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

Because the Crown Prince had to attend to state affairs, he was somewhat unable to take care of the Emperor. Fortunately, the Empress would stay by his side every day. However, not long ago, after the Emperor woke up, he stopped allowing the Empress to serve him. It is unknown what the Empress said that offended the Emperor. The Emperor suddenly became angry and ordered the Empress to reflect on her mistakes in the palace. Consort Xi attended to her while she was ill. The Empress had no choice but to obey the Emperor's decree.

As for the Empress, Gu Qingwan really didn't know what to say. If you said the Empress was stupid, then why did she raise such outstanding children as the eldest princess and the crown prince? But if you said the Empress was smart, then look at all the things she did, none of them were respectable. She was always setting rules for this concubine or that concubine. No wonder Consort Yu almost became the only one in the harem.

However, it was quite effective. Consort Xi did not disappoint the Emperor's expectations. Soon, news spread throughout the palace that the Emperor had woken up. But even after the Emperor woke up, no one had seen his true face.

The Empress Dowager was deeply worried about the Emperor's health and couldn't sleep well day and night. If it weren't for Gu Qingwan helping her to recuperate, the Empress Dowager would probably have collapsed by now.

"Qingwan, tell me, how is the Emperor's health? He's awake now but won't let me go see him. It's really worrying."

"Your Majesty, please don't worry. The head of the Imperial Medical Academy comes to report the Emperor's pulse to you every day, so there shouldn't be any problems."

"Yes, the Chief Physician is the person that I and the Emperor trust the most. What he says should be true. I'm just overthinking it."

Gu Qingwan's eyes flickered. The most trusted person? Perhaps he was the most trusted person before, but that's not necessarily the case now. The Emperor's health problem is not simply due to overwork. As the head of the Imperial Physician, how could he not have noticed the problem with the Nourishing Pill? Whether he really didn't notice or did it on purpose, it's hard to say.

"Hasn't Mother Empress gone to see the Emperor?"

"I would like to go, but every time I go, they say that His Majesty is resting and that my time is not appropriate, so I have not been able to see him."

"Didn't you see the Empress either?"

"The Empress? The Empress did go in once, and when she came back she told me that His Majesty's voice was a little weak, but his spirits seemed to be still good."

In that case, no one had actually seen the Emperor. The Empress Dowager looked somewhat tired, and Gu Qingwan stepped forward to support her, saying, "Mother, please go back and rest."

"Alas, I'm getting old and my body isn't what it used to be. I always feel sleepy when spring comes."

"A short nap won't hurt, especially since you've just had lunch and your digestion should be almost complete. Mother, go and take a nap."

"Then don't overwork yourself. The sun is high at this time. Go and rest in Chen'er's bedroom before going back."

Gu Qingwan obediently agreed. After seeing the Empress Dowager off, she returned to Xiao Jingchen's bedchamber. Gu Qingwan ordered Shishu to watch the door while she and Siqi followed the map left by Xiao Jingchen to find the secret passage leading from there to the Emperor's bedchamber.

"Your Highness, should I go and check first, just in case there's any danger?" Siqi said with some concern.

"It's alright, let's go take a look together. If it weren't for the fact that there are so many skilled guards in the palace that it would be inconvenient for us to sneak in, there would be no need to go through all this trouble to crawl through the secret passage. I just wonder, since it hasn't been used for so long, is it still unclean inside?"

Siqi fell silent; her princess always had such unique perspectives.

However, there was nothing particularly frightening about the journey; it was just an ordinary secret passage. When she reached the end, Gu Qingwan looked at the bare walls and didn't know what to say. Couldn't the Emperor and the Prince of Chu clean this place up? They could have put a luminous pearl in here. It's so dark, and these clothes are no longer wearable; they're probably covered in dust.

She used the luminous pearl in her hand to look around for any mechanisms and found a small rope. She gently pulled it, and after a while, the hidden door in front of her opened. The person who came in was none other than Eunuch Fuming, the emperor's trusted confidant.

"Eunuch Fuming?" Gu Qingwan was a little surprised, but the other party obviously didn't seem surprised to see Princess Chu, as if he knew she would come from this side.

"Greetings to Her Highness the Princess."

Gu Qingwan walked out of the secret passage. The bedroom was filled with the smell of medicine, but it was quiet and there was no one around.

"Is Consort Xi not here?"

"His Majesty has just woken up. Since the Princess Consort came to the palace today, His Majesty thought she might come, so he specially sent Consort Xi away. Princess Consort, don't worry, everyone here is His Majesty's person, no one will know that you have been here."

Gu Qingwan nodded and asked, "Is His Majesty awake now?"

Fu Ming smiled and nodded. Gu Qingwan stepped forward and saw the Emperor leaning against the pillow on the bed, holding a letter in his hand and reading it.

"My concubine pays your respects to the Emperor."

"The Princess Consort of Chu has arrived. Fuming, bring a chair over."

Gu Qingwan shook her head and said, "Your Majesty, time is of the essence. I came here to check on Your Majesty's health."

The Emperor coughed lightly, gesturing for her to sit down and speak, and extended his arm. Fu Ming, quick-witted and nimble, placed a white handkerchief on the Emperor's wrist to prevent any physical contact between the Princess Consort of Chu and the Emperor.

Gu Qingwan was silent for a moment before saying, "Your Majesty, those medicines..."

"I already know that the head of the academy has a problem, so I suppose those medicines must also be problematic, right?"

"Your Majesty's health should be fine after taking my medicine, but every medicine has its side effects. Your Majesty should find a way to stop taking it as soon as possible. I think we've almost used up the Yangrong Pills we made, so I'll take this opportunity to send Your Majesty a bottle. The previous Yangrong Pills were a very evil thing. Once we find the source, we can completely stop it."

"I know. I have already asked your cousin to investigate this matter. This letter was delivered by your cousin."

Gu Qingwan hadn't expected that the Emperor had already made plans. She only realized after reading the contents of the letter that the cousin the Emperor mentioned was actually Ning Chengze. At this moment, Gu Qingwan completely understood the Emperor's attitude towards the Ning family. In the end, the Emperor had kept Ning Chengze around, probably to cultivate him as a confidant.

"Chengze said he followed the clues and found a village. The people in this village were like ghosts, all of them were sallow and emaciated and delirious. Some of them couldn't even get out of bed. Moreover, no one in the village worked anymore, and many people had starved to death. The fields behind the village were not planted with crops, but with a kind of plant that I had never seen before. I suppose it must be the poppy that the princess mentioned. I haven't decided what to do with it yet."

Gu Qingwan said solemnly, "Your Majesty, there's no need to even think about this. It should be burned and destroyed immediately."

"But..." The emperor thought, since this thing is so powerful, why can't it be used by me? If it can invade neighboring countries, wouldn't it be easy to annex them?

Gu Qingwan seemed to know what the Emperor was thinking. Ignoring his suspicions, she immediately replied, "Your Majesty, you mustn't! This thing is harmful to others and not beneficial to oneself. If it spreads to other parts of our country, it will only ruin the lives of the people there. If it falls into another country, that country may also suffer. But even if we take the opportunity to incorporate it into the territory of Daqing, it will be a diseased thing, like a person carrying the plague entering our home. Do you think we will be alright?"

Princess Chu's words made sense. The Emperor sighed, feeling somewhat regretful, but he was unwilling to use so many lives as a bargaining chip. He nodded and said, "I know what to do."

Gu Qingwan knew she couldn't stay long, so she said, "Your Majesty, the poison in your body has already affected your health. With some rest and recuperation, you might be able to recover..."

She knew that there were no fathers and sons in the imperial family, but she never expected that Xiao Yuheng would dare to poison the emperor so heartlessly. The poison in the emperor's body was not something that had appeared overnight; it must have been there for a long time. Because of the head of the Imperial Hospital's concealment, the poison in the emperor's body was not resolved in time. Even someone as skilled as Gu Qingwan was helpless.

The Emperor's face darkened. "That rebellious son! Cough cough cough!"

"Oh dear, Your Majesty, please don't be angry." Fu Ming took two steps at a time and stepped forward to pat the Emperor's back to calm him down.

After a moment's pause, the Emperor said, "I know what's going on in this matter. It's enough that the Princess knows about this secret passage; she doesn't need to come here again in the future."

"But the Emperor's health..."

The Emperor waved his hand and said, "I know my own body well. I'm getting old. Let them do what they want. Do you want to see what kind of trouble these little things can cause?"

Gu Qingwan thought to herself, "Your son has gone to such lengths to cede territory and join forces with an enemy country." Of course, she couldn't say this, otherwise, given the Emperor's suspicious nature, he might accidentally suspect how she knew, which would be quite unpleasant.

Gu Qingwan's purpose in coming here was simply to confirm that the Emperor's life was not in danger; anything else was beyond her consideration.

After Gu Qingwan left the palace, she heard that Wenrou had returned to the Empress Dowager's side to accompany her. Moreover, the palace was temporarily not allowing noblewomen to enter and pay homage to the noble ladies in the palace. Gu Qingwan was too lazy to go to the palace anymore. Since becoming pregnant, she felt somewhat tired every day and wished she could sleep until the sun was high in the sky before getting up. She also gradually found that her temper was becoming a bit irritable, but all of this was fine and did not show up.

These past few days, Gu Qingwan has stayed in the Prince's mansion and hasn't gone out. She has refused all the visiting cards that come to her door. Even when Madam Ning came to invite her to stay at the Ning family's house for a few days, Gu Qingwan refused. Zong Xin was a little worried and felt that the peace in the capital during this period was not quite normal.

Only the letter from Xiao Jingchen was delivered to her desk, along with a letter from Ning Chengze.

"What happened to the princess?"

Baoqin was taken aback when she saw the princess almost smashing the teacup in her hand in anger. What could have made the princess so upset?

"That Gu Hanjiao is no pushover. The Yangrong Pill wasn't invented by anyone else; it was her idea. My second cousin has already caught the real person and is just waiting for the Emperor's decree to bring her back to the capital for interrogation."

“This…” Baoqin was somewhat surprised. “This second young lady was raised in a boudoir, how could she know so much? Moreover, such a vicious idea was actually conceived by the second young lady. If I hadn’t been by the princess’s side all this time, I would have suspected that the second young lady had been replaced and was not a young lady of the Gu family.”

Gu Qingwan did not respond. This Gu Hanjiao was indeed strange. Her fantastical tales were simply unheard of. If it weren't for her memories of her past life, she wouldn't have been able to get ahead of Gu Hanjiao in this life. In her past life, the emperor was bedridden for a period of time before his death. She remembered that the emperor's face was very haggard at the time, with almost no flesh on his face, and he was practically skin and bones. She didn't know what happened then, but now she thought it must have been Gu Hanjiao who gave Xiao Yuheng the idea to make the emperor addicted to drugs. But the emperor was such a strong and proud person, how could he be willing to endure such humiliating torture?

Even though the emperor realized something was wrong at that time, it was too late. Some poisons, once contracted, ruin one's life. For example, some people in the southern border fed their bodies to Gu, which is basically poison. Once the Gu is gone, the poison in the body will immediately erode the host. It's just a symbiotic relationship. I don't know what those people were thinking.