The Virtuous Concubine

Today is the first day of February in the fourteenth year of the Kangxi reign, and tomorrow is the day of the minor election. Malu looked up at the dark sky and felt his heart tighten.

Ten years of hard work finally brought this moment. Malu actually didn't need to be nervous. She was now proficient in embroidery, cooking, calligraphy and flute. She was a leader among women in any dynasty. E-chan and Aunt Hongyu worked together to arrange a good relationship for her. No one would make things difficult for her when she entered the palace. She could probably go directly to the Qianqing Palace to be protected by Aunt Hongyu's former apprentice.

Aunt Hongyu's little apprentice is named Shu Yu. She is now in charge of the tea house in the Qianqing Palace. It is not particularly difficult to arrange for the granddaughter of the former manager of the imperial kitchen to be a palace maid serving tea.

But E-chan and Hongyu could only help Malu up to this point. They didn't know whether Malu would be favored by the emperor and become a concubine.

In the Qing Dynasty, palace maids were only the daughters of the three banners of the Imperial Household Department. Starting from the Shunzhi period, a small selection was held on the second day of the second month of each year. Those over the age of thirteen were put on the list for selection, but it was only when Ma Lu was fifteen that he paid a sum of money to add his name to the list of the Accounting Department of the Imperial Household Department.

The candidates had to enter the palace on the evening of the first day of February, and at dawn the next day they would be brought to the emperor, empress, or queen mother for selection. Because the late empress died in the 13th year of Kangxi's reign, there were more beautiful women and palace maids who needed to enter the palace this year.

Malu packed her small bag and boarded the carriage to the palace after everyone saw her off. She left with determination and did not look back to see the expressions of the people behind her.

The carriage moved forward for a while before Malu took out his eyebrow pencil, powder and other items, and drew his eyebrows harder. He also carefully painted his face, hands, ears, neck and other parts yellow. He looked at himself several times with a small bronze mirror, and only closed his eyes to rest after confirming that there was no problem.

Seeing that she was nervous, the system did not bother her, secretly looking forward to her growing up after entering the palace, and her life of madly harvesting points after killing all the enemies. Let it become a system that wins easily as soon as possible!

Entering the palace was smooth. After verifying the identities, three solemn maids in the palace did some simple checks. After confirming that there were no scars or any prohibited items, they gave all the girls participating in the selection a set of blue clothes and a wooden sign to hang around their necks with their names and flag scores written on them.

After everyone received their name tags and clothes, they were assigned rooms. They were going to sleep in the palace tonight and had to get up early tomorrow to participate in the selection.

Thanks to Ecan and Hongyu's arrangements, Malu was assigned to a cleaner room. Malu's roommate was also a pretty and quiet girl. When Malu entered the room, she saw her filling a basin of water and cleaning up.

The two chatted for a few sentences in a friendly and awkward manner. Malu was surprised to hear the other party's name. It turned out that the other party was Wanliuha Niuniu, later Concubine Ding, the biological mother of the twelfth prince!

After getting to know each other, Malu realized that the other party was a person who didn't like to cause trouble and was not overly friendly to him. He then breathed a sigh of relief, borrowed two basins from the little palace maid, and helped Wan Liuhanuniu to fetch water for washing. The two of them washed up and prepared to go to bed.

When she was washing up, she had no choice but to wash off all the makeup she used to make herself look ugly. Wan Liuhaniuniu was a little surprised when she saw Malu's true face: "Malu, sister, you...?"

Malu smiled and said, "Girls naturally need to learn how to dress up. I can share these cosmetics with my sister!" Then she was about to rummage through the package.

Wan Liuha was stunned and quickly refused: "No, no, my sister doesn't like these."

She couldn't tell whether Malu was pretending or had a real aesthetic problem that backfired. But she knew that Malu's family was considered good among the palace maids, so there was no need to expose or offend her, so she just kept her mouth shut and pretended not to know.

The two chatted for a while before going to bed. Malu was relieved to see Wan Liuha being so understanding. Deliberately concealing one's appearance can be a big deal or a small deal, but Malu was very cautious and didn't want to cause trouble for such a thing. After all, you can't blame a girl for putting on bad makeup, right!

The next morning, a maid knocked on the door to remind them to get up. This time, it was Wan Liuha who went out to fetch water for washing. She watched Malu happily applying the snow-white powder, and wanted to remind her that although the powder looked snow-white at first, it would turn yellow and dark in a short while, making her face look dark red.

Before she could think of what to say, Malu had already put down the powder with satisfaction and started to draw her eyebrows. These eyebrows are a bit too thick! Wan Liuha choked up. Seeing that she was staring at her, Malu hurriedly called out to Wan Liuha: "Sister, do you want some too? Come on -"

Wan Liuha quickly waved her hands: "No, no, I'll go outside and take a look first!!" Fearing that Malu would draw for her, she quickly ran out to gather.

Malu smiled, "You little brat, I can't take you down!" Seeing her leave, Malu opened the powder box again and applied it to the exposed parts of her ears and neck. After waiting for the powder to oxidize and change color, Malu also tidied her clothes, put on the wooden sign and went out.

They were divided into rows of six and walked to the selection site. Unlike the concubines, they could only participate in the selection in the Imperial Garden, which was closest to the Yonghe Palace. They were arranged here because the highest-ranking concubine in the harem was Consort Niuhulu, and she was not in good health, so it would be troublesome to travel too far.

If they were selected, they would stay in the palace that day, and those who were not selected would be sent back home immediately. The number of candidates for each selection was limited, and if Concubine Niuhulu selected more people than the quota, the excess people would have to come again next year.

The selection process was quick, with the eunuchs calling out the names and the people called coming forward. Concubine Niuhulu spent most of her time staring at the list, which listed their specific circumstances, and she didn't spend much time looking at the people, sometimes just glancing at them.

The people in front of them were all very smooth. Concubine Niuhulu only asked one or two questions occasionally, and most of the time she made the decision without asking any questions. The young eunuch shouted in a sharp voice: "Uya Malu, the granddaughter of the steward of the imperial kitchen, sixteen years old--"

Malu responded and stepped out of the line and bowed. Concubine Niuhulu looked up, glanced at Malu, and spoke for the first time: "It looks quite neat. Does it say that you can make some snacks?"

Malu nodded and said slowly, "I learned some dishes from my grandfather at home, but I can't say I'm proficient in them."

Concubine Niuhulu saw that her eyebrows were very straight and even a little tough, and her skin was dark, which made her originally delicate facial features a little blurred. From the way she talked, she didn't seem to be a pushover, so she nodded.

Only such a person can be placed beside the emperor! The Wei family of the Zhenghuang Banner in front is too charming, so she should be sent away. After making up her mind, Concubine Niuhulu wrote a few words on the book before letting Malu go.

Malu knew that she should be selected, because the system had already informed her that the mission to enter the palace had been completed and the points reward had been received! But Concubine Niuhulu seemed to be distracted, so she asked her to wait for a while. Although this time was not long, it made Malu a little nervous - would anything go wrong?

She didn't know that it was the future Concubine Liang who had the problem, because she was too beautiful and caught the eye of Concubine Niuhulu. Soon Malu was led away by the eunuch to join the other selected palace maids. She looked around and felt that it was not a good time to check the system. When she saw her roommate Wan Liuha who was also selected, she quickly went over to chat with her.