The Virtuous Concubine

Malu's words choked Kangxi's rebuke, which was already on the tip of his tongue, and made it stuck in his throat.

He really didn't expect that Malu would have the courage to tell such a big truth!

"You are really getting more and more presumptuous! Who gave you the confidence to talk to me like this?"

As soon as he said this, Kangxi felt an itch in his throat, followed by an uncontrollable cough. He hunched over, holding his chest tightly with both hands, his face instantly turned purple, veins popped on his forehead, he coughed so hard that tears came out, and he looked miserable.

Seeing this, Malu didn't care about pretending to cry anymore, and took three or two steps forward to help Kangxi calm down. When Kangxi's coughing momentum eased a little, Malu quickly took the warm water from the hand of a palace maid and handed it to Kangxi to moisten his throat.

Kangxi glanced at Malu, and although he was still angry, he took a few sips of water from her hand. When his coughing subsided, Malu sighed again: "Your Majesty is just jealous of the children who love me more. I am useless. Although I am a noble concubine, I am always troubled by Concubine Mi. For the sake of peace in the harem and not to cause trouble for the emperor, I silently endured everything."

Kangxi's eyes widened when he heard her talking nonsense like this.

"The children are kind-hearted and could not bear to see me being wronged. They made such a mistake in a fit of impulse. Your Majesty, you are annoyed by their rash behavior, but I see that you are also somewhat angry with me, blaming me for not being able to handle the situation properly, which led to the children intervening and causing the current situation. How about you punish me by making me kneel in the Fengxian Hall? And let me be the most proud person among the concubines in the harem to kneel before the ancestors alone."

Kangxi's expression changed constantly, and he finally laughed out of anger. He tapped the armrest with his fingers, shook his head and sighed, "You are really to blame. Concubine Mi's little tricks are obvious to anyone with a discerning eye. You are always smart, why don't you just punish her directly? You even asked the children to intervene, and now you have caused such a big mess. And you! You brought two children with you, who were as stubborn as donkeys, and you pretended to obey my orders but secretly disobeyed them. I wanted to punish them a little to make them calm down, but you came to beg for mercy and even made up my mind."

Having said that, I’m not angry anymore.

Upon hearing this, Malu knelt down and sincerely advised Kangxi: "Your Majesty, please forgive me. I know I was wrong. But the Crown Prince and the Fourth Prince really made an unintentional mistake. I think the pain is felt by my parents, isn't it?"

Although Kangxi still pretended to be stern, the corners of his mouth rose slightly unconsciously. He coughed lightly and said slowly: "Forget it, look at your pitiful appearance, how can I really bother with you? Liang Jiugong, are you blind? The ground is so cold, why don't you help the imperial concubine up!"

Ma Lu was delighted, but she did not dare to stand up rashly. She secretly glanced at Kangxi's face, declined Liang Jiugong's help, stood up steadily, bowed gracefully, and thanked him, saying, "Thank you for your consideration, Your Majesty. I am very grateful."

After saying that, she turned her head to look at Liang Jiugong, and followed Kangxi's words and said, "Eunuch Liang, haven't you heard the emperor's order yet? There is no time to delay now, and you should go to Fengxian Hall quickly. The ground is so cold, so the two princes should not kneel, so as not to get sick and hurt their bodies."

The Imperial Concubine, how dare she be so bold? She openly bypassed the Emperor and gave orders directly to Liang Jiugong.

Liang Jiugong looked at Kangxi, but Kangxi had a blank expression on his face, and it was impossible to tell whether he was happy or angry.

Well, the Imperial Concubine is right. Liang Jiugong quickly knelt down and said "yeah", then stood up quickly and ran towards the Fengxian Hall.

After Liang Jiugong left, Malu felt relieved and started massaging Kangxi's shoulders again.

Kangxi half closed his eyes, and his frown gradually relaxed. After a while, he suddenly asked Malu: "Am I really old?"

Malu's hands froze for a moment, then returned to normal, smiling and saying, "I remember that the emperor asked me the same question ten years ago."

Kangxi snorted, raised his hand to rub his temple, and sighed slightly: "You, you said something to make me happy ten years ago, but now you are even more stubborn. I know my own body. In recent days, I often feel that my energy is not as good as before, and my memory is not as good when handling government affairs. In the court, I sometimes listen to the advice of the ministers once, but forget it as soon as I turn my head."

Malu hurriedly walked around to Kangxi, knelt beside him, held Kangxi's hands with both hands, looked up at him with sincere eyes: "Your Majesty, people eat grains, how can they not have headaches, fevers, fatigue and sleepiness? Your Majesty cares about the people of the world, and has to review mountains of memorials every day and decide many military and national affairs. It is inevitable that your energy will be depleted. Why not take advantage of these few days of leisure and have a good rest, and let the imperial physician Rong carefully prepare some nourishing prescriptions. The Crown Prince and the Fourth Prince must have learned a lesson from this incident. In the future, they will be cautious in their words and deeds, and share the worries of Your Majesty. The troubles in the court and the harem will gradually decrease."

Kangxi's expression eased after hearing this, and he patted Malu's hand: "I hope so. Speaking of the Crown Prince and the Fourth Prince, although the punishment of kneeling this time has been dropped, I have high expectations for them. It is really not right to do this."

Malu smiled carefreely, "Child, it's easy to make mistakes. And no matter how you look at it, this is not a mistake. It's just that I was not thoughtful and impulsive. At least I am still very grateful for the kindness of Your Highness and the Fourth Prince to me. In this matter, I can't speak for the emperor."

She stood up and turned away from Kangxi, saying, "Anyway, Your Majesty doesn't feel sorry for me, only my children do!"

Kangxi patted her on the shoulder and said, "What are you talking about? When have I ever stopped caring about you? You are just like the crown prince. You have been spoiled by me, so you have the guts to talk nonsense."

Thinking of this, Kangxi complained, "I was going to say that you don't care about me. You didn't come to take care of me when I was sick, and neither did the Crown Prince! The Fourth Prince came quite often in the past few days. Among so many children, there is finally a healthy one. I am lying on the sickbed, hoping that you can come to accompany me and talk to me, but in the end, there are hardly any of you. Do you think I feel good?"

Malu thought to herself, you are such a good old Kang, you actually turned the tables on me. She quickly began to wipe her tears: "Your Majesty, please forgive me. I know I was wrong. When you were sick, I wanted to fly to your side, but I was afraid that you would feel uncomfortable seeing me. But in my heart, I still care about Your Majesty."

Kangxi sighed softly, "Forget it, forget it. I just said it casually. Look how wronged you are. Stop crying. I can't bear to see you cry."