Star Gate

Liu Yan broke into laughter at the young man’s confusion. “I’m joking! You don’t need to accompany the regular missions, but of course you’ll be with us when danger comes. Chief wants you to be in charge of basic administrative work. We have more people on the team and our official structure is complete. We’ll need to handle and file various documents, as well as obtain intelligence for our cases.

“You’ll be the one to compile and assign resources, contributions, the treasury, and others. You’ll be very busy!”

Support work wasn’t any easier, it was just relatively safer. Liu Long could set and portion out rewards for accomplishments when it was just them. But now that they’d joined the Night Watchers, the outsiders might not be satisfied with this set of rules. It would fall to Li Hao to carry out the job.

The young man didn’t say anything when he heard his responsibilities. Support work was support work, he didn’t mind. He’d been shouldering a heavy load of text archival lately. His teacher’s method of text archival was storing all abstruse material in his brain. Li Hao felt his brain grow more numb by the day.

His teacher wanted him on a daily regimen of memorizing new things; he had no choice but to comply. If he had to carry out field duty on top of that, Li Hao felt that he might collapse.

“Let’s go back if you’re finished!” Liu Yan stood up. “We received our documents this morning! The Night Watchers are decently efficient, so the new guys might arrive this afternoon. We should greet them. Your official appointment might arrive then too.”

Li Hao nodded; the two left together. Despite Zhou He’s car being his, it was still at the Inspectorate, so he didn’t have a car for now. Liu Yan had one—it belonged to the Inspectorate. The young man wasn’t aware of whether or not she owned one herself. It was parked at the entrance to the front garden, but could also be driven in if that was the desire.

The surroundings were very lovely. While there were neighbors, they were at least two hundred meters away. Each complex was afforded the maximum privacy possible.

Li Hao and Liu Yan were about to enter their car when a gleaming black sedan stopped in front of them. A man’s head poked out when a window rolled down.

“Captain Liu! What a coincidence to run into you here!” The genteel man seemed thirty years old at most and was easy on the eyes.

Li Hao didn’t recognize him, so he looked at Liu Yan. The woman flashed a smile so dazzling that it gave the young man pause. It was… truly radiant. She walked over before he had time to ask, beaming all the while. Li Hao had no choice but to follow in mystified fashion. Was there a need to be so enthusiastic?

It wasn’t that he had any thoughts toward the vice captain, just his manly ego at play. I will begrudgingly accept you being nice to me, but I’ll be unhappy if you’re nice to anyone else.

Liu Yan reached behind her as his thoughts ran wildly and slapped a pair of handcuffs onto the other’s outstretched hand. “You’re following me!” Her smile vanished.

“Liu Yan, you…” the man retorted hotly. “I live here and happened to run into you! What are you doing?!”

“You’re following me!” Liu Yan repeated coldly. “How can you so coincidentally run into me? I suspect that you have dealings with certain illegal organizations! Come with me to the Inspectorate. With your background, you may know that a Night Watcher branch is about to be established in Silver City. Thus, I have reason to believe that you are conducting reconnaissance on Night Watcher movements. You’re dead meat this time!”

“Don’t try to frame me, Liu Yan!” the man flew into a rage. “Don’t try this with me! You should know when to stop! I said that this is a coincidence…”

“We’ll see about that after you meet the Night Watchers!” Liu Yan snorted. “You can tell me all about it when you make it out alive! Come here, Li Hao, and escort the suspect for questioning!”

The young man was rather confused; his earlier thoughts were nowhere to be found. Only one idea occupied his mind. Was there a need for this?

It was one thing to scare off unwanted attention. It looked like the other was pursuing Liu Yan, but she didn’t welcome his advances. However, it didn’t seem that appropriate to really take them to the Inspectorate.

Despite his doubts, he dared forward, grabbed the handcuffs, and growled, “Out of the car!”

“How dare you!” snarled the man as he turned around to glare at Li Hao. There was none of his earlier ease. If he really was slapped with the crime of prying into Night Watcher movements, he’d have the skin stripped off him, if not more. “Don’t go over the line, Liu Yan…”

“Keep talking tough!” Liu Yan’s expression was frosty. “Keep talking and I’ll take it that you’re resisting arrest. I’ll execute you on the spot!”

The man instantly shut up. A wise man did not fight when the odds were against him. He corralled his temper and grit his teeth. “Fine! I’m sorry! Liu Yan, I wasn’t prying into your affairs, I was just passing by! You know that I live up ahead! Plus, the Night Watcher branch hasn’t been formed yet, so what am I prying into?”

“See, you knew everything as soon as the official documents arrived. What is this, if not prying?”

The man shut up without a word. There was no point in saying anything else.

Liu Yan sneered at him. “Open his handcuffs, Li Hao. But keep an eye on the guy and execute him as soon as he violates proper behavior!”

“Understood!” Li Hao barked before undoing the handcuffs. He quickly followed Liu Yan to the Inspectorate car, using their rearview mirror to train his eyes on the man. The latter’s face contorted with fury and he stared fixedly at them.

……

In the car.

“Sis, who was that?” Li Hao asked curiously.

“Qiao Peng!” Liu Yan responded calmly as she drove. “He lives in the complex ahead of you, keep an eye on his every moment! He has another identity as the vice president of the Qiao Mining Industries. His dad is the boss!”

Qiao Mining Industries! That immediately jogged his memory. “He’s a huge entrepreneur of Silver City, a really rich person. Apparently their company is worth several hundreds of millions… is that true?”

And how were he and Liu Yan at odds with each other?

“There is so much more to Qiao Mining Industries,” Liu Yan said lowly. “They appear to be in the mining industry, but they’re actually in the business of secretly excavating ancient ruins! Qiao Mining Industries has a professional mining team, or should I say a team of robbers and thieves? Granted, the sites of ancient civilizations are not that easily plumbed. I just suspect them of having dealings with a supernatural organization, it might be Red Moon!”

Li Hao frowned. “What makes you say that?” This family business needed to be uprooted if that was the case!

“Qiao Mining Industries has operated for many years and was founded in Silver City. You know our city, there’s nothing here. They say that there’s ore in the mountains outside the city, but bah! Bullshit! I haven’t seen them mine anything over these years, but here they stay without shifting their ass! I didn’t think much about them before, but ever since Red Moon’s attack and the eight families of Silver City came to the forefront, I suspect these guys have something to do with the supernatural organizations!”

Liu Yan paused, then added, “It might not be Red Moon, it could also be Yama!”

Why’d she change her mind? Li Hao found the swing difficult to process.

Liu Yan snorted. “I’m not far from the truth, but it’s all speculation. I have no proof. Chief may have mentioned my affairs to you before. Let’s put it this way. My husband was an engineer for Qiao Mining Industries. He was in charge of random bits and ends. He came home one day to tell me that they’d uncovered something unusual in the mountains, possibly an ancient site. Those were different times then, what ancient sites did Silver City have? I didn’t pay much attention to it…

“He was dead shortly thereafter, murdered! His killer was a captain of the security team. Apparently they had an argument in one of the sites, the guy lost his temper, and smashed my husband dead with a rock!

“I brought a team to arrest him as soon as I heard. The guy fled arrest. When we next heard of him not long after, it was that he’d joined Yama and absorbed enough mysterious power to become a Darkmoon!”

“Sis, are you saying that there’s a connection between Qiao Mining Industries and Yama?” Li Hao frowned. “That they could be Yama territory and here to excavate ancient sites? That tour husband stumbled upon one of their discoveries and was silenced for it?”

“More or less!”

“Then… why don’t you tell the Night Watchers?” Li Hao raised. As useless as the agency seemed, they were the only official supernatural organization.

“Having just offended Red Moon, do you think they can afford to offend Yama?” Liu Yan saw things more clearly than he did. “The Night Watchers may not be as strong as any of the three and they’re already in open hostilities with Red Moon. Can they withstand another fight with Yama? And I might accidentally reveal myself to Yama if I make a report of this. It’ll result in more trouble for myself.”

Li Hao nodded. Upon further consideration, it really wasn’t something to be mentioned. But he doggedly continued forward. “Then… with how you treated the guy today, sis, aren’t you worried that he’ll suspect something?”

“You don’t get it!” Liu Yan suddenly smiled. “He would suspect that I knew something if I ignored him. My sudden antagonism toward him as soon as I join the Night Watchers will actually put him at ease. It’s indirect proof that I don’t know anything. If so, I should be biding my time instead.

“Li Hao, sustained concessions and patience isn’t the best thing sometimes. It might arouse greater suspicion instead,” the vice captain suddenly offered some advice. “You are also the only heir of the eight families of Silver City! I\'ve confirmed it, there is no one alive from the other seven. Those who left for other cities have all died of various accidents.

“Therefore, there must be more secrets in Silver City. I suspect the ruins of the eight families are here. If so, then they might be digging into your ancestral grave, Li Hao!”

The young man regarded Liu Yan wordlessly. Ancestral grave…? Now that sounded awkward.