Everything happened so fast, like a forest fire that quickly burnt everything to the ground. Six months after that day, the Empire was finally in peril.

The soldiers were demoralized to the ground, with the absence from their Golden Emperor who refused to leave the Palace of Serene Harmony and get over his grieving even after eight months of his wife's death, alongside the news of Empress Xiuying death, alongside how pitiful he was during her last breath, starved to death, calling his husband's name even after he got banished and starved by the same husband.

Maybe the citizen didn't know how important the infertile Ger Empress was. But for the soldiers, he was a beauty they would be willing to kneel to.

And that beauty was gone because their Emperor was too prideful and didn't see how important the Empress was.

Even the generals, who should be leading the war against the rebellions, failed to motivate their soldiers because they didn't have central power to move them around. The Ministry of Defense was just not capable enough to handle a huge scale rebellion.

Even worse, some generals who had moved their main family to the outer region of the Empire actually joined the rebel side. Those were the generals who got heartbroken, usually the younger ones.

They were furious at the Emperor who tortured Empress Xiuying with the slow death of starvation, the ger man whom they dreamed and idolized so much.

Bai Yunyu was astonished by the effectiveness of his death and how Xu Jiansheng could control a mass scale of rebellion. This proved that Jiansheng had many subordinates underneath his seemingly peaceful exterior, especially in front of Yunyu.

"Yunyu, why are you sitting here alone? It's already midnight," Jiansheng said as he walked to the pavilion.

Yunyu saw Jiansheng and smiled, "And why do you come home late today?"

Xu Jiansheng paused, then he scratched his head awkwardly, "Well, I just went out with my general today for a drink. It's nothing serious."

Yunyu kept staring at Xu Jiansheng, who dodged his gaze. Jiansheng sat beside Yunyu and tried to hug him, but Yunyu slid his butt farther from him, "The siege to the forbidden city will happen soon, right? Is it tomorrow? Or the day after tomorrow?"

…

Xu Jiansheng sighed, "You're just overthinking it. It's only eight months. I can't attack that quickly."

"Xu Jiansheng, I was an Empress and also a military commander for a good while. I know how to read all your secret message from those letters. You can't hide it from me," Yunyu said.

Xu Jiansheng took a deep breath. Yunyu was right, whom he wanted to fool here? Yunyu was a formidable commander and well-loved one. It was just that bastard Emperor who was too stupid to realize the worth of his own wife.

"Fine, we will siege the forbidden city in two days. You know that bastard Emperor would fall from his throne soon, right?"

"I know…" Yunyu looked at the map on the table alongside the letters. "There is no way Huang Shu can recover from this. The core defence of his Empire, the military, had turned against him. You're really good at using my death as your weapon."

Xu Jiansheng felt guilty, so he slid closer to Yunyu to hug him, but Yunyu got up from the long chair, "Xu Jiansheng, remember our promise, right?"

"Which one?"

"… that you will not burn the Imperial Palace to the ground," Yunyu said. "You can do anything other than that, I know you cannot rest until you've got your revenge."

"Including killing that bastard Emperor? He was your ex-husband after all," Xu Jiansheng asked. But his eyes were scrutinizing as if he was waiting for Yunyu's answer. He wanted to make sure that Yunyu had forgotten about that guy.

Yunyu's heart skipped a bit because whenever he remembered his love for Huang Shu before everything bad happened, he wouldn't lie that Huang Shu treated him like a jewel.

But everything had changed, and there was no way for them to make up, at least not without that Rewind Stone.

"You can kill him. You want to be the new Emperor, right?" Yunyu looked over his shoulder when Jiansheng also got up from the chair and hugged Yunyu from behind.

"Yes, I want to be the new Emperor with you as my Empress. But I want you to come with me during the siege. Because I want you to witness the downfall of the man who hurt you so much," Jiansheng said.

Yunyu felt that Jiansheng had something else in mind when he said this. But this was what he needed to do because he needed to make sure that Huang Shu used the Rewind Stone.

"Just… don't do anything crazy when we meet him, okay?" Yunyu warned.

'I can't afford to see Huang Shu get overstimulated after so much grieving…'

"We will do it quickly, so we can take over the Empire. We will build it from scratch again, and I promise that we will stay together forever," Xu Jiansheng said.

Yunyu kept his silence because he knew the truth. Once the rewind stone had been used, nothing that had happened here mattered.

**

The day of the siege finally happened. Xu Jiansheng led the siege while he kept Bai Yunyu inside a carriage, protected by his men.

Bai Yunyu could only peek at the siege as he saw arrows flying at the tall wall and the soldiers fighting against the rebellions and ex-soldiers who joined the rebel side. The people in the capital city hid inside their house because they were the most unaffected through this tumultuous year, but nobody supported the Golden Emperor anymore.

Because the Golden Emperor abandoned them, so there was no use in defending him.

"THE GATE HAS BEEN DESTROYED! MAKE WAY FOR MASTER XU!"

"RAAARGGGHH!"

Bai Yunyu heard the soldiers yelling as they attacked the soldiers inside the palace. Bai Yunyu could listen to the scream of the soldiers who died in this siege and his cart slowly followed the siege from behind. It took a while for him to enter the gate.

Bai Yunyu's cart was placed in a safe spot for few hours before Xu Jiansheng entered the carriage and saw Yunyu was safe. He took a relieved breath and said to Yunyu,

"There are only a few soldiers left defending the Imperial Palace. I promise you not to burn it down, but I want you to come with me to the Palace of Serene Harmony, your old palace before that bastard banished you."

…

Yunyu was nervous for some reason. He had a bad feeling about everything, especially when Xu Jiansheng said they would go to the Palace of Serene Harmony because he knew Huang Shu was there, but he didn't know his condition.

It made him restless whenever he thought about hurting Huang Shu. He just didn't know what Huang Shu would say when he saw Yunyu again.

[If only Pupa is here, I really want to know if Huang Shu is alright after all this time.]

…

[Pupa: Why are you so soft? He is still grieving, but really, you have to meet him. We cannot let this drag on.]