If these people were truly after silver, so much silver, so much gold should be enough to move these people’s hearts. Chen Mingyu’s mind was in chaos, her face deathly pale as paper, her eyes tightly fixed on that person, her heart twisted into a knot.

But the next moment, those threads of luck and hope she’d harbored in her heart were ruthlessly shattered to dust. That person looked at her coldly, flicked his large blade, and the box flew heavily from her hands. She almost thought her hands would also be hacked off by that blade!

This time she truly had no color in her face. She retreated several steps backwards with stumbling steps, her hands supporting herself against the bed to barely stand steady. She raised her head to look at that person’s eyes. His eyes were cold, carrying a cold smile and a trace of disdain and anger. He casually pushed the knife closer to her neck: “Don’t play tricks with me! I’m asking you—where is it?! Hand over the item!”

The hidden worry Chen Mingyu had always harbored in her heart finally became reality. She had worried from the start about being unequally matched. In her current situation, she feared Consort Fan wouldn’t sincerely take her under her wing and into her protection. But Grandmother had brought out all the family fortune the Chen family had accumulated over all these years—all of it! She and Grandmother had both thought this family fortune could exchange for her safety, her future, and her wealth. Even so, Grandmother had held back a trick, fearing the Fan family would renege afterwards. She had specially only given Consort Fan half the seal, and handed the other half to her—precisely to prevent the Fan family from not acknowledging them after getting the benefits. That’s why she split the seal that could claim the silver into two parts. But she never expected that Consort Fan couldn’t even wait until afterwards to coax her into producing this seal—she had sent people to forcibly seize it now.

Her hands clenched tightly into fists. Looking at the blood-dripping blade before her, her heart pounded so hard it nearly jumped out of her chest. Her lips moved several times, but she couldn’t say a single word. What could she say?! These people clearly intended to rob her of her things and then kill to silence her. Anything she said would be useless.

Only the hatred in her heart surged up overwhelmingly, diluting some of her original terror and fear—Consort Fan might as well not have agreed to this marriage, might as well have refused her grandmother from the start. That would be better than giving her hope, letting her be happy for so many days, and then mercilessly crushing her hope, making her suffer this humiliation and die on these waters. If Consort Fan hadn’t used delaying tactics to deceive Grandmother from the beginning, Grandmother would have chosen another path for her, would have chosen Fourth Young Master Qin. With Grandmother’s capability, no matter what, it would have succeeded. Plus she had so much silver—

But Consort Fan—she had agreed to Grandmother’s proposal, then turned around and raised a knife against her. She closed her eyes, tears streaming down like rain, clutching her collar and unable to help but cry out loud.

“Hey! I say, this woman really refuses a toast only to drink a forfeit!” The person beside the cold, tall man who led them spoke up, his tone frivolous and words crude: “If we don’t show her what’s what, she thinks we’re playing games with her?! Big Brother, strip off her clothes and search her body first!”

Chen Mingyu was so shocked by these words she nearly died of shame and indignation. Trembling and using all her strength to support herself on the bed, she stood up again. Her hand pulled out the sharp gold hairpin from her head and shakily held it to her own neck.

She truly believed she was certain to die. Her entire body was so drained she had no strength, but she still gripped the hairpin firmly—if they really stripped her clothes and searched her body as they said, she would rather commit suicide. The education she had received absolutely didn’t allow her to be so humiliated. The boat swayed, and her hand holding the gold hairpin became unsteady. The hairpin clattered to the deck.

The person holding the knife to her sneered and without hesitation kicked the hairpin away with his foot. She lunged to the floor, grasped at empty air, and after a long moment reached up to her head again, wanting to grab a second hairpin.

“Don’t waste your effort. If I don’t want you to die this way, you won’t succeed.” That person used his knife to lift her chin, forcing her to raise her head and meet his gaze. His eyes flashed with impatient cold light: “Speak quickly. Hand over the item so we can go back and report. I won’t make things difficult for you—I’ll leave you a complete corpse, let you die with dignity. I know you young ladies from such high noble families value this most. You don’t want to be seen naked by us, do you?”

Chen Mingyu’s face was deathly pale as paper, her lips also severely purplish-blue. Her sharp fingernails dug into her palms, tears bursting from her eyes. She looked at that person, laughed coldly, and asked him through gritted teeth: “Is your Consort Fan so impatient to burn the bridge after crossing, kill the donkey after grinding? She’ll get her retribution! She’ll die a terrible death!”

This sentence was almost the most vicious curse she could think of at this moment. She said it word by word, decisively: “She and her son will both die terrible deaths!”

That person finally lost patience. He stepped forward two steps, about to reach out to grab her clothes.

She screamed and tried to climb onto the bed. It was at this moment that she was shocked to discover a head emerging from the boat window. Following that, the head climbed through the window and landed on the bed.

There were still accomplices? They wouldn’t even grant her suicide? Her heart turned to ashes.

But the next moment she sensed something was wrong. Behind her came the sounds of close combat fighting. She turned her head to look and discovered that at some unknown time the cabin door had opened again. Seven or eight people filed in and were now entangled in combat with that previous group of men in black.

“If you don’t want to die, come with me!” The honest-looking person who had climbed in through the boat window shouted at her: “Let’s go!”

Chen Mingyu bit her teeth, somewhat hesitant. She didn’t yet know whether the person before her was friend or foe.

Ma Yongfu saw her standing there motionless and couldn’t help feeling somewhat impatient: “You’re not leaving?”

Chen Mingyu hadn’t decided yet. Staying here meant death, but following this person of unknown identity might not necessarily mean living either. And now she had no strength left to go anywhere.

Ma Yongfu deeply felt this woman was somewhat ungrateful, but he couldn’t force her. He simply picked up a large blade from the ground and charged into the fight. They were originally people who had rolled out of battlefields—their hands had long been stained with human blood. Fighting this group now didn’t feel difficult. Instead, they fought more courageously, and in a short while had hacked two people down to the ground.

That side had already shown signs of defeat. Not wanting to tangle further, they fought while retreating, and in a moment had all exited the cabin.

Ma Yongfu stayed at the back and stopped, not anxious or worried at all—they couldn’t escape. Having waited so long for this group, they had long since blocked all the routes. They had followed Song Chuyi for a long time and had learned early on that everything must be thoroughly considered from all angles to avoid problems later.