Silver City.
The Inspectorate.
Young Li Hao was somewhat slender, with dark circles under his eyes that made him look as if he hadn't slept a wink the night before.
Dressed in the uniform of a Third-Class Inspector, Li Hao stepped into the Inspectorate's office area.
Having joined the Inspectorate only a year ago, Li Hao was still a semi-newcomer with little seniority. Normally, he arrived early to tidy up the office and boil a kettle of water while waiting for the others to show up.
Today, however, he had arrived a bit later than usual, and quite a few people were already there.
Seeing him walk in, a middle-aged woman in uniform sitting at a desk by the door gave him a warm, teasing look. "Xiao Hao, running late today? Look at those dark circles. Were you out having too much fun last night?"
Li Hao flashed a clean, innocent smile and waved his hands in a hurry. "Sister Yu, don't say that! I haven't even found a girlfriend yet. If word gets out, no one will ever marry me!"
"Hahaha, look at you! You've been at the Inspectorate for a whole year and you still can't take a joke!"
The middle-aged woman clearly enjoyed teasing him.
Her eyes held a certain fondness as she laughed heartily before bringing up an old topic again. "Xiao Hao, living alone, you never have time to cook, and eating out isn't clean. Come over to my place for dinner sometime."
Li Hao smiled again, though he still declined politely. "Sister Yu, I really wouldn't want to trouble you."
Before Sister Yu could speak, a burly middle-aged man nearby scoffed and chimed in, "Xiao Hao, you think your Sister Yu just wants to feed you? She's trying to recruit you as her son-in-law! Boy, why do you have to be so dense?"
"Hahaha!"
The office erupted into a burst of laughter.
Having her real intention exposed didn't faze Sister Yu in the slightest. Her eyes widened, and she snapped back cheerfully, "Damn right I am! What's wrong with Xiao Hao? Good character, sharp mind, handsome face—if he became my son-in-law, I'd wake up laughing in my sleep!"
Laughter rippled through the room, but many nodded in agreement.
Quite a few of them thought very highly of the young man.
The burly man who had spoken up didn't mind being scolded, though a hint of regret crept into his voice. "Xiao Hao is great, all right. It's just a shame!"
A shame?
At those words, regret flickered across the faces of the others as well.
Li Hao himself seemed unfazed, offering a bright smile. "Brother Zhou, it was my own choice. What's there to regret?"
The man surnamed Zhou sighed, still lamenting. "You can't look at it that way, Xiao Hao. The Inspectorate is great, and you passed your probation in half a year to become a Third-Class Inspector—that's impressive for anyone else. But if you hadn't dropped out of Silver City Ancient Academy, you would have entered the Inspectorate as a First-Class Inspector the moment you graduated! That's the bare minimum for graduates!"
That remark opened the floodgates, prompting everyone to chime in.
Right behind Li Hao, Chen Na, a stylish young woman who had just walked through the door, immediately joined the conversation. "Exactly! Li Hao, why on earth did you drop out early? Look at us—we couldn't have gotten into the Ancient Academy even if we tried. You only had two years left until graduation! For people like us, grinding from Third-Class to First-Class takes at least five years even if everything goes smoothly. If it doesn't, climbing to First-Class is the best most people can hope for in an entire lifetime!"
Her voice carried a trace of envy for Ancient Academy graduates,
and a touch of regret that Li Hao had dropped out with only two years left just to join the Inspectorate.
When Li Hao first joined, even the Chief of the Silver City Inspectorate had personally checked in on him, urging him to return to his studies and take the exam after graduating if he truly wanted to join.
Unfortunately, though Li Hao was easygoing, polite, and well-mannered, he proved stubborn as a mule on this single issue.
Normally obedient, he simply refused to go back to his studies.
Chen Na even knew that Li Hao's mentor at the Ancient Academy had tried to convince him to stay, insisting he had a bright future ahead of him.
Listening to everyone discuss his choices, Li Hao kept his pleasant smile.
Walking over to the corner, he set the water to boil, replying with a laugh as he busied himself, "Isn't starting from a Third-Class Inspector fine, too? Besides, if I had waited until graduating from the Ancient Academy to join, wouldn't I have missed out on two whole years of getting to know all of you? That would have been the real shame."
"Hahaha, well said!"
The room broke out into laughter again. The words were music to their ears.
Li Hao had a sweet tongue and was young—just turning twenty this year, making him the youngest in the Silver City Inspectorate. On top of that, he was a top student, so hearing his compliments put everyone in high spirits.
First thing in the morning, the office was filled with laughter and cheerful chatter.
No one pressed the matter of his leaving the Ancient Academy any further. Only because Li Hao didn't mind would they mention it at all; dropping out of the Academy was, after all, one of life's greatest regrets.
As for what Li Hao had been thinking back then and why he had made that choice, no one could pry too deeply.
In Li Hao's own words, it was to start earning a salary early—the academy's tuition and living expenses were too high, and he had run out of money.
Yet for a student of the Ancient Academy, could lack of tuition really be the true reason?
The laughter gradually subsided as several Inspectorate superiors arrived.
The Silver City Inspectorate was the headquarters of law enforcement in Silver City.
Aside from headquarters, the Inspectorate had four branch offices across the city. Headquarters itself housed multiple divisions. Li Hao belonged to the Confidential Records Office, which was primarily responsible for archiving case files, reopening cold cases, reviewing unresolved mysteries, taking meeting minutes, and the like.
The Confidential Records Office was not a frontline unit and rarely took part in enforcement operations out in the field.
Of course, when other departments were short-handed, Li Hao and his peers would be temporarily borrowed to help out. By and large, it remained clerical work.
...
With the superiors' arrival, everyone settled into another busy day.
Li Hao did not have a private office. A Third-Class Inspector with only a year of service hardly qualified for one; even Sister Yu and Brother Zhou, who were Second-Class Inspectors, had no such privilege.
Li Hao's desk sat near the restrooms. While there wasn't much of an odor, people were constantly coming and going, making it somewhat noisy. The office veterans never liked sitting here.
Li Hao's desk was pushed up against Chen Na's, placing them face-to-face.
Chen Na had arrived only half a year before Li Hao, making her a newcomer as well. Neither had much seniority.
Soon, however, the Inspectorate would hold another recruitment drive, and the two of them would finally shed the label of rookies.
Li Hao was leafing through some files with his head down when a light tapping came from the desk opposite him. He looked up to find Chen Na resting her chin on the desk, lightly knocking on the wood. Seeing him look over, she gave a radiant smile and whispered, "Li Hao, there's a field assignment coming up. It'll take us out of the city for a whole month. Want to apply? We can go together and have fun for a month—it's super light duty."
Li Hao paused, thought back, and quickly shook his head. "No thanks. Going outside isn't all that great, and... it might not be safe."
"It's totally safe!" Chen Na pouted slightly. "It's just escorting the Silver City Ancient Academy on..."
At that point, she froze. A sudden realization struck her, and looking at Li Hao, an apologetic look crossed her face. "Oh, I almost forgot! You don't want to run into your former classmates and mentor, right? I heard Professor Yuan Shuo is leading the expedition..."
She silently cursed herself for forgetting.
Yuan Shuo—wasn't that Li Hao's former mentor at the Ancient Academy?
Rumor had it the professor had thought very highly of Li Hao. Because Li Hao refused to listen to reason and insisted on dropping out, the professor had reportedly been on the verge of thrashing him. The incident had caused quite a stir at the Ancient Academy, drawing scorn from many students who called Li Hao ungrateful and foolish.
Who was Yuan Shuo?
He was one of the top figures at the Ancient Academy. Countless students desperately wished to study under him, only to be rejected without a second glance.
Li Hao smiled without offering a rebuttal.
Did he really want to avoid them?
Not necessarily.
The outside world exaggerated things; reality was far less dramatic. Professor Yuan was merely disappointed in his decision. Just a few days ago, Li Hao had visited his teacher's home for dinner. How could there be any truth to the rumors that the man wanted to beat him on sight?
Of course, there was no need to explain such things. People would believe whatever they wanted anyway; the more one explained, the messier it became.
*Professor Yuan is leading the expedition...*
Li Hao murmured the thought to himself. Professor Yuan was one of the Academy's foremost scholars. If he was leading a team into the field, the security detail would not be lacking; the Inspectorate and other departments would take every precaution.
He didn't need to worry on that front. Besides, the Inspectorate's involvement would likely amount to nothing more than going through the motions. The ones truly responsible for Professor Yuan's protection wouldn't be small fry from the Inspectorate, but the Night Watchers—an organization he had caught vague wind of over the past year.
The Night Watchers were a law enforcement body similar to the Inspectorate.
However... unlike the Inspectorate, which handled overt, public cases, that organization seemed to deal exclusively with bizarre, unsolved mysteries. Any case the Inspectorate couldn't solve—or had no leads on whatsoever—would be handed over to them.
Outsiders knew nothing of them, and most within the Inspectorate were equally in the dark.
Yet Li Hao worked in the Confidential Records Office, where his primary duties involved archiving case files and tracking cold cases, giving him a faint glimpse into their existence.
*The Night Watchers!*
Li Hao silently repeated the name in his mind. His decision to drop out and start as a humble Third-Class Inspector had everything to do with the Night Watchers. In fact, that had been the main reason all along.
Naturally, he had never told a soul.
The organization was far too mysterious. Before joining the Inspectorate, Li Hao had never heard of it either. It was only through Professor Yuan Shuo that he had learned of its existence—something ordinary people would never know.
Before dropping out, Li Hao had learned one crucial detail: the Inspectorate was actually a direct subordinate agency under the Night Watchers. Outsiders were oblivious, but Li Hao had heard Old Yuan mention in passing that promising talents within the Inspectorate might be selected and funneled upward.
*It's been a year. Now I have a clean background as an Inspectorate native. I wonder when I'll get a chance to make contact with the Night Watchers.*
Urgency tugged at Li Hao's thoughts, but he suppressed it, keeping his expression entirely smooth and neutral.
It shouldn't be long now!
He sensed that trouble might be brewing in Silver City recently, yet the Inspectorate had noticed nothing at all. Before long, only the Night Watchers would be able to handle it.
All he needed now was the right opportunity!