The King looked at these people who showed no expression on their faces. He was even feeling really impatient.

He had been busy with what was going on in the jail since the man in the jail was extremely difficult to deal with. He, as the King, had offered many conditions in exchange, but he still refused to say yes to his request. The King was very distressed by this obstacle. He needed those monsters to use them as his weapons, so he decided to force him to say yes after all.

And those from the Ministry of Architecture and the Ministry of Rites were here about the Elder Prince.

However, the King was not at all interested in doing anything for the Elder Prince, but he could not postpone the whole thing, so he had to make a decision right now.

The King said expressionlessly, “The Elder Prince has spent a few days in the capital after being received by the Min Family. Normally, he should have been granted the title of lord as well as a mansion.”

“…”

“As for how the endowment should work, and what the bonus should be, you two will need to make some suggestions.”

“…”

“You know pretty well that the Elder Prince has spent the past few years at the border, so since he is now back in the capital, we should be careful about his title and mansion.”

“…”

“However, you know who gave birth to the Elder Prince, so the title is a bit difficult to give.”

“…”

“According to your opinions, what should I do about the endowment?”

The King looked at these two and asked.

The officers exchanged a look between themselves and more or less understood what they were thinking.

On one hand, they more or less understood what the King thought of the Elder Prince – he did not care about his whereabouts, because he was asking them so impatiently. Also, if a prince’s fate depended on the ministers of the court, then it basically meant that the Prince meant nothing to the King.

On the other hand, they had to understand how the Crown Prince would feel about the result. The Elder Prince was the oldest prince, so they had to make sure that he was properly granted a title, otherwise the Crown Prince might blame them.

The officer of the Ministry of Rites had a higher position so he spoke first, “In my opinion, the Crown Prince has been endowed, so the Elder Prince should be granted as Lord Yan with the second rank. If he can achieve something good in the future, the decision can be reassessed.”

When he was done, the officer of the Ministry of Architecture added. “As for the mansion… There is one relatively small mansion available that can be used for his mansion. We are in the middle of building the Crown Prince’s mansion as well as the holiday town, so we have no extra people to build a new mansion.”

The King nodded.

“There are many things for the Ministry of Architecture to do this year, and it is not possible to build a new mansion. Since there is a mansion available, it should be enough for him. That will be it.” The King said, “Just let everything happen quickly. No other banquets are needed.”

The two officers exchanged a look among themselves. They understood clearly what the King meant.

They answered yes.

Since the King said that everything should be simple… the officers would make it even more simple.

So when the imperial order was passed on, some gifts were given to the Elder Prince from the Ministry of Rites whilst people from the Ministry of Architecture accompanied the Elder Prince to move out of the Min Family.

The whole endowment was settled.

The Elder Prince looked at the empty mansion, feeling rather strange.

***

When Zhou Huaijin and Gu Chaoyan came to greet the Elder Prince, they saw him looking absent-minded in front of the mansion.