Only He Jiuniang and a group of servants remained at home. Xu Saozi had not yet returned, so He Jiuniang asked Fang Da and a few other men to boil water for the girls to wash properly. She also asked Wang Sao and Li Sao to go out and buy them some ready-made clothes.

Previously, the slave trader gave the six girls clothes that were all dirty and smelly, and no one knew who had worn them. The girls could only wear them temporarily to cover their bodies, but they couldn't wear them forever.

After things were settled, He Jiuniang turned around and saw more than a dozen girls kneeling down before her again.

"Madam saved us from dire straits; our lives belong to Madam. If Madam tells us to go east, we will never go west!"

Their hearts were filled with excitement, and their voices trembled. To them, He Jiuniang was a ray of light shining into their dark world. From then on, they were willing to go through fire and water for her!

Since they were in their own home, He Jiuniang didn't tell them to get up immediately like before. Instead, she said, "Since you know that I saved your lives, I have no other demands of you except loyalty. You must not tell anyone outside the house about anything that happens in this house. Don't see what you shouldn't see, and don't ask what you shouldn't ask. I will certainly not treat you unfairly."

"Yes, we understand."

He Jiuniang continued, “Don’t take my words for granted just because I’m easy to talk to. I rarely lose my temper, but when I do, it’s not something that can be easily dismissed with a few words. Nobody is perfect, and everyone has three chances to make a mistake, depending on the circumstances. If the mistake is extremely serious and causes significant losses to the family, then I will have no choice but to sell you off again.”

Although He Jiuniang did not advocate buying and selling people, if they really made a mistake, she didn't need to care about their situation anymore. After all, if she got so angry that she really wanted to sell them all, it meant that they had crossed her bottom line, and there was no point in keeping such people around.

Everyone readily agreed, vowing to serve He Jiuniang faithfully for the rest of their lives and repay her for saving their lives.

Just then, Fang Da and the others brought over the boiled water, and He Jiu Niang told them to go and wash up first.

Wang Sao and the others went out by carriage, and returned quickly, finally managing to change into new clothes after they finished washing.

The pretty girls were not victims in this case. Although they had injuries, they were not serious. At most, they had been whipped a few times. But the nine girls involved were different. They had deep and shallow scratches on their wrists, with new wounds covering old ones. They were hideous and terrifying. People with a weak heart would not dare to look at them.

After examining each patient, He Jiuniang wrote down a prescription and asked Qiu Tian to get the medicine from Yuyuantang. Then she asked Wang Sao to bring her small medicine box and began to treat their wounds, applying medicine and bandaging them.

For some wounds that are deep or have damaged the tendons and veins, making them difficult to heal, He Jiuniang would apply a layer of anesthetic and perform a simple suture.

This anesthetic was recently developed by her and is suitable as a product of this era. She just hasn't told Dr. Song about it yet, and now she's testing it on a few young women.

Others watching her thread the needle in the girls' hands felt their teeth ache, but in reality, the girls didn't feel much pain.

When He Jiuniang started writing the prescription, they realized that they had truly met a benefactor. The lady was not only kind-hearted but also skilled in medicine, and they might even be able to live longer.

He Jiuniang worked quickly, taking turns to finish each one. She took a sip of tea, looked at the girls' hands wrapped up like dumplings, and smacked her lips in satisfaction. She said, "There aren't many things to do at home these days, so you can focus on recovering. Once you're healed, I'm going to hold a banquet at the manor and invite ladies and young ladies from various families to be my guests. You must treat them well. In the next few days, you'll all learn etiquette from Aunt Xu and the others, and don't offend the guests."

"Of course, if you get bullied, don't keep it to yourself. Come back and tell me, or figure out how to handle it yourselves. Remember, when you're out in the world, you represent the Lu family. Remember to share the Lu family's honor and disgrace. Don't offend anyone easily, and don't let yourself be bullied. If we're in the right, it's okay even if we offend someone. I'll take the blame. Understand?"

Upon hearing this, the girls were stunned. They had never heard such a thing before. They were members of this family and were obligated to share its joys and sorrows! They couldn't easily offend anyone, but they also couldn't easily let others bully them.

These are words that even their parents had never said.

When something happened, they were the first to be abandoned by their families, but here, the lady said she would take care of everything.

Several girls who were easily moved to tears had already started crying. Seeing this, He Jiuniang felt a headache coming on and immediately said, "Add another rule: try not to cry unless it's a big deal. If there's a problem, deal with it. Don't wipe away tears all the time. Or even if you do cry, don't let me see it. It makes me uncomfortable."

The girls quickly wiped away their tears and repeatedly agreed, indicating that they would never shed tears easily again.

He Jiuniang nodded and said, "Since that's the case, can you tell me how you got these injuries? I said you're mine now, and you can't be bullied easily. Let's find out what happened, and settle our scores."

Upon hearing this, the nine girls were about to kneel down to He Jiu Niang again, but He Jiu Niang said, "Don't kneel, or your clothes will get dirty and no one will wash them for you."

A simple sentence, yet it made everyone feel extremely warm and friendly. The lady had no airs about her at all. They vowed to serve her well in the future and repay her for saving their lives today.

The girl whose wrist was first grabbed by He Jiuniang at the brokerage firm spoke first: "We maids were all from respectable families in other places. We were captured by a group of people and locked in a dark, sunless room. Every day, they would take our blood. Many of us died in that room. The dead would be dragged away and thrown into the mountains to feed the wild animals. The pretty girls who survived were sent to brothels to be sold into prostitution and tortured to death. The ordinary-looking girls like us were sent to the brokerage firm to be bought as slaves."

"We don't know where they got our indentures, yet they managed to make the sale legal. We dared not resist, nor did we dare to say much to the masters who came to buy us, because if the masters didn't buy us, we might be beaten to death by the brokers."

The girl was about to cry again, but remembering He Jiuniang's warning, she quickly held back her tears.

He Jiuniang nodded. Sure enough, it was pretty much as she had thought; he was indeed the victim of that case.

She had thought that the people from Danzhu Tower wouldn't dare to do business directly in the prefectural city; at most, they would cause trouble in the surrounding counties or other cities. She never expected that they would drag Prince Chen into this mess. They were really ruthless.