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

Seeing that Ah Chen ignored her, the woman continued, "And your uncle is right. If your father comes back and finds that neither of you are here, he'll kill me. Oh dear, why is my life so miserable?"

Ah Chen looked at the hypocritical woman in front of him. How dare she even mention his father?

“If my father could come back, I really hope he would kill you, you whore.”

"Pah! Who are you calling a whore?! I am your mother, how dare you insult me!"

"What do you mean I'm wrong? Let's not talk about anything else. Just five days ago, when you took advantage of my father's absence and sent my sister and me out to have an affair with Li Liang from the village, stripping naked in my house, did you ever think I would scold you?"

The woman was speechless. She hadn't expected that such a secret she had kept would be discovered by this little rascal.

Upon hearing his name mentioned, Li Liang quickly bent down and carefully ran out of the crowd before anyone could react.

Li Liang's wife was originally watching the commotion while cracking sunflower seeds, but now the fire had spread to her own husband. She suddenly remembered that a few days ago her husband had said he was going out to work, and that his travel money had been stolen. She had felt sorry for him at first, but now it seemed that he had used her money to support that prostitute.

"Well, Li Liang, how dare you give this whore the money I've worked so hard to save? You're asking for trouble!" With that, she picked up a brick and chased after her husband to hit him.

The villagers were also surprised to learn that Li Liang was an honest and upright man who would hand over every penny of the money he earned to his wife for safekeeping. He usually didn't have a single copper coin on him, and his wife would only give him some travel expenses when he went on long trips.

Moreover, his wife is big and strong, and he is very afraid of her. It is unexpected that such a seemingly honest man would do such a thing.

Ah Chen's stepmother felt as if her fig leaf had been torn off, and she was suddenly filled with shame. The noise outside woke up Xiao Lian, who was sleeping in the inner room. She was the daughter that this woman had brought with her.

Xiaolian stormed out, very unhappy that her sleep had been interrupted. "What's all the noise about! Mother, why don't you kick them out of the house? They're making so much noise!"

The woman quickly covered her daughter's mouth and gave Xiao Bing an awkward smile.

Seeing this, Xiao Bing didn't waste any more words and directly told A Chen, "Pack your things and come with me. The master is still waiting."

"What's there to pack! He has nothing, there's nothing to pack!"

Ah Chen completely ignored him, saying, "Let's go, Brother Bing. My sister and I really don't have anything to pack. Just take my sister with you."

Seeing that the farce at Achen's house was finally over, the kind-hearted older generation all told Achen to work hard outside and take good care of his younger sister. Some even said that they would tell his father everything when he returned, so he wouldn't worry.

Only Ah Chen felt a pang of sadness. His father would never come back. When he had time, he would take his sister to burn some paper money for his father and tell him that he had found a good home.

When Xiao Bing led A Chen and the others to the prince, they had already tidied up and were sitting together. Gu Qingwan was examining the helmet on Xiao Jia's head.

If this helmet isn't removed, Xiao Jia won't be able to drink water or eat, and there will be no way to treat his inability to speak.

"Xiao Bing's back. Take A Chen to wash up, and you two change into clean clothes. Xiao Yi has bought all the clothes for you. This little girl..."

Ah Chen and her younger sister knelt down and said, "Sister, this is my sister, her name is Xiao Xi. Please take us in."

Gu Qingwan nodded. She knew that both children were good people, and families like theirs were never short of jobs for their children.

"Xiaoxi, why don't you go with Sister Siqi to get ready and change your clothes?" She saw that the little girl's eyes were wide open, and although she was a little scared, she was still quite composed and didn't say anything out of line, which made her feel a little more satisfied. "Siqi, you take her with you."

“Yes, Miss.” Siqi squatted down in front of the little girl and said, “Come with me.”

Xiaoxi hesitated when she saw the stranger in front of her. She saw her brother nod to her, so she put her hand in Siqi's hand and followed him.

Gu Qingwan then carefully examined the helmet on Xiao Jia's head. The helmet was incredibly sturdy, and the craftsmanship was excellent, with no visible gaps.

"If I'm not mistaken, this helmet should be double-layered, and the inside and outside were made using separate casting techniques."

"It won't open, is that right?"

"It's not that it can't be opened, it's a bit complicated. Since it can be put on, it can definitely be opened. We could have helped Xiao Jia open it by force, but from what Xiao Ding said, the gaps in this helmet seem to be infected with a curse."

"insanity?"

"Yes, there should be a switch inside this helmet. If someone forcibly takes it apart, it will definitely trigger the mechanism inside. If the Gu worms smell the blood of a living person, they can burrow into the human body in the blink of an eye, and then it will be difficult to deal with."

Xiao Jingchen looked at Xiao Jia thoughtfully, "This kind of Gu worm hasn't appeared for many years. It was only when the late emperor was alive that a Miao concubine from Miao territory once caused an outbreak of cholera and was executed by the late emperor. How come it has reappeared now?"

"Perhaps the weeds were not eradicated at the root, or perhaps the Miao region is so vast that you cannot possibly eliminate them all."

"So, do you have a solution now?"

Gu Qingwan thought for a moment, went through the method in her mind, and felt that it should be feasible. She said, "It should be fine. I will ask Siqi to go to the pharmacy to buy some herbs. After I prepare them, I will apply them around the helmet. But Xiao Jia will have to suffer a little because some ointment will be used to seal the gaps in his neck to prevent the Gu worm from attacking his body after it comes out."

It's nothing serious, it's just holding your breath for a while, nothing to worry about.

What else needs to be prepared?

"All you need is a bowl of high-proof liquor and a piece of raw meat," Gu Qingwan said seriously to Xiao Jia. "I'll drill a hole in your head in a bit, and then I'll use herbal smoke to force that thing out."

"princess……"

“You should call her Miss.” Ning Yi, who was standing next to him, reminded him with some displeasure, “Our young lady is still unmarried and we are out in public. Please understand, Your Highness.”

Xiao Ding glanced at his master, King Chu, who nodded. He thought to himself, "Why is Ning Yi so rigid?" The more he looked at him, the more displeased he became. Although Ning Yi was right, he still felt that nothing was right. It seemed that he should do nothing but marry Wanwan as soon as possible.

“Young Miss, I once heard from the people inside that this helmet is made of black iron and cannot be easily destroyed.”

Gu Qingwan smiled nonchalantly, tapped the helmet on Xiao Jia's head, and said, "That was just a lie."

"Lie to us? Why?"

“If we don’t say it this way, you will definitely try to open this helmet yourselves. Since they put the helmet on you, it means they have their eye on your skills. Judging from the information you brought out, this Gu worm is likely something used to control people’s minds.”

"If they force it open and the Gu worm enters their bodies, wouldn't they be able to control Xiao Jia and Xiao Ding even better? Why bother with all that trouble?" Xiao Yi asked, puzzled.

"This Gu breeding is not as simple as you imagine. It requires the cooperation of the Gu mother and the Gu larvae to be effective. The Gu larvae here should be put in when they are still young and have not yet emerged from their cocoons. They will only be effective after they mature and are guided by the Gu mother to enter the host's body. This way, we can both train people into assassins and train the Gu larvae. Otherwise, if we break in without authorization, the final result may be mutual destruction."

"Then they don't lose anything, right?"

"How can there be no losses? Do you think these Gu worms are so easy to obtain? The bottles and jars that Xiao Jia and the others saw, as well as the corpses of those poisonous creatures, were all battlefields where the Gu worms fought to the death. I heard that, like humans, only the strong are worthy of living."

King Chu frowned impatiently when he saw that his stupid guard was going to keep asking questions. How did Xiao Yi, with such a brain and such a chatterbox, manage to pass the strict secret guard test and get to his side, and even sit in the second position?

"I told you to prepare things, but you keep asking me questions. Now get out of here!"

Xiao Yi felt a chill run down his spine and quickly rolled away. He ran into Si Qi below, who was carrying a plate of pastries. Without any hesitation, he grabbed two pieces and ran off. By the time Si Qi realized what had happened, he was already gone. She was so angry that she stomped her feet.

With everything almost ready, Gu Qingwan took a deep breath and pulled a dagger from her boot.

Xiao Jingchen seemed quite interested in the dagger; it certainly didn't look like an ordinary object.

"This is a dagger that my grandfather obtained by chance. It is made of the black iron that Xiao Ding mentioned. The reason why I was sure that this helmet was not made of black iron was because my grandfather once told me that it would take a lot of black iron to forge such a small dagger. And there are quite a few assassins in that cave, so they certainly wouldn't all be made of black iron."

"The princess knows so much," Xiao Yi remarked, holding a glass of white wine beside her.

"You should call her Miss!" Ning Yi emphasized again, frowning.

"What's the difference? Our prince will definitely marry Miss Gu, and Miss Gu will definitely be our future princess, right, Your Highness?"

Gu Qingwan's face flushed slightly. She hadn't expected Xiao Yi to be so unconventional. But what made her face flush even more was what happened next: the King of Chu actually nodded seriously.

"The young lady came to save me personally. As the saying goes, one should repay a life-saving favor with one's body."

Ning Yi felt that the King of Chu was flirting with their young lady and was about to argue when Xiao Yi spoke up before him, saying, "Ning Yi, don't be so old-fashioned. Your master hasn't said anything yet, has he? Besides, our prince is handsome, dashing, and virtuous. He and the young lady are a match made in heaven."

Gu Qingwan felt she couldn't listen to Xiao Yi's nonsense anymore; if he kept going, he'd ramble on and on. She quickly interrupted him, "Alright, alright, let's get started. Once we're done, we can go eat. I'm starving. Everyone, stay away from each other."

The King of Chu was in an incredibly good mood, almost humming a tune. At this moment, he found Xiao Yi pleasing to the eye no matter what. It turned out that having a talkative guard wasn't all bad; for example, it made him, as the master, very happy.