New Times, New Hell

❤️ Main Relationship

Shang Que (商阙) × Yu Zhengdu (喻争渡)

✨ Introduction

New Times, New Hell (新时代，新地府; now titled 新世纪，新冥界 on JJWXC) is a completed JJWXC novel by Lin Zhiluo (林知落) of 701,610 characters. Programmer Yu Zhengdu takes a job at a strange little company offering "life management services" — and learns at orientation that the firm is the mortal-world office of the underworld, and his beautiful young boss Shang Que was known a thousand years ago as the Ghost King of Mount Luofeng (罗酆山鬼王). What follows is the greatest digital transformation in the history of the afterlife: ghosts chanting "fully modernize underworld operations!", a programmer yelling "make money — IPO — get rich!", and a Ghost King who simply says "whatever my boyfriend says." A razor-sharp satire of startup culture wrapped around a warm supernatural romance.

🌏 Background

A contemporary Chinese city where the underworld has gone corporate: open-plan offices full of ghost employees, KPI dashboards for reincarnation queues, apps for the afterlife, and investors circling the hottest startup in two realms. Behind every meme-worthy slogan sits Lin Zhiluo's precise parody of Chinese tech-industry culture — and a love story between the king who owns the company and the coder who runs it.

🎭 Themes & Tone

The underworld as a tech startup waiting to be optimized
Programmer logic meets thousand-year-old ghost bureaucracy
A Ghost King learning modern love from his employee
Startup-culture satire: IPO dreams, slogans, and KPIs
"Modernization and development" as an actual love language Tone: absurd, clever, and relentlessly funny workplace comedy

👥 Main Characters

Shang Que (商阙) — the gong; beautiful young boss on the surface, Ghost King of Mount Luofeng underneath; ancient power, modern CEO, devoted boyfriend
Yu Zhengdu (喻争渡) — the shou; the programmer hired to digitize the afterlife, ambitious and unflappable, the true engine of underworld modernization
The company's ghost staff — a full cast of dead employees working toward a modernized hell

✨ Iconic Quote

Shang Que（商阙）："欢迎入职人间地府办事处，一千年前，人间称我为，罗酆山鬼王。" / "Welcome to the mortal-world office of the underworld. A thousand years ago, the mortal realm called me the Ghost King of Mount Luofeng."
Ghost employees（众鬼）："全面实现地府工作现代化！" / "Fully modernize all underworld operations!"
Yu Zhengdu（喻争渡）："赚钱——上市——暴富——" / "Make money — go public — get rich—"
Shang Que（商阙）："听男朋友的。" / "Whatever my boyfriend says."
Tagline（一句话简介）："为冥界上市而奋斗。" / "Striving for the underworld's IPO."
Theme statement（立意）："努力实现现代化建设与发展。" / "Strive to achieve modernization, construction, and development."

🎬 Adaptations

Audio Drama: Season 1 (12 episodes) on Missevan (猫耳FM), produced by Langsheng Yaji (琅声雅集); Season 2 also released
Print: published by Jiafei Culture (葭霏文创), May 2022, four volumes