The Virtuous Concubine

Shu Yu knelt down hurriedly and said in fear: "Your Majesty, this is such an important matter, I dare not speak nonsense."

Kangxi waved his hand, "Get up, I just want to hear your thoughts." Shu Yu stood up and said carefully: "Your Majesty, the Empress Dowager seems to be the most suitable? Or Wen--"

Kangxi waved his hand impatiently: "Neither of them is suitable."

The relationship between the Queen Mother and Mongolia determined that he could not let the Queen Mother take care of the Crown Prince - otherwise, wouldn't the Crown Prince's backyard be filled with all the domineering Mongolian noble ladies, just like his own father did back then?

Little Niuhulu was even worse. Not to mention her family background, health, scheming, and the qualifications of the Tenth Prince, just the fact that she had been holding on to power since she entered the palace and became a noble concubine made him uneasy about her taking care of the prince.

Seeing Kangxi like this, Shu Yu added cautiously: "If you are really in a dilemma, why not choose an imperial concubine?"

This sentence really touched Kangxi's heart. He stood up and went for a walk outside, leaving Liang Jiugong and Shu Yu looking at each other in bewilderment.

Liang Jiugong and Shu Yu looked at each other, and saw joy and brilliance in each other's eyes, an indescribable excitement. However, the two did not say anything, knowing that in this palace, too much talk will lead to mistakes, so they each quietly dispersed.

The prince and Malu left the Qianqing Palace one after the other, both of them silent.

But the prince did not get on the sedan chair and stopped right in front of him, so Malu had to stop as well. The prince slowly turned around and looked down at Malu. His expression had returned to its previous calmness, but there was still a hint of complicated emotions in his eyes.

"I'm sorry for the trouble you've had with today's events. It was only today that I learned of the Emperor's plan." The prince's voice was extremely restrained.

Malu also boldly raised his head, looking straight at the prince, and his eyes met with the prince's. He said softly, "Your Highness, you are too kind. Thank you for your trust."

When the prince saw her looking up at him, the inexplicable feeling in his heart surged even more violently, and he felt as if his heart was about to jump out of his chest.

As the saying goes, looking into each other's eyes is a kind of spiritual kiss. The prince looked away with difficulty, trying to calm himself down. "You... take care of yourself." He could hardly control his trembling, and after saying this, he used all his strength to control his impulse.

Malu uttered a soft "hmm", walked past the prince, and got on his sedan chair.

The prince waited until she was a little further away before getting on his sedan chair. The two of them walked away with their backs to each other, getting farther and farther away.

Afterwards, it was spread that the Crown Prince respected Imperial Noble Consort Dezhao so much that he would watch her go and only leave after her procession had gone far away.

But now, Malu has a lot of things to worry about. For example, Kangxi has chosen the best of the best and found three noble ladies who need Malu to "assess" whether they have the potential to be the crown princess.

These three girls haven’t even reached 19 years old yet and missed the last round of talent shows!

Moreover, she also had to arrange for Ulanara's concubine and several princesses to move into the Prince's Yuqing Palace. Kangxi was reluctant to let his son go outside the palace, so the prince's wives and concubines had to live in Yuqing Palace.

But the eldest prince who was married among the princes lived in Yangfengjiadao, and the third prince and the fifth prince had already taken 100,000 taels of silver to set up a mansion and moved out!

The Fourth Prince was still in the palace, simply because his future wife, Guaerjia, had to observe mourning. And Malu also learned from the Fourth Prince that Guaerjia's grandfather was probably not going to live long.

The Fourth Prince is likely to become a deadbeat like the Crown Prince in the palace. It is possible that when the Ninth or Tenth Princes start their own households and get married, his wife will still be in mourning... Not to mention that his wife's family will help to bring down two pillars of the family.

Of course, Malu didn't care, Guaerjia was a good girl. Without the help of the Guaerjia family, Yinzhen's road to succession would be a little more tortuous at best, and it would also give him more time to make arrangements.

Besides, if she married later, her body would be fully developed, which would be better for her children. So she was calm in the face of other people's ridicule and sarcasm.

Yinzhen didn't care. He valued the ability of Guaerjia herself more than the Guaerjia clan as a whole. He was mentally prepared and had even intervened.

Unfortunately, it was useless. He could only sigh that perhaps only someone like him who was destined to be with the gods could bear the resurrection from the dead or escape a fatal disaster. The two were obviously at the end of their lives, so he just let it go and continued to enjoy the pastoral life, picking flowers and planting vegetables, and trying to win the favor of Kangxi and Guarjia.

If it was just a matter of arranging a ceremony, Malu would not be afraid. The most embarrassing thing was that the prince had to arrange a trial marriage for the princess, which was also handed over to her.

The trial marriage princesses were usually selected from the palace maids. They were generally of humble origins and were responsible for teaching the princes about marriage.

The royal family attached great importance to the reproduction of offspring. By having the princesses who were to be tried out for marriage sleep with the princes before they got married, they could test whether the princes were normal and could give birth to offspring.

After the trial marriage, information such as the prince's physical condition will be fed back to relevant royal personnel, such as the empress dowager, the queen, or officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs who are responsible for managing harem affairs.

For the princes who were about to get married, many of them lacked experience in matters between men and women. The trial marriage princess also played a guiding role, allowing the princes to become familiar with the basic contents of the relationship between men and women and the life of a couple, so that they could better perform their duties as husbands after the formal marriage and continue the royal bloodline.

When he heard that he had to pick someone to give to the prince, Malu accidentally knocked over his teacup: "Me?"

Eunuch Wei Zhu, who came to inform, smiled as if he had not seen Concubine De Zhao's misbehavior. "Yes, the emperor's order, how could I remember it wrong? The emperor said that the maids in the entire Forbidden City can be selected by you, but you must not choose those who will harm the prince's health. And you can take this opportunity to choose the princess for the trial marriage of the fourth prince as well."

Malu frowned, and her heart was even more entangled. Choosing a trial princess for the prince was already stressful enough for her, and now she had to add the fourth prince to the mix!

She calmed down and said slowly, "Thank you, Eunuch Wei Zhu. I have already known about this. Can it be done within ten days?" Wei Zhu smiled and flicked his sleeves, saying, "It's up to you. As long as it's some time before the Crown Prince's concubine enters the palace, you can arrange it as you like."

Hey!

Malu accepted her fate. Not only did she have to pick it, but she also had to persuade him when the time came, right? It was so embarrassing!

She called Bai Fu and asked her to bring the list of maids in the entire palace. However, this list was just for show, and she would probably pick two from the Qianqing Palace, the Cining Palace, or the Shoukang Palace.

Normally, one trial princess is enough for a prince! Prince, it should be no problem to add one more, two is enough.

Unexpectedly, after the name was submitted, Kangxi went crazy.