Sheng Jiu reached out and touched his head. "I'll dig a bigger lake for you, one that stretches beyond the horizon. How about that?"
Wanwan blinked his eyes but didn't say a word.
Less than two months after ascending the throne, the new emperor started a large - scale construction project. He had a lake dug in the mountain behind the imperial palace.
Not only the palace soldiers were involved in the project. Later, due to the huge scale of the project and the emperor's urgent demands, commoners were also recruited in the latter half of the project.
Some court officials began to voice their dissatisfaction with the emperor's impulsive decision. They presented memorials one after another, hoping that the emperor would stop this project that was not beneficial to the people and would damage his reputation.
However, the emperor was so obsessed with this project that he punished all the officials who had raised objections to it by confining them to their homes for self - reflection.
Wanwan still stayed indoors as usual, so he knew nothing about what was going on outside.
Sheng Jiu didn't want to listen to the officials' nagging in the court, so he feigned illness and skipped court for several consecutive days, staying in his bedroom all the time.
After he skipped court for several days, Wanwan finally noticed something was wrong.
"Why haven't you been going to court these days?"
Since the incident when Wanwan was injured, the two of them rarely communicated. Generally, Wanwan would only answer when Sheng Jiu asked him something.
Since Sheng Jiu had already discussed the lake - digging project with him in the beginning, he didn't think there was anything inappropriate about it in Wanwan's eyes.
So without thinking, Sheng Jiu directly replied, "Some of the officials were not happy about the lake - digging project. They kept making things difficult for me, so I didn't want to go."
Wanwan frowned slightly. Sheng Jiu didn't notice his expression. He put his arm around Wanwan's shoulder and said softly, "Wanwan, when the weather gets hot in a while, we'll transplant some lotuses into the lake. I'll take you boating."
Wanwan looked up at him with his eyes. "Digging a lake should be a major project. Why is it almost completed so quickly?"
Sheng Jiu averted his eyes and didn't dare to look at him. After a long while, he cleared his throat and said, "I recruited some commoners from the imperial city."
No wonder the officials were complaining about him. It turned out that he had involved commoners in the project.
Wanwan frowned. "Isn't there a palace guard in the palace? Can't we use them instead of the commoners?"
Sheng Jiu touched his nose. "The number of the palace guards is limited. The progress was too slow, so I thought of recruiting more people."
Wanwan turned around without saying a word. It seemed that he was unhappy.
Sheng Jiu stroked his shoulder and said softly, "The project is almost completed, and nothing bad has happened. I can't just send them back now. Besides, I'll pay them a high wage. The commoners should be happy about it."
Wanwan still remained silent.
Ming Lang knocked on the door of the bedroom and walked in.
"Your Majesty, something bad happened to the lake behind."
Before Sheng Jiu could turn around, Wanwan had already turned his head. There was a hint of nervousness in his expression, as if he was more afraid of something going wrong with the lake than the people behind him.
Ming Lang glanced at Wanwan, then leaned over and whispered in Sheng Jiu's ear, "A commoner accidentally fell into the lake and drowned."
Sheng Jiu was stunned after hearing this news. He never thought that things would develop to this extent. The officials were already dissatisfied with his decision. Now that a life was lost... wouldn't it cause even more trouble?
He was lost in his thoughts and didn't notice the expression of the little merman beside him until he tugged at his sleeve.
"What exactly happened behind? Can't you tell me?"
For a moment, Sheng Jiu looked flustered. He patted Wanwan's back and comforted him softly, "It's nothing. You rest here well. I'll go and check it out first."
Wanwan grabbed his sleeve and wouldn't let him go. He insisted on knowing what had happened.
"Tell me what happened. Did something happen to the commoners behind?"
Sheng Jiu turned back and touched his head, but remained firmly silent.
After Sheng Jiu left, Wanwan looked dejected.
After Sheng Jiu left the bedroom with Ming Lang, anger appeared on his face. "Didn't I tell you to take good care of them and make sure nothing bad happened? Why did someone still fall into the lake?"
Ming Lang sighed. "There are too many commoners recruited by Your Majesty. It's already very tiring to manage them every day. There must be some oversight..."
Sheng Jiu frowned. "After he fell into the lake, didn't anyone go down to pull him out or rescue him?"
Ming Lang pursed his lips. "The palace guards went down to rescue him as soon as he fell, but he was already dead when they pulled him out..."
Sheng Jiu stood there in silence. After a long while, he said, "Give him a grand burial and take some money to console his family."
Ming Lang nodded and then turned to handle the matter. This was the best solution at present.
What worried Sheng Jiu now was not how to deal with the officials... but how to keep this from the person in the bedroom. He was already a bit unhappy about the recruitment of commoners. If he knew that someone had died because of this project, he might... ignore him for several more days.
Sheng Jiu let out a long sigh. He felt that the relationship between the two of them seemed to have reached a bottleneck. He knew that he was angry with him and he knew the reason, but he just couldn't find a proper solution.
He had finally come up with the idea of digging a lake to make him happy. His idea was on the right track.
But he never expected that a life would be lost.
But if he didn't say anything and Ming Lang didn't say anything, who else would know?
Since Wanwan was injured, the enfeoffment ceremony had been postponed. Sheng Jiu originally planned to hold it after he recovered. But if the enfeoffment ceremony was held now, everyone in the palace would know that there was such a concubine in the palace.
If he took him to the lake for a tour in the future, there would surely be people targeting him.
The more Sheng Jiu thought about it, the more annoyed he became. Couldn't he even give a proper title to the person he loved?
In the afternoon, many officials presented memorials asking for an audience, but Sheng Jiu refused them all. He wanted to deal with this matter during the court session tomorrow.
He knew that since a life was lost, he couldn't escape the responsibility. Instead of dragging it on, it was better to face it head - on.
When Sheng Jiu turned around and was about to push the door in, he suddenly stopped. It seemed that there was now another life lost between the two of them.