Disappearance

"This chaos—who knew how much longer it would last."

Chen Mu murmured inwardly.

Back when his status was low, the circles he could access were limited. Now that he was a head runner and could casually converse even with Min Baoyi, he naturally knew far more.

Take Jade City, for instance. It had basically slipped entirely free of the imperial court's control. The reason it still maintained an order that resembled normalcy was that the great Lineages of the Inner City had reached an unspoken understanding with one another.

The sky grew darker still.

Chen Mu quickened his pace.

He was not worried about encountering any danger, but as he swiftly crossed several streets and alleys, a gray shadow suddenly flashed past and lunged straight at his face.

Chen Mu moved quickly. With a raised hand, his Yamen Saber left its sheath. A flash of blade light split the gray shadow in two, and amid spraying blood, it fell to the ground.

It was a massive Gray-haired Rat.

Chen Mu slowly lowered his Yamen Saber and shook his head at the two halves of the rat's corpse, which still twitched faintly. A Gray-skinned Rat this large could actually still appear these days. Who knew what it had eaten to grow so big? It had even dared to attack a person.

As Chen Mu pondered slightly, a chorus of squeaks came from nearby. Seven or eight little rats, each no larger than half a fist, crawled out from cracks he knew not where and pounced directly upon the large rat's corpse, gnawing at it heedlessly with crunching sounds.

The sight made Chen Mu deeply uncomfortable.

He sheathed his Yamen Saber and left swiftly.

By the time the sky had completely darkened into night, Chen Mu finally returned home. He knocked on the door and called out twice, and only then did the old servant cautiously open it from within.

"Master."

Seeing that it truly was Chen Mu outside, the old servant fully opened the door and carefully bowed.

Chen Mu stepped over the threshold and said, "Nothing happened today, did it?"

People still came to visit him fairly often. Other Head Runners such as Wang Gong would sometimes come looking to drink with him, though he generally turned down any invitation he could.

As the old servant shut the door, he cautiously reported the events of the day. Chen Hong had come looking for him today, apparently with some business, but Chen Mu had already left for the Inner City at the time.

"You didn't ask what it was?"

Hearing that Chen Hong had come by, Chen Mu asked.

Lowering his head, the old servant said, "How would this old servant dare pry into Master's affairs?"

"Mm. Fine, we'll discuss it tomorrow."

Chen Mu nodded and headed toward the Inner Courtyard. But just as he reached the entrance leading into it, a scream came from within, tinged with terror and tears.

Whoosh!

Chen Mu's expression changed slightly. He quickened his steps in an instant and darted into the Inner Courtyard, where he saw Wang Ni retreating again and again in fright. Before her was a Gray-skinned Rat at least the size of two fists, poised as though ready to pounce.

The moment he saw the scene, Chen Mu relaxed. He had thought something serious had happened. He immediately raised his hand and flung out a blade, severing the massive Gray-skinned Rat's head from its body. Its limbs twitched wildly for a moment.

"Clean it up."

Chen Mu instructed the old servant.

The old servant hurriedly acknowledged and went to clear it away.

Chen Mu then looked at the still-shaken Wang Ni and said with an amused smile, "I thought something had happened. How could this thing frighten you so badly?"

How could a child from a poor family possibly never have seen a rat? Even if she was a young girl, she should not have been scared stiff by one.

"I... I..."

Wang Ni's face was still pale. She stammered for a while before finally catching her breath and muttering, "I've never seen one so big. And... and it even chewed up the broom."

Mm.

It did seem rather large—about the same size as the one he had encountered in the alley earlier.

At Wang Ni's words, the smile faded from Chen Mu's face. He frowned slightly. Gray-skinned Rats of this size were not particularly rare, but encountering two in a single day was a bit too much.

Together with that nest of little rats from before, it gave him a faintly bad feeling.

Could the Outer City be about to suffer a Rat Plague?

But in times like these, poor households had no grain to feed rats. Those rats might even end up on the dining table themselves. Besides, this was a world where martial force existed, unlike his previous life. He was probably worrying over nothing.

With that thought, Chen Mu shook his head, walked over, and patted Wang Ni's little head. "All right, go back to your room. It's fine now."

Wang Ni nodded timidly, then followed Chen Mu into the room. She helped him out of his clothes, fetched water for him to wash his feet, and after finishing her work, still seemed unsettled by what had just happened. Chen Mu thus told her to rest on the small couch beside him.

After Chen Yue went to the Inner City, Wang Ni had stayed here with him, sleeping on a small couch outside. On the one hand, she was young, timid, and easily frightened; on the other, that small couch outside had originally been where maidservants rested.

Chen Mu had not cared much about such things, but Chen Yue said that when the household was small, it did not matter. Yet if Chen Mu rose step by step in the future and the number of servants in the household increased, they would still need proper, orderly rules. Chen Mu had therefore accepted Chen Yue's arrangement.

The next day.

Dawn had barely broken.

Chen Mu had just awakened and finished a simple wash when the old servant came to report that Chen Hong had arrived.

"Looks like something really is wrong."

Chen Mu pondered slightly, had the old servant invite her in, and went out to receive her himself.

Soon, Chen Hong entered the courtyard with worry written all over her face and immediately said, "Little Mu, You Ying went missing yesterday. We searched all day and never found her. She didn't return even by nightfall. In times like these, for a young girl... do you think you could help find her?"

"She's gone missing?"

Chen Mu was slightly startled, then said, "Third Aunt, don't panic yet. Let me make some inquiries for you."

These days, people going missing was as commonplace as a meal. Forget women—even men with slightly delicate features could vanish. For ordinary households, once someone disappeared, they had essentially vanished for good, never to be found again.

But for families with some power and influence, it was still possible to find someone. Chen Mu, for example, had at least several avenues available to him. Still, she had been gone for a full day and night, so the situation was likely not good. Even so, all he could do for now was comfort Chen Hong.

Before long.

Chen Mu changed into his City Guard uniform, left Chen Hong at home to await news, and went directly to the City Guard.

After making a few inquiries at the City Guard, what he learned made him frown. Disappearances had been occurring with remarkable frequency lately, beginning roughly two or three months ago.

When poor commoners and ruined households came to report missing persons, the City Guard generally only recorded the cases and symbolically sent someone out to patrol once. But in truth, they merely wandered around casually and were not actually searching for anyone. They paid little attention to such matters.

"The number of disappearances has increased this much over the past two or three months?"

Chen Mu studied the case register in his hand, then said, "Come on. Bring a few men and follow me to the Thieves Guild. Let's ask around."

Among the three teachings and nine professions, where fish and dragons mingled together, there were those who specialized in trafficking people. Someone abducted from the South District to the east side of the city could immediately go from an honest citizen to a slave or a member of the lowly class. The City Guard often turned a blind eye to such things.

To put it bluntly,

They had accepted benefits from those people as well, and both sides maintained an unspoken understanding.

If the other side seized someone they should not have—someone with a bit of backing, or someone whose family had found the right connections—then the City Guard would go to the Thieves Guild to investigate and demand answers. Under normal circumstances, there was still a chance of getting them back.

But that was a trail left by the Thieves Guild's kidnappers. If it was someone like Wei Lun, randomly seizing people and acting on his own, it was often very difficult to investigate unless the entire City Guard's network of informants was mobilized to conduct a meticulous search, one by one.