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

Since Yu Xinqiu would be living under the same roof as Gu Hanjiao in the future, she didn't want to ruin her relationship with her. So when Gu Hanjiao spoke up, she subconsciously wanted to persuade Yu Linglong to help.

However, when she met Yu Linglong's gaze, Yu Xinqiu shrank back. Yes, she couldn't afford to offend Yu Linglong. If Yu Linglong started targeting her, then Yu Xinqiu would have no future.

Yu Linglong waved the folding fan in her hand and said, "I understand what Miss Gu said, but... just as the Prime Minister said, important family matters still need to be decided by the elders. Now that the elders are not at home, Linglong has no choice."

Gu Ziming and Gu Hanjiao were speechless. They had originally intended to shut Yu Linglong up, but instead, they ended up shutting themselves up.

Gu Hanjiao chuckled, "Since the elders of the Yu family aren't home, Miss Yu should at least listen to Consort Yu's words, right? If all else fails, we can go to the palace and have Consort Yu speak to Miss Yu on her behalf?"

When Yu Linglong heard that Gu Hanjiao was planning to use Consort Yu to intimidate her, she felt even more disdain for the woman in front of her.

She said, "Consort Yu? Hehe, Consort Yu is naturally an elder of our Yu family, but after all, a married daughter is like water spilled from a cup. It seems that Consort Yu cannot interfere so much in the affairs of her own family. Besides, His Majesty would not allow a concubine to act in this way."

"Are you showing disrespect to the Imperial Concubine?"

Yu Xinqiu mentally gave Gu Hanjiao a thumbs up. Very few people would dare to go up against this Rakshasa in front of them. This second young lady of the Gu family is quite a character.

"No, no, no, I am just a commoner. How could I dare to disrespect Your Majesty? I am merely stating the facts."

Aside from being a bit arrogant, Gu Hanjiao didn't really have any other options. She had heard of Yu Linglong before and had even wanted to befriend her, but she hadn't had the chance. She just hadn't expected their first meeting to be so unpleasant.

"Miss Yu, it is wise to be lenient when you can."

"Your Excellency's words have made this humble subject somewhat timid. This matter is clearly not the fault of our Yu family, yet now we are being asked to bear the responsibility. You must know that our Yu family earns its money through hard work and blood, not from thin air."

Gu Ziming could tell that Yu Linglong wasn't buying it, and even seemed a bit shameless. Given his status and position, he couldn't just use a junior as a pretext.

“Miss Yu Er.” Gu Ziming prepared a conciliatory approach and turned to Yu Xinqiu, who was standing by like a quail: “This matter was personally entrusted to you and Jiao’er by the Imperial Concubine and the Third Prince. Even if something happens to Jiao’er now and it has nothing to do with you, you still can’t get rid of it.”

“I…” What could Yu Xinqiu say? She dared not say anything. This Yu Linglong didn’t even respect the Imperial Concubine, so how could she be allowed to act recklessly?

Just when things had reached a stalemate, Gu Qingwan brought Siqi in.

"Why did you come here?" Gu Hanjiao asked with an unfriendly expression.

"I originally came here to see if my sister needed any help, but I heard that something had happened outside, so I came in."

"There's nothing wrong here, you should go back to the manor quickly." Gu Hanjiao subconsciously didn't want Gu Qingwan to know how incompetent she was, even though she was already in a difficult situation, she still forced herself to keep up the act.

“Father, when I came out of the house, I happened to see a few big men loitering at the gate. I sent someone to ask them, and they said they came to collect a debt from Changfeng. At the moment, only Madam is in the mansion. Father, should we go back and take a look?” Gu Qingwan suggested.

Gu Ziming frowned and asked, "Since only Madam is in the mansion, why don't you stay home and help out?"

Gu Qingwan couldn't help but chuckle to herself. Gu Ziming had never really treated her like his own daughter.

"It's like this, I originally came to see if my sister needed any help, but after I went out I heard that Changfeng had been detained, so I thought I'd go see if I could bring him home. I happened to hear that my father was here too, and there were some things I wasn't sure about, so I came here specifically to ask my father for instructions."

"What? Changfeng has been detained? What exactly happened! I'm leaving this place to you two sisters. I need to go back and check on things. If anything happens, send someone to call me." Even though Gu Ziming disliked and was disappointed in his eldest son, his affection for him had never wavered since childhood.

Gu Hanjiao was sweating profusely with anxiety. She stared at Yu Xinqiu, wishing she could skin her alive right now. But Gu Ziming had abandoned her to go back and deal with his son's affairs, which made Gu Hanjiao feel terrible.

Since seeing Gu Qingwan arrive, Yu Linglong has adopted a rare "watching the show" attitude.

"what is going on!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than the Third Prince himself arrived, just after Gu Ziming had left.

"Third Prince, why did you come in person? If His Majesty knew..." Gu Hanjiao was surprised and quickly got up to greet him.

"My men came to the manor to report that there was a problem with the soup kitchen and that someone had been poisoned. They demanded an explanation immediately. If I didn't come, it wouldn't just be a matter of whether Father Emperor would let me leave the house; I might even lose my position as a prince! How did you manage to turn a perfectly good soup distribution into this mess!"

"It's not my fault. I've been dutifully serving rice to the people outside. The rice was fine yesterday, but..."

Gu Hanjiao was speechless. She had the key to the granary and was in charge of all the affairs. If there was a problem, she should be held responsible. However, she herself was completely baffled.

Xiao Yuheng ignored all the other questions and sat down in the seat that Gu Ziming had been sitting in before, and asked.

"Where is the Prime Minister? After such a thing happened, is he really going to remain indifferent?"

Gu Qingwan said, "Father just left. There's been a problem at home, and he needs to go back to check on things. He'll be back later."

"Hehe, what could be more important than this? I wonder if the Prime Minister really cares about this matter."

These words made Gu Hanjiao's heart skip a beat. As a subject, one must never arouse the suspicion of one's superior, for that would be courting death.

Xiao Yuheng straightened his robes, stared sharply at the kneeling man, and shouted, "You servants below, quickly tell me the truth, or I'll have plenty of ways to make you wish you were dead!"

The man was so frightened he almost lost control of his bladder, and he confessed with tears streaming down his face.

"I've confessed everything I can. It was Young Master Changfeng who switched the grain. It has nothing to do with me. I was blinded by greed and begged my aunt to arrange for me to come here..."

"Who is your aunt?!"

"Yes, yes, yes, it was Xue Niang from Madam's side. I really didn't do anything like exchanging grain!"

"If you don't behave, you'll be shut up forever," the Third Prince said sinisterly.

"I deserve to die, I deserve to die! I...I...I secretly bought a little bit of grain, but it was just a little bit, not much at all! And all the money from selling it went to the Madam; I only took a small tip. Please, Third Prince, spare my life! Please, Third Prince, spare my life!"

Gu Hanjiao's face was beyond ugly; she was inwardly cursing her useless and troublesome mother. No wonder her mother was so enthusiastic in helping her—it was all for her own sake! But now she had to react; she couldn't let the Third Prince dislike her because of this.

"Third Prince, Jiao'er didn't know any of this. I never thought my mother would dare to betray her own daughter. And my brother doesn't even care about my life or death. Waaaaah, I might as well just die."

Xiao Yuheng was completely exasperated by Gu Hanjiao's crying. Besides feeling a bit annoyed, he also felt some sympathy for her. Anyone who wouldn't be heartbroken after being tricked like this by their own mother and brother would be a saint.

We just need to resolve the immediate issues as soon as possible.

At this moment, Gu Qingwan stepped forward and said neither humbly nor arrogantly, "This matter was caused by the mishandling by my Gu family, but the issue now is not about blaming, but about how to make amends."

These words directly reminded Gu Ziming that the best course of action was to quickly remedy the situation, otherwise, once the Emperor found out, it would truly be the end for him.

"What good plan does Miss Gu have?"

"I believe that we still need the help of the Yu family to get through this crisis."

“Stop, Miss Gu, there’s no need to say any more. Although our Yu family has some money, it’s not something we can just have whenever we want. Besides, we’re businessmen. If I agree to such a losing deal, I’m afraid my grandfather won’t agree.”

When the Third Prince heard that Yu Linglong had brought up her maternal grandfather, he hesitated.

“Cousin Linglong, this matter was already discussed with Grandfather…”

"Third Prince, we have completed what we agreed on, including our efforts for you and the Imperial Concubine. The remaining matters are not as agreed upon."

“Elder sister…that’s the Third Prince, our cousin, you…” Yu Xinqiu carefully reminded her from the side.

“This is not a family matter, and you are also partly to blame for the fact that things were not handled well. I suggest you don’t speak up easily.”

Yu Xinqiu was unsurprisingly humiliated. Even with outsiders present, she dared not defy Yu Linglong.

The Third Prince was also driven to a madness by his stubborn cousin.

“Miss Yu, I know this is asking the impossible, but only you have a solution. We certainly won't let you suffer any losses, so I think we could give the Yu family an IOU? Consider it…”

Gu Qingwan glanced at Gu Hanjiao and Xiao Yuheng and then continued.

"Consider it a debt our Gu family owes the Yu family. We'll repay it slowly in the future, how about that?"

"Sister, you're so arrogant. Do you think you can sign this IOU on behalf of Father? And you didn't even get his consent." Gu Hanjiao felt that Gu Qingwan was being presumptuous.

Gu Qingwan frowned after hearing this. "Then what should we do? The Third Prince is in a hurry right now. Should we use my name?"

"You?" Gu Hanjiao wanted to laugh even more. "Sister, I don't mean to be rude, but you've just returned to the capital. How can you expect Miss Yu to believe that you can repay the debt?"

"Then... what do you think we should do, Third Prince?"

Xiao Yuheng's heart was stirred. He looked at Gu Qingwan with her delicate brows furrowed and her eyes watery as she looked at him for his opinion. He couldn't help but wonder if she would know to ask him for help when she finally encountered difficulties.

“Miss Gu’s idea is indeed good. This way, I can explain things to my family when I go back. However, what Miss Gu said also makes sense. There are indeed risks involved.”

"If that's the case, let's have the Second Sister, the Third Prince's Consort, sign an IOU with the Yu family. The Third Prince's Consort certainly carries some weight, doesn't she?"