"Master Bai, I will call the palace physician right now! You've been in terrible condition nowadays. You need real treatment from the physician!" Meilan was utterly panicked as her master's health kept on deteriorating every day.

At first, her master's appetite continued diminishing to the point that he barely ate for the whole day. Soon after, her Master's body was too weak that he couldn't even walk with his cane unless Meilan helped him.

Meilan thought the problem was just because Master Bai refused to eat. But when Meilan tried to feed her master, Bai Yunyu would puke everything out. As if his body had been given up to do anything except accepting a slow death.

Meilan saw it with her own eyes, how Master Bai's body became too weak to get up from the bed. It was even too weak to munch on food.

Bai Yunyu was unresponsive most of the time until he heard that Meilan wanted to call the palace physician. Bai Yunyu immediately gathered all his strength and grabbed Meilan's wrist. With his weak yet hoarse voice, he pleaded, "Meilan… don't… call the palace physician. His Majesty… will get notified if you call the physician…"

"Isn't that better, Master Bai? Let His Majesty, Emperor Xianliang to understand your current condition! What is the use of his title if he can't even help you! He is the one who tortures you!" Meilan finally burst out in tears as she was frustrated with her Master's condition.

Two weeks after eating nothing but tofu and boiled fish, Bai Yunyu's condition was too disheartening to see. Yet, the ignorant husband of his, Emperor Xianliang, had never visited him, not even once!

Yet, he kept telling the head eunuch to ration Bai Yunyu's food every day. He extended the punishment because when he sent a minister to check on Bai Yunyu, the minister said that Empress Xiuying would rather die than meeting with the Emperor once more. He would never apologize for his mistake, as he said that he didn't do it.

This angered the Emperor even more. He got even crueller with his punishment by only letting Bai Yunyu eat once a day.

"Don't… I don't want him to see me like this…" Bai Yunyu tried to prevent Meilan to tell his husband the truth of his condition. Huang Shu always thought that Bai Yunyu was a martial artist with amazing capability, so he thought his punishment wouldn't matter much for Bai Yunyu.

He didn't know that it was like a slow death for his wife.

Meilan struggled, she really couldn't watch her Master's demise in the hand of that trash Emperor, but Yunyu's grasp on her wrist was surprisingly powerful.

"Master Bai, let me go! I need to tell that trash man how much of a jerk he is! He is so ignorant! He enjoys the glory as the Golden Emperor, but he doesn't care about his wife!"

"I am… just one… of his banished wife…" Bai Yunyu replied. "Don't… bother him. He has a lot to… do…"

Meilan finally yielded as she realized how desperate Master Bai was to stopped her. She slumped beside the bed of her master and wailed, "Master Bai… why are you doing this to yourself? Why do you need to love a man like him? Is it just because he was a prince? But you have a lot of suitors back then!"

Bai Yunyu looked up to the damp ceiling, starting to imagine his past with Huang Shu. He tried to recall what made him choose Huang Shu. Even though he had plenty of selection.

But all that came to his mind was Huang Shu's promise, which for Yunyu was enough to accept the marriage proposal.

'When I become an Emperor, I will make sure that I will love you only. I will not take concubine in my harem.'

It was such a lie, indeed. But the young Bai Yunyu couldn't help to get touched with such a big promise.

[What a liar, it seems that he has forgotten about that promise completely…]

[Pupa: Well, not really. Huang Shu promised that he'd never take another concubine as long as he has you. But you have a cinnabar mole on your forehead. So he thought he could get a son from you.]

[Hmph! So my worth in this world is only determined whether I can give him a baby or not?]

[Pupa: Yes, this is Ancient China, duh.]

Yunyu smiled and turned his head at Meilan. He replied, "I love him because of his unfulfilled promise…"

Yunyu looked up again while listening to Meilan crying for him. He knew he didn't have much time since this body was just too brittle and weak for Yunyu.

[How about Xu Jiansheng? I've read that he'll confront Huang Shu when Huang Shu participate in a hunt two days from now, right?]

[Pupa: Yes, that's the first assassination attempt by Huang Shu by Xu Jiansheng.]

[He should give my letter there, or it'll be bad for my corpse!]

[Pupa: You'll be dead soon, what's got to do with whether Jiansheng gave the letter sooner or later?]

[Well, of course, it's different! My body is still intact for a few days, so Huang Shu could grieve over my beautifully tragic body. Not my rotten corpse straight out of zombie apocalypse! Huang Shu will regret abandoning me so much that he cannot even get up from the bed, thinking about me every single day, NYAHAHAHA!]

[Pupa: Even in death, you still try to be dramatic.]

[I told you, it's a speciality, like a Level 100 Passive!]

[Pupa: Passive: Dramatic Hoe. Effect: Guilt tripping your lover until they do your bidding. Side Effect: The user of this passive will have his moral value set to 0.]

[… at some point, I really thought that we're still in the game world.]

Yunyu's breath weakened, he glanced at Meilan, who sat beside his bed. He used his strength to rub Meilan's hair, "Meilan… please… leave…"

Meilan darted her eyes in surprise, "L—Leave? What do you mean, Master Bai? I will not leave you!"

Bai Yunyu smiled and picked a letter that he wrote before beneath his pillow. His trembling hand was holding the letter and said to Meilan, "Give this… to my parents… I left some saving for them… tell them I'm sorry for… disappointing…"

"N—No! What are you saying, Master Bai!? You are scaring me!"

"Meilan… don't… follow me…" Bai Yunyu was trying to maintain his consciousness, at least for a bit more, because the one he worried about the most was Meilan. She had given so much to serve him.

"Find… your… happiness…" Bai Yunyu smiled at Meilan and uttered his last words,

"Thank… you…"

Bai Yunyu closed his eyes peacefully, and the letter in his hand fell on the ground. Signalling his departure from this painful world that kept on tormenting him for his demise of being a banished Empress.

The Empress of an Emperor who claimed that he loved him, but was cruel enough to let him die out of starvation.

The beautiful and majestic Empress Xiuying died at the age of thirty years old, unable to persevere any longer from starvation and malnutrition.