The Virtuous Concubine

At the Nalan Residence, Imperial Physician Gu knelt in front of Prime Minister Ming, with beads of sweat on his forehead.

Ming Xiang's voice was extremely calm, but it concerned the lives of countless people and their families: "You went to Yonghe Palace today, how was the situation?"

Gu Qinghe lay on the ground: "Prime Minister, today in Yonghe Palace, I felt the pulse of Concubine De and Concubine Zhang Jia, and it is just as you said, Concubine De is more than two months pregnant..."

"I followed the Prime Minister's instructions and consulted another imperial physician's pulse record, which said it was more than a month."

Mingzhu stroked his beard and asked, "The other imperial physician actually has no objection?"

Doctor Gu shook his head: "It was Doctor Rong who made the diagnosis first, saying it was more than a month. I was just following the trend. I guess this person has been subdued by Concubine De."

Nalan nodded and said with a hint of sarcasm: "As expected of Concubine De, your methods are indeed amazing. The reason why our Nalan family is looking for you this time is to cooperate with Concubine De's request. Do you understand?"

Doctor Gu nodded repeatedly, ah!

When will these days of having to rely on one's head to hang on one's belt end?

Ming Xiang found him and said that the Nalan family wanted to join forces with Empress Defei of Yonghe Palace.

The first thing they did together was to help Concubine De conceal her pregnancy. At first, Gu Qinghe thought she wanted to keep it a secret until three months had passed, but it turned out she just said it was one month younger!

He was terrified, but couldn't figure it out. What good would it be to be one month younger? But he didn't dare to ask, and his mind was full of guesses.

Fortunately, he saw the string of eighteen beads on the hand of the empress in Yonghe Palace that day, and he understood at once - this empress was either a Buddhist, wanted the child to be born on a good day, or hoped to control the due date.

Or she wanted to create confusion and give birth to the child secretly like the imperial concubine did before.

That would be at least one month!

It must be said that Doctor Gu's self-imagination saved his life and also ensured that he maintained a good attitude when he was consulting patients.

He really didn't think that this child was the eldest son of the Nalan family.

As for why the Nalan family was asked to do this, Doctor Gu also had his own ideas.

From his point of view, it is very likely that this matter was not initiated by Concubine De to find Prime Minister Ming, but that Prime Minister Ming hoped to win over Yonghe Palace for the eldest prince and win over the fourth prince as a token of allegiance!

He felt that the Fourth Prince's reputation was much better than that of the Eldest Prince, so he highly approved of Prime Minister Ming's decision to play both sides and extend an olive branch to the Fourth Prince.

By then, maybe we can save the eldest prince’s life and the lives of everyone in the Nalan Mansion.

Doctor Gu was having some random thoughts here, so Nalan Mingzhu told him to go away.

When he was alone, Nalan Mingzhu finally couldn't bear it anymore and smashed three or four teacups before he recovered.

"You are a traitor, you are a traitor!!!"

Nalan Mingzhu was breathing heavily, his face ashen. Thinking back to his son's recent behavior, the anger in his heart became increasingly difficult to contain.

He sat back in his chair, gritted his teeth and muttered to himself: "I, Nalan Mingzhu, have a great reputation throughout my life, how could I give birth to such a rebellious son who doesn't know the seriousness of the matter!"

As he spoke, he burst into laughter again, and that laughter was filled with endless ambition and pride, it was so terrifying and frightening.

The laughter gradually died down, and a look of confidence in victory appeared on his face.

"Those who steal the country are the princes." He murmured, with a dangerous light flashing in his eyes.

He thought for a long time in the secret room of the study, until dark, before he asked someone to bring Nalan out of the woodshed.

When Rong Ruo came in, he didn't look embarrassed at all.

After all, he is the eldest son of the master and his wife. Even if he has been missing for a long time and suddenly comes back, it is unknown what he said to make the master furious, and he was locked in the woodshed and guarded strictly.

He is the eldest son, so the servants dare not offend him. Instead, they take the opportunity to give him some special care. If the eldest son and the master and mistress get along in the future, won't he become rich?

So even though Rong Ruo was in the woodshed, his life was not bad at all.

He didn't want to run away either, because this matter would definitely require the family to arrange for a royal physician to verify Malu's pregnancy before any follow-up could be done.

So he just sat there every day, and finally waited for this day.

Seeing his handsome son in front of him, Ming Xiang felt mixed emotions.

On the one hand, he was still somewhat angry about Rong Ruo's previous actions; on the other hand, as a father, he felt that his son could make the mistress of the palace fall in love with him and even be willing to risk her life to have his child, and he felt a subtle sense of pride in his heart.

Ming Xiang, who had no idea that it was his own son who was trying to please him the whole time, secretly grumbled in his heart that the Emperor was indeed not as handsome as his own son, but a woman as smart and resourceful as Concubine De would not be the kind of person who only looked at appearance, right?

His son was naturally impeccable in appearance, but in the court... his talent for romance was only icing on the cake. In the eyes of the prime minister, it was not the foundation of a man's life.

Rong Ruo saw his father staring at him with a strange look for a long time, and he felt a little uncomfortable: "Father?"

When Ming Xiang heard Rong Ruo's call, he came back to his senses. He coughed lightly to cover up his embarrassment, then frowned and said in feigned anger: "Don't call me father, I can't bear it! How could I, Nalan Mingzhu, have a son as promising as you!"

Rong Ruo could tell that Ming Xiang didn't seem to be really angry with him, so he quickly struck while the iron was hot and said, "Father, I know this matter is too... too..."

He thought for a long time but couldn't think of any words to describe the relationship and feelings between him and Concubine De.

He was afraid of using nicer words, as his defense would be breached.

If he used some bad words, he felt that it would tarnish the relationship between him and Malu.

In the end, he chose to give up trying to find this word to sum it up, and squeezed out a dry sentence, "But Empress Defei and I are truly in love, please help me, father."

Ming Xiang's eyes widened, as if he couldn't believe what he heard, and he laughed in anger: "Enable? Is this something I can do for you? Why don't you go ask the emperor to help you!"

As he said this, he wanted to throw away the teacups again, but unfortunately, all the teacups had been thrown away by him after Doctor Gu left.

The new ones didn't arrive in time.

Ming Xiang's hand missed, and he became even angrier, so he just went ahead and beat Nalan hard!

While beating him, he cursed: "I'll let you play with fire and get burned! I'll let you run away from marriage! I'll let you--"

Nalan didn't dare to hide and just endured it silently.

If he was resisting the marriage, he could just walk away. But when it came to Malu's future, he had to win his father's support and consent.

Mingxiang was not young anymore, but he fought for quite a while and became exhausted and out of breath.

Seeing that his son was still stubborn, he got even angrier and sat down and scolded, "If you like a concubine or a concubine, I can still help you, but you just target those four concubines——"

Thinking of this, Mingzhu's face turned even greener: "You won't be with other ladies--"

Nalan quickly defended himself: "No, no, my son only has Madam Defei in his heart."

Ming Xiang felt better. If he still offended other concubines, this son would be abandoned.