood technology or not, they could all tell from the atmosphere what a moment this was. All the cameras were locked onto Jiao Shanlan, Zhao Ruola, and Yu Zhengdu’s figures, switching between the three. There were even reporters who had already taken out their phones and started typing out headlines, terrified that if they sent out the news a second too late, someone else would take the chance to first.

Zhao Ruola cocked an eyebrow and smiled as she said, “I hadn’t expected that singer himself would also be present. Since this is the case, I’m sure that nobody would mind if I invited him onstage to discuss the problems he just mentioned?”

Zhao Ruola’s status was top-tier. Yu Zhengdu also had the reputation of singer helping him. As soon as she suggested this, obviously no one present had any objections. Under these circumstances, the event coordinators also wouldn’t refuse.

Honestly, if only Yu Zhengdu had been revealed to be singer, though everyone would have been shocked, after time for consideration, they likely wouldn’t have been truly impressed.

As famous as singer was on the forum, as skilled as he was, that was only an ID on the forum. A lot of people’s respect for him was built on the prediction that he was some high-level admin at a top-tier technology factory. After his true identity was revealed, a lot of people’s first reactions were: so singer was only an irrelevant young child.

But after Zhao Ruola and Jiao Shanlan also revealed their identities and publicly expressed their support for Yu Zhengdu, things were different.

If even the two of them agreed with singer, that could only prove that one shouldn’t pay too much attention to the origins of heroes. singer truly was very skilled.

Thus, everyone’s original suspicions towards Yu Zhengdu transformed into their anticipation for his perspective on the question at hand.

It was hard to reject such an eager audience, so Yu Zhengdu could only walk onstage and grab the microphone from the MC. He apologetically smiled, “I hadn’t expected that so many people would be paying attention to and following those posts. In order to avoid misunderstandings, I will briefly share with everyone the results and problems of my operalization as well as what I’ve tried to do to solve them……”

All the media’s cameras were focused on him. Everyone in the audience was paying attention too.

Yu Zhengdu was naturally respectful towards technology. He was also very supportive of discussing and sharing his findings with others with an open and understanding attitude. Especially under the circumstances that a few of his posts had already become so influential in the entire field. This way, he could give more people the correct guidelines.

Consequently, he didn’t hide anything. He glossed over the information that was related to the secrets of Hell and reincarnation and used the simplest method possible to explain the results of his modelling and subsequent revisions.

As Yu Zhengdu shared more of his analysis report, the expressions of the audience members at the event slowly transformed into shock.

Actually, when everyone had first seen the posts on the forum, though they were surprised by how skilled the experts were, they hadn’t really taken things seriously. The problem was, the posts themselves were all hypothetical scenarios. In the eyes of many people, these topics weren’t actually operational.

But now, they were truly hearing the results of their operationalization.

Yet, this wasn’t what was the most astounding. What truly shocked them the most was that the database in the model Yu Zhengdu was speaking of was so large, with so many conditions, that even considering the “big data” that all large companies were fanatical about today, his numbers still caused people to become stunned.

Such a large database could probably only currently be worked with by the top 2 factories in the nation.

Even Jiao Shanlan and Zhao Ruola couldn’t help the surprised looks on their faces.

Yu Zhengdu used his best judgement and decided to stop talking after sharing his model and the concepts behind the database. Everyone present still wanted to hear more, but no one dared to cause a commotion to try and get him to keep talking. Those with even the slightest bit of sense recognized that the field his company was dabbling in was out of the scope of their curiosity. It was already a blessing that he was willing to share some purely skill-oriented facts.

Many started to whisper among themselves, all trying to figure out Yu Zhengdu’s background and the company he was currently working at. The people who exchanged business cards with him at the start of the meeting all took out his business card and started to re-analyze his company.

And then they once again fell into a round of confusion.

Just……no matter how they looked at it, this still seemed like a suspicious small company that dealt in health management!

There were also a few individuals who knew that Jiao Shanlan’s laboratory had once invited Yu Zhengdu but been rejected. Now, they spoke of this gossip once more.

“……No wonder he rejected landry’s invitation. If the company he’s at now can really work with the amount of data he says they can, they’re not worse than Nova Factory’s laboratory at all.”

“You can say that, but look at their company’s products……A health management company can really work with numbers of this scope?”

“But I just went over the verification process he brought up in detail. They’re all accurate. He most likely isn’t faking it.”

Obviously, the quality level of the content that Yu Zhengdu shared was extremely different from the products listed on Luofeng’s current website. It caused great confusion among the audience members present.

But the one thing that could be confirmed was, no matter what business their company was dabbling in, their technological skills had already been recognized by everyone.

Amidst the heated discussions, there were also those who acted completely calm, expressions mysterious as they shared inside information with others.

Wei Xiao subtly told the person next to him, “The stuff that Xiao Yu’s company is working on is probably more impressive than anyone can predict……”

The person next to him hadn’t expected for Wei Xiao to be familiar with this company. He couldn’t help leaning in closer to whisper, “What are they working on?”

Wei Xiao’s expression was full of untold secrets. “My guess is, it’s probably related to the development of ecological balance and sustainability of natural resources in our nation……”

The person next to him suddenly understood. “If so, then it truly is possible for them to have so much data.”

Wei Xiao nodded, tone filled with praise. “Luofeng is a company that feels a lot of social responsibility.”

……

Because the three big cheeses of starflicker who had been the subjects of everyone’s guessing had suddenly revealed their true identities, the atmosphere of the discussion reached a new climax. Especially for Yu Zhengdu, who practically achieved instant fame. He suddenly became one of the most sought after individuals in the room, not even paling in comparison to Jiao Shanlan or Zhao Ruola.

After the discussion ended, the guests all took a moment to collect themselves before being led to the other room on a different floor. This was the location of the post-meeting congregation.

The after party was in the style of a self-serve buffet. This way, people could communicate freely. The atmosphere was also more relaxed in comparison to before.

As soon as he walked in, several people tried to talk to Yu Zhengdu, but after seeing who he was surrounded by, they silently gave up on this thought.

Only to see Yu Zhengdu standing with Zhao Ruola, Jiao Shanlan, and the others. This circle of experts wasn’t one that the ordinary person could go near. Those that had exchanged business cards with Yu Zhengdu before the meeting were slightly better off, because they had at least met him once, so could use this as an excuse to chat with him after the summit. But those who had completely ignored him in the beginning were now immensely regretful.

When Yu Zhengdu had been revealing his true identity, he had already predicted this would happen. Yet, the eagerness of everyone still exceeded his expectations. This was all because he had made too big of an impact after Zhao Ruola had suddenly called him onstage.

But since he saw ghosts on a regular basis, Yu Zhengdu’s mentality was much braver than before. He wasn’t that worried about the current situation, instead following his original plan of exchanging ideas with Zhao Ruola and the others.

“I didn’t think that you would be singer. And here I was, wondering why landry was so adamant about hiring you.” Zhao Ruola looked at Jiao Shanlan with disdain. “So you knew long ago. But didn’t even think to tell me.”

Jiao Shanlan was very innocent. “You never asked me.”

Zhao Ruola observed Yu Zhengdu again, lamenting, “You’re too young. In the past I always thought that singer was some bald old guy……”

Unexpectedly, not only was he not an old guy, he even had a lot of hair.

Yu Zhengdu sweatdropped and waved his hands. “I always thought you were a man with a long beard.”

Zhao Ruola snorted. “Where did you get that assumption?”

Yu Zhengdu: “Aren’t you always smoking in the forum?”

Zhao Ruola: “……Isn’t that just an emoji?”

Yu Zhengdu held his hands out. “Well you use it too realistically!”

Their gathering was the equivalent of Internet friends meeting in real life. They reminisced their conversations online and teased each other once more before finally returning onto the topic of technology.

Zhao Ruola seemed particularly interested in Luofeng’s work. She kept hounding Yu Zhengdu and asked a lot of questions. She was purely obsessed with technology; in only such a short amount of time, she had already come to several new conclusions by herself and, throughout the inquiry process, had given Yu Zhengdu new insights.

But as her questions became more in-depth, Yu Zhengdu stopped answering and said, “That’s our company’s secret. I can’t tell you.”

Zhao Ruola still wasn’t completely satisfied, but could only regretfully say, “Given the opportunity, I would love to see your company’s backend data.”

Yu Zhengdu joked, “Wouldn’t that be easy? We’re missing a lot of people at our company. If you want to see it, just come work for us.”

He was only casually saying this. With Luofeng’s current capabilities, it was impossible to invite a person on Zhao Ruola’s level to work for them. But unexpectedly, Zhao Ruola didn’t immediately refuse. Instead, she pondered a bit and smiled. “That depends on if you guys have anything that’s more interesting to me.”

At first, Yu Zhengdu was bewildered. Soon after, though, he regained his wits.

Jiao Shanlan was shocked too. He said, “No way, you’re seriously considering it?”

Jiao Shanlan was more familiar with Zhao Ruola than Yu Zhengdu was. He very clearly understood that she never casually spoke about her decisions regarding technology.

Zhao Ruola used her hand to strike a pose like she was smoking a cigarette. She cooly asked, “Why not?”

Yu Zhengdu was lost in thought. “Un, why not?”

Many people naturally assumed that with Zhao Ruola’s experience, she would definitely choose to work with a famous factory after returning to the country. Or, she would accept sponsors from venture capitalists and start her own independent project.

But regardless of if it was the osone that Yu Zhengdu had interacted with on the forum or the Zhao Ruola that he had gotten to understand in this short amount of time today, he had come to realize that Zhao Ruola’s pursuit of technology was far greater than her pursuit of sponsorships and investment returns.

This was possibly the reason she still hadn’t publicly shared her intentions. The current environment that sponsors could provide for her weren’t enough to capture her interest yet.

After realizing this, Yu Zhengdu’s expression became serious. He very sincerely invited her, “How about, I’ll schedule a time for you to come to our company and understand things in more detail?”

Zhao Ruola laughed loudly. “Okay.”

Upon seeing this, Jiao Shanlan immediately became unhappy. “Zhengdu, it’s fine that you aren’t joining my laboratory, but how come you’re fighting with me for people now?”

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw Tang Min hesitantly inch forward. He greeted Jiao Shanlan, then awkwardly stuck his phone in front of Yu Zhengdu. There was a QR code displayed on it. “singer, can I add you on WeChat?”

Jiao Shanlan’s mouth twitched. “……Are you trying to jump ship?”

Tang Min’s wispy hair trembled. He looked bewildered. “Boss, are you going to fire me?”

After saying this, he immediately turned to look at Yu Zhengdu. “singer, if I’m fired by the laboratory, can I go work with you?”

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

Jiao Shanlan: “……”

Yu Zhengdu glanced at Tang Min’s hair and awkwardly rejected, “Sorry, our boss has a lot of requirements……You might not be the best fit.”

Tang Min refused to admit defeat. “How am I not the best fit. I have a good education and lots of experience. If you’re worried that my salary is too high, for you, I can lower it a bit……”

Jiao Shanlan: “Kekeke!” He was still right here!

Yu Zhengdu couldn’t avoid revealing the cruel truth. “The first requirement our boss has when hiring someone……is that they need to have a lot of hair.”

Tang Min: “……”

Everyone else: “……”

Tang Min started wailing. He yelled, “Your boss is too much! He’s prejudiced against bald people, I’m going to report him to the Labor Bureau!”

Yu Zhengdu held his hands out in exasperation. “Go ahead. He has no fears.”

On the contrary, Zhao Ruola looked excited. “You guys have this requirement for hiring? Then isn’t that my dream work environment? I feel that you are close to getting me……”

Before she could finish speaking, she heard a voice coldly ask, “Who’s going to get you?”

Everyone present looked over at the source of the voice and felt something flash in their field of vision. Even Yu Zhengdu couldn’t help sucking in a breath. They watched Shang Que, dressed in a formal suit with a wine glass casually dangling between his fingers, slowly stroll over.

Shang Que’s normal countenance was already very shocking. After specially putting on a three-piece-tux today, he looked even more handsome, like a pine tree or a jade. He immediately became the center of everyone’s attention.

Zhao Ruola’s tone suddenly changed. “You!”

Shang Que: “……”

Yu Zhengdu couldn’t help side-eyeing her. “Miss, keep calm.”

Zhao Ruola lightly coughed. “My bad.”

Yu Zhengdu introduced everyone to each other. “This is our company’s CEO, Shang Que.”

Tang Min’s throat tightened. He barely got out, “I can get a hair transplant!”

Shang Que was bewildered. “……What does that have to do with me?”

Zhao Ruola who had just had stars in her eyes suddenly became uninterested. She said, “So you’re not a celebrity, Ey, what a pity.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

Jiao Shanlan knew about Zhao Ruola’s faults. He lowly explained, “The way she relaxes normally is by fangirling. For her, people in the field are only sources of stress.”

Yu Zhengdu understood.

Good-looking celebrities could be viewed as stress relief. But no matter how good-looking your boss was……he was still your boss. It was hard to feel happy looking at your boss.

Zhao Ruola shook her head. “I’m suddenly nervous. You guys keep chatting. I’ll go to the bathroom.”

As soon as Zhao Ruola left, Yu Zhengdu asked Shang Que in a whisper, “How come you’re suddenly here?”

Shang Que’s expression looked like he was ready to fight against any injustices. “I’ve come to see if the pitiful laboratory has cried or not.”

He glanced at Jiao Shanlan, then, in accordance with what he had just heard, spoke with a tone of faint understanding, “I think he might be about to soon.”

Yu Zhengdu was bewildered. He didn’t understand the other’s logic, but also didn’t know how to ask about it. He could only switch topics. “How did you get in?” The security today was tight as could be.

Shang Que calmly stated, “Through the wall.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……” I almost forgot again, Boss isn’t a person.

Next, Shang Que furrowed his brows and asked, “What did you do? How come I heard two people talking behind your back when I walked in?”

Yu Zhengdu thought about it. He wasn’t surprised. “Probably because I’ve made them feel kind of uncomfortable.”

“Oh.” Shang Que actually didn’t care that much. He said, “No matter. Either way, I’ve already made sure that they’re even more uncomfortable.”

Yu Zhengdu immediately became on high alert. “What did you do to them?”

As soon as he finished speaking, a woman’s scream sounded out beside them. It immediately attracted everyone’s attention. Yu Zhengdu turned his head over to look too, and discovered that the cause of the commotion was the two people who had been rebuked by him during the meeting.

Shang Que glanced over as well. He said, “It was these two. They kept talking smack about you.”

Shortly after, the people beside them started whispering, “Those two don’t even have their pants zipped up. Their underwear is showing. Aiya, how, you know……”

Yu Zhengdu looked at Shang Que in shock. “You??!” Boss used these methods to make people uncomfortable?!

Shang Que: !!!!!!

Shang Que almost spat out a mouthful of Underworld energy. He hurriedly waved his hands, “I didn’t!! It wasn’t me!!”

But Yu Zhengdu pieced together the two halves of the story and expressed his extreme suspicion in regards to Shang Que’s denial.

Shang Que angrily expressed, “I only told that guilong to teach those two people a lesson. I didn’t know that this ghost would be so unprincipled! No wonder it hides in the bathroom all day.”

It turned out that while Shang Que was in the middle of passing through the wall to enter the room, he coincidentally heard two people hiding in the corner and talking badly about Yu Zhengdu behind his back. Thus, he followed the two of them into the bathroom, preparing to beat them up. He hadn’t expected for there to be a guilong hiding in this hotel’s bathroom. As soon as it saw the Ghost King appear, it immediately started ingratiating itself to him, saying that it was willing to serve the Ghost King in any way.

Guilongs were a type of ghost that inhabited bathrooms. There were many records of bathroom ghosts. For example, toilet ghosts, leiting, god of sushuang, etc. Among them, guilong was one of the most common. It was also called bei-a guilong. These ghosts typically weren’t harmful, but they had a bad reputation because they enjoyed hiding in bathrooms and playing stinky jokes.

Shang Que was in a rush to find Yu Zhengdu, so gave the task of “teaching a lesson” to the two men to the guilong. In Shang Que’s understanding, teaching a lesson = beating up. But now, it seemed that the guilong had a different understanding.

Yu Zhengdu immediately understood after hearing his explanation. “How indecent, no wonder they have a bad name!”

Shang Que was pissed too. It was fine that the guilong was unprincipled by itself, but he had almost caused Shang Que’s reputation to suffer too.

After cussing out the guilong, Yu Zhengdu suddenly thought about it and realized, “Ey, wait. Guilongs hide in the bathroom, so doesn’t that mean they watch other people use the bathroom everyday?”

Shang Que: “Un, that’s the only hobby guilongs have.”

Yu Zhengdu rolled up his sleeves. “We can’t have that. Voyeurs are voyeurs, we can’t let him off easy just because he’s a ghost.”

Since historical times, an abundance of strange and creepy ghosts existed. Shang Que didn’t think anything of it, but since Yu Zhengdu wanted to go catch the voyeur, he naturally followed.

As soon as the two of them reached the door of the bathroom, they saw Zhao Ruola walk out towing a small child. The child wore black clothing and had his head down; he was wearing a strange, large hat. As she walked, she scolded, “You’re so young but are already peeping on women going to the bathroom. Don’t think that just because I’m pretty I won’t hit a child……”

Shang Que paused in his steps. He told Yu Zhengdu, “That’s the guilong.”

Guilong: was the form of a small child, one and a half feet tall, with a black coat and large red headscarf, carrying a sword and halberd.

Yu Zhengdu pointed at the guilong, then looked at Zhao Ruola strangely. “Erica, you can see this?”

“What do you mean?” Upon hearing this, Zhao Ruola furrowed her brows, but quickly came to a realization. She tugged on the child’s hat to make him lift his face and found that though this child was small, his face looked quite weathered with age.

Zhao Ruola let go in disgust, then calmly said, “You mean I’ve run into another ghost?”

Yu Zhengdu: “Another?”

Zhao Ruola nodded and explained to him. It turned out that starting from a certain day several years ago, she suddenly discovered that something had gone wrong with her eyes. She would occasionally be able to see strange things. At first, she thought that she was hallucinating, but she saw a doctor who found nothing wrong. A long time later, she finally realized that she was able to see ghosts.

This was the first time Yu Zhengdu was hearing about such a situation. He turned around to ask Shang Que in confusion, “Is this considered a natural third eye?”

“No, third eyes mean you can see Underworld creatures from birth. Hers came on later in life.” Shang Que observed Zhao Ruola’s eyes for a moment, then said, “She has mostly likely opened her insight eye.”

Yu Zhengdu didn’t understand. “Insight eye?”

Shang Que nodded. The insight eye was one of the five types of eyes in Buddhism. It was also called the spirit eye. It could see the true form of things; very dedicated Buddhists could achieve it through years of penance.

After hearing this, Zhao Ruola was perplexed. “But I’ve never practiced Buddhism.”

Shang Que’s expression was conflicted. “Actually, regardless of if you are practicing Daoism or Buddhism, the core teaching of both is to erase all the disturbances from the outside world and forget yourself completely. I believe, you probably suddenly made a breakthrough during a single moment when you became hyper focused on your technological experiments. Then, you opened your insight eye.”

Cultivation was based on the comprehension of spiritual roots and being able to remove impure thoughts from one’s mind. Zhao Ruola was intelligent enough and had a strong enough mentality. From a certain perspective, she met these requirements.

Yu Zhengdu snorted. “You can achieve it that way?”

But Zhao Ruola immediately came to a realization. “No wonder. That time I happened to have several projects on my hands. They took a lot of energy. During that period, other than those projects, I didn’t think of anything else. It was after that that I suddenly became able to see ghosts. But it happened on and off. I thought I was hallucinating from the pressure……”

Shang Que said, “This type of insight eye isn’t constant. Normally, it’ll only appear when you’re extremely focused.”

Zhao Ruola nodded. “That’s exactly how it is. Just now it was because I got too into the discussion with singer……”

She stated dejectedly, “But aside from bringing me the trouble of seeing ghosts, this insight eye hasn’t had any positive consequences!”

Shang Que made a noise of acknowledgement. “If this were in the days of cultivation, being able to see the world how it truly was would be a worthy breakthrough. But for the normal humans of today……it can only be considered a pretty useless skill.”

Yu Zhengdu: “Stop talking……cultivators are going to die from anger if you keep talking.”

Some people practiced for their entire lifetimes and weren’t able to gain the insight eye. But she had accidentally made this breakthrough doing science……and was even disdainful of it!