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

Artificial breath-holding time wouldn't be very long, so they had to find a way out as soon as possible. Xiao Bing swam at a steady pace ahead to conserve his energy, but he was extremely anxious because the prince was still with them. If anything happened to the prince, even their deaths wouldn't be enough to make up for the loss to Daqing.

Soon, Xiao Bing found the exit by following the direction of the water flow. In any case, it was okay to go up and get some fresh air before coming back down to make plans.

Xiao Bing looked around underwater for a moment, and seeing that it was safe, he surfaced. What came into view was a shallow beach, surrounded by what looked like a cave, dilapidated and run-down. Although Xiao Jingchen was also soaked, he didn't look too disheveled.

Li Guang ultimately failed to catch up and died at the bottom of the water. He also dropped a gold bar along the way, and recklessly chased after it. In the end, the greedy man was killed by his own greed.

The most upset person must be Xiao Jia. He was wearing a helmet that wasn't waterproof, and when water got in, Xiao Yi had to help him lift it up and drain the excess water through the gap around his neck.

However, after the helmet was soaked in water, the stuff that was originally blocking Xiao Jia's ears seemed to have dissolved, and Xiao Jia could hear sounds again, but still couldn't speak. Because he was given medicine, if he didn't get medical treatment, he probably wouldn't be able to speak in the future.

Xiao Jia pointed to his ear, and Xiao Yi asked guessingly, "Xiao Jia, you can hear us talking, right?"

Seeing Xiao Jia nod, everyone felt relieved. It didn't matter that he couldn't speak, since Xiao Jia wasn't usually talkative anyway. As long as he could hear, it would be easier for him to move around.

Xiao Yi now carries a lot of medicine, and Miss Gu has thoughtfully wrapped it in waterproof material. Xiao Yi distributed it to Xiao Ding, and since Xiao Jia is blind, Xiao Bing can only help apply the medicine. Xiao Yi then went to the side and found a dead tree on the shallow beach.

As Xiao Yi approached the tree, he noticed a foul odor. He quickly chopped some branches with his sword, but one of them accidentally fell and seemed to hit something. Xiao Yi didn't pay much attention to it, picked up the branches, found an open space, and started a fire. He kept thinking that these things were given to him by Miss Gu, and wondered if Xiao Wu and the others had sent a message to her.

Xiao Yi helped the King of Chu take off his outer garment and dry it by the fire. Although the King of Chu had profound internal strength, he could only raise his body temperature to make his hair dry faster. The King of Chu lit a torch and looked around.

Seeing that he didn't have enough firewood, Xiao Yi went to gather more from under the tree. Now that there was light, Xiao Yi could see clearly what he had hit earlier. Leaning against the tree were several corpses. Xiao Yi squatted down to examine them and, judging from the degree of decomposition, they hadn't been dead for long.

“Master, there is a corpse here. I have examined it and there are no obvious wounds or signs of poisoning. He must have been trapped here and starved to death. There is also a small wooden sword on his body, so he probably had children at home.”

The King of Chu did not turn around, but gestured for Xiao Yi to look in that direction. There were several corpses there as well, and what was even more appalling was that one of the corpses was lying on top of another, and it looked like it was gnawing on it. Xiao Yi almost vomited.

"Did these people starve to death?"

"It seems so."

Holding torches, everyone looked around. There were some tools here, which looked like miners digging, but more like people stealing ore. They just didn't know why the cave had collapsed. King Chu touched the wall with his hand, and water seeped out. Some of the people inside had been killed by falling stones, some had drowned headfirst by the water, and others were leaning against something waiting to die.

They searched around but couldn't find the exit.

"You guys take torches and go to the landslide area to find a windy spot, then start digging outwards."

"Master, what if we cause a landslide while digging?"

"There's an underground river here, let's just jump down and go back."

The King of Chu thought that the fact that it wasn't stuffy meant there was air circulation, and air circulation meant there were gaps. If there were gaps, they could find an exit; it was just a collapse. They also had readily available tools. If they dug out, there was still a chance of survival. If they couldn't dig out, they would either starve to death like the people here or be caught when they returned.

Xiao Yi took out a few pieces of well-wrapped dry rations from his person. King Chu said, "Put them away. There's not much food. Let's just bear with it unless absolutely necessary."

These men were the prince's secret guards. They would leave all the food to the prince even without his orders, preferring to starve themselves rather than let their master live.

Xiao Jia and Xiao Ding felt extremely guilty, as it was their poor handling of the situation that had put the prince in danger. However, now was not the time to apologize; the important thing was to find a way out as soon as possible.

As soon as Gu Qingwan and her entourage entered the city gate, Gu Qingwan got off and left. She was wearing a jade pendant that only people from the Chu Prince's Mansion would recognize, so she swaggered through the city. Soon, Xiao Wu and the others came looking for her just as she checked in.

According to their description, the two of them are now impersonating the prince and Xiao Yi, while the real prince and Xiao Yi have gone to Xishan and there has been no news of them since. Their people have gone to search for them, but there is still no news.

Gu Qingwan was both anxious and angry. This Xiao Jingchen was too arrogant, thinking that his martial arts were invincible and that he didn't care about anyone. He actually dared to lead a few people to venture there. He was really courting death.

Xiao Wu and his group gave Gu Qingwan the topographical map that their people had brought over the past few days, and also gave her their contact information. This was because Xiao Yi had told them before leaving that the young lady Gu who came to rescue them would be the future princess, and that they could be completely open with the princess.

Gu Qingwan carefully studied the map on the table, and after calculating the days, she felt that she could not delay any longer. She led her people and used the horses that Xiao Wu had found to head towards the West Mountain. When they arrived at the foot of the mountain, it was just before dawn, and the horses could not go any further.

"Miss, the horse can't go up the mountain, we'll have to use our light-footed skills to get there."

Gu Qingwan was in no hurry to go up the mountain. She had Siqi light a tinderbox to see the map clearly. She used the faint light of daylight to roughly survey the mountain in front of her. If they went up the mountain rashly, they would definitely get lost. They might not find themselves but instead get trapped inside.

Just when they were at their wits' end, they heard a crying sound coming from the other side of the woods.

Ning Er touched his arm and said, "Is there a ghost?"

No sooner had he finished speaking than Ning Yi mercilessly slapped him on the back of the head.

Upon closer inspection, Gu Qingwan realized it was a boy of about fourteen or fifteen years old, dressed in thin, tattered clothes. He was crying and muttering to himself, "What kind of thing is this, always bullying us? When I grow up and become successful, who will care about your meager charity!"

Gu Qingwan and the others went over and startled the little boy so much that he fell to the ground. He looked up and looked at Gu Qingwan in disbelief, saying, "Are you a fairy?"

Siqi couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Gu Qingwan smiled nonchalantly as she helped the boy up, saying, "I'm not some fairy, I'm just a passerby who got lost. I saw you crying, what's wrong?"

“My father took a second wife. That vixen is truly heartless. I have to hurry up and go hunting in the mountains to earn money for that vixen, otherwise she will sell my sister to a brothel.”

"What about your father?"

“My father?” The boy’s eyes welled up with tears when his father was mentioned. “My father went up the mountain with a group of uncles a few days ago. They said that the rain had washed out a gold mine on the mountain and that they could make a fortune by going there secretly. But he hasn’t come back yet. That fox spirit said that my father was short-lived and died in the mountains long ago, which is why she wants to sell my sister.”

Gu Qingwan thought for a moment and figured the boy was probably from a nearby village. Remembering what the little girl had said, she tentatively asked, "Do you know a little boy named Achen?"

The boy's eyes widened, and he said in disbelief, "You still say you're not a fairy? You're so beautiful and you even know my name, what else could you be but a fairy?"

After saying this, the little boy named Achen knelt on the ground and begged, "Fairy, please save my sister. I'll do anything you ask."

"You're Achen?"

Ah Chen nodded vigorously.

Gu Qingwan pulled the person up and said, "It was a little girl with pigtails and big eyes who told her that she has a very good friend named Achen."

Ah Chen knew it was Lingdang from the description, and he asked cautiously, "Is Lingdang still alive?"

"She and her mother are still alive."

Ah Chen seemed to breathe a sigh of relief for Lingdang, "It's good that she's alive, it's good that she's alive. Her father went to work in town and never came back. Aunt Lan took Lingdang to town to demand an explanation, but there was no news of him. Everyone said he died out there. It's good that she's alive now."

Gu Qingwan thought for a moment, then took out two gold ingots from her waist and gave them to him, saying, "These should be enough to save you and your sister, but do you want to save your father?"

"Fairy, can you help me save my father?" Ah Chen stared incredulously at the silver ingot in his hand; he had never seen so many large silver ingots before.

"It's probably possible. Bell once told me that you went to a cave and there were people wearing masks inside, right?"

Ah Chen hesitated for a moment, but after looking at the silver ingot in his hand, he said to Gu Qingwan, "Fairy Sister, what Lingdang said is right. Before, when I went hunting in the mountains, I took Lingdang and my sister with me. We accidentally found a cave entrance. We went in out of curiosity, and it turned out that the end of the cave entrance was a very, very big cave with many people wearing masks inside."

"So you weren't discovered?"

“No,” Achen shook his head and said, “The cave entrance we were in was above that big cave. We didn’t dare to make a sound, so the masked people below naturally didn’t notice us.”

Gu Qingwan thought that place must be one of the entrances for those mysterious people, and that's the only way to enter without being discovered. "Could you take us to that cave?"

"It's been raining these past two days, and I don't know if we'll still be able to find that cave."

"It's okay, let's give it a try," Gu Qingwan encouraged Achen.

It was still dark, and the rain of the past few days had made the mountain path very difficult to walk. If it weren't for Xiao Achen leading the way, the group would have had no chance of finding their way. As they walked, Gu Qingwan frowned. She grabbed Xiao Achen and jumped up into a tree, and Ning Yi and the others followed suit and hid.

Gu Qingwan covered Achen's mouth, and saw a pair of masked people searching around below. Gu Qingwan tightened her grip on Achen's mouth, feeling nervous herself. It would be terrible if these people discovered their footprints.