Chapter 1 – Inspection Division

Silver City

Inspection Division

Li Hao is a youngster that is slender looking with dark under eyes, he looked as if he had stayed up all night.

Wearing his uniform for 3rd Grade Inspection Officer, he stepped into the inspection office.

As someone who has only been with the Inspection Division for one and a half years, Li Hao doesn’t have much experience. He’ll usually arrive slightly earlier to do some simple cleaning in the office, followed by boiling of some drinking water and proceed to wait for his colleagues.

However, Li Hao arrived slightly later than usual today. Currently, there are already several people in the office.

At the sight of Li Hao stepping into the office, a middle-aged woman who is wearing similar looking uniform at the reception table called out enthusiastically in a joking manner, “Xiao Hao, you’re late today. Your dark circles are noticeable, did you go drinking last night?”

Li Hao hurriedly waved his hands with a pure and naïve smile, “Sister Yu, don’t sprout nonsense, I do not have a girlfriend yet. If this rumor starts to spread, nobody will want to marry me in the future!”

 “Hahahaa, kiddo, you’ve been here for a year and is still unable to handle this kind of conversation.”

It seems like middle-aged woman loves to make fun of Li Hao.

Looking at his eyes with slight differences, and with a hearty laugh, she brought up an old topic, “Xiao Hao, since you usually do not have the time to cook for yourself, plus eating out isn’t that hygienic, come over to my place for a meal later on.”

Although Li Hao broke into a smile once again, ultimately, he still rejected her offer. “Sister Yu, I do not want to trouble you.”

Before Sister Yu can reply, a middle-aged man sneered and interjected, “Xiao Hao, did you really think that she’s really inviting you over for dinner? She’s asking you to be her son-in-law! You little rascal, you can’t even pick up the cue!”

“Hahahaa!”

In an instant, the whole office was filled with laughter.

After her motive was exposed, instead of feeling embarrassed, Sister Yu cursed with her glaring eyes, “It’s something I’m willing to do! Xiao Hao is an amazing guy with good character, good brain, and good looks. If he is my son-in-law, I’ll even smile in my dreams!”

A number of them nodded in agreement after she said that.

There are many who thought highly about Li Hao.

The middle-aged man who was scolded for interrupting earlier wasn’t affected at all, on the contrary, he regretfully said, “Xiao Hao is not bad, but it’s a little regretful!”

Regretful about what?

As soon as he said this, everyone showed a regretful expression on their face. 

However, the person himself did not mind, and with a bright smile, “Brother Zhou, it is my decision, what’s there to be regretful about?”

The man with the surname Zhou was still feeling a little regretful, he sighed “You can’t say that. The Inspection Division is not bad, you’re converted into a full-timer within half a year, and you’re also a 3rd grade Inspection Officer now, to outsiders, this isn’t bad. However, if you didn’t drop out from Silver City Ancient College and still chose to join The Inspection Division upon graduation, the lowest rank you’ll be offered will be 1st Grade Inspection Officer in the least!”

Upon this remark, everyone started to give their opinions.

Behind Li Hao, the young and hot looking Chen Na who just stepped into the office intercepted the conversation, “That’s true. Li Hao, why did you drop out of school for no apparent reason? Look at us, we can’t even get ourselves enrolled into the Silver City Ancient College, but for you, you can graduate from there in just another two years. For us as 3rd Grade Inspection Officers who want to be promoted to 1st grade, it’ll take at least five years of hard work if we’re lucky, else, it’s not that bad either if we are able to be promoted till 1st grade before we retire!”

There’s a hint of envious in those words, but the envy is towards the graduates of the Silver City Ancient College.

There’s a hint of regret too, the regret towards the remaining two years Li Hao has to complete before graduation, but he chose to drop out of school out of the blue and join the Inspection Division instead. 

When Li Hao just started working at the Inspection Division, even the Director came to enquire and advise Li Hao to complete his studies before joining again.

Although the young and courteous Li Hao is someone easy to communicate with, unfortunately, he’s rather obnoxious when it comes to this matter.

The usual obedient Li Hao didn’t agree to resume his studies.

Chen Na also knows that even his lecturers at Silver City Ancient College had high hopes for him and had tried to dissuade him from dropping out of school too.

Li Hao continues to maintain a smile on his face while watching everyone discussing about his affairs.

He walked over to the corner of the office and started to boil the water. He replied with a smile while his hands are still moving, “It’s not that bad to start as a 3rd Grade Inspection Officer. Furthermore, if I were to join after graduating from the Silver City Ancient College, I would have missed out 2 years from knowing everyone here. That’ll be truly regretful.”

“Hahahaa, you’re right!”

Everyone burst into laughter as this sooth their heart.

Li Hao who just turned 20 this year is young and is good with words. He is considered the youngest at the Inspection Division, moreover, he is also a scholar. Therefore, everyone feels good from his flattery.

The Inspection Division’s office is filled with laughter early in the morning.

Everyone stopped talking about the matter of Li Hao dropping out of Silver City Ancient College. The reason they are able to bring this matter up is because Li Hao himself isn’t bothered by it. Ultimately, dropping out from Silver City Ancient College is one’s greatest regrets.

With regards to what his considerations are at that time and reasons for that decision, nobody probes any further.

According to Li Hao, he dropped out because he ran out of money from the costly school fees and high expenditure cost, therefore, he wanted to start earning.

But, as a student of that college, can the cost of school fees be the real reason?

The laughter gradually died down upon the arrival of several department heads from the Inspection Division.

The Silver City Inspection Division is the headquarters for the Silver City Law Enforcement institution.

Other than the office at the headquarter, the Inspection Division has other branches around Silver City too.

There are several departments within the headquarters. The Confidential Chamber that Li Hao is in focuses on filing of the case files, revival of old cases, retrial of unresolved cases, minutes of meeting etc.

The Confidential Chamber does not work in the frontline and has minimal participation with regards to external law enforcement works.

If the other departments are understaffed, they’ll also get Li Hao to help. To summarize, it is an administrative role.

……

Following the arrival of several department heads, everyone commenced another busy day.

As a 3rd grade novice who is barely here for more than a year, Li Hao does not have a private office, and he does not have the qualification yet. Even though Sisten Yu and Brother Zhou are 2nd Grade Inspection Officers, they do not have the qualification either.

Although Li Hao’s workstation is near the restroom, it doesn’t have much of a foul smell. Other than the heavier human traffic as well as being slightly noisier compared to other areas, it is a spot that is loathed by the older staff in the office.

Li Hao’s workstation is connected and is directly facing Chen Na’s workstation.

Chen Na is more senior than Li Hao by half a year, thus, is also a newbie with not much experience.

However, they will be able to shred the name of newbies soon when the Inspection Division starts recruiting.

Li Hao was reading some cases with his head lowered when he heard a sound coming from the opposite table. When he looked up, he saw Chen Na lying on the table while lightly tapping on it. When Chen Na saw Li Hao looked over, she smiled brilliantly and said in a low voice, “Li Hao, there’ll be an expedition mission in the Inspection Division, we can get out of the office for a month, do you want to apply? Let’s go together and have fun for a month, it’s a simple mission.”

Li Hao was slightly startled, but after thinking about it, he shook his head and replied, “Not going, there’s nothing good from going out anyway, besides… it’s unsafe too.”

“It is very safe!”

Chen Na was a little glum, “it’s just accompanying the Silver City Ancient College…”

She was somewhat startled when she said till there as if something came to her mind. She looked at Li Hao as thou enlightened, and apologetically said, “Oh, I’ve almost forgotten about this matter! Do you have any classmates or lecturers from the past that you do not want to meet? I think the one that’s leading the expedition team this round will be Professor Yuan Shou…”

She cursed herself quietly for overlooking this matter.

Yuan Shou, isn’t he Li Hao’s professor back at the college?

It was said that he had thought highly of Li Hao in the past, but when Li Hao didn’t take his advice and insisted on dropping out of school, he wanted to hit Li Hao, which caused a lot of disturbance at the college. On top of that, there were also students who reprimanded Li Hao for not appreciating the professor’s kindness shown to him.

Who is Yuan Shou?

He is one of the top executives at the Silver City Ancient College. There are countless students who wish to be taught by him, but for Li Hao, he doesn’t even care.

Li Hao didn’t refute and just smiled back.

Do not want to meet?

It’s not that extreme.

The rumors spread like wildfire, but the truth isn’t that exaggerating. Professor Yuan was only feeling regretful for my decision. I just visited Professor Yuan a few days ago at his place and we had dinner together. It isn’t as exaggerated as what others rumored about them breaking into a fight they meet.

Of course, there are certain things that don’t need to be explained. As long as the public is happy, it doesn’t matter how the public spread the rumors. The more one explains, the more bothersome it is.

“Professor Yuan leading the team…”

Citing quietly in my heart, I concluded that the security would be fairly decent if Professor Yuan is the one leading the expedition team. As he is one of the top executives at the college, the Inspection Division and other departments will do their best in taking precautions.

I don’t have to worry about anything. If the Inspection Division is participating, most likely I’ll just be an errand boy. The one who will be in-charge of Professor Yuan’s safety will be the rumored Night Watcher that I’ve heard vaguely during my time here over the past year.

The Night Watcher is a law enforcement division like the Inspection Division.

However… the cases they are in-charge of are different from the Inspection Division. It seems that they are mainly handling suspicious and unresolved cases. Basically, cases that the Inspection Division is unable to settle, will be handed over to them.

Outsiders do not understand, even most people from the Inspection Division are unclear about this too.

But for Li Hao who works in the Confidential Chamber that’s managing the documentation of cases, he has a faint idea of what suspicious and resolved cases are.

“Night Watcher!”

Li Hao quietly murmured in his heart. His decision to drop out of school to be a 3rd Grade Inspection Officer here is largely related to the night watcher. In fact, half of his motives are towards them.

Naturally, nobody knows about this.

This division is very secretive. Li Hao had never heard about them before he joined the Inspection Division, but he got to know about their existence through Professor Yuan, so it’s impossible for ordinary people to know about them.

Before he dropped out from college, there’s something that he found out about them. The Night Watcher reports directly to the Inspection Division. According to Professor Yuan, they scout promising candidates from the Inspection Division if there is any.

“It’s been a year since I started from the Inspection Division, I wonder if I have the chance to come in contact with the Night Watcher.”

It shouldn’t be long!

He can sense that there’s a problem that’s slowly brewing in the Silver City. It didn’t catch the attention of the Inspection Division, perhaps, just let the night watcher handle it.

An opportunity is the only thing left at this moment!