Chapter 99: The Disappeared—The Clearing

Fu Siyu stared at Sang Chu for a long time before finally letting out a heavy sigh. “This case is really dangerous. If you’re not careful, people just vanish—neither dead nor alive, as if they never existed. I’ve investigated for a long time, but there’s not a single clue.”

Seeing his dejected expression, Sang Chu said, “Detective, why don’t you tell me everything you know? Brother Qin mentioned some things to me before, but I think you might have a better grasp of the details. Maybe together we can find some new leads.”

“Alright!” Fu Siyu, looking at Sang Chu’s calm demeanor, unconsciously relaxed a little. “Where should I start?”

“From the beginning, if possible. There might be something you noticed that I haven’t.”

Fu Siyu nodded, then began recalling the moment he took over the case.

“It was a thunderstorm that day—I remember it clearly. The rain was pouring, thunder roaring, as if the sky was about to collapse. I was packing up my things when suddenly a woman burst in. She was covered in mud and looked frantic. She said her child had disappeared—one moment she was there, and the next, gone without a trace. The child was always well-behaved, never stayed out late, and the walk from school to home was very short. That night, she didn’t come home as usual. Her parents searched everywhere—school, the village—but there was no sign of her. Later, someone said they saw her walking out of the village with a classmate, so her parents rushed to that classmate’s house, but the classmate was missing too. That child’s parents were also searching!”

Fu Siyu took a deep breath. Even now, recalling that night, he could almost hear the anguished cries of those families.

He knew all too well how devastating it was for a child to go missing.

Sang Chu asked softly, “Was it just children?”

Tu You, unable to discuss this openly, leaned close to Sang Chu’s ear and whispered, “If it were just children, this case wouldn’t have ended up in the supernatural files.”

Fu Siyu couldn’t hear Tu You, but he responded to Sang Chu’s question with a helpless shake of his head. “I don’t know. After the child left the village, no one ever saw her again. Later, more children went missing. In just a few days, four or five children disappeared. That’s when everyone started to panic. People kept a close eye on their kids, but even then, it didn’t stop the disappearances.”

Sang Chu asked, “Didn’t any adults go missing?”

Fu Siyu glanced at Sang Chu and nodded heavily. “Yes, adults disappeared too.”

If Tu You was right and it wasn’t the work of human traffickers, then it had to be something more sinister—perhaps an evil spirit or a demon!

In the demon world, she’d read about creatures that liked to eat children, but people vanishing one after another, adults included, seemed odd.

Unless...

Suddenly, Sang Chu turned to Fu Siyu. “Detective, did all the disappearances happen on stormy nights?”

Fu Siyu thought for a moment. “I think so. Every time it was a wild thunderstorm. When I spoke to the families, they were all covered in mud from searching.”

“Covered in mud... So all the clues you found were outside the village?”

She immediately focused on the area outside the village. Did this mean the disappearances happened there? Maybe the detective himself had forgotten, but by lingering in this place, he was leaving a clue.

“It’s possible, but I’ve searched every inch outside the village and found nothing.”

“Detective, don’t worry. This is just my guess. I’d like to go out and take a look around—would that be alright?”

Fu Siyu replied, “Of course. I’ll go with you.”

“Alright.”

The rain had stopped. They walked along a small path outside the village.

The village was surrounded by fishing tools and nets, but Sang Chu realized she hadn’t seen the sea nearby.

“Detective, these...”

She wanted to ask about the tools, but when she turned around, the detective had vanished!

Tu You said, “He disappears as soon as he leaves the area. I thought he’d guide us.”

“I didn’t pay attention to him. He doesn’t know he’s dead, so he’s trapped in a certain time and place, unable to leave. That’s probably why he’s spent so much time investigating.”

Tu You nodded. “From what I know, ghosts like him have to expend a lot of soul power to manifest. You should be careful—his strength is probably much lower than Brother Qin’s.”

Judging by how restricted he was, he wasn’t a malicious ghost. There weren’t many who could offer real help, so this case probably didn’t involve any truly dangerous entities—otherwise, it would’ve been resolved long ago.

Sang Chu said, “It’s fine. I just want some points. By the way, what do you think is going on here?”

“It’s hard to say. You suspect a water demon, right?”

Sang Chu nodded. “Yes, in the demon world, I’ve read about aquatic demons that like to eat children. But now, with adults disappearing too, that challenges my initial assumption.”

“Maybe the demon’s target isn’t just children. Adults might be harder to eat, but that doesn’t mean it can’t eat them.”

“True. Even if it doesn’t eat them, it could just toss them aside.”

Sang Chu and Tu You continued forward.

Suddenly,

Not far ahead, a strange cry echoed.

Following the sound, they saw a peculiar clearing.

Tu You looked at the wide, empty space and frowned in confusion. “I don’t know much about villages, but isn’t it odd to leave such a large area unused?”

Sang Chu said, “It’s normal to have empty land, but what’s strange is that this huge clearing is right between the village and the fields, yet not a single blade of grass grows there.”

She pointed to the surrounding fields, “No one’s tending them, but look how tall the weeds are. Yet on this clearing, it’s just bare earth—not even a single weed.”

Tu You said, “You’re right. I wouldn’t have noticed if you hadn’t pointed it out.”

Sang Chu crouched down, focusing her spiritual sense deep into the ground. The deeper she probed, the stranger she felt.

It was as if something was watching her!

CRACK—

A sudden clap of thunder startled Sang Chu so much she almost fell on her butt.

Tu You frowned, looking up at the sky. “That thunder sounded awfully close.”

“Yeah. Be careful—I have a bad feeling something’s about to happen.”

Tu You nodded, then leapt onto Sang Chu’s back, clinging tightly.

CRACK—CRACK—

Thunder struck again and again. Suddenly, the whole ground began to shake, and Sang Chu instinctively stepped back in fear."

"Here’s a fluent, natural English translation of your excerpt:

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**Chapter 100: The Vanished Ones**

“@, what the hell is that?”

Sang Chu and Tu You—one girl, one rabbit—stared at the towering structure that had suddenly shot up from the ground.

Tu You crouched nervously on Sang Chu’s shoulder, his voice trembling, “@, @, there’s a powerful force up ahead. I feel really scared.”

Sang Chu nodded slightly; she could feel it too.

Suddenly, behind them, the dream-eating tapirs let out a terrified cry. Sang Chu turned around just in time to see all the tapirs, as if startled by something, shooting into the sky like arrows, fleeing for their lives!

Sang Chu muttered, “Up ahead...”

“Aren’t you looking for the children? They’re all up there. If you want to save them, you’d better hurry~”

Before Sang Chu could finish, a low voice sounded right by her ear, sending chills down her spine and making goosebumps rise all over her body.

“Who are you?”

“Hee hee, you’ll know soon enough~”

The voice echoed again. Tu You watched as Sang Chu’s expression turned dazed, and before he could react, she walked straight into that strange, giant egg-shaped structure.

Tu You hurriedly grabbed her, “Ah Chu, Ah Chu, snap out of it!”

“Ah Chu!!!”

No matter how he called, Sang Chu didn’t respond. All she knew was that the children were inside. She could hear their cries for help, and a voice kept echoing in her mind, drawing her in. She couldn’t resist it, couldn’t control herself, and walked toward the source of the voice.

Z――

After the last thunderclap faded, the giant structure vanished without a trace.

Tu You, who had followed Sang Chu inside, anxiously tugged at her hair, “Ah Chu, wake up! Wake up!!!”

“Hiss—”

Tu You didn’t hold back, yanking out a huge handful of Sang Chu’s hair before she finally woke up from the pain. “Ow! Tu You, what are you doing?!”

Sang Chu turned around, staring wide-eyed at the clump of hair in Tu You’s paw. “You—you actually pulled out that much of my hair!”

Tu You snapped back to herself and quickly tossed the hair back to her, feeling a bit guilty but still justified, “Well, if I hadn’t, you’d still be under control! Look around—do you even know where we are?”

Sang Chu looked around and realized they were already inside that strange giant structure. The interior was unfinished, all bare concrete and cement, with empty platforms everywhere, each about two meters high.

Standing inside, all she could hear were the howls of the tapirs.

Sang Chu walked toward one of the platforms and saw that outside was no longer the village she’d seen before, but a vast stretch of ocean!

Strange sea creatures swam back and forth, some even peering curiously at her from outside, their eyes like lurking predators.

“This isn’t a barrier, is it?”

She reached out and touched the wall—there was no sign of any barrier magic. Tu You hopped onto her hand, sniffed the air near the empty platform, and said, “It’s not a barrier, but it feels like some kind of powerful seal. Very strange. Be careful.”

“Mm, let’s look around.”

Tu You glanced at Sang Chu, suddenly curious. “Ah Chu, I’ve noticed the more dangerous things get, the calmer you become. How do you do it?”

Sang Chu smiled, “What else can I do? When things get dangerous, you have to keep your cool. If you panic, you’re done for. In a crisis, saving yourself is the only way. Waiting for others is a dead end.”

“Okay, so what do we do now?”

Sang Chu carefully moved forward, thinking aloud, “I was just under a spell, and outside is deep ocean. So, I’d guess the creature here is some kind of sea demon. Among sea demons, only sirens and merfolk have voices that can control people’s minds, so it’s probably one of those.”

Tu You said, “Sirens and merfolk are pretty similar, except sirens have more monstrous features, while merfolk are beautiful. But as far as I know, neither of them eats children. Why would this one?”

By now, Sang Chu had reached the second platform.

“Who knows what monsters think? Maybe it’s just a bad one. There are bad people, so it’s normal for there to be bad monsters too.”

As she spoke, Sang Chu looked around. Through a window, she saw that outside was flat land—a village of some sort?

“Tu You, your eyesight is good. Can you see what that is over there?”

“What?”

Tu You followed her gaze and saw some strange banners fluttering above the village. “Those look like demon banners, but they’re all written in Sanskrit. I can’t read them.”

“Demon banners? Like the seals in the demon realm?”

She wasn’t familiar with such things, so Tu You explained, “Pretty much. In the demon realm, these seals are called Demon-Sealing Marks. They work similarly to these banners, but I can’t read Sanskrit, so I don’t know which kind these are.”

“Never mind, I’ll go up and take a look.”

On the second platform, she looked out—though the scenery changed, there was still no way out.

On the third and fourth platforms, there were more of those strange colored banners, similar to the ones she’d seen in the demon realm.

Tu You hopped onto the platform and looked at the writing, then shook his head at Sang Chu. “Can’t read it.”

“Who are you?!”

Suddenly, a shout rang out. Sang Chu turned to see a group of women, each holding some kind of weapon, surrounding her.

One, wearing a flowery dress, glared at Sang Chu and demanded, “Who are you? Why are you here? Why are you messing with the demon banners?”

“Are you in league with that monster?!”

“Are you trying to tear down the demon banners and let the monster out? I’m warning you, get out of here, or don’t blame us for being rude!”

“Yeah, get out!”

As they closed in, Sang Chu quickly raised her hands. “Aunties, I just wandered in by accident. I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to be here—sorry! I’ll leave right away!”

“Then what’s that thing on your shoulder?”

Sang Chu didn’t panic, patiently explaining, “He’s just a weird rabbit. If you’re worried, you can tie him up or something. Really, I mean no harm!”

The leading auntie eyed Sang Chu, seeming to believe she meant no harm. She muttered something in a dialect Sang Chu didn’t understand to the others.

Then she said to Sang Chu, “Alright, just leave slowly.”

Sang Chu’s mind was full of questions, but she kept her expression calm and walked slowly in the direction they pointed.

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Let me know if you need further chapters or more context!"