The Virtuous Concubine

Kangxi was actually somewhat disgusted. He was afraid that these charming and even seductive women would lead Yinreng astray.

He is also a man, so he naturally knows best how attractive these women are to young and ignorant boys who are just beginning to fall in love.

But Pingpin dispelled Kangxi's doubts with just a few words.

If the prince is bewitched by someone with bad intentions, the emperor can send him away at any time and will never let him continue to cause harm. But if the prince is still as uninterested in the affairs of the backyard as he is now, wouldn't it be even worse?

The words were rough but the logic was valid, and Kangxi finally agreed.

When Yinreng learned the reason why Pingpin chose the woman, he smiled bitterly. He knew that there were many things that he could not control, and he did not know how long he could bear it.

At least we have to wait until Malu is in better health, and it would be best if we can let Malu get pregnant again.

Would she no longer be sad? So he still had to find a way to look at Malu's pulse case, and try to arrange for the two of them to meet more often.

Malu felt a little comforted when she saw that the prince was still cold towards the new woman who entered Yuqing Palace, but she knew that this was not a solution. However, she would not be so hypocritical as to disappoint Yinreng's feelings for her, so she could only take it one step at a time.

If that day really comes, she won't blame him.

Soon, the prince's concubine entered the palace, and there was quite a grand scene.

According to the rules, the banquet for a concubine entering the palace was to have half the sixty tables of the principal wife. However, Kangxi was partial to his wife and insisted that the Ministry of Rites and the Imperial Household Department follow the standards of the prince's principal wife, minus two tables. The original banquet of thirty tables had to be reduced to forty-eight tables.

Similarly, the prince's princesses and concubines also had small banquets and corresponding dowries, rather than just entering the palace directly with a sedan chair and a bundle.

Adding to the large number of people, the ceremony of the Crown Prince taking a concubine was even more grand than the Fourth Prince's wedding.

At this moment, everyone was looking at what Yonghe Palace was thinking, and they couldn’t help but imagine how grand it would be when the prince got married!

Fortunately, Kangxi did not let Malu preside over it. Instead, Rongfei and Pingpin took on this task.

Bai Qian, the only person in Yonghe Palace who knew the relationship between Malu and the prince, and Bai Fu, who had a vague guess, knew that a new person had entered the prince's palace. They had been trembling with fear these days and were extremely careful in everything they did. In the past two days, they had even tried to hide all the things sent by the prince to prevent the empress from being reminded of the prince when she saw them.

As a result, one day when Malu woke up from a nap and was doing her makeup again, she wanted to find the hairpin that the prince had given her before as an embellishment, but she couldn't find it.

Malu frowned slightly, and said with a hint of displeasure: "What's going on recently? There are always things to look for in the palace. Don't you know where they should be placed on weekdays?"

After she calmed down and realized that most of the things she couldn't find were related to the prince, she suddenly understood why Bai Qian had been so cautious recently and even didn't come near her easily.

Malu sighed inwardly, looking at the people kneeling on the ground below, and asked them to get up and leave, while he stared at his reflection in the mirror in a daze.

She was not as sad as Bai Qian and the others imagined. As early as when she became Kangxi's concubine, she was mentally prepared to accept a man with "three wives and four concubines".

At first, she had never expected to have any pure and sincere love in this feudal era. But she was lucky, unlike many concubines, who could only rely on looking forward to Kangxi's favor day after day and year after year, and suffer loneliness in this deep palace.

Especially the fact that Nalan broke the contract made her sober up again.

The prince looked for opportunities to get close to her, and she agreed reluctantly. In the process of getting along with the prince, she indeed felt the long-lost happiness and warmth.

But since the prince couldn't be without someone else, she still had to live her own life.

If she really regarded men as her heaven, she would not have knitted so many hats for Kangxi.

Malu is not the only one who is troubled by this.

Yinreng should have been happy as he enjoyed the blessing of seven wives, but when faced with these women who were vying for beauty, he really couldn't muster any interest and his heart was completely calm.

A wife is worse than a concubine, a concubine is worse than a thief, and a thief is worse than not being able to steal.

The intense stimulation and heart-pounding thrills brought to him by the relationship between him and Malu were far beyond the reach of those women whom he could pick and take at will.

Their existence only made him miss Malu more, but Kangxi repeatedly reminded and warned him, and he was young and energetic, so he couldn't be close to Malu all the time. He could only obediently go to the rooms of these concubines every five days as arranged by Kangxi.

This made Yinreng even more aggrieved. How could he arrange schedules for his son to favor concubines?

It was simply unheard of, but Kangxi was really anxious - the eldest prince's wife had already given birth to a daughter and was pregnant with her second child, and the prince would rather not go to the backyard.

The prince treated all seven of them equally, without any favoritism. Those with bigger minds would naturally be dissatisfied, but the most anxious one was Ulanara.

She originally thought that she would become the prince's legitimate wife, but she didn't expect that she would enter the Eastern Palace. The emperor made it very clear that he hoped that she could help the prince take care of the backyard before the crown princess entered the palace.

This made her very anxious. She was now working diligently, waiting for the Crown Princess to enter the palace, but her appearance was just dignified - yes, Kangxi emphasized dignified and generous character and style when choosing a wife for his son, and only the princesses and concubines paid attention to appearance.

If I didn't get pregnant before the Crown Princess came into the palace, I would be the first target of the Crown Princess's troubles and exclusion. What should I do when I have no favor and no power?

So, Ulanara began to rack her brains to think of a solution. But no matter how carefully she took care of her makeup and clothes, how carefully she managed the affairs of the backyard, and how she paid attention to the prince's preferences and habits, the prince's attitude towards her was still lukewarm, which made her anxious but helpless.

In desperation, she even tried all kinds of methods to seek medical help, and went to see Pingpin or Rongfei. Pingpin was from the Hesheli clan, the same clan as the prince, and Rongfei had helped the emperor raise the prince for a period of time in his early years, so she must have had a special relationship with him, but both were unsuccessful.

The two women selected by Pingpin did not receive any special treatment from the prince. She said that she could do nothing to help and could only advise Ulanara kindly, telling her not to be anxious and to leave everything to fate.

As for Concubine Rong, she didn't even see her.

What a joke! Rong Fei, the biological mother of the Third Prince, who doesn't manage palace affairs, how could she meet the Crown Prince's concubine for no apparent reason?

After all, Ulanara was too young and lacked experience and strategy in the palace. Under the constant urging and nagging of the maids, she was upset and confused, and she made a stupid move.