Chapter 82 Imprisonment
"Fan Niang! Fan Niang!"
Ms. Fan felt as if she were enveloped by something, and the voice calling her seemed to be coming through layers of gauze, making it difficult to hear clearly. She felt as if her eyelids weighed a ton, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't open them.
Who? Who's calling out? Are they calling me?
"Little Bao's mother!!! Wake up!"
The voice became clearer. "Little Bao's mother? Hmm... Little Bao... son..."
"Mother!!!"
Xiao Bao's loud cries startled Fan Shi awake. She opened her eyes abruptly and, in the warm moonlight, saw Aunt Wang holding her. Uncle Wang, who had also woken up, was sitting by the gunwale, while Xiao Bao lay beside him, sobbing uncontrollably.
"Xiao Bao..."
"Mother! Mother, you're awake! Waaaaah!" Seeing his mother awake, Xiao Bao rushed over and hugged her neck, crying so hard he could barely breathe.
"Mother! So much blood! So much blood! Auntie, she's bleeding so much! Waaah!"
Blood? Madam Fan was momentarily stunned, then, after a brief pause, she finally recalled the last thing she saw before she fainted. "My sister!" Startled, she sat up and discovered clumps of blood on her abdomen, a horrifying sight.
Uncle Wang, leaning against the ship's railing, clutched his stomach and coughed laboriously twice. He had only vaguely seen what had just happened. Seeing Madam Fan's stunned expression, he sighed.
"Cough cough cough, sigh. That girl, taking advantage of the dark clouds covering the moon, put her hand in front of your abdomen. That blood is Er Ya's."
Fan's fingers curled slightly, and her heart felt as if it had been stabbed, a sharp, throbbing pain shooting through her. Her younger sister—she was most afraid of pain… At home, it was her younger sister who protected her. Now, it was still her younger sister who protected her.
"Cough cough cough."
A series of violent coughs came from Uncle Wang's mouth. He leaned on the side of the boat and struggled to stand up, but the injury to his abdomen was obviously still quite serious, and it was difficult for him to stand up.
"Alright, we can't waste any more time here. We need to find a way to save that girl."
These words reminded Madam Fan, and she snapped out of her daze: "Yes, that's right, we need to go and save A-mei."
Holding the baby, Aunt Wang looked troubled. With a distressed expression, she asked, "But how are we going to save the girl now?"
...
The dark clouds gradually dissipated, revealing the bright moonlight once more. Using the sliver of light that seeped through the small crack in the wooden door, Fan Xiaoxiao quickly treated the wound on her hand.
Where is my dagger?
After ignoring her for a while, Madam Ye suddenly remembered her dagger. Fan Xiaoxiao paused in her act of bandaging her wound; the dagger seemed to have been left on the merchant ship's deck long after she finished acting. She scratched her face awkwardly, her eyes darting around, avoiding Madam Ye's gaze.
"Uh, that dagger..."
Hearing the woman's stammering words, Madam Ye knew that the dagger must have been lost by the girl. She slightly straightened her body and adjusted her posture. She slowly crossed her hands in front of her lower abdomen, the movement indescribably elegant and graceful.
"That dagger is worth quite a bit of money."
"..."
Fan Xiaoxiao tightened her grip on the bandage, feeling a tremor in her heart. She swallowed hard and stammered as she inquired about the price of the dagger.
"Oh, it's probably only a hundred taels of silver."
"Hiss!" Fan Xiaoxiao gasped, feeling her heart not just tremble, but throb with pain. She hesitated for a moment, then cautiously approached and tentatively asked, "Should I go back and get it for you?"
Lady Ye was amused by her words, laughing so hard her chest heaved, bending over backward as if she had heard something incredibly funny. Fan Xiaoxiao was annoyed by her appearance. She forcefully slapped the straw beside Lady Ye and said angrily, "What are you laughing at! If I weren't so poor right now, would I be laughing like this!"
Having seemingly finished laughing, Madam Ye brushed the bits of grass that had fallen on her: "You're barely able to take care of yourself right now, who knows if you'll even be able to go back. By the way, I gave you a hundred taels of silver when I bought the wine recipe, didn't I? You can use that as collateral for me."
After saying that, the man actually reached out his hand to Fan Xiaoxiao. Looking at that long, slender, and beautiful hand, Fan Xiaoxiao tugged at the corner of her mouth, casually looked away, crossed her arms, sat down on the other side of the haystack, and said in a very roguish tone:
"I...I didn't bring it with me! Besides, didn't you say we can't even take care of ourselves? Why are you making such a fuss!"
Fan Xiaoxiao didn't give her the silver notes, but Madam Ye wasn't angry. She withdrew her hand and continued to slowly and methodically straighten her clothes.
"I'm saying you're in trouble yourself, not me."
"Hiss!" Fan Xiaoxiao gasped again. How could she have forgotten that this woman knew kung fu?
A silence fell over the room. After a while, Madam Ye heard some rustling sounds coming from Fan Xiaoxiao's direction.
"What are you doing?"
"Weave straw rope." Fan Xiaoxiao replied somewhat irritably, carefully avoiding the wound on her hand as she began to weave the straw rope.
"Ha, are you so desperate that you're preparing to end your own life?"
"Hehe, yes, yes, I'm not like some people who know martial arts and can fly or dive. If I don't want to be in danger, I can only rely on my hardworking hands and a good brain."
Perhaps emboldened by the darkness, Fan Xiaoxiao twisted the straw rope in her hands and quickly poked Ye Niangzi in the mouth. When she came to her senses, she felt a chill run down her spine.
You're getting cocky, Fan Xiaoxiao. You're getting cocky! The other person is a martial arts master who could snap your neck in an instant! How can you talk so arrogantly?!
Fan Xiaoxiao slapped her forehead, a little too hard, the sound ringing out clearly in the room. Ye Niangzi, unable to see what was happening, tilted her head and frowned. What was this girl doing now?
She felt inexplicably irritated and suddenly became unusually concerned about the fact that she couldn't see.
"You..." Just as Madam Ye was about to speak, the boat paused slightly, and then lurched forward, carrying the unsuspecting Fan Xiaoxiao.
"Ouch!"
"Crunch."
The door was opened from the outside, and the hunchbacked man walked in again.
"Hey! How did this girl fall here!" With that, the man walked over, chuckling lewdly as he tried to help Fan Xiaoxiao up. Having witnessed this man taking advantage of Madam Ye, Fan Xiaoxiao felt a wave of nausea and quickly rolled to the side, managing to get up.
He casually wrapped the straw rope he had just woven around his wrist several times, and when he stood up, his wide sleeves fell down, just enough to cover the hemp rope.
Seeing Fan Xiaoxiao get up on her own, the hunchbacked man, who had failed to gain any advantage, snorted coldly.
"Hmph, now that you've gotten up, you'd better stand still!"
After saying that, the man turned around, put on a lewd smile, and walked towards Lady Ye: "Hehe, beauty, get up."
Lady Ye didn't let the man get close and slowly stood up. The man smiled and continued to step forward, seemingly wanting to take Lady Ye's hand again. Just as he was about to succeed, Fan Xiaoxiao pushed past the man like a gust of wind and grabbed Lady Ye's hand.
"Oh dear, sister! I forgot you can't see! Oh dear, oh dear, let me do it, let me do it!"
Just as the hunchbacked man was about to lash out, Fan Xiaoxiao turned around and gave him a sweet smile: "Oh, brother, I was having a great chat with this sister, you're not going to stop me from walking with her, are you?"
"you!"
His plan had failed, and the hunchbacked man was clearly furious, finding the girl in front of him extremely offensive. But just then, a horn sounded outside, and Qin Tiedan appeared outside the room.
"Hey! Why are you dawdling like that! We're almost at shore!"
Fan Xiaoxiao slightly moved the hand that was holding Ye Niangzi's, her long eyelashes lowered, concealing the expression in her eyes.
It seems we've arrived at our destination.
(End of this chapter)
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