Chapter 258: Chapter 258 – You will never know who stands behind the goddess…
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
“Ring ring ring–”
Standing on the sidewalk of Jinxiu Road, Dai Yuxing trembled as she was quickly put through the walkie-talkie attached to her chest strap.
“This is the command center. It has been 12 minutes after the scheduled contact time. What happened? Over.”
“This is SNH013. Everything is normal. It was my mistake. Over.”
A short while later, Dai Yuxing’s mobile phone rang. She looked at the caller ID displayed and answered the call, “Captain Mei, you are still awake?”
Captain Mei said sternly, “I am on duty tonight. Why didn’t you report back at the scheduled contact time just now?”
Dai Yuxing replied, “It was because I was slightly tired and was not fully alert, so I took a short rest, but I missed the reporting time.”
Captain Mei said sternly, “Dai Yuxing! You are at work now, please take it seriously! If this happens again, your monthly performance evaluation will be affected!”
Dai Yuxing said, “There won’t be a next time. I am really not suited for night duty, and I will be applying not to be on night duty from tomorrow onwards. I will return to my regular Countermeasure duties.”
On the other end of the line, Captain Mei fell silent for a moment. Dai Yuxing could hear him flipping through documents.
“We currently do not have sufficient manpower, you should remain on night duty for a few more nights,” Captain Mei said in a clearly more gentle tone.
“No,” Dai Yuxing replied, “I am unable to function well at night. With my lifestyle for the past 24 years, my work efficiency will certainly be much lower at night.”
“Please find someone more suitable for this task. As an Awakener, I think that I should work at a time more suitable for me. In addition, I will be applying for a day off tomorrow morning. After being on night duty for two days, I am extremely exhausted, and my breathing current is not functioning optimally either.”
Her reasons for applying for leave were completely legitimate—breathing currents were extremely important to Countermeasure Practitioners, and after two days on night duty, it was also time for a rotation in shifts. Captain Mei had no reason to decline and said, “Please return to work as soon as possible.”
“I will,” Dai Yuxing said.
After hanging up the call, Dai Yuxing exhaled a deep breath and tucked her hair behind her ears.
She had a sudden awareness of how silly she was in the past. Why did she agree to take on such a task like night duty, when the reversal of day and night was one of the biggest enemies of women?
Furthermore, why was she on the sidewalk of Jinxiu Road? That was not even her patrol area.
As a Countermeasure Practitioner and also an Awakener, Dai Yuxing was essentially responsible for the entire area of Century Park. It was not only because there was a lack of Countermeasure Practitioners who could be scheduled for night duty, but also because the Countermeasure System dispatched the Park Night Duty Forces because they believed in the existence of the Food Goddess.
However, that was a decision made by the Countermeasure System as a whole, and the responsibility fell on the individual Countermeasure Divisions of each city to carry out the plan. The various Countermeasure Divisions all did not think that the Food Goddess would appear so coincidentally in their respective areas, so they were only willing to dispatch the minimum number of Practitioners required for the night duty, considering that everyone else had a lot of work to do in the day.
Dai Yuxing shook her head and was about to continue patrolling along the original planned route. At that moment, however, she saw an SUV suddenly stopping by the roadside. She could not tell the brand of the SUV—she was a girl who did not even have a driving license, and neither did she have any interest in those four-wheel machines.
A man in a suit who appeared slightly frail stepped out of the car. When he saw Dai Yuxing, he was momentarily stunned, and the look on his face changed slightly intriguingly as he seemed to notice the black vest that Dai Yuxing donned. He took the initiative to nod at Dai Yuxing, then walked into Century Park.
Why did he come to the park so late at night?
Dai Yuxing felt that it was strange, but did not think much into it. She was not a policeman and was not interested to follow him either.
Continuing her patrol around Century Park, Dai Yuxing soon came to the memorial statue of Li Bai. There, she saw an old woman walking along with a cane in her hand. She quickly went forward and asked, “Ma’am, it’s already very late, are you not returning home? Where is your family?”
The old woman stammered in reply, “Oh, I couldn’t sleep, so I came out for a walk.”
Dai Yuxing looked around. Although the park was a little quiet at night, it was still relatively safe. She voluntarily leaned closer and asked, “Would you like me to support you?”
“It’s fine, it’s fine, you should carry on with what you need to do,” the old woman replied.
Dai Yuxing watched as the old woman walked towards the fountain. She shivered as she touched her hands and muttered to herself, “It’s no wonder why she wore so many layers of clothes, her hands are so cold.”
After patrolling for some time, Dai Yuxing saw a dog with its fur glistening run past her and thought, ‘Don’t dogs sleep at night?’
The dog also seemed to notice Dai Yuxing’s gaze. It turned back to look at her, its eyes moving cleverly. It had gray fur on its white body, and it ran so fast it disappeared from sight in an instant.
Subsequently, as Dai Yuxing patrolled Central Park, she realized that there were actually many people—both male and female, young and old, who walked around the park at night. However, they came and left in a hurry, and occasionally, some people who saw Dai Yuxing would even intentionally take a longer route to avoid her.
Nonetheless, Dai Yuxing did not suspect anything: It was already 3 o’clock in the middle of the night, and any ordinary person would be extremely wary of meeting other strangers in the park, even if the stranger was a girl. A girl who dared to wander around in the middle of the night, and yet was not drunk, either had to be stronger than an average man, or was otherwise larger-sized than a typical guy.
1It was only when Dai Yuxing happened to walk over to the lake that she faintly felt that something was amiss. She saw a food cart next to the music fountain on the opposite side of the lake, where many customers were sitting on the chairs in front of the stall and eating their supper silently. There were even people queueing up to eat.
Dai Yuxing was momentarily stunned, but she did not feel that something was amiss and simply walked away. She was not a personnel of the Urban Environmental Management Agency, and she was also not interested in going over for supper as she was still full.
Dai Yuxing thought to herself, ‘Is the food stall so popular that so many people are willing to come over specially for supper?’
At that juncture, she saw a strange movement on the other side of the lake. One of the diners walked over to the open space beside the stall, and the female stall owner who was running the food cart also followed suit, coming face-to-face with the diner.
The next moment, the female stall owner slapped the diner twice with a speed fast enough to leave an afterimage. Then, the diner knelt down on the ground and took something out from his chest pocket to pass to the female stall owner.
‘Was he trying to get a free meal when he is so weak?’ Dai Yuxing thought.
However, at that juncture, she was attracted by the female stall owner. A strange but pleasant feeling somehow arose in her heart. She thought, ‘She is so beautiful and so cute, even when she hit the man. She also looks very cute when she is collecting money, and even more so when she is cooking!’
Although that was what she thought, Dai Yuxing still had no intention to eat head over for supper.
That was an extremely strange feeling. It felt like she had already eaten her fill at a buffet, and no longer wanted to walk over to the food area, no matter how delicious the food appeared.
Moreover, not only did Dai Yuxing feel full, her mind and body also felt extremely satisfied.
Her heart told her that she did not need the food and that she did not need to head over.
After patrolling for another half an hour, the watch Dai Yuxing wore on her left wrist vibrated slightly, reminding her that it was now 4 a.m. It was the scheduled contact time, so she took the initiative to dial through her walkie-talkie:
“This is SNH013, over.”
“This is the command center. Is there anything abnormal during your patrol? Over.”
“Everything is norm…”
Dai Yuxing suddenly stopped midway through her sentence as she turned to look in the direction of the music fountain.
A wave of memories surged over her, and she was stunned. After a long while, she took out her flare gun, and indeed, there was one less flare in the barrel.
“SNH013, please continue your report, over.”
Dai Yuxing took a deep breath and quickly ran to a spot where she could see the music fountain. However, the stall with a large crowd, which had still been operating half an hour ago, was gone. There was not even a single piece of trash on the ground left behind.
She said, “I met the Food Goddess from the Heavenly Palace, but she has already left. Over.”
“What?” the person from the command center remarked. He was momentarily at a loss for words, and after three seconds, he probed, “Please describe the situation.”
“I encountered the food cart of the Food Goddess beside the music fountain of Century Park at Jinxiu Road. I sat down for a meal, but I completely neglected that segment of my memories until she left.”
Dai Yuxing looked up at the night sky. Although the stars could barely be seen in the night sky of Shenhai City due to light pollution, the moon—and only the moon—was quite clearly visible.
It was a third-quarter moon that night. Dai Yuxing looked at the bright moonlight and said, “Just like what was mentioned in the notice, the Food Goddess is a beautiful lady with black hair and an Asian appearance. The food she serves is not restricted by her tools and ingredients.”
With an admiring tone, Dai Yuxing said:
“She is a kind and considerate person who understands people well. She is an elegant woman with a strong affinity with people, able to make people open up to her. Her smile is able to dissolve the walls in one’s heart, and her food is able to relieve people of their burdens. She is just like the moon, able to make people put their guard down.”
“Beneath her beautiful appearance, I saw a fairy with a pure heart and great virtue.”
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