The Virtuous Concubine

The leading eunuch was one of the more useful eunuchs under Liang Jiugong, named Chen Lianhai. Chen Lianhai was fair and cheerful, with a face that was not greasy despite its thick flesh. When he smiled, he looked funny.

Chen Lianhai and his group of people filled Malu's room, and Malu felt that the air in the room was thin. Chen Lianhai was not surprised and gave Malu a quick greeting:

"Hello, Miss Wuya. The emperor cares about you and has asked the imperial physician to come and see if you are safe. The emperor will summon you tonight!"

He turned around and introduced the imperial physician Wang whom he had brought with him, and asked him to take the girl's pulse in front of many maids and palace servants.

Doctor Wang bowed and opened his medicine box. Chen Lianhai would not let the atmosphere cool down and asked Malu, "Miss Wuya, this room is no longer suitable for you. I dare to ask if you want to move to another place?"

Malu: "I wanted to change it, but I don't want to... I still have to work in the tea room."

Chen Lianhai also knew the ins and outs of this, and quickly said, "Yes, it's just that there are too many people here, and the girl will have great fortune in the future, so it's better to move to a quieter place. How about the tea room in the southeast of the Qianqing Palace?"

Malu thought about it carefully and felt that it was okay. She would definitely try to avoid people when she was sleeping with the emperor in the future. She was living next to Qin Yuli Yu and the others. They were on duty when she came last time, but they would be seen over time.

There are two tea rooms in the Qianqing Palace, one in the northwest and one in the southeast. The tea room where Ma Lu worked was the northwest one, close to the Maoqin Hall, which provided tea to the South Study Room on a daily basis. The southeast tea room was next to the self-ringing clock and close to the imperial kitchen. It generally only provided tea when the Qianqing Palace held a grand banquet or a grand court meeting.

Both sides were managed by Aunt Shuyu, but in the afternoon, Aunt Shuyu was mostly in the northwest tea room to take care of the matters of serving tea to the emperor. The palace servants on both sides also lived in the northwest. If there was only Malu there, it would be acceptable.

Ma Lu nodded and said, "Then I'll have to trouble Eunuch Chen to arrange it for me."

Chen Lianhai was relieved to see that Malu agreed. Although this was a bit troublesome, he thought that for the sake of the emperor and the peace of the harem, Miss Malu would definitely agree. After saying this, he stepped aside and let the imperial physician take her pulse.

Doctor Wang shook his head for a while, asked some more questions, and then said to Malu and Chen Lianhai, "Miss Wuya is in good health, just a little tired. She just needs to eat some nourishing food. No medicine is needed."

Malu was not surprised at all when she heard this. She personally handed two letters to Chen Lianhai and Doctor Wang, and then was surrounded by the maid in charge of the bedroom to prepare for the night's sleeping arrangement.

Chen Lianhai saw that she even had to do the reward herself, so he took note of it and rushed to the West Warm Pavilion with Doctor Wang. The emperor was currently reviewing memorials in the West Warm Pavilion. After that, Chen Lianhai consulted Liang Jiugong and Aunt Shu Yu, and after discussing it, they decided on the solution.

The Qianqing Palace female official system consists of one Madam, who is ranked first, one Shuyi, who is ranked second, six third-rank maids, and four-rank maids, Rouwan and Fangwan, totaling fifty. Aunt Shuyu is a third-rank maid, and she manages eight Rouwans, Fangwans, and several palace maids.

Malu was one of these maids. As long as they promoted Malu to Rouwan, Malu would have two maids to help her. This way, she would have a reason to move to the tea room to live alone, and someone would serve her.

I have to say that Chen Lianhai is really a talent, with many ideas and quick action. After Liang Jiugong and Shu Yu agreed, Liang Jiugong went to the emperor to make a clear statement, while Shu Yu took care of Malu's promotion, manpower, and work allocation, and Chen Lianhai of course personally supervised and helped Malu move.

Malu was totally unaware of all this, as others were so busy with her affairs that they had no time to rest. She was still splashing water in the bathtub filled with jasmine essence!

Kangxi naturally agreed. He thought it was a bit difficult to handle. It was estimated that the harem would find out soon, and he still wanted to let Malu into the harem. Unexpectedly, there was a talent like Chen Lianhai who was good at maneuvering and created a safe environment for the two to fall in love, reducing a lot of trouble.

Chen Lianhai was also very happy, as he had made a good impression in front of the emperor thanks to Malu. Aunt Shuyu was very thoughtful, and after announcing Malu's rank transfer, she arranged for Malu to take charge of the daily affairs of the Southeast Tea House, and she would take charge of the banquet.

Then she ordered Malu to take over the tea-making job. This would also give the emperor a reason to summon her. Finally, she selected two honest and tight-lipped palace maids to serve Malu. These two palace maids had been doing rough work in the tea house because of their dull personalities and lack of talent in tea art. Now that she had a new opportunity, she was naturally delighted.

It seems like the whole world is paving the way for Malu to ascend to the throne.

Malu lived up to everyone's expectations and dressed up beautifully to show her magical powers to Kangxi again.

This was his second visit, and Malu walked into the inner room with ease, and found that the emperor was already inside. He was wearing a royal blue gilded fringe-patterned uniform, and was standing in front of the imperial desk, splashing ink with his brush, looking very free and unrestrained.

Malu stood at the door and looked at him for a long time. When he changed his pen and dipped it in ink, he saluted: "Malu pays respect to the emperor."

Kangxi looked up and saw that the beauty was wearing a pink satin palace dress with white jasmine flowers embroidered all over the hem. She looked fresh and lovely. He couldn't help but smile and said, "You look very good in this. The palace maid's clothes are burying you."

Malu turned around coquettishly, the rings and pendants on her head jingling beautifully, "I am a pretty girl, no matter what clothes I wear. From now on, these clothes will only be worn for the emperor to see."

As she spoke, she came close to Kangxi to see what he was painting. Kangxi did not think she was overstepping her authority and hugged her tightly, and the two of them looked at the painting on the table together.

Kangxi buried his head in her shoulder and took a deep sniff: "You like jasmine very much? I see that your hairpins, embroidery and the perfume on your body are all jasmine."

Malu nodded: "If I write a history of flowers someday, I will list this as the best fragrance in the world!"

Kangxi laughed and said, "Everyone likes the noble plum and orchid. Why do you like jasmine?"

Malu smiled, tilting her head as if recalling some happy past events: "Plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum are of course very good, and jasmine is not bad either. It is white and elegant, with a long-lasting fragrance. When I was a child, there was a jasmine field on my farm. When it was in full bloom, it looked like a piece of snow falling on the green grass from a distance. It was very beautiful!"

Seeing her charming appearance, Kangxi's heart softened: "It is a great pity that I have never seen her."

I don’t know if the regret in his words was because he had never seen the jasmine field or because of Malu at that time.

Malu shook his head. "Your Majesty is rich, knowledgeable, and ambitious. So what if he has never seen this small flower field? When the jasmine flowers bloom, they are dense and lively. And they are very fragrant. If you smell it from afar, you will sneeze. It is indecent, indecent."

Kangxi listened to her talking about the interesting things in her childhood, and he really felt that whatever the little woman in his arms did or said was to her liking, so he hugged her a little tighter.

She continued, "So I would pick a branch and put it on my pillow, and the fragrance would fill my dreams. At that time, I even put a thick layer of jasmine flowers in all the tea pots at home. My family members said that the jasmine was too overbearing and it squeezed out the tea aroma, leaving only the flower fragrance."

Kangxi laughed so hard that his chest trembled slightly. "Who put you in the tea room? You really need to be punished! Don't I have to drink jasmine tea with you every day from now on?"