Xie Wanqing glanced around. The room was very small, so small that there wasn’t even a wardrobe, nor were there any boxes or places where someone could hide.

There was only... barely enough space for a person under the bed.

It was the simplest wooden bed, with four posts and a single plank, offering no real cover for her body.

Time was of the essence, and she couldn’t afford to be choosy. Xie Wanqing didn’t hesitate for long and quietly slipped under the bed.

This hiding spot was extremely precarious. She could only pray that those three wouldn’t suddenly have the whim to check under the bed.

She was even mentally prepared to be discovered. Unexpectedly, not long after she lay down, not far from the bed, the mother from the mother-daughter pair she thought had already stopped breathing painfully turned over, facing the door, as if trying to crawl toward her daughter.

The mother’s bare back completely shielded Xie Wanqing under the bed.

Xie Wanqing’s eyes filled with tears, and she tightly covered her mouth, her face wet with tears.

At the same instant, the sound of a door opening came from the next room, followed by footsteps getting closer.

It seemed like someone did indeed glance this way.

"Oh, that woman is still alive," a lecherous voice said, "Women really can endure better, and they’re so lewd."

Judging by the tone, it seemed like they even wanted to come over and vent, but were stopped by a companion.

"Okay, it’s almost dawn," the companion looked out the window and said, "Manager Li said that if there’s going to be any killing, it should only be done at night."

As he spoke, he even took the initiative to close the door to the room.

Even though the noise last night was so loud that probably everyone on the entire boat knew, the facade of peace still needed to be maintained.

After all, this passenger boat still needed to attract customers in this area.

Xie Wanqing knew this was the Li Family’s merchant ship in Hezhou. The Li Family had been in business for many years in this region, with quite a reputation. She never expected them to fall in with such riffraff.

She was unsure if such wickedness was solely the handiwork of the manager acting on his own or if it was tacitly approved by those above.

However, that no longer mattered.

She stayed under the bed for a while longer and only crawled out quietly when she saw that the group wasn’t coming back. She picked up a quilt from the bed and walked with small steps to the mother’s side.

"Are you okay?" She wanted to cover the woman with the quilt, but the woman’s eyes were on her daughter.

Understanding her meaning, Xie Wanqing reached out to check her daughter’s breath.

After a long while, her fingers trembled as she gently folded the daughter’s already stiffened legs together, placing her in her mother’s embrace, and covered them with the quilt.

"Thank you..." She could no longer hold back, quietly sobbing, "Thank you for saving my life. I promise you, those people will all die with no resting place, including the Li Family who allowed this to happen. Everyone will pay for what happened tonight."

Her things weren’t so easy to take; if any of those pieces of jewelry were to show up, Lu Ziyuan would know what transpired tonight...

The woman’s numb eyes turned towards her, with tears streaming from her eyes.

Xie Wanqing quickly nodded, "I am not deceiving you; they are doomed."

In Lu Ziyuan’s hands, death might be the best relief.

As she spoke, Xie Wanqing was about to help her up, but the woman gently shook her head.

Her voice was coarse, each word sounding like a cry of blood, "I... have resolved to die, young lady, save your strength."

Xie Wanqing wanted to persuade her, "In such troubled times, you and your daughter ventured out alone, surely for something urgent. Don’t you think it’s a pity to die halfway?"

But the woman said nothing, struggling to lift an arm to hold her daughter, her pupils gradually dilating...

She indeed had little time left.

Xie Wanqing suppressed her sobs forcibly and said, "I owe my life to your protection, do you have any unfulfilled matters? I will do everything I can to accomplish them for you."