The Virtuous Concubine

Never mind. Anyway - the prince was just about to play dead when he saw the hem of Malu's snow-blue skirt move slightly, with the cloud and wave patterns on it swaying with it. It must have been a step forward, ready to lead the way and remind him to bring the princes along.

How could the prince bear to let her take the lead, and then offend others without knowing it, so the prince had to grit his teeth, straighten his back, and step forward before Malu could speak, and said respectfully: "The emperor is kind, and the eldest prince will definitely understand the emperor's good intentions and turn over a new leaf."

There was no time for Malu to retract her steps, so she simply took a step forward. After the prince finished speaking, she repeated what he said. Their movements were almost synchronized, which made them seem to have a tacit understanding.

Kangxi nodded slightly, with a gratified smile on his face. Malu was relieved to see the prince's actions. She felt that although the prince was angry, he was able to put the overall situation first and grow up.

In fact, the prince, who had not made any progress in his tolerance, immediately retreated behind Kangxi with a cold face after he finished speaking.

Seeing Malu smiling at him, he turned his head and stopped looking at her.

Really.

With the crown prince and Malu leading the way, the princes and concubines all echoed with passion, which made Kangxi feel better. The matter of the eldest prince was over today.

Malu naturally got something, which was slightly better than Wenxi's, but not significantly so. She didn't care, and after thanking him, she directly reminded Kangxi to start the banquet earlier.

If you don't change your position, Imperial Concubine Wenxi will die in front of you.

After hearing Malu's words, Kangxi ordered the banquet to begin. Everyone moved to the banquet hall and the atmosphere gradually became relaxed.

Every time the palace held a banquet, the chefs were from the Manchus, and the main dishes were the same over and over again, with no new ideas. After so many years in the palace, Malu was tired of eating so much, so he didn't touch the dishes on the table and prepared to go back to cook for himself.

But she had nothing to do, so she started looking at the mooncakes on the table. There was a mountain of mooncakes on everyone's table, including red, white, hairy, and syrupy mooncakes. The fillings were varied, including sweet bean paste, various fruits, lotus paste, jujube paste, pineapple, and coconut kernels, and salty fillings such as five kernels, egg yolks, and golden hook ham.

Moreover, each mooncake has different decorative patterns, such as laurel, toad, jade rabbit pounding medicine, birthday star, moon palace, Chang'e flying to the moon, etc., which are very exquisite.

Just eating and drinking would be boring, so the Shengping Office also prepared a lot of operas. After all the concubines were seated, Kangxi let the concubines choose the plays themselves.

After sitting down, Concubine Wenxi took a few gulps of energizing medicine and felt a little better, but she was still not in good spirits. She asked someone to give the booklet to Malu.

Malu opened the booklet and saw that there were quite a lot of plays. No wonder Bai Fu and Bai Xia had advised her to go to Changyin Pavilion to listen to some plays to relax a few days ago.

Ma Lu ordered a copy of "Tianjie Treading the Moon" and a piece of "Taiping Shengji" for Concubine Wenxi. Concubine Yi liked the excitement and ordered "Xiantan Qiyu". Concubine Hui declined for a long time and finally ordered "Grass and Trees Showing Gratitude".

The contents of these songs are similar, all of them are about the immortals going to the Moon Palace to celebrate the peaceful world with the fairy Chang'e, which is a form of flattery.

Concubine Rong understood her son and doted on him, but today she only ordered "Sealed Poem to Urge the Banquet", which made everyone laugh uncontrollably.

The Third Prince loves to compose and talk about poetry. As the Third Prince's mother, it is self-evident what Rong Fei meant by ordering this "Secret Poem to Urge the Banquet".

When the Third Prince heard his mother implying this, his face turned red and he lowered his head, but this made everyone laugh even harder.

After everyone laughed, the atmosphere became much more relaxed. Kangxi looked at the songs ordered by the concubines and became more interested.

The play just started, and the actors on the stage were all dressed in gorgeous costumes and sang their songs.

The opera troupe that could come to the palace was not ordinary. With beautiful singing and superb performance, even Malu, who was not very good at listening to opera, knew that this must be very outstanding. Kangxi and everyone else also gave gifts, and the scene was full of joy for a while.

The prince had no intention of watching the show. He sat at the upper left side, in a perfect position. No matter what he was watching, as long as he moved his eyes slightly downwards, he would be able to see Malu on the concubines' side.

He saw that she was not watching the play, but her eyes were rolling around to look at the concubines. He saw her secretly looking at the mooncakes, looking at them one by one and then putting them back pretending nothing had happened. He also saw that she was drinking but not eating the food, and he felt a little annoyed.

Why don’t you look at me?

But he was still worried about her. How could her body bear it if she only drank alcohol and didn't eat any vegetables, and ate only raw and cold fruits?

The prince's lifestyle was very similar to Kangxi's, and he paid great attention to health preservation, so he deliberately ate two mouthfuls of the stewed dragon. Kangxi cared about him the most, and seeing that he liked it, he prepared to have someone give him another dish.

The prince nodded and said, "Why not serve everyone a dish? This is a great time for family reunions, and it's even more enjoyable to share delicious food and wine."

Kangxi nodded. Since his son had said so, there was no need to refuse since it was just a dish.

However, he felt something was abnormal. Today he thought the prince would be unhappy because he released the eldest prince, but he didn't expect that the prince would not be so angry today and even learned to show kindness.

"You have become more generous and considerate recently. It's good that you know how to be considerate of the people around you. I am very happy. I hope you can continue to maintain this kindness in the future."

The prince gave a humble smile, did not respond, and lowered his head to eat.

It was impossible for Kangxi to give the same dish to everyone, let alone just this one dish. The Queen Mother was not feeling well today, but Kangxi still sent eight dishes over.

Imperial concubines were given four dishes, including a full dish of braised flying dragon, while concubines were given half a dish of braised flying dragon and two other dishes, such as braised duck with scallions. The lower-ranking imperial concubines were given one dish and a few bites of braised flying dragon, or even a sip.

Kangxi did not only give dishes to the concubines. The princes were given two dishes, and the princesses were given one dish and one dessert or soup. When ordering the dishes, he also specifically told Liang Jiugong: "Yin... Wen Xian should be more honest, right? Do you know that you are wrong?"

Malu almost failed. Did Kangxi almost let the cat out of the bag? He even said the wrong thing!

She smiled and nodded and continued, "Your Majesty, that's right. She has been very well behaved these past two days. Wen Xian made a mistake a few days ago and is reflecting on it, but I thought that since it is the Mid-Autumn Festival after all, I still had someone prepare a small banquet for her and let her eat by herself."

Kangxi nodded and couldn't help laughing: "She loves the hustle and bustle the most. She must be worried and anxious in Yonghe Palace at this moment. Liang Jiugong, send someone to send a table of food to Princess Wenxian as well."