The Virtuous Concubine

Malu just listened to the disturbances in the harem as a joke. The most important thing for her now was to take care of her pregnancy. After the ceremony of crowning the queen, the daily life in the harem changed.

First of all, everyone had to go to the morning office. The position of empress was no longer vacant, so she, like many other concubines in the harem, had to go to the empress every day to pay respects. Then, on the first and fifteenth day of every month, the empress would lead everyone to the Cining Palace and Shoukang Palace to pay respects to the Grand Empress Dowager and the empress.

This really made Malu miserable. Ever since she and Kangxi got together, she rarely got up so early! She had no choice but to spend some points to activate an alarm and memo function in the system to remind herself to get up on time every day.

Originally, Bai Fu and Bai Xia did this for free, but the system alarm could slowly remind Malu during her light sleep cycle, so it wouldn't be so painful. So Malu still spent the points.

But Bai Fu and Bai Xia only felt that their master was really diligent and could serve as a role model for other concubines. Every time she came to pay her respects, she would wake up on time and never delayed anything.

Malu was very careful when going out. He always brought four people with him, with two eunuchs, one big and one small, clearing the way in front, and two palace maids, one big and one small, guarding beside him to prevent anyone from bumping into him. There was no need to worry about the oil on the ground or ice.

The remaining four palace maids and eunuchs were of course assigned to guard the storehouse or the house. Every time a meal was delivered, one of Bai Fu or Bai Xia had to go with them to prevent anything that shouldn't be there from getting mixed up on the way.

Malu was so cautious that some people with bad intentions were really anxious and angry, and they kept scolding her for being a cheap girl from the bondage, humble and cautious, and really acting like a slave. However, this does not mean that Yonghe Palace is really an iron barrel, because there are still people who play straight.

For example, Zhang Changzai, who always comes to visit, is a very typical example.

She gave birth to the eldest and fourth daughters of Emperor Kangxi in the harem. Bai Xia hated her very much, thinking that she had bad intentions and that there must be something wrong with her visiting her master every day. Bai Fu also disliked her because she gave birth to two daughters, one of whom died at birth and the other was also very sick, "unlucky".

In the eyes of Bai Fu and Bai Xia, their master was very lucky. This time and every time they were pregnant, they would definitely give birth to a prince. But on the surface, the two of them still politely entertained this young master who often came uninvited.

Malu guessed that she should be Kangxi's first woman, and judging from her name "Zhang Guijie", she was a Han woman. It turns out that Kangxi has always liked Han women! The system repeatedly reminded Malu to be careful. After all, except for Huipin, who had the lowest favorability, Zhang Changzai's favorability towards Malu was 7 points, which was far higher than that of everyone in the harem.

Why 7 o'clock? The reason was that one day Kangxi turned over Zhang Changzai's name card, but on the day when Malu moved to the palace, he went to see Malu and stayed in Yonghe Palace, causing Zhang Changzai to hug her sick daughter and cry for two days.

Kangxi only came to see her once every one or two months, and was intercepted by Malu. How could she not hate him?

Malu felt that she was wronged, but she could not say that it was Kangxi who took the initiative. She could only silently endure Zhang Changzai, who had a smile on his face and kept drinking tea and eating snacks in front of her, saying such outrageous words as "Kangxi's love is worthless and you should stop hating me."

This continued until Malu saw the label of arsenic in her nails! When she was at Wuya's house, she used the system's labeling function to label countless items to analyze recipes and prevent someone from poisoning her.

Malu looked at it carefully again and confirmed that the arsenic label was on Zhang Changzai's nail. Alarm bells went off in his heart. Is he going to poison himself under the real-name system?

Before she could figure out what to do, Zhang Changzai secretly soaked her nails in her teacup while she wasn't paying attention, and prepared to drink it.

Unexpectedly, Malu yelled, "Wait—"

Zhang Changzai was already a little nervous, and when Malu shouted like that, she was so scared that she dropped the cup and the hot tea spilled all over the floor.

Seeing that she didn't drink it, Malu breathed a sigh of relief: "Oh, I'm so sorry, sister. I just remembered that I haven't chosen the armor for tomorrow morning. Bai Fu! Hurry up and change a cup of honey water for sister. Use that rose glass cup. It looks good."

Zhang Changzai said awkwardly, "No, no, I just remembered that I have something else to do in the palace, so I'll leave first."

How could Malu let her go so easily?! This is a ruthless person. Bai Xia specially served her scalding hot tea, hoping that she would not be able to drink it and leave early, but she took the opportunity to say that the tea was too hot and asked her to sit for a while longer. Then she poked her finger into the tea before it cooled down!

Malu's face changed: "Sister, you don't want to accompany me? Then have you come here just to tease me these days?"

Zhang Changzai's position was lower than Malu's, so she didn't dare to refuse too much and stayed with some trepidation in her heart.

Bai Xia brought a plate of armor for Malu to choose from, while Bai Fu brought some honey water and placed it on the table. Malu picked and gestured while asking Zhang Changzai, "Sister, which one do you think is the best?"

In fact, Zhang Changzai was much older than Malu, but the harem was not a place where seniority was the key. When the difference in status was small, favor was especially important. So when Malu called her sister, Zhang Changzai had to respond.

Zhang Changzai was in a panic, so she just randomly pointed at a silver one and said that it looked good. Seeing this, Ma Lu quickly took Zhang Changzai's hand and said, "Since my sister likes it, and the shape of this armor is just right for you, I'll give it to you."

As she was about to put it on Zhang Changzai's finger, she was surprised and asked, "Sister, your hand is burned?"

Zhang Changzai quickly pulled her hand back, but she didn't expect Malu to change her usual gentleness and kindness. She grabbed Zhang Changzai's hand tightly and said to Bai Fu, "Quick! Go call the imperial physician. Zhang Changzai's hand is burned and can't wait any longer!"

Zhang Changzai had already started to tremble all over. Malu was close to her and couldn't help but laugh when she saw how scared she was.

He is such a coward, he is so timid that he learns from others to poison and frame himself, he deserves it!

As a result, after a while, Malu smelled a smell - Zhang Changzai was actually frightened to pee!

This is really true! Malu was so angry that she screamed at the system, and the system laughed to death. But she couldn't let go, because if she let go, Zhang Changzai would definitely run away.

Fortunately, Qian Shunxi ran very fast, and he came with the imperial physician. When the eunuch behind him carried the medicine box to Yonghe Palace, the imperial physician had already examined Zhang Changzai's hand and naturally found arsenic in the nails.

The imperial physician was so regretful that he shouldn't have rushed over just because it was an errand for the Yonghe Palace. Today, Lin An, who was always in charge of the Yonghe Palace, was not on duty. He was very happy when he came over, thinking that if he performed well today, he could take over the errand for the Yonghe Palace by overtaking Lin An.

Who doesn't know that the noble lady Wu Ya in Yonghe Palace is generous? I didn't expect to encounter such a secret on my first visit today.

He rolled his eyes and wanted to pretend that he didn't notice it, but when he bowed, he found that Concubine Wu Ya looked at him with a cruel expression of "I know everything, you try it". At this time, Zhang Changzai was already in tears and collapsed on the ground, and the stench on her body became more and more obvious.