The Crown Prince’s injuries were severe, and he couldn’t row the boat for long.

Since they hadn’t noticed any water bandits following them for the time being, Qin Zheng suggested helping him apply medicine and re-bandage his wounds.

Even though she was mentally prepared, seeing the bandages around his chest already stained red with blood, and the front of his outer garment soaked with blood, Qin Zheng’s heart still clenched.

She said while tying the bandages, “Let’s find a safe place to hide for now and wait until your injuries are better before making other plans.”

The Crown Prince’s lips were pale, and he coughed softly while covering his mouth, spitting out some blood without surprise. “Okay.”

Qin Zheng was alarmed to see him coughing blood. “Why are you coughing blood?”

The Crown Prince, afraid of frightening her, said, “Just some internal injuries, nothing fatal.”

The arrow wound in his chest was originally fatal.

Adding new wounds along the way of their escape wasn’t much, but the arrow wound was close to the heart and repeatedly splitting open was the most dangerous.

Losing too much blood and vital energy, even a strong person couldn’t endure it.

And perhaps it was the cold wind blowing on him, he now felt a bit dizzy and heavy-headed.

Qin Zheng could tell from his complexion that his condition was far from as easy as he had described.

She didn’t dare to take it lightly.

After applying the golden medicine and bandaging the wound on his arm, she let him rest at the stern and took up the bamboo pole to row the boat.

The area around Yuanjiang River was all territory of the water bandits. It was only safe downstream.

“Your injuries are serious. Just using the golden medicine to stop bleeding is not a solution. We need to find a doctor after we get ashore,” Qin Zheng said as she rowed the boat, but the Crown Prince behind her remained silent.

Sensing that something was wrong, Qin Zheng turned around and saw the Crown Prince fainting at the stern, his eyes tightly closed, his face pale as paper.

Qin Zheng hurriedly dropped the oar and went to check on him.

“Your Highness?” Qin Zheng called several times, but he showed no response.

She reached out to feel his forehead, which was burning hot.

“Why is it so hot!” Qin Zheng became even more worried.

If this continued, he might end up becoming a fool from the fever.

She had to bring his temperature down.

Qin Zheng thought for a moment, then picked up the Crown Prince’s sword and cut a slit in her own robe, tearing off the hem with force.

The robe she had gotten from the clinic was made of cotton and had strong water absorption.

She soaked the torn hem in the river, wrung it dry, folded it into a small square, and rubbed the fabric quickly with her palms.

To reduce a high fever, one should wipe with warm water.

Directly using cold water would make the internal cold worse.

At the moment, she didn’t have the means to get warm water, so she could only rub the cloth until it was warm and then apply it to the Crown Prince’s forehead.

After the cloth became hot from his forehead, Qin Zheng soaked it in water again, wrung it dry, and rubbed it warm before continuing to apply it to his forehead.

Unfortunately, the effect was minimal, and the Crown Prince showed no signs of fever reduction.

Qin Zheng then cut off a piece of her own robe and used the same method to warm the cloth before using it to wipe his neck, armpits, and elbows.

Suddenly, several small boats appeared on the dark river surface in the distance.

When Qin Zheng saw this, her heart instantly tightened, and her hands and feet felt cold.

It was probably the water bandits!

Usually, boats traveling at night would have a canopy and a lantern at the bow for illumination.

Only water bandits, for the convenience of plundering, would use such canopy-less boats, and they wouldn’t hang lanterns to avoid alerting others.

Qin Zheng couldn’t help but sweat in her palms, hoping that the other party, seeing that she was also in a canopy-less boat without a light, would mistake them for their own and not come over.

But Qin Zheng’s hope was in vain.

The several boats surrounded them and headed towards the small boat where she and the Crown Prince were.

Qin Zheng had no way to escape.

She knew that her appearance would be a disadvantage at this time, so she quickly grabbed her hair to cover most of her face.

After blocking their way, a torch was lit on one of the boats, followed by a rough voice, “There’s a woman in the water bandits’ nest?”

Another rough voice said, “Who cares if it’s a man or a woman! Big brother, just grab her and interrogate her. Maybe we can find out the whereabouts of the young lady!”

Upon hearing these words, a glimmer of hope rose in Qin Zheng’s heart.

These people seemed to have a grudge against the pirates from before!

She hurriedly said, “We are not pirates. The pirates attacked a merchant ship, and the my husband and I escaped from the merchant ship! Good sirs, please spare us!”

She took out the remaining silver piece and the few hundred copper coins from her sleeve pocket and placed them at the bow of the boat. “This is all we have on us.”

The men on the opposite boat all burst into laughter for some reason, as if they were laughing at her ignorance.

Qin Zheng bit her lip, lowered her head, and dared not look at them.

She had heard a lot about the rules of the greenwoods from the passengers on the merchant ship before.

They said that when encountering bandits, one must never lift their head.

Even if they were robbed, they might at least keep their lives.

If they saw the bandits’ faces clearly, they would surely be killed to silence them.

The rough voice sounded again, “Biaozi, go see the man on the boat.”

The other boat approached, and Qin Zheng, with her head down, could only see a foot wearing straw sandals stepping onto her boat, the trouser legs rolled up to the calves, the calf covered with curly black hair, and the hand holding a shiny big knife.

Qin Zheng was so scared that she was shaking all over.

She caught a glimpse of the man on the boat using the tip of the knife against the Crown Prince’s neck.

She hurried over to protect the Crown Prince. “Don’t touch him! If you want to kill, kill me!”

She raised her head slightly, letting her disheveled hair that covered her face fall aside.

The water shimmered, the moonlight was dim, and she was the third kind of beauty between the water and the moon.

The Crown Prince, severely injured and with a high fever that wouldn’t go down, was still very alert to danger.

When the man with the knife approached him, he regained some consciousness.

However, his body felt like it was filled with lead, his eyelids heavy as if they weighed a thousand pounds, and he couldn’t wake up no matter what.

Before his consciousness fell into chaos again, he vaguely heard Qin Zheng’s words.

In a corner of his heart, touched by some unknown softness, was she really treating him with such deep affection and loyalty?

The man with the whiskers who held the knife, upon seeing Qin Zheng’s appearance, visibly sucked in a breath of cold air. “Mother… Have I just seen a fairy?”

The others on the boat were obviously also stunned by Qin Zheng’s beauty, and no one spoke for a while.

Qin Zheng was all in, completely gambling on this move.

If they killed the Crown Prince, with her appearance falling into their hands, the outcome could be imagined.

It was better to use her beauty as a bargaining chip, first to save the Crown Prince’s life, and then to slowly plan.

“Heh, quite protective of your husband,” the rough voice sneered.

This time Qin Zheng saw clearly.

The man speaking was dressed in short brown clothes, with muscles bulging on his shoulders, faintly visible even under the brown clothes, full of explosive power.

There was a one-inch scar on his wheat-colored face, and his eyes, as black as anthracite, revealed a wildness, making him look like a leopard.

Somehow, when she saw this man, Qin Zheng suddenly remembered the little girl she had seen on the bandit’s boat earlier.

Upon closer inspection, they looked somewhat alike, especially their eyes.

The whiskered man just now called him “big brother,” so he must be the leader of this group.

Could the “young lady” they mentioned be the same girl she had encountered before?

Seeing Qin Zheng staring at him all the time, the man suddenly smirked, “Little lady, your man is not dead yet, and you’re staring at me, distracted?”

The men on the boat all burst into laughter.

In their laughter, Qin Zheng straightened her back and said calmly, “Gentlemen, you misunderstood. I just remembered a girl I saw on the bandit’s boat who bears some resemblance to you.”

At her words, there was a sudden silence on the water.

The man in short brown clothes changed his casual demeanor, his face suddenly serious. “Tell me about the girl’s features.”

Qin Zheng knew she had guessed right, and she breathed a sigh of relief imperceptibly. “The girl looked about fourteen or fifteen years old, with a dark complexion, wearing a red dress.”

The whiskered man exclaimed, “That’s the young lady!”

The man in short brown clothes also showed some pleasure on his face, but it was not obvious.

He continued, “Where is she locked up on the ship?”

Qin Zheng truthfully replied, “She’s in a large iron cage on the deck. Her hands and feet were in iron shackles at the time. She begged me to save her, but my husband and I were struggling to survive. We only threw the key to unlock the cage inside, and she said she could escape once she got the key.”

Upon hearing this, the man’s gaze at her couldn’t help but change.

He said, “If this is a lie you made up to save your life, my knife is not for show!”

Qin Zheng met his gaze and said, “Every word I’ve said is true. If you don’t believe me, you can ask the girl when you find her.”

The man, seeing that she didn’t seem to be lying, said to the whiskered man, “Biaozi, row the boat, and take them with us.”

The whiskered man on the boat picked up the bamboo pole and swung it around on the water, and Qin Zheng’s boat turned around.

Qin Zheng sat at the stern, protecting the crown prince.

She appeared calm, but her back was soaked with cold sweat.

Now that she had calmed down, she roughly counted their numbers.

There were six boats in total, each crowded with seven or eight men. Conservatively estimating, there were about thirty to forty people in total.

It seemed they were going to seek revenge on the pirates they had encountered earlier.

Regardless of whether these people won or lost against the pirates, it was very dangerous for her and the crown prince to follow them.

But for now, there was no other way.

Qin Zheng pursed her lips and checked the crown prince’s forehead again. It was still very hot, so she wrung out the cloth and continued to cool him down.

The whiskered man rowing the boat saw this and joked, “Little lady, my big brother is not worse looking than this young man. I think this young man won’t survive. You might as well marry my big brother and become the lady of the village!”

Qin Zheng pretended not to hear.

The voice of the man in short brown clothes came from the front of the boat, “Biaozi, are you itching for a fight again?”

The whiskered man chuckled, “Big brother, I’m just anxious for you, hoping to find a lady of the village for you soon!”

The man in short brown clothes gave him a sideways glance. “Don’t embarrass me. If they really saved Zhaozhao, they are benefactors. Don’t be rude!”

After that, the whiskered man behaved much more restrained.

Qin Zheng felt a little more at ease.

It seemed that these people were not completely wicked and unreasonable.

All the men on their boat were tall and strong, with endless strength.

The boat traveled very fast. Before long, they saw the merchant ship and the big boat of the bandits they had been on before.

The man in short brown clothes made a hand signal to stop the boat, and several small boats stopped on the river.

He said, “Biaozi, you stay here to assist us. The rest of you come with me to rob the ship!”

The whiskered man was a little unwilling to stay, but he also knew that one of the main reasons for the man to let him stay was to watch Qin Zheng and the crown prince, so he agreed.

The moon hid behind the clouds, and everything on the river turned gray.

Qin Zheng saw that they had abandoned the boat and swam over directly from underwater, probably to avoid alerting the pirates.

In a moment, the sounds of fighting came from the boat.

The whiskered man had been scratching his head and peeking over, and suddenly, in the night, several cuckoo calls were heard.

The whiskered man heard it and laughed, grabbing the bamboo pole and rowing the small boat over. “Haha, Big Brother and the others have taken the big boat!”

After the small boat arrived, the man in short brown clothes sent two more people to assist them.

“Madam, your husband is injured. Put him on the plank and carry him up,” the two men said politely, holding a plank.

Their attitude towards Qin Zheng had clearly become more respectful.

Qin Zheng thanked them and helped move the crown prince onto the plank before following them onto the big boat.

These people had killed all the bandits on the boat and were now counting the goods on board.

One of the men was excited and incoherent, “Big Brother! This time, the bandits were targeting a big fish. The cargo hold of the merchant ship is full of silk and satin. We’re going to be rich!”

The others were immediately excited.

The man in short brown clothes calmed them down and said, “Bring the boat back to Liangyan Mountain, and we’ll distribute everything to our brothers!”

The men cheered again.

He turned his head and saw that Qin Zheng had followed the whiskered man onto the boat.

He took a few steps forward, bowed to Qin Zheng, and said, “I am Lin Yao, the leader of Liangyan Mountain. I have offended you before. I hope you can forgive me. You saved my sister, and I will never forget that. Seeing that your husband is seriously injured, why not come back to Liangyan Mountain with us? I will find someone to treat your husband.”

After a thrilling day, Qin Zheng was now exhausted.

She had seen these people before, and she knew they wouldn’t let her go easily.

Plus, the crown prince was now seriously injured and unconscious, so he urgently needed treatment.

Qin Zheng bowed again, “Thank you.”

The man in short brown clothes said it was nothing and asked someone to clean up a clean cabin for them.

The whiskered man secretly caught a little lackey and asked, “Did you find the young lady?”

The lackey said, “The young lady was not on the boat. The leader caught a bandit for interrogation, and it was indeed the woman who gave the young lady the key. The young lady should have escaped.”

“I heard that the woman’s husband is also very skilled in martial arts. We were able to easily take over these two boats because her husband had killed almost half of the bandits on board before. I guess the leader wants to recruit her husband into our stronghold.”

The whiskered man obviously didn’t believe it. “What nonsense! Can that young man really kill almost half of the bandits on the boat? Big Brother might not even be able to do that!”

The lackey said helplessly, “It’s not me who said it. It was the bandit who said it during the interrogation!”

The whiskered man grumbled, “I don’t believe it. When that young man recovers from his injuries, I’ll have to spar with him!”