Chapter 6: The Free and Easy Wandering Life Begins from Here

  The mountain is high and the water is deep. A passenger ship sailed upstream from the Yunnan River, its bow cutting through the calm surface of the water.

  The boat is quite large, divided into two layers, the deck is windy and humid with a sense of water, with long waves surging, it is the unique atmosphere of the northern rivers.

  At the bow and stern of the ship, in unobtrusive parts of the passenger cabin, stood several robust men guarding all sides, with strict vigilance. However, if one didn't pay attention to look, it was just an ordinary passenger ship.

  When you wake up, your eyes are dim, your mind is confused, your breathing is like being choked in your chest and cannot be smooth, and you don't know where you are.

  She struggled to feel the wall behind her and sat up against it, that wall sometimes slightly swaying, sometimes recovering stability, this was the feeling on the boat.

  It seemed like there was more than one person in the cabin, and it sounded like someone was sobbing quietly. She looked closely and vaguely saw a woman next to her, holding another girl who was younger than her and wiping away tears.

  "What's wrong?" Qing Chen asked as he saw her crying sadly, but was startled by his own hoarse voice.

  The woman raised her head from her sobs and cried: "They don't know what medicine they've fed, Danqiu is dying..."

  You struggled to get up, but felt your hands and feet were sore and weak all over. She leaned against the woman's body, reached out to feel the pulse of the child called Dan Jing, and confirmed that she was still alive. Then she placed her fingers on Dan Jing's wrist, and after a moment, she frowned at the still crying woman: "Don't cry, give me your hand."

  The woman saw her taking her pulse and hastily grabbed her, asking: "What's wrong with Danqiu?"

  "You're not seriously injured." He took her wrist and carefully felt the pulse, one beat slow as if floating on a cloud, all three sections of the inch, guan, and chi pulses were weak, light pressure was barely perceptible, heavy pressure was empty. She was shocked and angry in her heart, judging from the pulse, it seemed that they had both been drugged.

  Looking around again, there were still many beautiful young women, a few of whom had not yet woken up and were lying on the ground. Those who woke up mostly sat by the wall, crying softly with disheveled hair and a haggard appearance, their sobs heartbreaking.

  "Let her lie there, she will wake up soon." Qing Chen said to the woman holding Dan Juan: "What is your name?"

  The girl lifted her tearful eyes and looked at her, "My name is Bi Yao, what about you?"

  Phoenix dust.

  You slowly got up, leaning against the wall to look at those women who hadn't woken up yet. They were all in the same situation. After asking a few more people, they learned from their intermittent crying that none of them had been brought here by various means.

  She was kidnapped. She leaned against the corner of the cabin, breathing in the damp and gloomy air, a faint light came through a small ventilation window that could barely be called a window, casting dappled shadows on her face, some floating dust particles danced in the light, appearing and disappearing.

  The cabin was not very spacious, and the opposite side was a locked cabin door. She looked around, took a step forward to the door, because the effect of the anesthetic had just passed, her feet felt slightly floating.

  She felt her way to the door and pulled it, but it didn't budge. So she clenched her fist and pounded on the thick wooden board: "Is anyone there? Open the door!"

  A dull thud at the door suddenly echoed through the cabin, startling a crowd of sniffling people.

  Bi Yao raised her head from the dim cabin, and saw Qing Chen standing at the door. The half-exposed white clothes hidden in the dark seemed a bit disheveled, but like snow in cold light, they were dazzlingly white. When Qing Chen raised his eyes, there was a sharp and bright light that shone out, as if it had burst forth from the depths of darkness, illuminating the unwavering determination between her eyebrows. The stunning edge appeared on a woman's body, and under such circumstances, it shocked people to their core.

  She also struggled to get up and walked to the door: "What should we do?"

  "Go call someone over." Qing Chen said, and then forcefully knocked on the door again.

  "Don't bother calling for help, what's the use?" a cold voice suddenly said from the shadows.

  They strained their ears to listen in the faint light, and the speaker leaned against the inner wall of the cabin, her face hidden in a dark corner that could not be seen clearly, only seeing that she was tied up with long ropes on her body.

  You stumbled forward, and in the dim light, you saw that person's face was pale and almost bloodless, with thin eyebrows and lips, cold eyes, long hair tied up high on the back of her head, wearing a tight black dress that exuded an icy elegance, yet it was also a woman.

  She seemed to lean against the wall to support her body, looking a bit weak. Qing Chen reached out to untie the ropes on her body, but the ropes were tied with a special technique and couldn't be untied.

  She raised her head to look for something sharp to cut the rope, and the woman said: "I have a knife in my sleeve."

  You dust found a soft knife with a gleaming blade from her sleeve, delicate and thin, the red color on the knife was like a light and beautiful peach blossom, it was a good sharp tool for killing. With just a slight slash, the rope broke: "Who are they, why did they tie you up?" she asked.

  The woman still didn't move: "Changmen Gang."

  "Changmen gang?" Qingchen tossed the rope aside and handed her the knife. However, she didn't take it, and when Qingchen reached out to support her, he discovered that she was completely unable to move.

  The woman expressionlessly said: "They sealed my acupoints."

  Your fingers touched her pulse, inch by inch moving up, "Tianjing, Shenzang, Quze, Tianquan, Yutang, Zhongting, these several acupoints are all blocked and not flowing. They had to tie you up after sealing the acupoints, they must be very wary of you."

  The woman snorted, and Qing Chen carefully considered saying: "If there were golden needles, I could use the acupuncture method to open up your meridians, but now I can only slowly dredge the channels. What does the Changmen Gang do? Where are they going to take us?"

  "Tian Du Yi Ge." The woman said: "The Changmen Gang is notorious for their despicable business of selling women, and people have always been ashamed of it. All the women on this boat were kidnapped to be sold into brothels."

  You sat down beside her, frowning: " Sold into a brothel? That's something to be escaped from."

  The woman said indifferently: "With you people, how can you escape? There are guards everywhere on this boat."

  "Your Excellency's subordinate paused for a moment: 'Do you have any plans?'"

  The woman closed her eyes: "No, recover your strength first."

  She pondered for a moment, nodded and said: "It has to wait for the opportunity." She couldn't help but think of Ye Tianling and Shi Yi, who had been cut off from each other by unexpected changes. Everything was happening one after another before she could even think about it, and she looked at everything in front of her with a sense of unreality. Under the dim light, she felt that the road back was getting farther and farther away, while the situation in front of her was like this.

  As they spoke, footsteps were heard outside the door, and after a few loud noises, the low door suddenly swung open. The fresh, damp air from outside poured in, accompanied by a sudden burst of dazzling light, making it difficult for people to see the scene before them for a moment.

  Just as a white petal was about to fall in front of her, Qing Chen felt someone roughly pulling her arm and a coarse voice shouted: "You stinky girl, it's you!"

  She struggled to see who was coming and turned pale with shock.

  This face she would never forget in her life, with a full beard and fierce eyes, was the big man who had tried to abduct her by the river but was shot and wounded by Eleven and escaped.

  "Let me go!" she shouted, struggling to break free from the dirty hand, the pungent smell of alcohol making her feel nauseous. The surrounding women were frightened and huddled together, screaming for help.

  "This old arm of mine was almost crippled by you, it's strange if I don't make you suffer a bit today!" The big man roughly dragged her out.

  You were furious and slapped him in the face with a loud "slap", giving him a severe slap, and the big man was enraged: "Dare to hit me!"

  He suddenly slammed her against the wall, his hands probing into her collar and tearing outward, her outer garment ripping open halfway to reveal a snowy white shoulder.

  "Let go!" Qing Chen desperately protected her clothes, but the big man, fueled by alcohol and beastly instincts, laughed lewdly as he forcibly restrained her, continuing to tear at her clothes. However, he suddenly let out a pained cry and released his grip.

  A thin knife flew down and stuck into the wooden board, the big man's shoulder was bleeding, the black-clad woman in the cabin stood with her back against the wall, her eyes filled with hatred, the knife was the one that had just been used to cut off the rope, due to insufficient force, it barely scratched the big man's shoulder.

  You were so angry that you took advantage of the big man's momentary instability, hastily picked up a wooden stick beside him and hit him with it.

  The woman in black shouted: "Hit him on the back of his neck!"

  You clenched your teeth, raised the stick and swung it down. Who knew that the wooden stick would suddenly break into two pieces in mid-air? She lost her balance underfoot, stumbled backward and fell back several steps.

  A man and a woman appeared at the cabin door, the man wearing the same color as the big fellow, saying in a sinister tone: "Lao Wu Qian, letting your wife get treated like this, aren't you ashamed?"

  The woman wore a long red silk dress, which didn't seem like ordinary Central Plains attire. She had a slender waist and long legs, with a charming and alluring air about her. Her eyelashes were long and her eyes sparkled with a hint of a smile, exuding a captivating charm. In her hand, she grasped a pair of short daggers, the same ones that had cut through the wooden rod earlier. With an indifferent tone, she smiled and said: "Qian Lao Wu, you dare to touch this girl? Don't you fear that Boss will cripple you?"

  Qian Lao Wu was furious and scolded: "Damn it, Hu San Niang, don't try to intimidate me, I'm Qian Lao Wu, who am I afraid of!"

  Hu Sanniang smiled carelessly and said, "I'm too lazy to bother with you. This girl was specifically chosen by the boss to be sold to Tiandu. You can try if you want, but if the boss doesn't castrate you, then my surname isn't Hu!"

  Qian Laowu was clearly drunk, stumbling and staggering towards Qingchen. The man looked at him with annoyance, dragged him out of the cabin and threw him onto the deck: "After drinking a few cups of cat's urine, he doesn't even know his own surname! He's really fucking useless!"

  Hu Sanniang didn't even glance at them, turning her head to say to the black-clothed woman: "Ming Wei, I really underestimated you, you actually managed to unseal your own acupoints."

  Ming looked at her coldly: "Your Changmen Gang is really going all out against us?"

  Hu San Niang leaned lazily against the cabin door: "We were originally well water not offending river water, but you always ruin our good things, one after another driving away several of our best maidservants. Can we blame you for this?"

  Ming Hui disdainfully said: "The Changmen Gang has become the running dog of the Bi Xue Pavilion, doing all sorts of evil and unscrupulous things, truly becoming more and more unbridled."

  Hu Sanniang didn't get angry: "You'd better think about what to do with yourself first, it's a pity that the boss isn't interested in you, so thin and weak, and can only be sent to the brothel like them." She took out something from her bosom: "Eat this, I'm not at ease with your acupuncture points."

  Ming looked at the medicine pill, a faint glimmer flashed in his eyes, and in an instant, a crimson light flew towards Hu San Niang.

  Hu Sanniang's red shirt fluttered as she wielded her pair of short swords, meeting the incoming blade head-on. She turned around and counterattacked, entwining with the dark specter in a fierce battle amidst the flashing blades.

  You dust at this time just relaxed over the son, see Ming Xiao's footsteps virtual floating, knowing that her acupoint has just been solved and can't help but take advantage of it, quietly pick up the thin knife on the ground and hide it in his sleeve.

  As expected, it was just a few moves, and Meng Zhong's dull hum was hit by Hu San Niang's palm on his shoulder. The knife in Qing Chen's sleeve tightened fiercely, but Hu San Niang unexpectedly did not take advantage of the victory to pursue the attack. She opened her hand with the medicine pill: "Eat it obediently, just let you be stable and don't make trouble."

  "You must be dreaming!"

  Husan Niang smiled slyly, holding the knife: "Don't eat?" She swept her gaze to the side, and suddenly her hand rose and fell, a woman closest to her let out a blood-curdling scream, blood splattering everywhere.

  His face changed color suddenly.

  "Will you eat it?" Hu San Niang asked again.

  "Hu San Niang, you are too ruthless and cruel!"

  Hu Sanniang thought her curses were just a breeze in her ear: "I'm too lazy to fight you, you won't eat, I'll just keep killing." Her eyes moved, falling on Qingchen, Qingchen coldly looked back at her, secretly sliding the thin knife into his palm, knowing he was no match but could only make a desperate last-ditch effort.

  After a brief stalemate, Hu Sanniang still smiled enchantingly, her captivating smile accompanied by the sudden flash of a knife in front of her.

  "Halt!" The dark guard bellowed.

  The Mandarin Duck Short Sword stopped in front of Qing Chen's body one foot away, "This is just right." Hu San Niang smiled and said, her slender fingers flicking, the medicine pill fell into Ming Mi's hand.

  Ming looked at the woman in front of him who had already withered away, her eyes revealing a hint of resentment, but ultimately popped the pill into his mouth.

  "Don't eat!" Qīng Chén shouted: "I don't believe you can kill everyone on this entire ship, and then go to your boss to explain." She glared at Hú Sān Niáng.

  Husan Niang burst out laughing: "Clever little girl, unfortunately I'm not Qian Lao Wu. Since I dare to kill, I have my own way of dealing with the boss, you don't need to worry about it."

  "With a sharp and piercing gaze, you looked at her eyes: 'As women, why do you want to help them humiliate us like this?'"

  Hu Sanniang turned to look at her: "You little girl are quite interesting, another day when I'm in a good mood, I'll teach you a thing or two, who knows, maybe one day you'll be the top courtesan of Tian Du."

  "Pfft!" Qing Chen muttered under her breath.

  Hu Sanniang's face still wore a smile, but her eyes had turned cold: "If you fall into my hands, none of you will think of escaping. If one of you escapes, I'll kill ten of those who remain behind. Don't believe me? Just try it." Her face was as lovely as a peach blossom, but her words were as venomous as a snake or scorpion. She always spoke with a smile that bewildered people, yet every sentence was like a knife tempered in poison.

  You take advantage of this gap to observe the outside of the cabin, and find it heavily guarded, with no signs of weakness. With a thousand thoughts flashing through your mind, you hide your anger and stubbornness behind a calm face, and say to Hu Sanniang: "Since you want to sell us, you naturally want to get a good price. Torturing us won't do you any good, and killing a few more will only make you lose money. We won't escape or cause trouble, but you need to provide us with water and food."

  Hutou glared at her: "Think you're clever? You still know how to haggle, do you know who we are and dare to discuss prices with us?"

  "You may be whatever kind of people, but selling people or goods is all just business. Now that you have us in your hands, the worst that can happen is that we beg for death. When the time comes, it will be every man for himself and no one will get what they want."

  Hu Sanniang said, "You don't look for trouble, and we won't have any conflict with the Silvers. Honestly, everyone will be fine, and I won't let you suffer either."

  "Alright, it's settled then." Qing Chen said.

  Hu Sanniang's eyes swept towards Mingying, who was expressionless and pale. She raised her head and swallowed the medicine pill. Hu Sanniang let out a gentle laugh, waved her hand, and immediately two burly men came in to drag away the dead woman. After glancing at Mingying's pale face, her gaze fell on Qingchen, "Be honest." Having said that, she turned around and left.

  The cabin door slammed shut, and the surroundings fell into darkness once again. The only thing that remained was the fresh scent of blood, pungent and eerie, lingering in the air.

  Bi Yao and the others' terrified cries shook the cabin, Qing Chen leaned against the ship's hull weakly. The thin knife in her hand was icy cold, before her eyes a faint dark glow could be seen, still carrying the remaining body heat, she couldn't help but lean against the wall and vomit.

  Days passed one by one on the water, and the number of women in the cabin kept decreasing. Sometimes new faces would be added, coming and going, leaving and returning.

  Meng Zhong had taken Hu San Niang's medicine and was now powerless, leaning weakly against the cabin. Qing Chen stood up, looking out of the small window at a patch of sky about the size of a palm, with a smoky wind color, occasionally streaked with scattered clouds, she could vaguely see the traces of flying birds, flashing by.

  Bi Yao hugged Dan Qiang and sat beside her. Dan Qiang, still young, looked up and asked: "Sister, it's so dark here, when can we go out?"

  Bi Yao hesitated, unsure of how to respond. Qing Chen turned around and sat down beside Ming Mi, "At this rate, there's no chance of escape."

  She inserted the sharp thin blade into the deck, but with a slight effort, her hand couldn't help but tremble. She said coldly: "Survive, and when dawn comes, there will be a way."

  There are no antidotes at hand, and although you know how to neutralize the poison, you are now at a loss for what to do.

  The boat sailed smoothly downstream, all the way south.

  Occasionally those people would take turns bringing them up to the deck for a bit of fresh air, three at a time, but not Ming Hua.

  From that day on, I never saw Hu Sanniang and Qian Lao Wu again. Qingchen glanced at the big man standing beside him with the corner of his eye, according to Mingyi's description, this place was probably not far from the heavenly realm either.

  She clutched something tightly in her hand and walked casually towards the ship's rail.

  "Halt." The sentry growled in a low voice.

  Her dusty hand had already stroked the ship's side, she stopped in her tracks as promised, but turned back to give that person a smile, with the water rippling beneath her, the smile was like a wisp of smoke and light rain that enchanted people, her intentionally revealed charm left him stunned.

  "Sorry." Qing Chen still smiled, taking advantage of the person's daze to quietly release something by the side of the boat. Something fell down and immediately drifted away with the current.

  She walked back and forth with a gentle pace, "The scenery here is quite good."

  His eyes roamed over her body with a lustful gaze. She walked past him, turning back to smile, but a cold hatred flashed in her eyes.

  Back in the cabin, she let out a sigh and asked Meng Yu: "Alright, will someone come to rescue us?"

  "Hmm." Ming didn't show too much surprise. She never spoke much, always with a hint of coldness and a warning to keep people at arm's length.

  The boat sailed for more than half a day in the continuous silence, when the cabin door was suddenly opened, and with a faint scent of osmanthus, Hu Sanniang led two people in, placing several sets of silk clothes in front of them, saying: "Change your clothes, someone will come to take you out soon, still the same words, even if you go outside, don't think about escaping."

  She smiled and said: "You're the same, but I'll definitely take you to the most popular song and dance hall in Tian Du, I guarantee you'll be satisfied."

  Meng Zhong disdainfully shifted his gaze away, and Hu San Niang didn't mind either. "Faster," he said before leading the people to leave.

  The cabin was suddenly plunged into darkness and silence, and the embroidered clothes were an ominous omen for the remaining seven women, the more luxurious they were, the more unbearable.

  No one moved, and the silent corpse suddenly opened its eyes: "They have arrived."

  "Who?" asked Dusty. "Your companion?"

  "Not bad." Ming said with a smile, "He's my big brother."

  You dust as she leaned sideways to listen, vaguely with the sound of waves hitting the boat, among which there was a faint and distant music, the sound was light and far, couldn't hear what instrument it was, across the vast river surface and the thick cabin, intermittent, almost inaudible.

  A faint smile flashed across Meng Ya's expressionless face as he said, "Let's change clothes and go out."

  Ming Yin also nodded: "Let's talk about it outside."

  A few people changed their clothes. Qīn Chén raised her hand to comb her long hair, the wide sleeves of her dress spread out and slid down her arm, the sunlight pouring in from the small window flashed on her wrist, shining on her jade pendant, which sparkled with colorful light for a moment, dazzling the eyes.

  "What is this?" The dark figure beside her suddenly grasped her hand.

  "The jade pendant is strung with pearls."

  "Where did you come from?" Ming asked again.

  "You've been carrying it with you since childhood."

  Although in the dark, you dust still saw a deep astonishment flashing at the bottom of Ming's eyes. "What's wrong?" she asked.

  "It's nothing." Ming Yu let her go and replied indifferently.

  You tidied up your sleeves and hid the rosary again, but before you had time to think about the strange phenomenon of Mingying, someone came to take them out of the cabin.

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