The Virtuous Concubine

Mayanzhu's marriage and Malu's small kitchen were forced to press the pause button. There was no other reason, just because Empress Niuhulu could no longer hold on and died suddenly one morning in late February.

She fell silently like a shooting star in the darkness before dawn. The entire court was shrouded in a haze of sadness, and all celebrations and entertainment activities were temporarily stopped to express deep mourning for the noble queen.

In fact, Empress Niuhulu's illness could no longer be concealed. After she became the empress, the number of times the concubines in the harem came to pay their respects to her gradually decreased. How could a concubine who became the empress not like to show off her power? Everyone in the harem felt the empress's gradual weakening.

As time went by, the queen's illness had reached a point where it could no longer be concealed. The truth could not be hidden, and her health condition became an open secret in the palace. At the beginning of the first month of the year, Kangxi ordered the lamas to chant sutras and pray for the queen, and ordered the Taoist priests to worship the stars in the Great Light Hall. The ministers in the court also submitted memorials requesting to pray for the queen, hoping that she would recover soon.

However, these measures were of no avail and could not stop Empress Niuhulu from leaving. The death of two consecutive empresses was undoubtedly a heavy blow to Kangxi. The Empress Dowager was also deeply shocked. She even came to the Qianqing Gate in person and insisted on crying for Niuhulu to express her grief for the empress.

Although Kangxi was heartbroken, he could not let the Empress Dowager really cry for the younger generation. He repeatedly urged the Empress Dowager to understand and avoid affecting her health due to excessive grief. After some persuasion, the Empress Dowager finally agreed to go back.

However, the mourning activities in the palace did not stop. The death of Empress Niuhulu cast a solemn atmosphere over the entire harem. The concubines put away their gorgeous clothes and put on plain clothes to show their remembrance of the queen and avoid offending the emperor. The palace maids and eunuchs were also busy preparing for the queen's funeral, and everyone's face was filled with real or fake sorrow.

In front of the Queen's mourning hall, Kangxi personally kept vigil for a while. He looked at the Queen's portrait, his heart filled with endless regret. If I had known earlier, I would have chosen someone with a healthy body! Now the Queen has been dead for just over half a year.

He wondered if it was God's will or if he was just unlucky. All the previous arrangements and investments had gone to waste, and he felt a deep sense of powerlessness and frustration. At the same time, he also felt a little sad. Was it because he was unlucky in marriage? Why did his wife leave him so quickly?

After returning to the Palace of Heavenly Purity, Kangxi issued two decrees. One was that he would stop attending court for five days and that the funeral of Niuhulu would be simple, exempting the wives of officials from other provinces from mourning, and the rest of the funeral rites would be the same as those of Empress Xiaochengren. The second decree was that during the funeral of the empress, the whole country would mourn and all weddings and entertainment activities would be prohibited. At the same time, he secretly summoned the Imperial Observatory and Nan Huairen to come and use various methods to calculate the horoscopes of himself and the women in the harem.

However, after some calculations, the Imperial Observatory and Nan Huairen did not find any ominous signs. In fact, the women in the harem had already undergone strict horoscope examinations before entering the palace. If there were any problems suddenly calculated now, wouldn't it mean that the person who was responsible for the previous examination had failed in his duty? The Imperial Observatory would certainly not be stupid enough to joke with the heads of their own people, so the results of the calculations were all safe and sound.

As a foreigner, Nan Huairen was not well versed in the eight-character theory of the Qing Dynasty, and he dared not express his opinions casually. When he saw the chief envoy of the Imperial Observatory winking at him, he dared not say anything more.

Emperor Kangxi was even more depressed when he saw that neither of them gave him a satisfactory explanation. He dismissed the two and sulked alone. Liang Jiugong had no choice but to step forward and pour a cup of tea for the emperor, saying, "Your Majesty, everyone has their destiny. You are the Son of Heaven, so you are naturally protected by heaven. As for the fate of others, it is naturally difficult to predict."

After listening to Liang Jiugong's words, Emperor Kangxi's anger subsided a little. He knew that as the emperor, he could not be bothered by these things. What bothered him was actually the balance and management issues in the harem.

The Grand Empress Dowager and the Empress Dowager must not be involved in the palace power, and the next emperor must not be in the hands of a woman! Now there is only one high-ranking Concubine Tong, and the others are concubines. Once the mourning period for Niuhulu is over, we need to consider this matter.

Thinking of this, Kangxi took another look at Nianhulu's farewell letter. The letter was very long, with a lot of words written in beautiful handwriting. But in Kangxi's opinion, there were only two important things.

One was that Niuhuru asked Emperor Kangxi to issue an imperial decree to build a family temple for her father, Ebilun. The other was that Niuhuru hoped that her sister, Xiao Niuhuru, could enter the palace to help her take care of the emperor and express her love.

These two requests made Kangxi feel mixed emotions. Niuhulu had never loved me! Although the latter request seemed to be out of concern for him, it was actually for the benefit of the Niuhulu family.

Although Kangxi realized early on that the entanglement of emotions and power in the harem was often difficult to distinguish, it seemed that this was the first time he had encountered a concubine like Nianhulu who had never shown any romantic feelings for him.

Who wouldn't love him?

Of course, Kangxi did not dwell on this matter for too long. He decided to immediately start arranging the family temple of Ebilun to show respect for the late queen and favor to her family. As for the second request, he needed to consider it more carefully. The arrival of the little Niuhulu might stir up new waves in the harem.

After finishing his business, he decided to go to his cousin. His cousin and he had been childhood sweethearts, so her love for him must be true. Although the Chengqian Palace had put away the brilliant decorations and hung up many white banners, and everyone was dressed in mourning, Concubine Tong was really happy as if it was New Year's Day.

"Niuhulu really wasn't destined to be the empress!" Concubine Tong couldn't hide the smile on her face, "You said she died of illness in the past six months. It's hard to say how many days she enjoyed the glory of being the empress."

Liuying was so anxious that her throat tightened: "My lady, please don't say that in public!"

Concubine Tong rarely lost her composure and gave Liuying a cold look: "Am I a fool? How come I can't even be happy in my own palace now?" As she said that, Concubine Tong threw the hairpin in her hand to the ground. The hairpin fell on the thick Persian carpet with a muffled sound.

Liuying quickly picked it up and smiled flatteringly: "This is a reward from the emperor, madam. It is a gift from the emperor, and it represents the emperor's heart--"

Concubine Tong got even angrier when she heard this: "Isn't the Emperor's reward enough? If it breaks, just replace it with another one. What kind of intention is that? The Emperor's decree is the intention!!"

Seeing that Concubine Tong's temper was becoming more and more erratic, Liuying didn't dare to say anything. She just put the hairpin away silently and stood aside.

Concubine Tong looked at Liuying's cautious look, and her anger gradually subsided. She knew that her actions just now were a bit excessive, but the news of Niuhuru's death was undoubtedly good news for her. The position of the queen was vacant again because of Niuhuru's death.

She took a deep breath, calmed down, and then said to Liuying, "Okay, you can go down. I want to be alone for a while."

Liuying felt relieved, bowed quickly, and tiptoed out.

Concubine Tong sat alone in front of the dressing table, looking at herself in the mirror. There was still a hint of smile on her face, but her eyes revealed a bit of complexity.