Missing

"I wonder how long this chaos will last."

Chen Mu murmured to himself.

Before, his status was low and his understanding wasn't high enough. Now, as a Yamen Runner Captain, he can casually chat with Min Baoyi, and naturally knows more.

For example, Yu City has basically completely broken away from the control of the imperial court. The reason it still maintains a seemingly normal order is the result of a tacit understanding between the major families in the Inner City.

The sky grew darker.

Chen Mu quickened his pace.

He wasn't worried about encountering any danger, but as he quickly passed through several streets, a Gray Shadow suddenly flashed past, pouncing towards his face.

Chen Mu reacted quickly, raising his Yamen Saber and drawing it. A flash of saber light, and the Gray Shadow was instantly split in two, falling to the ground with a splash of blood.

It was a huge Gray-haired Rat.

Chen Mu slowly lowered his Yamen Saber, looking at the two halves of the Gray-skinned Rat's corpse still twitching slightly, and shook his head slightly. In this day and age, such large Gray-skinned Rats can still appear. He wondered what they ate to grow so big, even daring to attack people.

Just as Chen Mu was pondering, a series of squeaks came from nearby. Seven or eight small rats, only half the size of a fist, emerged from some cracks and pounced on the corpse of the large rat, gnawing at it regardless, making crunching sounds.

The scene made Chen Mu feel uncomfortable.

He sheathed his Yamen Saber and quickly left.

As the sky completely darkened, entering the night, Chen Mu finally returned home. He knocked on the door and called out twice before the Old Servant cautiously opened the door from the inside.

"Master."

Seeing that it was indeed Chen Mu outside the door, the Old Servant fully opened the door and carefully bowed.

Chen Mu stepped over the threshold and said, "Anything happen today?"

Usually, people would often come to visit him, such as Wang Gong and other Yamen Runner Captains, sometimes coming to him for a drink, but he would decline them whenever possible.

The Old Servant closed the door while carefully recounting the events of the day. Chen Hong had come to see him today, seemingly with something to discuss, but he had already gone to the Inner City at that time.

"Didn't you ask what it was about?"

Chen Mu asked, hearing that Chen Hong had come.

The Old Servant lowered his head and said, "How dare this Old Servant inquire about Master's affairs."

"Okay, we'll talk about it tomorrow."

Chen Mu nodded and walked towards the inner courtyard, but as he reached the entrance to the inner courtyard, a scream came from inside the courtyard, with a hint of fear and crying.

Whoosh!

Chen Mu's expression changed slightly, and his pace quickened, instantly flashing into the inner courtyard. He saw Wang Ni retreating in fright, with a Gray-skinned Rat at least two fists large in front of her, seemingly about to pounce.

Seeing this scene, Chen Mu immediately felt relieved. He thought something had happened. He raised his hand and threw a saber, and the huge Gray-skinned Rat was instantly decapitated, its limbs twitching wildly.

"Clean it up."

Chen Mu instructed the Old Servant.

The Old Servant quickly responded and cleaned it up.

Chen Mu, on the other hand, looked at Wang Ni, who was still in shock, and chuckled, "I thought something had happened. How could you be scared by this thing?"

How could a poor family's child not have seen a rat? Even a young girl shouldn't be this frightened.

"I... I..."

Wang Ni's face was still a little pale. After stammering for a while, she finally caught her breath and murmured, "I've never seen one so big, and... and it broke the broom."

Hmm.

It does seem a bit big, about the same as the one he encountered in the alley before.

When Chen Mu heard Wang Ni's words, the smile on his face faded, and he frowned slightly. These large gray-skinned rats weren't exactly rare, but encountering two in one day was a bit too much.

Coupled with the previous nest of small rats, he had a faint feeling that something wasn't right.

Could it be that the outer city is about to suffer a 'Rat Plague'?

But in this world, poor families don't have food for rats to eat, and these rats themselves might end up on the dinner table. Moreover, this is a world with martial power, which is different from his previous life. He's probably just worrying unnecessarily.

Thinking of this, Chen Mu shook his head, walked over, reached out, and touched Wang Ni's little head, comforting her, "Alright, go back to the house. It's okay now."

Wang Ni nodded timidly, then followed Chen Mu into the house, helped Chen Mu take off his clothes, fetched water to wash his feet, and after busying around, she still seemed a little uneasy because of what had just happened, so Chen Mu let her rest on the small couch next to him.

After Chen Yue went to the Inner City, Wang Ni lived with him, sleeping on a small couch outside. On the one hand, she was too young and a little timid and afraid, and on the other hand, the small couch outside was originally a place for maids to rest.

Chen Mu didn't really care about these things, but Chen Yue said that it didn't matter when there were few people in the family, but if Chen Mu rose step by step in the future and there were more and more servants in the family, there still had to be proper rules, so Chen Mu followed Chen Yue's arrangements.

The next day.

The sky was just beginning to dawn.

Chen Mu had just woken up and finished a simple wash when the Old Servant came to report that Chen Hong had arrived.

"It seems like something really happened."

Chen Mu pondered slightly in his heart, told the Old Servant to invite her in, and then went out to greet her himself.

Soon, he saw Chen Hong walking into the courtyard with a worried look on her face. She opened her mouth and said, "Little Mu, You Ying went missing yesterday. We've been looking for her all day, but we haven't seen her. She didn't come back at night either. These days, for a girl... See if you can help find someone."

"She's missing?"

Chen Mu was slightly stunned, and then said, "Third Aunt, don't worry first. Let me ask around for you."

In this day and age, it's very common for people to go missing. Not to mention women, even men who look a little effeminate might disappear. For ordinary families, once a person goes missing, they're basically gone for good and will never be found again.

But for some powerful families, it's still possible to find someone. For example, Chen Mu now has at least several ways to find someone. However, she hasn't returned for a day and a night, so the situation is probably not good, but he can only comfort Chen Hong on the surface for now.

Soon.

Chen Mu changed into his Yamen Runner Captain uniform, left Chen Hong at home to wait for news, and went directly to the City Guard.

After learning a little about the situation at the City Guard, he frowned, because disappearances had been happening very frequently recently, starting about two or three months ago.

Those poor people and down-and-out households who came to report missing people, the City Guard would often just record it and send someone out to patrol around as a formality, but in reality, they were just wandering around and not really looking for anyone. They didn't care about this kind of thing.

"The number of disappearances has increased so much in the last two or three months?"

Chen Mu pondered, holding the case file in his hand, and then said, "Go, take a few people with me and go ask around at the Thieves Guild."

The three religions and nine streams are a mixed bag, and there are those who specialize in trafficking people. If you're abducted from the South District to the East District, you immediately go from a decent person to a slave or a person of low status. The City Guard often turns a blind eye to these things.

To put it bluntly,

they also receive benefits from these people, maintaining a tacit understanding with each other.

If the other party catches someone they shouldn't, someone with a bit of background, or someone who can pull strings, then the City Guard will also investigate and question the Thieves Guild to find the person. Normally, there is still a chance to get them back.

But this is only if the Thieves Guild's channels of abduction are traceable. If it's like Wei Lun, randomly grabbing people and doing it on his own, then it's often difficult to investigate, unless you mobilize the entire City Guard's network of informants to carefully investigate one by one.