The Virtuous Concubine

Malu stepped forward quickly, bowed politely, lowered her voice to greet Concubine Tong and introduced herself. Concubine Tong felt a little relieved when she saw that Malu had a clear and upright look, was well-behaved, and was not dressed out of the ordinary.

She doesn't look like a foxy woman. Concubine Tong thought that if she stayed in the kitchen all day, she would become a nanny sooner or later. But she was still worried, so she planned to ask someone about it when she returned, and it would be best to test the emperor's cousin's feelings.

She didn't yell, but directly asked Malu how the emperor's snacks were recently. When Shuyu and Malu heard her rambling, they knew that she was sincerely making things difficult for them. But Aunt Shuyu didn't know why Concubine Tong wanted to make things difficult for Malu, who was usually low-key and down-to-earth.

Malu said a few words and then stopped talking. Seeing that she was so dull and didn't know how to respond, Concubine Tong felt relieved - this kind of person might be beaten to death if she angered her cousin one day.

Just then, Liang Jiugong came out to summon Concubine Tong to see him. Concubine Tong went in again, twisting her waist and swaying gracefully, leaving Aunt Shuyu and the others standing there in the cold. Aunt Shuyu glanced at Malu, who was looking down at her, and then said to everyone, "What are you doing standing there like an idiot? Why don't you go back to your duty!"

The group of people hurried back with the tea sets. As Malu walked away, he complained to the system: "When love rivals meet, they are particularly jealous."

The system felt that the grudges between the original body and Concubine Tong were indeed difficult to let go for a while. But everyone felt that they had to speed up the process, otherwise if Concubine Tong wanted to punish Malu, it would be a bit annoying.

The opportunity came quickly. That morning, seeing Aunt Shuyu's leisurely look, Malu knew that the emperor was most likely not in the Qianqing Palace. He used the detector to check and found that the emperor was indeed walking towards the stage!

She quickly asked Aunt Shuyu: "Aunt, I want to go to the imperial kitchen to get some crabapple fruits and try to make some new flavors of snacks, okay?" Aunt Shuyu glanced at her and said: "You are just thinking about things that are unlikely to be in the imperial kitchen! Go ahead, go and bother your grandfather."

Malu was even happier when she heard this. It seemed that since E-chan was here today, it would be more convenient for her to do things. She hurried back to her room to tidy herself up. She had to make a stunning appearance today.

First, she took out pearl powder and red, yellow, blue, white, black and other colors of opera makeup from her box, and used the proportions she had learned on a daily basis to mix the foundation and the brown-black color for the eyebrows and eyeliner on the inner wall of a white porcelain bowl, and then quickly put on the makeup. Malu took a look and found it to be very light and translucent. Only when she looked very closely could she see a little trace of powder, and she was satisfied. There was almost no trace of painting.

She then dotted her lips with the rouge she made, loosened her hair again and braided it into a loose bun, put on the purple crabapple velvet flowers and blue-purple hairband she made herself, and changed into a light green palace maid's uniform that was specially pinched at the waist and adjusted at the shoulder line. That was it.

Although today's outfit is not as stunning as the first time, the completion of a beauty depends on the atmosphere! When the time comes, the densely packed fruits of the crabapple trees will complement each other, which will definitely look beautiful.

Before leaving, Malu did not forget to sprinkle some tea on the clothes she was wearing today, and then hung them in the small corner where the palace maids usually hung clothes. Before leaving, she thought about it and decided to take a few more handkerchiefs with her, and used one of the handkerchiefs to wrap some pearl powder that had been prepared in color.

The system prompts at this time: "The emperor has arrived at Chunouzhai and started to listen to the opera, hurry up."

Malu hurried to the imperial kitchen, and as expected, she saw E-Chan inspecting the imperial kitchen. Seeing her radiant appearance, E-Chan knew that what Madam Liu said was true, that her granddaughter was living well in the palace.

Seeing that E-chan also wanted to handle the matter impartially, she bowed from a distance and went to find the eunuch who was taking the things. E-chan looked at the eunuch from a distance with a troubled look on his face, and then went over to ask the eunuch what was wrong.

The young eunuch hurriedly apologized, saying that the girl wanted some crabapple fruits, but these crabapples were usually planted in the palace gardens for ornamental purposes. The imperial kitchen had never purchased them and did not have any now.

E-chan glanced at Malu and asked, "Do you really need it today? The kitchen takes about six or seven days to complete the purchase process." Malu shook his head quickly and asked knowingly, "How can we have it in time? Is there any in the palace?"

E Can said, "Yes, there are a lot of them in the Chunyi Zhai and Chunouzhai of Ningshou Palace. We will be busy setting up the banquet in Chengqian Palace later, so we are short of manpower. Is it urgent, young lady? If not, I will ask the eunuch to pick some for you in the afternoon and send them to the tea room of Qianqing Palace."

After hearing this, Malu hurried away with a look of great joy on her face. E-chan is awesome! The emperor told her where he was going, and if she didn't meet anyone later, she could try her luck on the way to Chengqian Palace.

She hurried to Chunyi Zhai next to Chunou Zhai, where she saw a two-story magnificent stage, built in the water, surrounded by lotus flowers. It must be beautiful here in summer, but now it is early autumn, and although it is very hot, there is still the autumn heat, so the place to watch the opera has changed to Chunou Zhai not far away.

At that moment, Kangxi was listening to an opera at the Qinglan Huayun Stage in the east, so she was picking fruits and then naturally walked over from the lakeside corridor, just in time to bump into him.

Malu glanced around, it was a good time as no one was around. She quickly kicked the crabapple tree, and some fruits fell down. She didn't care about anything and just put them into her small basket. When she saw that she had filled less than half of the basket, she thought it would be bad if she put more, and she would have no excuse to come here next time, so she gave up. Malu carried the basket and found a water tank to check her makeup, and touched up some foundation with a handkerchief, then slowed down her pace and walked leisurely towards the corridor by the lake.

Kangxi didn't know that there were hunters waiting to go. He was sitting in the imperial sedan chair happily preparing to go to Chengqian Palace. There were not many political affairs today, so he had time to come here to listen to the opera. He had just finished listening to the lingering and sad "Changsheng Palace" and was preparing to reminisce with his cousin according to today's plan. In the distance, he saw a light green graceful figure walking slowly on the corridor by the lake.

You can tell at a glance that this person has an extraordinary figure. Judging from the color, she should be wearing an ordinary palace maid's uniform, but she manages to look elegant and refined. Her steps are neither fast nor slow, even a bit leisurely, as if she is doing her job while enjoying the scenery. With the breeze blowing by the lake and the winding corridors, this scene is worthy of being painted.

Kangxi did not stop the imperial sedan chair, because he would have bumped into the woman if he had gone in the direction he was going. Liang Jiugong also saw Malu, and he noticed Kangxi's interest at the moment, so he sensibly told the eunuch to go slower when clearing the road.

In this way, Malu and Kangxi's imperial carriage were moving towards each other. Kangxi had good eyesight and could see the face of the person clearly - this charming and unaware little girl was none other than Malu, the palace maid who served tea to him!

Kangxi smiled when he saw who it was. Usually she was like a quail, hiding whenever possible and never showing up. It was rare to see her face in the Qianqing Palace. How come he bumped into her today?

Malu also knelt down to salute. After all, it would be ridiculous to pretend to be blind in such a large sedan chair and such a long procession. However, due to the intentional letting of the eunuchs and Malu's deliberate probing, the distance was much closer than normal, at least enough for Kangxi to clearly see her hair on her temples, which looked like light smoke and green mist, and flying catkins and floating silk, setting off her bright eyes and white teeth.

Kangxi saw that Malu was calm and had a slight smile on his face, so he stopped the chariot when it was closest to Malu. Liang Jiugong came over soon and summoned Malu to answer.

Malu stood up gracefully, walking like a light deer. Kangxi looked at the basket and the red fruits in her hands, smiled and spoke.