Chapter 173 They wanted to establish their own female-run households. ...
"Stop! Stop right now!" Xiao Qiluo shouted to the driver as soon as she saw the words floating in front of her.
But the coachman didn't stop; instead, the carriage sped up even more.
Xiao Qiluo wasn't panicked; in fact, she was somewhat relieved that Xingzhi wasn't there. She had just sent Xingzhi to buy some snacks, so he might not be back for a little while.
She wasn't afraid of being alone; her kung fu had improved quite a bit recently. Even if her kung fu wasn't up to par, she still had her mother by her side.
She raised her hand to stop the driver, but the driver fell headfirst into the ground, while the carriage continued to run.
Before she fell, she saw that the driver's eyes were closed, and she didn't know if he was still alive.
The horse has been infected with a poisonous insect; someone is controlling it.
"Who did this?"
Xiang Bei didn't know who did it. Just now, when she was talking to Xiao Qiluo, the system told her that the coachman had stopped moving.
If someone secretly cast a spell, it's impossible to evade the system. Therefore, the only explanation is that the spell was cast before Xiao Qiluo boarded the carriage.
Don't act rashly yet; figure out what the people behind this are up to.
Xiang Bei thought the original setting was quite impressive, as it allowed for heart transplants and the manipulation of people or animals using Gu worms.
Even now, the world's consciousness has not given up on the idea of fixing the plot.
Xiao Qiluo nodded, then asked, "Mother, is that coachman dead?"
The person is still alive.
Xiao Qiluo sat back down, letting the carriage carry her forward. The only people who could harm her were those people.
Ever since her father wanted to make her the crown prince, the members of the imperial clan had been secretly plotting against her, but had been struggling to find an opportunity to do so.
Or perhaps it was Ruan Rou'er; the guards had lost track of her again, and she seemed to still be coveting the heart within her.
This is an antidote pill; once taken, it will make you immune to all poisons.
Seeing the pill that suddenly appeared in her hand, Xiao Qiluo swallowed it without hesitation.
After traveling for an unknown amount of time, the carriage finally stopped.
Xiao Qiluo heard footsteps, and then someone lifted the curtain, revealing a person dressed in a black robe and wearing a demon mask.
The other person was looking at her, and Xiao Qiluo was also sizing him up.
"Who are you? Why have you kidnapped this princess?"
The other party didn't speak, but simply raised his hand and sprinkled a handful of white powder at Xiao Qiluo.
Xiao Qiluo smelled the floral-scented medicinal powder and looked into the eyes of the man.
It felt like something had slipped into her sleeve, and Xiao Qiluo grabbed it with her hand.
That's a sleeping potion, pretend to be unconscious!
Before the other person could raise their hand, Xiao Qiluo closed her eyes and fainted. She felt herself being picked up and carried for a while before being put down again.
I don't know what it was placed on, but it felt a bit uncomfortable on my back.
"Father, you must succeed this time, or I won't survive. I don't want to die."
Upon hearing this voice, Xiao Qiluo knew that the speaker was Ruan Rou'er.
It seems that all of this was her doing.
But what does "father" mean?
Cui Fang had spoken to her earlier, and Ruan Rou'er was an orphan. It turns out she has family.
Then I heard two men's voices.
One of the voices sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite place where I'd heard it before.
A copper bell rang in her ears, along with strange words that sounded like some kind of spell.
Xiao Qiluo's eyes opened uncontrollably.
Her body involuntarily sat up, but she was fully aware of what she was doing.
She called out to her mother in her heart, wanting to know what was going on.
The sound of the copper bell still lingered in her ears when she heard someone ask, "Would you be willing to give your heart to Ruan Rou'er?"
Something in her mind was controlling her, urging her to agree.
Xiao Qiluo was naturally unwilling, so she answered directly, "I'm not willing."
"Father, has the Gu worm failed? How come she's out of control?"
The copper bell rang again, and the question was asked once more.
Xiao Qiluo felt a lightness in her body and was able to move again. She snatched the copper bell, crushed it with her bare hands, and threw it at the man wearing the demon mask.
"I said I don't want to, are you deaf?"
"How is that possible? You were clearly drugged by me, how could you have woken up?"
Beside her stood a skinny man who looked eccentric, holding a box in his hand, pointing it at Xiao Qiluo, and muttering to himself.
Xiao Qiluo felt a little annoyed and snatched it away again, only to find that it was an extremely ugly insect inside. She threw it on the ground and stomped it to death.
The skinny man immediately flew into a rage, "You dare kill my Gu King! I'll kill you!"
Xiao Qiluo kicked him impatiently, sending him flying a long way. "Aren't you done yet?"
The skinny man lay on the ground, laughing triumphantly, and said, "You killed the mother Gu, and the offspring Gu is in your body. It will surely devour your internal organs."
"You mean this?" Xiao Qiluo took out a handkerchief from her sleeve and threw it in front of the man.
Upon opening it, one found a baby Gu that had been crushed to death.
"You are not under the influence of a curse."
"Of course, how could I let such a disgusting bug crawl into my body?"
Unexpectedly, this disgusting bug, when placed on her body, had a momentary effect.
Seeing that the situation was not right, Ruan Rou'er had no choice but to say, "Father, Uncle, why don't we just kill her and take out her Seven Aperture Exquisite Heart when she has only one breath left? That should not be a problem."
Xiao Qiluo then realized that the skinny man was Ruan Rou'er's father, the legendary successor of the Ghost Doctor.
I've heard that this person's medical skills are extraordinary, capable of bringing the dead back to life and restoring flesh to bones.
Xiao Qiluo didn't know if he could cure people to death, but this person's medical skills were developed through countless experiments on human patients.
The masked man is Ruan Rou'er's uncle.
When the mask was removed, it was revealed to be the person from the Imperial Hospital whom the Empress Dowager had asked her to investigate.
"So you were all in cahoots. You tricked that idiot Cui Fang, didn't you? The jade pendant wasn't lost, it was stolen by you. You gave it to Ruan Rou'er, letting her pretend to be Cui Fang's savior, so she could get close to me naturally. Then Cui Fang forced me to agree to a heart transplant, and then the Ghost Doctor appeared, naturally returning my heart to Ruan Rou'er."
Xiao Qiluo immediately understood the cause and effect.
She then asked how her jade pendant could have been lost in the palace. It turned out there was an inside agent within the palace.
The fact that she saved Cui Fang was no secret in the palace.
However, she didn't specify where she was rescued, so Ruan Rou'er didn't know even when she arrived at the location.
"So, the name Ruan Rou'er is also fake?"
No one knows the Ghost Doctor's real name. Ruan Rou'er's goal is her heart. After the heart transplant, she probably won't stay by Cui Fang's side. This name is probably fake too.
"That's right, Ruan Rou'er is just an identity I created to get close to that idiot Cui Fang. My real name is Liu Hu."
Liu Hu reached out and touched her chest, her gaze towards Xiao Qiluo filled with determination.
She was born with a heart condition. Her father and uncle tried countless ways to prolong her life and she underwent several heart transplants, but each one only lasted a short time.
Finding a suitable heart is extremely difficult.
In the end, her father found a method in a medical book, saying that as long as she could find a heart with seven orifices and have it replaced, she would be no different from an ordinary person.
It took them a long time to realize that only one person in the world possessed such a brilliant and insightful mind.
"That person is you, Princess Qiluo."
"So your uncle infiltrated the Imperial Hospital and gathered information about me, but he couldn't act in the palace. After learning that I was devoted to Cui Fang, he decided to target Cui Fang instead?"
"What's the use of knowing all this now? Xiao Qiluo, today is your death day," Liu Hu said viciously.
Xiao Qiluo ignored her. "Where is the bodyguard I sent to monitor you?"
Liu Hu and her people took action, but the secret guards did not report it, so something bad might have happened.
"You mean him?" The Ghost Doctor clapped his hands, and a bodyguard suddenly appeared, but his expression was blank, as if he had been manipulated.
Xiao Qiluo looked at the guards, wondering if they were carrying the antidote.
Seeing that Xiao Qiluo still had the mind to care about the guards at this time, Liu Hu couldn't help but sneer.
"I am the future crown prince, the future emperor. What problems do I have with my people? As for you, if you obediently surrender, I might consider giving you a quick death."
"Stop with the nonsense, Your Highness. You'll experience what it's like to have your own bodyguard betray you. Dying by your own bodyguard's blade must be incredibly despairing."
Liu Hu's smile suddenly turned ruthless. Pointing at Xiao Qiluo, he said to the guards, "Kill her!"
The guards did not move.
Xiao Qiluo laughed as she looked at the words that were floating by. "Since they are my people, why would they listen to you? Mo San, kill them."
The guards immediately sprang into action.
The Ghost Doctor can use Gu worms, but Mo San is clearly not under the control of his Gu worms.
Ruan Rou'er's uncle knew some martial arts, but he was no match for Mo San.
They were quickly dealt with by Mo San.
"Father, Uncle!" Liu Hu was still in disbelief, not expecting that her two relatives had died like this.
"Impossible, this is impossible."
As Liu Hu spoke, she made a move as if to rush towards Mo San, but it was just a feint, and the silver needle in her hand shot towards Xiao Qiluo.
Just as she was about to stab Xiao Qiluo, she saw that Xiao Qiluo had a wooden board in her hand, and all her silver needles were driven into the wooden board.
Seeing the guards approaching her, Liu Hu panicked. She felt a dull pain in her chest; her heart condition was acting up.
Mo San's knife was still stained with blood. Liu Hu had thrown away everything she could use for self-defense; she had nothing left to defend herself. She kept retreating until she crashed into a tree trunk, with nowhere left to go.
Liu Hu's gaze swept over Xiao Qiluo and the guards, and he actually begged Xiao Qiluo for mercy.
"Your Highness, please spare me! I just want to live!"
Xiao Qiluo didn't speak, she just looked at her.
Seeing that Xiao Qiluo remained unmoved, Liu Hu became anxious. She gritted her teeth and said, "Your Highness, didn't you say that you wanted all women in the world to walk a different path? I am also one of the women in the world. You can't kill me. If people find out, they will no longer trust you."
Xiao Qiluo scoffed, "Killing you would be doing a service to the people, how could I ruin my own reputation for killing you?"
"No, I can't die," Liu Hu murmured.
She made so many efforts just so she could live with a healthy body. She didn't want to die; she wanted to live, to live with a healthy body.
"To survive, you killed so many innocent people, just to find a heart for you. Liu Hu, you deserve to die."
Liu Hu looked up, a sinister glint in her eyes. She laughed, "You're a princess, a golden branch and jade leaf, what do you know? What's wrong with wanting to live? It's their good fortune to have chosen my heart. It's a pity, if the princess were still obsessed with that fool Cui Fang, I would have already obtained your exquisite heart."
As soon as she finished speaking, Liu Hu raised her hand and threw a handful of poison powder at Xiao Qiluo. A dagger hidden in her sleeve also flew out and stabbed directly at Xiao Qiluo's neck.
With a soft "plop," it was the sound of something piercing flesh.
Liu Hu looked down at the hairpin on her neck, then looked at Xiao Qiluo in disbelief, before falling straight to the ground with a look of resentment.
Just now, Xiao Qiluo used the hairpin made of meteorite iron to knock down the dagger and stab it into Liu Hu's neck.
Liu Hu's eyes were still open when she fell.
His expression was one of shock, as if he couldn't believe he had died.
Xiao Qiluo took back her hairpin and wiped the blood off it.
The hairpin was plated with silver, making it look like an ordinary silver hairpin. People would only think that the princess was frugal.
Xiao Qiluo burned the three corpses to ashes.
She didn't believe the nonsense about not dying after a heart transplant. How could someone without a heart possibly live? It was just a ploy to trick her into giving her heart to Liu Hu. Only Cui Fang would believe such a foolish notion as living without a heart.
As the Ghost Doctor's corpse was burned, many insects crawled out of his body. Xiao Qiluo set fire to the surrounding area, burning all the crawling insects away as well.
These Gu worms were things they had created; destroying them was a good thing, lest they become a menace. Following the Empress Dowager's instructions, he cut open the guard's finger with a knife and picked out a black worm from the wound.
Xiao Qiluo stomped the insect to death, then used her sword to throw the insect's corpse into the fire, burning it completely.
The guard's eyes gradually cleared, and seeing that Xiao Qiluo still looked somewhat surprised, he quickly understood what had happened and hurriedly knelt down to beg for forgiveness, "Princess, I have failed in my duty?"
Xiao Qiluo shook her head. "Let's not talk about this. Let's go back first."
She hadn't expected Liu Hu and his group to use Gu poison, and the guards had been controlled by them. To be honest, it was her own carelessness.
As Liu Hu and the others' bodies were burned to ashes, the system said, "Host, the male lead Cui Fang's aura has diminished again."
Choi Fang's protagonist aura has now dropped to 120%.
Xiao Qiluo's protagonist aura has become increasingly dazzling.
Liu Hu, who should have died at Cui Fang's hands, was now dealt with by Xiao Qiluo herself, thus eliminating Cui Fang's purpose. The key point of the male lead avenging the female lead was gone, so the male lead's halo naturally diminished.
Xiang Bei estimated that the plan to use Cui Fang to attract the meteorite wouldn't last long. Once the male protagonist's halo disappeared, the world's consciousness wouldn't be able to correct the plot.
"Let's go." Only after confirming that the person was completely dead did Xiao Qiluo leave with her guards.
She wanted to see the person die with her own eyes, so they wouldn't come back and cause a zombie. Halfway there, she picked up the unconscious coachman and took him back; he was still asleep, and she didn't find any Gu worms on his body.
When Xiao Qiluo returned to the manor, Xingzhi had already returned and was anxiously searching for her everywhere.
"Why is the princess so late in returning?"
"Something came up on the way, and it's getting late, so you should go to sleep early too."
"Okay." Xingzhi placed the snacks next to Xiao Qiluo.
Xiang Bei reminded Xiao Qiluo to take a break and not to ruin her health.
Xiao Qiluo laughed, "Mother, seeing these things has kept me so excited I can't sleep."
"You need to be in good health first. If your health collapses, are you willing to watch all the things you've done go to waste?"
It is no exaggeration to say that if Xiao Qiluo were to collapse now, the girls' school would surely collapse without its support, and the women without support would revert to their original state.
Xiao Qiluo looked at the scrolling text in front of her, and finally lay down on the bed to rest.
Health is indeed very important; only with a healthy body can you do more things.
The Empress Dowager gave her seven female tutors, and she read them. The knowledge of those tutors was indeed no less than that of the nine tutors. It would not be an exaggeration to say that they knew everything from astronomy to geography.
Besides having three tutors for their studies, the others were also accomplished in other areas.
One of the teachers was skilled in farming, and Xiao Qiluo went to the Ministry of Agriculture with him.
The growth of wheat and rice seeds is also closely related to the weather and soil conditions.
But as long as the crops can be grown well, the people will not have to suffer from hunger and cold.
Xiao Qiluo felt that she still had a lot to do, and she could only prioritize the important tasks, such as how to prevent famine among the people and how to send girls to school.
My mother told me that there are things called potatoes and sweet potatoes overseas. They have a high yield and are very filling. If we can bring them back, we can use them as a meal.
Soybeans can be used to make tofu, and also to extract soybean oil, and to make all sorts of other foods.
There were so many things, Xiao Qiluo wrote them all down, thinking that one day she would be able to do it.
She wanted to bring happiness to the people, but she also knew that these things could not be accomplished overnight. She packed her bedding and settled down in the Ministry of Agriculture, loosening the soil with the tutors. When her hands were blistered and bleeding, the voices in the court calling for the establishment of a crown prince rose again. Her uncles could no longer hold back their father's desire to make her the crown prince.
The Empress Dowager looked at the blisters on her hands and handed her a pair of gloves.
[Silly child, wear gloves when you work! If you get hurt, it will break your mother's heart.]
Xiao Qiluo: "..." She felt that her mother's tone was very perfunctory.
These gloves are indeed very useful, and it shouldn't be difficult to make them. Xiao Qiluo took the sample directly and asked the women to make them.
Besides gloves, you should also prepare masks and other usable items as spares.
The issue of girls' schools did have an impact on some women. With some taking the lead, others were able to muster the courage to resist and enroll in girls' schools.
After Xiao Qiluo sends someone to verify the information, she will enroll the person in the girls' school.
Some women, emboldened by their circumstances, proposed divorce. They didn't want to return to their parents' home, nor did they want their husbands to marry them off casually for dowry purposes.
They wanted to establish independent female households.
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