Instead of asking Lord Huai to take a seat, the King threw himself on the dragon chair, picked up a teacup and sipped on it, looking rather exhausted.

The King was still very displeased about what happened the day before.

His eighth son came home very early and yet failed to greet him in the court. Instead, he went straight into his own mansion. It was the Heir who informed him of his arrival at Qianqing Palace.

The King was very angry about it.

He had intended to treat this son of the Queen’s well, but this son was just too annoying.

He had thought that he wanted to have a talk with him about what he was going to say, but now, he decided directly to drop it.

He sipped the tea and continued. “The Endowment Ceremony of the Heir took place a long while ago, but the Heir has not yet received a proper mansion of his own. We have had a discussion with the Ministry of Architecture these past two days, and what they said is that there is no extra space to build another mansion, so all we can do is to expand the old mansions so that they are bigger.”

“…”

“Your Lord Huai’s Mansion was built when the Queen was alive. At that time, the Heir was not yet endowed, so you had the highest title. That was why your Lord Huai’s Mansion became the most luxurious and best one, but now that the Heir is announced…”

“…”

“And the Ministry of Architecture has some trouble in building a new mansion, and only extensions can be conducted on the old mansions, among which, your Lord Huai’s Mansion is the most suitable one.”

“…”

“What I mean is that you are not yet married, and that is a mansion that only you use. So you can leave the mansion for the Ministry to extend and build a mansion for the Heir instead. As for your mansion, we can get another one for you, or you can take a Lord Ling’s renovated mansion instead.”

“…”

“What is your opinion?” the King said, as he suddenly thought of how hard his tone had been. He started to feel that he might have been too harsh on his eighth son, and that was why he added the last question.

The King, who had put forward the proposal, was still offering his son a small chance to make the final decision.

Actually, he had not been very happy about the Ministry of Architecture’s suggestion when it was raised, because it did sound like an unfair idea for his eighth son, but because of what happened the day before, he was very annoyed, and he decided to make the proposal just to give his eighth son a proper warning – he wasn’t one of the Lords who could get honors no matter what.

He picked up the teacup and sipped some tea.

The King looked at Zhou Huaijin, wondering how he was going to react.

When Zhou Huaijin heard what the King had said, he was slightly startled. He had not expected that his father would make such a suggestion, after granting him the Lord Huai’s Mansion at the very beginning. Zhou Huaijin had not believed that his father would have made such a stupid decision.

However, he had overestimated his father’s capabilities.

He sneered inwardly and said calmly instead, “What you want is what I want.”

The King put down the teacup he was sipping from.