Xincerely
I agree with the comments that the brothers and her guards would have shown up and backed up Xueyue and i was thinking where are they the whole time too BUT it did make for a great suspenseful scene of her all alone facing down the cruel brute and demanding he unhand the child but he instead turns on her. When she is in his clutches I am frantically thinking will she use her rusty marshall art skill or get to her knife in time? But wahlah..enter a mysterious hero so it is all a good plot twist even though yes realistically the brothers would have been there and stopped everything before it got so bad but then this scene wouldnt be so deliciously dramatic.
In the last version the fourth prince is not the ML. He actually is spoiled and has a grudge with the Li brothers. He actually is the son of the Imperial concubine of the Emperor. Xueyue actually detested him and there wAs a line in the later chapters that said she would rather jump off a cliff than marry the fourth prince !! Don't know if it will be changed in this revised version Waiting for the next chapters dear author