A middle-aged woman crawled over, picked up one of the two high school girls from earlier, held her upper body, and sobbed, "Wen Wen, Mom won't force you to go to tutoring classes anymore... You go back and live well with your maternal grandparents and paternal grandparents. Mom won't be with you..."
As she spoke, she raised a knife she had taken from the bodies of the dead Star Pirates on the ground, ready to stab herself in the chest!
Xia Chujian's Shao Siming Black Silver Mecha was as fast as lightning, arriving beside the middle-aged woman in the blink of an eye and snatching the knife from her hand.
But after this middle-aged woman attempted suicide, the older survivors among the remaining ones wanted to follow suit, groping on the ground, trying to find a knife.
Earlier, they had only grabbed chair legs to smash the Star Pirates; it hadn't occurred to them to look for a knife.
Xia Chujian couldn't bear to watch, and said sternly, "Stop! If you dare to try to kill yourselves again, I'll grant your wish and hand you directly over to the Star Pirates!"
Her words shocked all the survivors.
Dying was easy, but being handed over to the Star Pirates meant being tortured to the point of wishing for death before actually dying!
The Star Pirates had already scared them out of their wits.
So when Xia Chujian said this, they didn't dare to move.
Xia Chujian secretly breathed a sigh of relief, still using a very gentle electronic synthesized voice, "What are you doing? I risked my life to save you, and you're going to die in front of me? Do you think you're worthy of the danger I faced?!"
"It's not your fault that those Star Pirates violated you! You can't give them what they want and die for them!"
Xia Chujian thought these victims were contemplating suicide because they had been violated by the Star Pirates.
Unexpectedly, the middle-aged woman beside her, whose knife she had taken, said miserably, "Second Lieutenant, we are very grateful to you for saving us. I don't want to die because of those beasts."
"I hope you can take my daughter back, but I really can't live on. Please, let me die quickly!"
Xia Chujian glanced at her injuries and thought the woman didn't want to live because her injuries were too severe.
She secretly asked Seven Lù in her helmet, "Seven Lù, do you have medical functions?"
Seven Lù said in a childish voice, "No, but Seven Lù can detect their physical condition. From what I can see, their injuries are not incurable. They can be healed with a Medical Cabin."
Xia Chujian was overjoyed and quickly said to the middle-aged woman in her electronic synthesized voice, "You don't have to worry. Your injuries are not serious. They can be healed with a Medical Cabin."
The middle-aged woman looked up at the tall Mecha warrior and said nothing more.
Another woman, who looked to be in her thirties but was covered in blood, stood up slowly, supporting herself on a table leg, still calm and elegant.
She only had a torn and tattered top, but she didn't flinch or cower.
She looked up at the three-meter-tall Mecha warrior and said with a smile, "I think I can speak for those of us who are older adults."
Xia Chujian knelt down on one leg to make herself seem less tall.
But even kneeling on one leg, she was still about two and a half meters tall.
The woman saw that the Mecha warrior was so considerate, and her throat seemed to be choked with something. After a while, she said, "Second Lieutenant, you can see our situation. Our injuries are, well, not life-threatening. If we had a high-end Medical Cabin, we could be healed."
"...But, do you know how long it would take to heal our injuries to this extent with the best Medical Cabin?"
Xia Chujian: "..."
She didn't know, but she could ask Seven Lù.
Seven Lù's little voice quietly told her, "...According to Seven Lù's judgment, it would take two years for their injuries to heal, even with the best Medical Cabin."
Xia Chujian's heart stirred, and she immediately understood what the woman was going to say.
Sure enough, the woman said, "We all came from Guiyuan Star. Do you know Guiyuan Star? It's the most remote planet in the Empire. Our salaries are not high, and our family situations are only considered average."
Xia Chujian thought, Of course, if they weren't at least middle-class families, they wouldn't be able to afford tickets for an Interstellar Spaceship...
The woman lowered her head and continued, "I am a Gynecologist at a private hospital on Guiyuan Star. I know how my injuries need to be treated to heal."
She raised her head, looked at Xia Chujian, and said, word by word, "This requires the best Medical Cabin, and two years of treatment, to heal."
"But do you know how much it costs for the best Medical Cabin for two years of treatment?"
As she spoke, she glanced at the hall.
In this dark red hall, besides the Star Pirates who were lying dead in disarray and the victims who had already died, there were only them, the survivors who still had a breath left.
The women who were still alive, especially the slightly older ones, all nodded.
They all understood what the woman was saying.
The woman closed her eyes and continued, "...at least 200,000 Beichen Coins are needed."
"Second Lieutenant, do you know what 200,000 Beichen Coins means to families like ours in Mulan City, Guiyuan Star?"
Of course, Xia Chujian knew. She knew better than anyone else, which was why she felt even worse.
Why?
It wasn't their fault!
Xia Chujian gripped the gun in her hand tightly, using her electronic simulated voice to say as calmly as possible, "You were hijacked on the interstellar spaceship. If I remember correctly, the interstellar spaceship tickets you bought all have insurance, especially accident insurance."
"Doesn't the insurance cover such a major accident?"
The woman nodded and said gently, "Yes, of course. But only in the event of death will they compensate our families with 100,000 Beichen Coins per ticket. If we return alive, they will only compensate the price of a ticket, which is 2,000 Beichen Coins."
A compensation of 2,000 Beichen Coins versus treatment costs of 200,000.
Compared to a compensation of 100,000 Beichen Coins, plus no subsequent treatment costs.
These women wouldn't hesitate in their choice.
Xia Chujian understood the logic, but she still couldn't bear it.
Her electronic synthesized voice remained gentle: "Is the difference in insurance compensation really that big?"
Almost all the living survivors in the hall nodded, except for the two high school girls.
Because in their previous years, they had both parents, a comfortable family income, and only knew how to study, go to school, and travel during vacations. They hadn't studied insurance and didn't understand these things.
The woman added, "Most of us this time are families traveling together. For example, in my family, my husband and son were killed by those Star Pirates. Besides our parents, there are no other relatives. If I don't go back, only my daughter will return. The insurance company can compensate a total of 300,000 Beichen Coins, at least enough for my daughter's college expenses and to support both sets of parents."
Even at this time, they were still thinking about their daughter's college education and supporting their parents...
In that instant, Xia Chujian wanted to tear those Star Pirates into pieces!
They didn't deserve to be human!
They should be thrown to the monsters on Eze Star!
Xia Chujian's fist clenched and loosened, loosened and clenched.
In such a tense moment, she didn't actually have time to deal with these things.
But she couldn't ignore these poor women.
Just as she was thinking, Seven Lù's childish voice rang in her fully enclosed helmet again.
"Master, you have forty-five minutes to deal with things here. Seven Lù suggests you let them choose freely."
Xia Chujian frowned and said, "How can I do that? I know time is tight, but I can't just watch them die!"
Letting these people choose freely was just choosing death, wasn't it? Especially this kind of choice, not because they felt they couldn't live after being violated, nor because they feared public opinion, but purely from an economic point of view, which made Xia Chujian even more unbearable.
She would rather it be because they had suffered humiliation they couldn't bear, that they didn't want to live, rather than such a realistic and cold reason.
This kind of freedom of choice was too expensive.
Seven Lù then reminded, "Master, there is a lot of evil in this world, and this kind of thing happens every minute and every second. Bodhi Leaf is not the only Star Pirate organization. Can you save every victim? Seven Lù hopes you will do what you can."
The Mechanical Intelligence's calmness and coldness were now on full display.
Xia Chujian knew that from a realistic point of view, Seven Lù was right.
She wasn't a savior and couldn't save every victim in the world.
However, she had her own principles and persistence.
Xia Chujian said calmly, "Seven Lù, I can't save every victim. But as long as I see them, as long as I have the ability, I can't stand idly by. You're still young, if you don't understand, just watch and learn from my actions, and be a kind Mechanical Intelligence who can help when you see injustice, okay?"
Seven Lù was silent for a long time, as if thinking about Xia Chujian's words, or perhaps analyzing whether her words violated its underlying logic.
Xia Chujian then made a decision.
She said to the doctor, "When was your spaceship robbed by the Star Pirates?"
"Three days ago."
"I haven't seen anything about this on the Star Network Hot Search in the past few days."
"...Maybe it's because we are all insignificant commoners. The life and death of more than five hundred people on a ship is not as important as a noble losing a single hair..."
Xia Chujian raised her eyebrows, feeling even more respect for this female doctor.
She asked Seven Lù in her helmet, "Seven Lù, can you count how many people are still alive?"
Seven Lù quickly scanned the survivors and said, "There were a total of three hundred and seventy-eight victims, and only thirty-eight are still alive."
Xia Chujian closed her eyes, her face pale, and said, "I'll think of a way for these thirty-eight people."
She really didn't have the ability to settle them, but she couldn't just watch them die.
Besides, she didn't have a way to settle these people, but she knew some people who could give these poor victims a way out with just a wave of their hands.
Xia Chujian said to the female doctor, "May I ask your surname?"
The female doctor said, "You're too polite, my surname is Chang, Chang Shengnan."
Xia Chujian said, "Ms. Chang, as long as you don't go back, those people won't know you're still alive. Have you ever thought about living in anonymity? We can discuss the specific details later. But I have something urgent to do now, can you do me a favor?"
This is the first update, the second update will be at 1 PM.
PS: Thank you to book friend "Wang Yihan" for rewarding 50,000 starting coins yesterday, becoming the new leader of "Hello, My Dearest"! Thank you all for your love for the old book, and I hope everyone will love the new book as much!
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