New Times, New Hell

Chapter 79 - Peppa Goose

It turned out that after the Life and Death Accounts backend system and Life Management app became released, Peppa’s reincarnation results rapidly became fixed too. Originally, everyone had been planning to hold a farewell party for her after her reincarnation results came out. Then, they would personally send her to reincarnate.

Unfortunately, when Peppa’s reincarnation results came out, Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que had been in the middle of their Minan business trip. More unfortunately, Peppa happened to be playing next to the Ancient Well Reincarnation Point.

There were many friendly ghosts that knew Peppa at the reincarnation point. Everyone helped Peppa use her tablet to download the app and check – with this, they found out that it happened to be her scheduled reincarnation day that day. The time for reincarnation couldn’t be delayed, otherwise, the reincarnation results later would only get worse and worse. Peppa’s original reincarnation result already hadn’t been great. If she delayed her reincarnation, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Thus, due to the urging of several friendly ghosts, Peppa could only give Kang Jin a quick call before being rushed by everyone to reincarnate.

At first, Kang Jin had wanted to discuss with Yu Zhengdu, but that day, Yu Zhengdu had coincidentally been stuck in the Hungry Ghost Path. He couldn’t be contacted. Additionally, Kang Jin didn’t dare to let Peppa switch times. He could only listen to the system’s notifications and quickly pick up Peppa in her reincarnated form after everything.

“This……is Peppa.” Kang Jin carefully picked up the box with the egg in it and gently set it on the table.

“How……how could this happen……” Yu Zhengdu stared at that fist-sized egg. Temporarily, his emotions became a mess. Though he had already prepared himself ahead of time, knowing for certain that Peppa wouldn’t be able to reincarnate as a human, he had always thought that Peppa ought to reincarnate as a pig, dog, or something else similar. He hadn’t expected at all that she would ultimately become an egg.

A moment later, Yu Zhengdu inhaled deeply. He asked the most important question, “So shouldn’t we be coming up with a plan to hatch Peppa?”

“Don’t worry, we’ve already prepared everything.” As Lu Lingxi spoke, she walked outside and carried a cage back in.

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

In the cage, a fat, white duck was in the middle of flapping its wings. It quacked nonstop.

Yu Zhengdu reached a realization. “So Peppa reincarnated as a duck?”

After brief thought, he realized this was logical. Just now, he had been brainwashed by the company’s chicken warnings, so had assumed that this was an irregularly large chicken egg. Thinking about it now, it was more logical for an egg this size to be the egg of a different species.

“No, a goose.” Kang Jin wiped his face and stated in embarrassment, “Originally, we wanted to catch the goose mother and bring it back to hatch the egg, but……geese are too vicious. We couldn’t win the fight, so could only go to the market and buy a female duck instead.”

Lu Lingxi scoffed. “Not even.” She continued to mock, “Because he was stealing the egg, Kang Jin’s spirit almost became paralyzed because of how hard the goose pecked him.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

Though geese are famous for being aggressive, you guys are still ghosts! Yet you even managed to get pecked in the spirit by a goose. If this got out, how ashamed would you guys be?

He couldn’t help asking, “Why didn’t you guys just buy an incubator?”

Kang Jin, Lu Lingxi: “……”

Kang Jin asked, shocked, “Such things exist?”

As they spoke, they saw the door to the conference room get pushed open. Shang Que walked in and glanced at Yu Zhengdu. He said, “How come you didn’t go to my office after arriving? I brought you breakfast.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

The textbook boyfriend had appeared again.

Before he could say anything, Kang Jin spoke up first. With an exaggerated expression, he praised, “Our Boss is too amazing! He even brought breakfast for his employee!”

He rubbed his hands together and looked at Shang Que expectantly. “So do we get some too?”

Shang Que side-eyed him. “Who are you to me? To dare to want breakfast?”

“Your employee.” Kang Jin glanced at Yu Zhengdu. “The same as him.”

Shang Que scoffed. “You’re the same as him?”

Kang Jin shuddered out of the blue, but he still felt very confused. “Am I not?”

Both employees, both male……

Yu Zhengdu felt that if they continued this conversation, Shang Que would probably be able to confirm the rumors to the rest of the company too. He hurriedly said, “Of course not. You’re bald.”

Kang Jin: “……”

Shang Que glanced at Yu Zhengdu, giving him a gaze that read “relax, I’ll keep the secret.” He nodded in agreement. “Exactly. You’re bald.”

Yu Zhengdu facepalmed. However, there was something more important at the moment. Thus, he couldn’t be bothered worrying about anything else for now. He hurriedly picked up the egg from the desk and held it out in front of Shang Que. As soon as he was about to speak, he saw Shang Que furrow his brows and ask, “Peppa?”

Yu Zhengdu was shocked. He looked closely at the egg, expression admiring. “You can recognize her even in this state?”

Shang Que was silent for a moment. “The aura around the egg is the same as Peppa’s.”

Yu Zhengdu: “Oh.”

He sighed, expression very regretful. “I originally thought that Peppa would reincarnate as a baby pig. Who knew that she actually turned into Peppa Goose.”

Shang Que didn’t have much of a reaction, though. The Six Paths of Reincarnation were nothing special in his eyes. The human path was fine, the beast path was too: both were for a lifetime. To him, being a goose or pig weren’t so different from each other.

He thought about it and said, “Being a goose is nice too. It’ll be easier for us to raise her. If she had reincarnated into a pig, we would’ve had to build a pigsty for her.”

After hearing this, Yu Zhengdu agreed as well. It was hard raising a pig in the city. Additionally, if she happened to grow too big, it would truly be quite troublesome taking care of her.

As such, Peppa’s transformation into a goose wasn’t so hard to accept anymore. Yu Zhengdu very quickly accepted this new reality and garnered up the energy once again to roll up his sleeves and say, “So, next up, we need to first get Peppa to hatch.”

“Have the wet nurse duck do it.” Kang Jin opened the white duck’s cage. Just as he was about to reach a hand in to pick it up, the duck quacked loudly and took the opportunity to viciously peck Kang Jin. It had been stuck in the cage for too long. It flapped its wings and shot out, making “guaguaguagua” noises as it wildly flew around the office.

Yu Zhengdu sighed, “How unexpected. Not only did you lose to a goose, but even a duck can bully you.”

Kang Jin with a pained expression: “Xiao Yu, you absolutely have to help me keep this a secret. I can’t have anyone else at the company finding out that I’m not even a match for a duck……”

“Got it.” Yu Zhengdu compassionately patted him on the shoulder. He pointed his chin at the duck. “Catch the duck and bring it back first.”

Shortly thereafter, the tiny office became Kang Jin and the big white duck’s stage. A duck and a ghost; one ran and the other chased. That duck was extremely strong and nimble, completely capable of flying high and also running low to the ground. In only a moment, the entire room was filled with floating white duck feathers.

Kang Jin honestly couldn’t catch that duck. He could only screech in threat, “Duck, if you’re smart, hurry and get over here yourself. Only then will I ensure that you can live out the rest of your life in peace. However, if you continue running, believe me when I say I’ll turn you into duck soup tonight!”

The big white duck flapped its wings and turned so that its butt was facing Kang Jin: “ga——”.

Yu Zhengdu stuck his hands out regretfully. “Seems like you’ve failed to reach an agreement.”

Kang Jin was incredibly ashamed. He could only say in embarrassment, “This duck has such poor awareness. Who knows if it’ll mess up hatching Peppa. We’d better just switch to an incubator.”

Yu Zhengdu felt disdainful of his intelligence. “Would you even know how to use an incubator if we switched to it?”

Kang Jin: “……”

However, Yu Zhengdu was a bit troubled too. “We don’t have any experience hatching eggs. What will happen if we switch to an incubator but mess up?”

“There’s no need to switch,” Shang Que suddenly spoke. He gazed at the duck who was staring down at them from the top of the cabinet it had jumped onto. “This one is in pretty good health, perfect for hatching Peppa.”

Kang Jin said in embarrassment, “It is in good health, but it isn’t obedient……”

As soon as he finished speaking, Shang Que lifted his chin at the duck. He said, “Get down here.”

Only to see the originally bold and arrogant duck tuck its wings in and agilely jump down. It cautiously waddled towards Shang Que with its webbed feet, then shrunk its head back and gently released a “ga——”.

Everyone: “……”

Shang Que nodded. He glanced at the box on the desk that was holding Peppa’s egg and asked the duck, “Know how to hatch eggs?”

The duck took two tiny steps back, then suddenly stretched out its wings. It lunged forward and directly flew onto the desk before quickly sitting atop the box. It didn’t even find the spot uncomfortable; the duck scooted its head closer to Shang Que ingratiatingly. “Ga——”

Yu Zhengdu was honestly astounded. “Boss, I hadn’t expected that you would be an expert duck trainer!”

Shang Que: “……I only scared it a bit.”

He pointed at Yu Zhengdu and told the duck, “From now on, you need to listen to him too.”

The duck instantly straightened out its neck and nudged its head toward Yu Zhengdu. “Ga——”

Yu Zhengdu reached a hand out and rubbed its round head. “Good duck, good duck.”

Kang Jin became greatly excited after seeing this. He hurriedly reached a hand out to try and pat the duck’s head too. “And me and me.”

Shang Que calmly glanced at him. “You can ignore him.”

Coincidentally, Kang Jin’s hand had just reached the duck’s head. The duck released a loud “ga——” and forcefully pecked his palm.

Kang Jin howled and snatched his hand back, cradling it to his chest. With tears in his eyes, he looked at Shang Que. “Boss, why do you treat me so?”

Shang Que’s gaze fell onto Yu Zhengdu. “You and him……are different.”

Kang Jin: “……” !! Boss is biased!

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

Sigh.

Because Peppa had suddenly turned into a goose, they spent the whole morning in a mess. After finally getting the big white duck under control and getting it to agree to hatch the egg, Shang Que picked up the egg with one hand and Yu Zhengdu’s hand with the other. He said, “Let’s go eat breakfast in my office.”

Yu Zhengdu pulled his hand out of Shang Que’s grasp. “Boss, I have something to tell you.”

Shang Que didn’t pay much attention to this. He turned around and glanced back at the duck. “Keep up.”

Thus, the duck instantly stood up straight. While shaking its butt, it waddled behind them into Shang Que’s office.

As expected, Shang Que’s office was filled with the sumptuous breakfast he had prepared for Yu Zhengdu. As soon as he walked in the door, Shang Que pushed the breakfast in front of Yu Zhengdu. “You eat first. I’ll find a spot for Peppa.”

He walked in a circle around the office. Finally, after some thought, he emptied out the area under the desk. While organizing, he said, “Let’s just hatch her here. This way, you can often come visit. I’ll tell Kang Jin to buy a suitable nest later……”

Yu Zhengdu stared at the breakfast on the table. In total, there were four boxes, all filled with his favorite foods. Only now did he realize that Shang Que had seemingly always been very attentive towards him.

There was an indescribable feeling in Yu Zhengdu’s heart. He watched Shang Que’s busy figure for awhile before finally calling out, “Boss……”

“Ah?” Shang Que poked his head out from under the office desk. He rested his chin on the desk and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Yu Zhengdu: “We can figure out Peppa’s situation later. Sit first……”

“It’s fine. I can sit later too. Peppa’s more important.” Shang Que caressed the goose egg and seriously stated, “We won’t have children in the future. Peppa’s basically our kid. We can’t be careless at all……”

Yu Zhengdu: “……??”

Wait, Boss, how come you’ve already come up with a plot for raising a kid?

The author has something to say:

Shang Que: We’re a happy and complete family!

Yu Zhengdu: Wait a minute. How come I didn’t know about this part of the plot?