The three civilian boats trailing the official vessel were all rather small — the most ordinary of civilian boat styles.

Only the boatmen doing the rowing were unusually tough and powerfully built, and the “passengers” seated inside the cabins were all able-bodied adult men, each with strangely shaped bundles placed within reach.

The longer bundles contained spears; the shorter ones, long sabers. And there were also weapons such as flexible whips and iron rods.

As long as no one boarded to inspect the cabins, they appeared completely unremarkable from that distance.

The three civilian boats did not travel abreast — each was separated from the next by approximately two miles of waterway. Interspersed among the river traffic, they attracted not the slightest attention.

The first boat carried the most men — roughly more than twenty strong men. The lame beggar and Scarface were both among them, and the man leading them, broad-shouldered and powerfully built with a pair of triangular eyes, was the second-in-command of this group of river pirates.

“Second-in-command, are we really going to risk taking this job?” Scarface asked uneasily: “There’s no shortage of guards on that official vessel. What if—”

The lame beggar gave a mocking laugh and cut in: “There’s no ‘what if’! Scarface, your nerve is getting smaller and smaller. That official vessel has twenty guards at most — even adding the boatmen, it won’t exceed forty. Our side has a full seventy men. Besides, we’re not planning to board and kill anyone. We just need to draw our blades, subdue them, grab the person, and go. This is a job we’ve done plenty of times — we know it by heart!”

The risk was certainly there. But they made their living licking blood off the blade and trafficking people — what kind of great enterprise could be achieved by flinching and hesitating?

The second-in-command looked at the lame beggar with approval: “The lame man is right. You can’t strike it rich without taking risks. The first-in-command has already sent people several times to urge us along, saying he’s short of prime ‘merchandise.’ There’s a noble leader on the Turks’ side who’s already offered two hundred warhorses as the price for a woman of exceptional beauty.”

The eyes of every bandit in the cabin lit up at once.

Two hundred warhorses!

Sold inland, that would fetch at least seventy to eighty thousand taels of silver! Per custom, the first-in-command and second-in-command would take one third, and the rest would be divided equally among everyone — that was still close to a thousand taels each.

After pulling off this job, that would be enough for a year or two of eating, drinking, and living well!

At this thought, every man became fired with excitement, and they spoke over each other: “Scarface, you gutless wretch — if you don’t dare to make a move, just stay behind and watch the boat.”

“Exactly. We’re following the second-in-command on this job.”

“You want to eat meat and drink wine and live it up — how are you going to do that without taking a few risks…”

Scarface was ridiculed all around and shrank into himself without another word.

The second-in-command saw his men raring to go and felt quite satisfied. Thinking of the breathtaking glimpse he’d caught at the docks that day, his heart stirred again with restless desire.

He had abducted more than a few pretty young women over the years. Yet he had never encountered one so breathtakingly beautiful as today’s. A face like that — never mind two hundred warhorses, even at a higher asking price, there would be no trouble finding a buyer.

What a pity that to fetch the highest price, she had to be an untouched maiden.

Even if they abducted the girl, all he could do was look…

But then he thought again: pull off this job, and he’d get a large sum of silver. After that, what kind of beautiful woman couldn’t he have?

“Everyone settle down.” The second-in-command reined in his thoughts and said in a low, firm voice: “What we do is a capital offense — one moment of carelessness and all our lives are forfeit. So before we make our move, I need to go over the rules one more time.”

“First: without my order, no one acts rashly. Second: no killing — do not covet the gold and silver on the ship. Act swiftly, grab the person, and retreat immediately. If anyone disobeys my command…”

The second-in-command let out a sinister laugh, a terrifying ferocity flashing in his triangular eyes: “My blade doesn’t recognize faces.”

The bandits who had just been shouting and clamoring all gave their assent, and the cabin fell considerably quieter.

The lame beggar, emboldened by the merit of his scouting report, worked up the courage to ask: “Second-in-command, the longer we wait the more chances things go wrong. Why not make our move tonight? That way we don’t have to keep following along and risk the guards on the official vessel growing suspicious.”

The second-in-command said without hesitation: “Hold off for now. We’ll take turns between our three boats keeping watch on the official vessel’s movements, and only move once we have a clear picture of the situation on board.”

Two days later.

The sky was growing dark. The boatmen had been rowing for an entire day and were utterly exhausted. The next dock was still dozens of miles of waterway away — there was no way to make it there to moor for the night.

The head boatman went specifically to report to the leader of the guards: “…Tonight, we can only anchor alongside the bank to rest.”

Over the many days traveling the waterway, situations like this had come up before.

But the vessel had reached a desolate and sparsely inhabited stretch of river, with an expanse of empty wasteland on the bank. Apart from the occasional passing civilian boat, there was not a soul to be seen.

The head of the guards nodded in acknowledgment: “I’ll go inform the master and mistress. Have everyone rest well.”

Ling Daye, upon being informed, gave only a single instruction: “Tonight, have the guards work a little harder and take turns keeping watch through the night.”

This was merely a precautionary measure. What petty criminals would dare to set their sights on an official vessel?

The sky darkened quickly.

Everyone ate dinner, sat and chatted for a while, then each returned to their cabin to rest.

Bai Yu lit the candle stand. Ling Jingshu held her book and read aloud softly to Ling Xiao.

“A’Shu,” Ling Xiao suddenly knit his beautiful brows and said quietly: “My heart has been pounding all day and I can’t sit still — I keep feeling as though something is about to happen.”

They say twins share a spiritual connection — and so it seemed to be true.

Ling Jingshu had been unsettled all day herself; she had not expected Ling Xiao to be feeling the same.

“Stop letting your imagination run away with you — this entire journey has been perfectly safe, nothing will happen.” Ling Jingshu kept her voice deliberately light and cheerful to reassure Ling Xiao, but her gaze drifted to the bamboo tube resting beside her pillow.

She had specifically asked Bai Yu to get it from the boatmen. Should a sudden calamity strike the ship, all she had to do was pull out the stopper and throw it with full force — the tube would burst into a pillar of blazing light. It could be seen from thirty miles of waterway away.

This was the distress signal for an official vessel in danger. Anyone who spotted such a flame, regardless of what kind of boat they were on, was required to rush to the rescue as quickly as possible.

When an official vessel set out, it would always be stocked with several such bamboo tubes.

In truth, the vast majority never had occasion to be used, and the head boatman kept half a basket of such tubes in his possession. That was why, when Bai Yu went to ask for one, she had obtained it with very little effort.

Beneath Ling Jingshu’s pillow was also a sharp dagger, concealed there.

But such things were better not mentioned to Ling Xiao — no need to make him even more nervous.

“You’ve never traveled far from home before, and you’ve never stayed on a boat, so you’re probably just a little nervous and letting your mind wander.” Ling Jingshu gentled her voice: “It’s already getting late — go wash up and sleep first.”

Ling Xiao gave a subdued acknowledgment.

After she had coaxed Ling Xiao away, Ling Jingshu quickly washed up herself and lay down.

Perhaps because her nerves were wound so tightly, even the faint sound of the breeze brushing against the window seemed to ring right next to her ear.

Ling Jingshu lay awake in rare sleeplessness, and it was not until past midnight that she finally drifted into a drowsy half-sleep.

She did not know how long she had slept when she was suddenly jolted awake.