The Virtuous Concubine

Kangxi thought the child was ignorant and said earnestly: "I will urge the Ministry of Rites again, and you should also pay more attention."

As he was talking, Kangxi actually told Yinreng: "I will be relieved when you have a child. After I am gone, you must take good care of your brothers."

The prince quickly retorted to Kangxi: "Father! I don't want to hear these words. Father, I'm sure you will live a long life."

Kangxi laughed, but he still felt that the prince was too naive.

He actually wanted to remind the prince to be careful of the fourth prince. De Zhao had a good relationship with the prince and could control the other children, but not the fourth prince.

He also heard from his subordinates about the dispute between the Fourth Prince and the Fourteenth Prince, and Kangxi found the signals conveyed in the dispute very intriguing.

On the surface, it seemed like the Fourth Prince would still listen to his mother, but in reality, some of Malu's decisions had begun to deviate from the Fourth Prince's interests, and the Fourth Prince was dissatisfied with this.

After Malu got up, she was a little surprised to learn that Fourteenth had left like that, but fortunately she was mentally prepared, and she was more confident in the prince's work, so she was not afraid that anything might happen to Fourteenth.

Anyone who could serve as the crown prince for forty years among Kangxi, who was so suspicious, and his brothers who were all excellent and ambitious, must not be a fool.

So she even ordered a ham, bamboo shoot and tofu soup at noon with great enthusiasm, without any worry on her face. The palace servants were comforted by this, as the empress's previous period of depression was finally over.

The children were all grown up and had their own things to do, so Malu had to focus on Kangxi's 50th birthday.

She had been in the palace for so many years. In the beginning, when she was racking her brains to strive for a higher position, she would put some thought into it. Later, for festival gifts, she would often find the more festive things from her embroidery practice, make slight changes, and then present them, just as a formality to save face.

But today was his 50th birthday, so he had to be energetic. Malu decided to embroider some golden lotus prayer flags and ask someone to have them consecrated at a temple to express his birthday wishes. It was a good idea and it didn't cost any money.

There is a story behind this golden lotus. It was originally just an ordinary flower that grew in Inner Mongolia and Northeast China. For some reason, Emperor Kangxi liked it very much. After returning from Mount Wutai, he transplanted a lot of it and planted it in places with a suitable climate around the capital.

The climate of the Forbidden City is not suitable for this flower, so the few pots in the palace are placed in the Yuqing Palace, symbolizing the favor of Emperor Kangxi and being extremely precious.

The last time she secretly disguised herself as a princess on trial marriage and sneaked into Yuqing Palace, she took a few glances at it and still had some impression of it.

She tried her hand first, gently twisting the needle and threading, and embroidering a few flowers on a piece of emerald green jacquard satin. Unexpectedly, the first embroidery was unexpectedly beautiful, beautiful and casual. Although the flowers were embroidered on the dark red prayer flags, they were solemn, but not as natural as the one she practiced on before.

After embroidering for a while, her fingertips felt a little sore. In addition, she had tried her best to adjust the needlework but still could not find a satisfactory result. Malu became a little annoyed and called Bai Qian.

Malu raised her hand and pointed at the table piled with embroidery: "Help me sort out the mess on the table. It's really annoying to look at it."

Bai Qian agreed immediately and began to organize the silk threads and fabrics, and put the embroidery needles and frames in order.

After picking up the material for practice, Bai Qian was about to ask Malu how to classify it, but Malu waved his hand casually: "You can use this to play with it."

Bai Qian glanced at the handkerchief in front of her...

The piece of cloth in front of me was embroidered with a few small yellow flowers. The material was smooth and fine, with a faint luster, but the size was cramped. It did not fit the small and square shape of a handkerchief, nor did it have a delicate hem. It was clearly the scraps of cloth left over from cutting clothes.

It looks like it was embroidered by the Empress herself.

That is what Your Majesty has to hand over to the Prince herself.

Bessie knelt down gratefully to express her gratitude, then carefully wrapped the piece of cloth in a handkerchief and kept it close to her body.

After Malu finished flirting with the prince, she stopped thinking about this matter and went on to organize the list of gifts to be used in the Fourth Prince's wedding.

The Fourth Prince’s marriage process has already begun.

Kangxi had already issued an imperial decree to arrange the marriage, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs had also selected an auspicious date and drawn up a list of officials and ladies to help with the wedding. Originally, the Minister of Rites was supposed to accompany Guaerjia's father Shi Wenbing to the east steps of Qianqing Gate in a dragon robe and a patched jacket to receive the decree and express gratitude, and then the fourth prince would choose an auspicious day to visit the Guaerjia mansion to meet his future parents-in-law.

Unfortunately, Guaerjia's father died a few days after receiving the imperial edict, so Yinzhen did not follow this procedure. Instead, Malu sent a lot of rewards to appease the Guaerjia clan.

The auspicious day that had been initially scheduled was coming soon. The emperor would reward Guaerjia herself with ceremonial coins and the Guaerjia clan with gift coins, and then hold an engagement banquet.

The ceremonial coins are given to the wife herself and will be carried back to the prince's residence during the welcoming ceremony, which is equivalent to the royal family's dowry for the wife herself. The gift coins are similar to the betrothal gift, which is given to the wife's parents and family members.

This is a good opportunity to take advantage of Kangxi.

The amount of gift money is equal to the emperor's regard for the family, and the amount of ceremonial money is equal to the emperor's regard for the prince. Malu will certainly not exceed the rules and will follow them.

The ceremonial coins included jewelry, clothing materials, daily silver items, etc., including a gold necklace inlaid with oriental pearls and corals, three large and small gold hairpins holding pearls, three pairs of gold earrings inlaid with two oriental pearls, two pairs of gold bracelets, one hundred gold and silver buttons each, a gold collar holding oriental pearls, and dozens of sable, otter and fox skins for making various coats and beddings, one hundred rolls of silk, three hundred kilograms of cotton, and a number of silver plates, silver bowls, silver pots and silver dishes used in the dining room, tea room and clear tea room.

There are many hidden secrets in the reward. Take this necklace for example, the size of the pearls varies greatly. The color of coral is also divided into different grades, the bright red ones are the best, and the light and dark ones are the worst.

The weight of gold used can be more or less, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs does not dare to issue the same style to everyone, so there are naturally differences in weight.

There are also huge differences in the size, quality, and age of sable, otter, fox, and silk furs.

The favored princes all received first-class items, and the unfavored princes would of course receive the same number of items from the Imperial Household Department, with everything they needed. However, the quality... was hard to say.

Malu had been in charge of palace affairs for so many years, so she naturally knew the ins and outs of it, and was checking them one by one. Fortunately, no one dared to fool her, a noble concubine, so it didn't take much effort to check.

Although the engagement banquet was hosted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, most of the worries were still on Lady Guaerjia, so she didn't have to worry about it. She just needed to have someone clean up two more rooms in the prince's warehouse. The day before the wedding, Lady Guaerjia would deliver the dowry to the prince's palace. Malu didn't need to worry about anything else.

Finally, the Fourth Prince was married off!