The Eldest Daughter Returns: Imperial Uncle, I'm Pregnant!

The imperial harem—Grandmother was right, it's a place that devours people without spitting out their bones. The walls are so high, and the time is so long, it feels like a year has passed in just one day here.

It was already March, but it was still so cold. The courtyard was deserted and lifeless, while music was playing outside, but none of that mattered to her.

She was the Empress, a deposed Empress. The dress she was wearing was the same style as last year. There was still cold food left on the table. There were no maids serving her. It took Gu Qingwan a long time to finally tie her hair up. She looked down at the scars on her wrists and gave a bitter smile.

Gu Qingwan opened the dressing box, picked up a white jade hairpin lying on the ground inside, stared at it quietly, her expressionless but her hand tightening incessantly.

Gu Qingwan seemed to be waiting for something, but she also hoped that she could keep waiting like this forever.

"Squeak." The palace gate, which had been closed for a long time, opened at this moment, and a woman dressed in a bright red robe with a gold upper lining embroidered with phoenix patterns, an inner robe with a bright red upper lining, a red shawl, a long red silk skirt, and a gold and jade belt around her waist, walked gracefully in.

"Sister, this place is so peaceful and quiet." The woman waved the dust kicked up by the door in front of her face with a handkerchief, then looked at the food on the table and covered her mouth and nose with the handkerchief, feeling nauseous.

"You all go out, I want to talk to my sister."

"Your Highness, isn't it safe for you to be here alone?" the little maid asked, her head bowed.

"Unsafe? Hmph, my sister, who is skilled in both literature and martial arts, has had her tendons severed and her martial arts crippled. What danger could there be? Go down."

"Yes, I'm right at the door."

The others rushed out again, leaving Gu Hanjiao and his personal maid in the room.

There was another deep slam of the door closing. Gu Qingwan looked up at the mirror but ignored the woman behind her. She would remember that voice until the day she died. It was her sister, a beautiful woman with a heart of stone. That bastard had severed her tendons himself, and the excruciating pain was unforgettable.

"Gu Qingwan, what's with your haughty attitude on your deathbed! Put away that superior air of yours, you have nothing left now. Oh, by the way, I don't know yet, but your maternal grandfather, the Duke of Ningguo, and his entire family died on the battlefield a few days ago, not a single one of them survived!"

The Ning family?!

Gu Qingwan raised the corners of her mouth in a mocking smile. Back then, despite the objections of her maternal grandparents, she resolutely fell in love with the Third Prince, devised strategies for him to conquer the country, and even dragged her maternal grandparents' family into the fray to help him ascend the throne.

Now that he has successfully ascended to the throne, naturally, the suspicious man wants to find a way to destroy the Ning family. The whole "dying on the battlefield" thing is just a conspiracy between the two of them.

"Is my sister too heartbroken to speak?" Gu Hanjiao had waited so long to finally see Gu Qingwan in such a disheveled state, and she felt an indescribable sense of joy.

“Gu Hanjiao, my Ning family has treated you well, yet you use the Ning family to retaliate against me. I have always treated you like my own sister, but in order to seize the Empress's position, you forced my palace maids to their deaths one after another. Xiao Yuheng, because of his cowardice, used me to force the Ning family to their deaths. Aren't you afraid of divine retribution?” Gu Qingwan gripped the hairpin tightly in her hand, her hands trembling because she could no longer muster any strength.

"Hmph, everything the Gu family has is what I deserve. The Ning family has treated me well? Stop pretending. They always give you the best things first. Is that what you call treating me well? The Ning family deserves it. Don't they understand that their achievements overshadow their master?"

Gu Hanjiao's charming voice was filled with the joy of a victor. She used her handkerchief to help her personal maid Chunlu to a small embroidered stool that she had brought over and sat down.

"Oh dear, how could my sister, who is so clever, not understand? Brother Heng has long been wary of the Ning family. Before, when he was not yet powerful enough, he had no choice but to let them support you to become empress. He had to listen to you in everything, which made Brother Heng very tired of it."

Gu Qingwan couldn't help but laugh out loud upon hearing this.

That's well said. Xiao Yuheng also knows that when he was still a fledgling, it was the Ning family that helped him to this position. The Ning family is full of loyal and righteous people. Without her and the Ning family, how could he have sat in this position?

She followed Xiao Yuheng since she was thirteen, never wavering in her devotion. She was always scheming and plotting. While Gu Hanjiao was still acting coquettishly by his side, she was already paving the way for him. In the end, he resented her for it.

Gu Qingwan clenched her fists so tightly that her nails dug into her flesh, and a maddening hatred began to spread wildly through every corner of her body.

But she couldn't cry, absolutely not! Even when facing death, she must not show weakness.

"So, if the Ning family falls, will my death make things what you want? I am still the legitimate daughter of the Gu family."

"The legitimate daughter of the Gu family!" Gu Hanjiao's sharp voice rang out. "Sister, you probably don't know, but from now on, I am the only legitimate daughter of the Gu family. You are nothing more than a discarded child of Father."

Gu Hanjiao steadied herself and calmed her agitated emotions.

"Sister, don't you understand? Even without you as Empress, I'm still here. My Gu family will still be as glorious as ever. Tell me, if you were Father, would you choose me, the daughter who only has eyes for the Ning family, or me, the daughter who has been by his side since childhood?"

Looking at Gu Hanjiao's smug face, Gu Qingwan couldn't help but laugh at herself. It turned out that all of this was a deception, a deception by her father, Prime Minister Gu, and Xiao Yuheng, using the Ning family and her as sacrifices. How ridiculous that she only realized this today.

The wind outside the window blew blew blew sternly, as if mocking her ignorance and foolishness.

Gu Hanjiao revealed a sinister smile: "Sister, I have some good news to share with you, so you can be happy too?"

"What good news? The good news that you're going to become Empress?" Gu Qingwan looked at the person behind her through the mirror.

"Hmph, it seems only Heng-gege's affairs can move your heart, but so what? Tomorrow is my wedding with Heng-gege. Sister, I'm bringing honor to our Gu family. Don't you think that's something to be happy about?"

Gu Hanjiao happily touched the bright red dress she was wearing. She had deliberately worn it so that Gu Qingwan could see that Heng-gege had always loved her, and that Gu Qingwan was just someone being used.

Tomorrow? Tomorrow is the seventh day after the Ning family's death. Is Xiao Yuheng really that impatient? Gu Qingwan sneered.

"Gu Hanjiao, do you really think Xiao Yuheng loves you?" Gu Qingwan said casually, and then picked up the white jade hairpin and inserted it into her hair.

"Otherwise, do you think I still love you? Stop harboring illusions!"

"If you loved me, why would you have given me this jade hairpin at the Hundred Flowers Banquet back then? Why would you have married me as your principal wife? And why would you have made me empress after you ascended the throne? Even if I were deposed, you would only be a secondary empress, just like your mother, not worthy of being in the public eye."

In fact, Xiao Yuheng loved Gu Hanjiao. Otherwise, he would not have delayed taking her into the family for so long. He wanted to wait until he had her deposed so that he could marry Gu Hanjiao openly and legitimately, instead of elevating her from a concubine or secondary wife.