# 1770
Chapter 1770: Dumplings
"Sorry, I'm late." Chen Han sat down in his seat, smiling apologetically.
"It's fine, we still have a few minutes before the meeting starts." Shao Pingge glanced at the other side of the round table. "Besides... isn't there someone else who hasn't arrived yet?"
"He just called me. He said he's with the Commander and should arrive together." Wu "Old Dog," draped in a black cloak, sat on the other side and spoke slowly.
After Lin Qiye's promotion to Commander-in-Chief, he reorganized and integrated the original six major departments into seven. The vacant position of Special Operations Department Director was supposed to be taken by Wang Mian, former captain of [Mask Squad], but since he had recently been deployed to the Mist on assignment, Wu "Old Dog," captain of [Medium], was serving as acting director.
"So what exactly is this emergency meeting about?" Yuan Gang, seated in the position for the Materials Management Department Director, asked in confusion.
"Unknown... let's wait for the Commander to arrive."
Another three minutes or so passed before the conference room doors were pushed open.
Walking at the front was the seventh Commander-in-Chief of the Great Xia Night Watch, Lin Qiye... Behind him was the director of the newly established "Special Secrets Department" four years ago, Wu Quan.
This brand-new department was one of Lin Qiye's major initiatives after taking office. It was called the "Special Secrets Department," but in reality, it was a special department dedicated to managing "Divine Beasts." Besides Wu Quan, all department members were "Divine Beasts."
A large portion of them were originally caretakers from the Asylum of the Gods. Since there were no patients in the hospital except for [Chaos], these caretakers had nothing to do while staying there. Thus, Lin Qiye had Seraph's avatar summon them all out.
Of course, maintaining the summoning magic for hundreds of caretakers required consuming a massive amount of divine power, so Lin Qiye usually kept the Seraph's avatar in "hibernation" in space. Only in emergencies would he activate it.
As for the other members of the department, they were "Divine Beasts" controlled by Wu Quan using [Dominion Emperor]. Besides Lin Qiye, only he could manage a department composed of so many "Divine Beasts" at once. This directorial position was naturally his for the taking.
Since the establishment of the Special Secrets Department, Wu Quan had been continuously deploying "Divine Beasts" to various locations throughout Great Xia, helping local Night Watch teams in difficulty combat native "Divine Beasts," achieving the effect of "using foreigners to control foreigners."
This subversive measure greatly alleviated the pressure on Night Watch teams in various cities and reduced the workload of special squads. It was precisely for this reason that Lin Qiye could抽出 [Knight] and [Demon] two teams to jointly fulfill the duty of exploring the Mist.
After Wu Quan took his seat at the round table, all seven high-ranking officials of the Night Watch were present.
Shao Pingge, Yuan Gang, Chen Han, Wu Quan, Wu "Old Dog"... Among the seven, five were familiar faces. The other two were veteran cadres who had followed the previous Commanders Ye Fan and Zuo Qing, extremely reliable, and they represented the peak strength of the current Night Watch.
"Commander Lin, what urgent matter did you call us here for?" One of the veteran cadres couldn't wait to ask.
"I plan to hold an event."
"What event?"
Lin Qiye's gaze swept across everyone, speaking word by word:
"The God Hunting Festival."
...
Cangnan City,
Peace Affairs Office.
"The God Hunting Festival?"
Upon hearing these four words, Hongying's eyes filled with confusion. "What's that?"
"This notice says it's a celebration specially held to commemorate humanity cumulatively hunting nine deities... The date is three days from now, and the location is Chennan Pass. It requires each Night Watch squad with five members or fewer to send one person for the ceremony. Squads with more than five members must send two, with junior members given priority."
Wen Qimo finished reading the contents of the notice, his expression somewhat odd.
"Celebrating the hunting of nine deities... and throwing a whole festival for it? This doesn't seem like Qiye's style."
"What's wrong with it?" Hongying's eyes sparkled. "It's a festival! The Night Watch hasn't held any festival in nearly ten years, not even a decent group activity. It's unbearably boring... Qiye thinking to hold a festival is him securing benefits for the Night Watch!"
Wen Qimo rubbed his chin with one hand, deep in thought. "That's true... over all these years, various Night Watch squads have only operated within their own cities, rarely encountering such group activities. Hosting one occasionally would also benefit overall cohesion."
"Qimo."
"Hm?"
"I'm quitting Squad 136!" Hongying declared resolutely.
Wen Qimo rolled his eyes and said impatiently, "Can you calm down? Even if you wanted to apply to leave the squad now and then have me recruit you again, you wouldn't count as a newcomer... This time's festival, the two of us definitely can't go."
Hongying let out a wail, slumping on the table dejectedly as if she'd lost her soul.
"...If you want to go that badly, just call Qiye, right? He's the Commander-in-Chief now. Arranging one more spot for us would be simple." Wen Qimo suggested.
"That won't do. Qiye is Commander-in-Chief now. Always asking him to pull strings for us would affect his authority." Hongying immediately rejected this proposal.
Her gaze fell on the other young members, and after much deliberation, she spoke with visible reluctance:
"Still... let's give this opportunity to the young people!"
Wen Qimo nodded. "Our squad currently has seven members, so we need to send two people... Jia Shasha, Zhen Xiaoyi, you two go."
At this moment, a pair of seventeen or eighteen-year-old boy and girl raised their heads in bewilderment.
"We...?"
"That's right." Wen Qimo said matter-of-factly. "One of you came as a newcomer last year, and the other just graduated from training camp this year... You two are perfect for this."
Hongying blinked and leaned close to Wen Qimo's ear, whispering:
"Shasha is timid, and Xiaoyi is shy and introverted. Are you sure they'll be fine going to such a big event by themselves?"
"That's precisely why they need the experience." Wen Qimo said seriously. "Besides, Qiye is Commander now. With him there, are you still worried something might happen to them?"
"That's true..."
Hongying nodded, then seemed to remember something. She hastily pulled out several large bags of dumplings from the refrigerator and placed them before Jia Shasha and Zhen Xiaoyi.
"I almost forgot—last New Year I made a special batch of dumplings for Qiye and they've been sitting here ever since. You two bring them to him at the festival, and tell him to come home for dinner when he has time." Hongying clapped her hands together.
Jia Shasha and Zhen Xiaoyi exchanged a glance and asked cautiously:
"Hongying-jie... who exactly is this 'Qiye' you're talking about?"
"He's the current Commander-in-Chief of the Night Watch, Lin Qiye!" Hongying said matter-of-factly.
This naive and innocent young boy and girl looked at the mountain of frozen dumplings piled before them, their entire bodies struck as if by lightning!