Duoduo hesitated for a moment, but she did not dodge.
Duoduo remembered her tutor once saying that emperors had been suspicious by nature since ancient times.
If she tried to evade him, she would only make her grandfather misunderstand her further.
There was more than one guard stationed inside and outside the room.
She was not incapable of fighting back, either. After all, the emperor was standing right in front of her.
But Duoduo did not want to do that.
She remained where she was, pretending to be too frightened to move.
The emperor’s hand immediately closed around Duoduo’s throat.
Duoduo felt herself suffocating. With difficulty, she grabbed hold of the emperor’s hand.
“Grandfather... please listen to me!”
The last shred of reason he possessed made him loosen his grip slightly.
Duoduo could breathe much more easily.
Worried that the emperor’s patience would run out, she quickly blurted out everything else in one breath.
“Grandfather, there’s a gu worm inside your body!”
“My gu worm sensed the one inside you, which is why it bit you!”
“If you don’t believe me, I can prove it to you!”
After hearing Duoduo’s words, the emperor’s imposing aura suddenly burst forth.
An old tiger was still a tiger, no matter how aged it was.
The emperor’s presence made Duoduo shudder involuntarily.
“There’s a gu worm inside my body?”
The emperor’s voice was cold and sinister.
Duoduo hurriedly nodded. “The gu worm inside you has been there for a long time!”
“It wasn’t me who put it there!”
Duoduo hastily explained herself. She did not want the emperor to misunderstand her.
The emperor’s eyes fixed on Duoduo like those of a hawk.
Duoduo did not even dare blink.
After a long moment, the emperor released her.
Duoduo clutched her throat and immediately began coughing.
“Cough, cough, cough!”
After taking a trip to the gates of hell, Duoduo developed a trace of fear for the grandfather who had once seemed so kind.
Her father had been right after all.
The emperor held the power of life and death over every person!
He would not easily spare anyone simply because of blood ties.
A hint of wariness toward the emperor arose in Duoduo’s heart.
The emperor rolled up his sleeves and examined his body from top to bottom.
A gu worm?
There was a gu worm inside his body?
Why had he never felt it?
Was Changle lying to him, or was there really something there?
The emperor lowered his hands and walked over to sit in a chair.
He noticed that Duoduo was standing far away from him, and that the affection in her eyes had been replaced by something else.
The emperor gave a soft cough.
“You said just now that you could prove it to me?”
“How will you prove it?”
Duoduo straightened up and answered with great respect.
“Little Gold bit you just now so that it could sense where the gu worm was.”
“Now, I only need to place Little Gold on the wound. The gu worm inside your body will sense it.”
The emperor hesitated when he heard Duoduo’s method.
He was afraid that Duoduo might use the opportunity to plant a gu worm in him.
The emperor scrutinized Duoduo, but she did not avoid his gaze.
“If you’re afraid, then just pretend you never heard what I said.”
“But after thinking about it just now...”
“You had already taken the pills I made before, so why did you still vomit blood?”
“I didn’t understand it in the past.”
“But now it seems that it must be because of the gu worm inside your body.”
“Your body probably becomes extremely weak at regular intervals.”
“That’s because the gu worm is changing. It needs to absorb more nourishment from your body.”
Duoduo carefully explained everything to the emperor.
“And Little Gold isn’t a bug I raised.”
“It was the one who willingly acknowledged me as its master!”
“Its original master was a woman from the Miao frontier.”
Duoduo offered an indirect explanation for Little Gold’s origins.
After she finished speaking, she extended the hand holding Little Gold toward the emperor.
Little Gold seemed to sense the emperor’s displeasure. It curled itself into a ball in Duoduo’s palm.
Even so, its tiny, bean-sized eyes remained bright and alert as they stared at the emperor.
The emperor examined the insect in Duoduo’s palm. It was plump, with a pair of transparent wings.
He had never seen an insect like it before.
The emperor went over Duoduo’s words in his mind.
The southern frontier?
The phrase stirred a ripple in his heart.
It sounded somewhat familiar.
Where had he heard it before?
The emperor furrowed his brows and struggled to recall.
Suddenly, Little Gold straightened up, as though it had sensed something.
Its wings began to beat.
Duoduo saw this and immediately reached out to cover Little Gold.
“Little Gold, Grandfather hasn’t agreed yet!”
“Don’t act rashly!”
“If you do, I won’t be able to protect you!”
But before she could finish speaking, Little Gold flapped its wings and took flight.
Duoduo hurriedly jumped up to catch it.
Little Gold flew in a circle around the emperor. The emperor immediately felt itchy all over.
It was not merely itchy—there was also a faint stinging sensation.
It was as if something inside his body were trying to break out of its shell!
The emperor was horrified.
He pulled up his sleeve, trying to find some sign of what was happening.
After making one circuit, Little Gold finally landed on the emperor’s sleeve.
The prickling, itching sensation disappeared.
Just as the emperor reached out to grab Little Gold, he heard Duoduo cry out.
“Grandfather, don’t!”
Before the emperor could say anything, he saw a bump suddenly rise on his exposed arm.
Then the bump vanished.
The next moment, another bump appeared elsewhere.
The emperor felt a chill run down his spine.
Duoduo saw it too.
She stood there in a daze.
“It really is a gu worm...” she murmured.
The message Little Gold had just conveyed to her was that there was another of its kind inside the emperor’s body.
Duoduo had only been half-convinced.
After all, she had just taken the emperor’s pulse.
Aside from several chronic ailments, there had been no major abnormalities in his body.
Duoduo had assumed that Imperial Physician Li’s medical skills were excellent enough to have restored the emperor’s health.
Moreover, when she had looked at the emperor’s complexion earlier, it had been remarkably healthy.
It was completely at odds with his age.
Duoduo had even felt suspicious.
Now, she understood.
So it was because of the gu worm.
Nina had once told her that some gu worms could keep a person looking young forever.
They affected not only the body, but the mind as well, making a person feel as though they were still eighteen.
In reality, the gu worm would already have hollowed out the person’s body completely.
At the thought of this, worry began to fill Duoduo’s heart.
She did not know how long the gu worm had been inside her grandfather’s body.
Nor did she know how far it had developed by now.
What if it had already fused with her grandfather and become one with him...?
Duoduo’s brows knitted together.
The emperor had also heard Duoduo’s muttering, and he could not help glancing at her.
Duoduo was not even certain whether there was a gu worm inside his body.
Then how could she have spoken with such certainty?
And wasn’t she afraid that he might order her killed?
The emperor stared at the bump that appeared and disappeared on his arm, then took a dagger from the nearby rack.
“No!”
When Duoduo saw this, she immediately lunged forward.
She pressed down on the emperor’s hand.
The bump on the emperor’s hand vanished.
