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

Gu Qingwan and her group rode at full speed, wearing raincoats and traveling through the heavy rain. Fortunately, the heavens were on their side, and it rained lightly for the next few days.

They were about to reach Linqing, and Gu Qingwan decided to rest there. Otherwise, not only would she be exhausted, but her horse would also need a good rest, having suffered quite a bit these past few days.

"Miss, look, there seems to be something going on ahead."

Following Siqi's pointing finger, they saw a woman with disheveled hair, seemingly carrying a cloth bag, staggering towards them. The woman kept looking back as she ran, and sure enough, a man was chasing after her.

When the woman saw Gu Qingwan and the others, it was as if she had seen a savior. She gritted her teeth and ran towards them desperately, kneeling down in front of their horses.

"Honorable sir, please, please save my daughter and me, please!"

Gu Qingwan then realized that what the woman was holding in her arms was not a bundle, but a little girl wrapped in cloth. The little girl raised her head from inside, revealing a pair of very large eyes.

Gu Qingwan looked at them, all of them emaciated, as if they hadn't eaten for days. "What difficulties have you encountered?"

Before the mother and daughter could speak, the man behind them caught up: "You bitch, I didn't expect you to run so fast. Come back with me now, or I'll take your life!"

Gu Qingwan hated men bullying women. They all looked fierce, but they were just bullies who preyed on the weak. Gu Qingwan gave Ning Yi a look, and Ning Yi stepped forward and kicked him far away.

"Cough cough cough, who are you people! Do you know who we are!"

"No matter who it is, you either get out of here now or die. Choose one," Gu Qingwan said.

These people realized they had encountered a tough opponent. Judging from the other party's attire, he was not someone to be trifled with. He might be an important person from somewhere. If they were to offend him by chance, their superiors would definitely take action against them.

"Fine, fine, you've got guts! You just wait and see!" The men cursed and threatened as they fled in a panic.

Seeing that the people chasing them had left, the woman breathed a sigh of relief and quickly put the little girl down, kneeling down to kowtow to Gu Qingwan. Gu Qingwan then led them to an inn in Linqing to rest.

"Thank you, thank you, living Buddha." The mother and daughter, having finished tidying up, came to Gu Qingwan's room to express their gratitude.

"Sister, what happened just now?" Siqi poured a cup of tea for the two of them and then put two pastries into the child's hand.

The little girl, a little embarrassed, took the snack and secretly ate it behind her mother's back, taking small bites. The woman, however, seemed to have thought of something sad, and tears began to fall.

“My lord, my family originally lived on the other side of West Mountain.”

"You live in Xishan? But this is Linqing territory. How did you end up here?"

"Alas, it's a long story. In the past few years, there has been a drought, and this year we were hit by floods. The crops have yielded nothing, and even if there is some harvest, it is pitifully small. A while ago, I heard that there was a landslide in the western mountains, which washed away the official road. They recruited strong men to repair it, and the wages were quite high... My husband thought he could earn some money, so he went, but he never came back."

Gu Qingwan thought about it and realized that a landslide on Xishan Mountain was inevitable. The soil and rocks there were not firm enough and would be washed down when it rained heavily. However, it was uncertain whether they were recruiting able-bodied men to repair the road or something else.

"Big sister, do you know if there are any mines or similar places near Xishan?" Gu Qingwan asked.

The woman thought for a moment and said, "You don't look like locals, how do you know there are mines over in Xishan?"

"It looks like it really is there." Logically speaking, if it were just rainwater washing mud and rocks down the mountain and blocking the official road, it wouldn't be so serious; they could just hire someone to dig it open.

"There was a small mine. They had recruited workers to mine it before, but it was said that the mine was so small that it disappeared after a while. Some people were still determined to keep digging, and then it collapsed. Many people died, and it was only after the prefect came to quell the situation that it was left unresolved."

"Do you know the exact location of that mine, ma'am?"

"I really don't know that. I heard that place is haunted, so very few people go there."

Gu Qingwan smiled. Haunted? Haunted is good. If it weren't haunted, it would truly be a ghost story.

"What are you laughing at, sir? That place is really eerie and haunted! I heard that if you go there, you will die there. There are vengeful ghosts there that come to claim your life. The prefect and magistrate even invited a Taoist priest to perform rituals and set up formations there to quell the evil spirits."

The woman told Gu Qingwan and the others about the events at West Mountain with great expression. When she got to the scary parts, she couldn't help but tremble, as if they were there themselves.

The little girl next to her was also frightened and cried, so Siqi quickly brought over a plate of fruit to coax the little girl to cheer her up.

"Sister, please don't say that. It really is quite frightening. But I think you and your daughter are just ordinary people. How did you end up being chased?"

“My daughter and I have such a hard life. Ever since my husband left, I’ve felt something was wrong. I took my daughter to the government to demand an explanation, but the magistrate was a terrible person. He gave me some silver and said he wanted to buy my daughter. When I refused, he dared to rob me!”

"Why are you trying to snatch the child? She's so young."

"At first I didn't know why he would kidnap children. Later I found out that the magistrate wasn't kidnapping other people's children for his own benefit. He would try to abduct any pretty girl he saw, just to present her to Prefect Zhao."

"Prefect Zhao? Does he lack daughters?" Siqi asked, somewhat puzzled.

“It’s not that he lacks daughters! I heard he’s a pervert who only likes little girls!” The woman said, then hugged her daughter tightly.

"What! That's absolutely outrageous!" Siqi was so shocked she almost spat out her tea.

Compared to Siqi's exaggerated reaction, Gu Qingwan remained calm. In her previous life, she had heard of a prefect who had a pedophilic tendency. Later, this prefect attached himself to Xiao Yuheng and gave him many good things. When Xiao Yuheng ascended the throne, he also successfully entered the city and became a Beijing official.

But for some reason, he secretly kidnapped a child from the Yu family, the Empress Dowager's maternal family. He was caught and beaten to death. Xiao Yuheng even personally ordered him to be cut into a thousand pieces.

It seems that all those who followed him were killed for various reasons. Indeed, emperors are the most suspicious people.

"Big sister, what are your plans for the future?"

“You have saved my daughter and me. I have no way to repay you. If you ever need my help in the future, please do not hesitate to ask. I don’t want to go back. I will just stay in Linqing with my daughter and find a place to beg for food.”

Gu Qingwan thought for a moment and asked, "Elder sister, do you know how to grow medicinal herbs?"

The woman smiled and nodded, "I know a little bit. I recognize some of the simple ones. My father was a folk doctor who treated people all his life. It's a pity that I'm his only daughter and I couldn't follow in his footsteps."

At this point, the woman felt a pang of longing for her deceased lover, and the light in her eyes dimmed.

“I have a pharmacy in Linqing. If you don’t mind, you can take your child there and make a living.”

The woman never expected to actually meet a benefactor, and she immediately kowtowed with her child.

Gu Qingwan wrote a letter of introduction and had Siqi tell them the exact location.

Just as the mother and daughter were about to leave, the little girl suddenly let go of her mother and ran upstairs to find Gu Qingwan.

Gu Qingwan was somewhat surprised and asked, "Is there anything else you want to see me about?"

The little girl hesitated at first, but after thinking for a while, she said, "The mine isn't broken; there are lots of masked people inside."

Gu Qingwan was startled. "How did you know?"

“My friends and I went there,” the little girl replied, tilting her head.

"Then how did you get in?"

"There's a really big rock on the back mountain, and behind that rock is a small cave entrance. You can go in from there."

"Weren't you discovered when you went in?!"

The little girl tilted her head and thought for a moment, "No, Brother Chen said those were people who ate children. We didn't say anything and secretly climbed back."

At this moment, the woman caught up with them, saying, "I'm so sorry, sir, I'm so sorry to have disturbed your rest."

"It's alright, the child just likes the pastries here and asked if she could take them with her, right?" Gu Qingwan winked at the girl.

"Yes!" The girl happily showed her two adorable little tiger teeth.

"Siqi, please pack up the snacks for the little girl to take on her journey."