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

The dungeon was damp; if you listened carefully, you could hear the dripping of water. It was built underground, and there was a musty smell everywhere, especially when it was about to rain, when the iron bars were wet to the touch.

Looking at her surroundings, Ah Ning couldn't help but laugh at herself, remembering how she had once offered advice and suggestions on how to renovate this dark prison.

Unexpectedly, he reaped what he sowed and is now the one locked up.

"Cough cough cough."

A faint cough came from across the street; that person was already inside before Aning was locked up.

She had seen this person before when Xiao Yi and the others brought him in, he was covered in blood and on the verge of death. After Chun Bo saved his life, he was severely tortured. Aning thought this person was definitely going to die, but she didn't expect him to survive.

"How does it feel to be locked up by the master you so loyally serve?" The man leaned against the wall and mocked A-Ning.

"Shut up, what do you know!" Ah Ning said, somewhat embarrassed and angry.

"Ah Ning, hehehe, the King of Chu really doesn't know how to cherish women. He has such a great beauty by his side and he can't be moved at all. Sometimes I really doubt whether the King of Chu is a real man."

"If you keep talking nonsense, believe me, I'll kill you!"

"You want to kill me? Hmph, you can't even protect yourself now, and you still want to kill me? How utterly ridiculous."

Ah Ning looked at her hands with a sense of dejection. She was indeed in dire straits, and killing someone? She could only kill a chicken.

The prince is truly heartless. She has already given so much, how can the prince remain unmoved? For so many years, she has risked her life for him, yet she cannot compare to a woman, a woman she has only met for a few months. How can she be content with this?

"You're not reconciled, are you?"

At this moment, A Ning became alert and asked sharply, "Who are you! Don't even think about sowing discord between me and the Prince!"

"Who I am doesn't matter. What matters is that I can help you."

"Help me? Ha, that's a joke. If you could help me, why are you locked up in this place and can't get out?"

"Although I can't save myself, I can definitely help you. As for whether you can get out, that depends on your own abilities."

The person sitting against the wall raised his head, and after lifting his filthy hair, it was none other than Zheng Yang, the physician of the Prime Minister's residence.

"I have a pill that, once swallowed, can restore even if one's martial arts are crippled."

"If there's something so good, why don't you eat it yourself?"

"That's because I don't know martial arts. No matter how much you eat, someone who doesn't know martial arts won't recover."

This offer is indeed very tempting. Ah Ning was also distressed that her martial arts skills had been crippled, making it inconvenient for her to do things. She looked at the person opposite her and said.

"What are your conditions?"

"Hahahaha, I want you to kill that bastard Gu Ziming! Kill him! Kill him!" Zheng Yang's eyes were bloodshot, as if he had gone mad.

Gu Ziming? Isn't that Gu Qingwan's biological father? If it's just killing him, it's not a big deal. But killing him will probably bring Gu Qingwan a lot of trouble. Then she can work around and fabricate a story that Gu Qingwan killed her father, which would be killing two birds with one stone.

Ah Ning thought it was feasible and asked, "Are there any other conditions?"

"No, just this one: I want you to kill Gu Ziming after you leave."

"make a deal!"

Zheng Yang, with his back to A Ning, revealed a triumphant smile. He took off his inner garment and fumbled around the edge of the collar until he finally found a protruding spot that was hard to spot without careful searching.

He tore open his clothes and took out something the size of a grain of rice, which he then held up.

"This is good stuff. Taking it will give you a boost, hehehe."

Ah Ning saw that the man's smile was clearly full of ill intent, but she just couldn't resist the temptation of regaining her martial arts freedom. The man threw the cloth-wrapped bundle at her.

She looked down at the object in her hand, instinctively sensing that it might be dangerous, but...

When Ah Ning heard that someone was coming, Zheng Yang continued to urge her, "Someone's here, hurry up and eat, and you'll be free to do whatever you want."

As the footsteps drew closer, Ah Ning's heart pounded even harder. Just as the door opened, she swallowed the pill.

Seeing that Aning had eaten, Zheng Yang's eyes lit up with madness. "That's great, that's right!"

Xiao Jia stood at the cell door, looking at A Ning with tenderness and pity in his eyes.

"Ah Ning, I've already gone to the Princess to arrange our marriage. Just bear with it a little longer. The Princess is a good mistress. She'll be able to take you away in a couple of days. I'll definitely marry you in a grand and glorious way then."

Ah Ning cursed inwardly, "Who cares about your glory? Gu Qingwan is clearly a snake with a heart of stone, full of ill intentions. What good master is she? You guys have all been deceived by that woman. Once she gets out, I will personally expose her hypocritical face. Then the prince will understand her good intentions."

However, we still need to figure out how to deal with this person right now.

“Xiao Jia… Xiao Jia, I know you are sincere towards me. I will obediently wait for you here. I have done many wrong things in the past, and I am naturally grateful that Your Highness and Your Highness have been so magnanimous in forgiving me.”

"That's the best that you think that way. I believe the prince will release you in the next couple of days. By the way, what are your thoughts on the marriage?"

"No, I'm just happy to be by your side. I don't have any particular plans. You can arrange things as you see fit, just don't trouble the Prince and Princess too much."

"I understand." As she spoke, Xiao Jia took out food one by one from the food basket. "A Ning, these are all delicious things I bought for you by queuing up early this morning. There are dishes from Jufenglou and some snacks, all of which you like."

Ah Ning happily accepted the gifts and placed them one by one on the table in the cell. Then she looked at the person opposite her and said...

"Xiao Jia, why don't you give some of these snacks to that guy over there? He looks like he's been starving for days." After all, he'd received a favor from that person, so giving him some food was the least he could do.

Xiao Jia glanced at Zheng Yang sitting on the ground, frowned, shook his head, and whispered to A Ning, "A Ning, don't pay attention to that person. Don't believe anything he says. He's from the Southern Frontier. He hasn't told a single truth during the interrogation these past two days. Soon the Princess will take action against him."

A Ning raised an eyebrow. A person from Southern Xinjiang? Even the Prince couldn't do anything about it, so what could Gu Qingwan possibly do? Although she had some doubts, A Ning was professionally trained and naturally knew what to ask and what not to ask.

"I understand. It's getting late, you should hurry back too, otherwise the prince will be angry again if he finds out that you came to see me without permission."

Xiao Jia nodded. Indeed, it was already a great act of treason for him to use his power to open the door to the secret prison to see Aning. The prince probably knew this, but he probably just turned a blind eye. He should be grateful.

After Xiao Jia left, A Ning tossed a bag of snacks to the person opposite her and then stopped talking to him. After eating and drinking her fill, she sat down to meditate, trying to find her lost inner strength. Slowly, she actually found that faint trace of inner strength. A Ning was overjoyed, as long as she still had it.

Xiao Jia respected A Ning very much, after all, A Ning had always been the person he loved.

He was a few years older than A Ning and was in the same training group as her brother, so they were very close. He naturally knew that his good brother had a younger sister. A Ning was very cute back then. When they went on missions, A Ning stayed in the palace with the steward.

On one mission, the shameless Holy Maiden of the Southern Frontier actually sent someone to trap the Prince. It was Aning's brother who saved the Prince. When Aning learned that her brother was gone, she wanted to avenge him and begged the Prince to let her join the secret guard.

And he was the one who led A-Ning step by step to where she is today. A-Ning was beautiful and intelligent from a young age, and more importantly, she was not afraid of hardship. No matter how difficult, tiring, or dirty it was, A-Ning would not even frown. He felt very sorry for this little girl.

As time went by, feelings developed. He also learned that A Ning loved the prince and what A Ning had done while he and Xiao Bing were on a mission.

But he understood that a man as outstanding as the prince would attract any woman's attention, let alone a young girl like Aning who was just beginning to experience romantic feelings.

However, given A-Ning's status, she could not become the princess's principal wife. If she could only become a concubine, Xiao Jia would feel sorry for her. But he was just a nameless bodyguard, so what right did he have to criticize others?

A light drizzle began to fall during the night. As the saying goes, "One autumn rain brings one chill," and the next morning, everyone put on thicker clothes without prior arrangement.

Baoqin was even busier. The clothes and jewelry that she had prepared for the princess yesterday were obviously not suitable for her to wear today. The clothes needed to be thicker and the hairpins needed to be darker in color to balance the bulky clothes and prevent the princess from looking top-heavy.

The King of Chu sat with Gu Qingwan in the carriage. He had been well-behaved yesterday and hadn't bothered her, so Gu Qingwan felt refreshed today.

The carriage suddenly stopped.

"What happened?"

"Your Highness, a carriage is coming from the opposite direction. The road is too narrow, so we have to stop."

A carriage? The carriage they were riding in was marked with the symbol of the Chu King's Mansion. Ordinary people would give way to it if they saw it. Why would someone drive the carriage right up to them before stopping?

"Who is the other party?"

“Your Highness…” Xiao Yi hesitated for a moment, “It seems to be Prime Minister Gu’s carriage.”

Gu Ziming? Prime Minister Gu? Ha, the Emperor didn't erase the title of Prime Minister only for the sake of Princess Chu's face, but everyone knows it's just a title without substance. I believe it won't be long before the title of Prime Minister becomes history.

“Go and tell them that if I were the only one here, it wouldn’t hurt to give way, but now that the prince is on the carriage, there’s no reason to give way. I believe the Prime Minister, being of such a high position, should understand this.”

Xiao Yi got off the carriage and went to the front to deliver a message, but when Xiao Yi returned, he brought Batu with him.

"Greetings to the Princess. Master said today is the day the Princess returns to her parents' home. Master originally intended to go to the Prince's residence to fetch the Princess, but now that he has happened to meet the Princess, Master's intention is to return with the Prince and Princess."

After Batu finished speaking, he waited for a while but didn't hear a reply from the young lady. Instead, the King of Chu sneered and said, "I remember that the Princess Consort came from the Ningguo Duke's Mansion. What does she have to do with the Gu family? If the Prime Minister has nothing to do, I can help arrange something. Xiao Yi, go."

Xiao Yi was already following the orders of the King of Chu. When he got into the carriage, the whip almost struck Batu's face, and the people secretly watching the spectacle couldn't help but laugh out loud.

While he was setting up his carriage and waiting for Gu Qingwan to come and pay her respects, only Batu returned, bringing with him the words of the King of Chu, which felt like a direct slap in the face to him.

I never expected Gu Qingwan to be so resolute. Does she really consider the Ning family her maternal home?

Knowing that the Princess Consort of Chu was returning to her parents' home today and that she was also looking to reconcile with Gu Qingwan, he humbled himself and deliberately had the carriage travel slowly along this road.

He originally thought that as the father of the Queen Consort of Chu, that is, the father-in-law of the King of Chu, he felt that he was dignified enough to sit here.

Unexpectedly, the King of Chu showed no respect whatsoever, recognizing only the Ning family and not the Gu family.

"go back!"

When the King of Chu and his entourage arrived at the Duke of Ning's mansion, the gates were already open, and the entrance was spotless. The three young masters of the Ning family had been waiting at the gate for a long time.

"Greetings to the Prince and Princess."

"Cousin, what are you doing? Get up quickly, we're all family, there's no need for such formalities," Gu Qingwan quickly stopped him.

“Cousin, my brothers and I understand what you mean, but you must be mindful of propriety. We can’t let someone take advantage of us over such a small matter,” Ning Chenglin said.

“Cousin is right.” Gu Qingwan knew that the Ning family had always been cautious, which was why they had managed to get to where they were today unscathed.

"Rise, all of you, and come inside with me."

"Your Highness, please. My maternal grandparents, father, and mother have been waiting for you. My maternal grandmother, in particular, has been sending Mama Fang to the door to check on you every now and then." Ning Chengze was a smooth talker and spoke to the Prince and Princess Chu in a very relaxed manner.

"Let's hurry up, Grandmother got up too early. If we hadn't met Gu Ziming on the way, we might have arrived even earlier."

“Gu Ziming? How did we run into him?” Ning Chengze asked.

"Hmph, you want me to return to my family home today?"

"Ha, he certainly has the nerve!"

Once they reached the courtyard, Ning Chenghao, who had been silent until now, suddenly became excited and hugged Gu Qingwan's waist.

"Oh dear, I've been holding it in for so long! My older brother said I shouldn't trouble my cousin, so I haven't said a word. So, how was Hao'er's performance?"

Before he could finish speaking, Xiao Jingchen, who was walking in front, grabbed him by the back of his collar and lifted him up.

"Hey, hey, put me down, put me down!"

"Your Majesty!"

Xiao Jingchen glanced at Gu Qingwan, then put the little one down. "You're not allowed to hug your cousin anymore."

"Why!" Ning Chenghao was just a child and didn't understand much, so he asked directly, unconvinced.

"Men and women are not allowed to be intimate."

"But I'm only six years old!"

The King of Chu paused for a moment and then said, "Boys and girls should not sit together after the age of six."

"..."

Everyone was speechless. How could this prince be so childish?

Gu Qingwan couldn't help but rub her forehead, and simply ignored them, because she saw her aunt waiting for her at the door, so she quickly left everyone behind and went forward.