“Who is that?” The conversation of the two palace maids kept going.

“Someone called Xuan Zhi. I’m told that he used to be a general. What a pity.”

“Why is it a pity?”

“It’s said that he had some conflict with those rescuers and got killed.”

“Really? How did you know that?”

“My brother said that His Majesty’s men found his dead body. At least he could survive if he stayed in prison.”

...

Of course, there wasn’t any story as simple. God somehow just didn’t want anything good to happen to Shui Yinzhu. The girl in white couldn’t hear a single word afterward. She stood there motionlessly as if she was a jade doll with her soul siphoned and that she would break at any touch.

The confidential guard that had been hiding in the dark showed up, called some palace maids over to help Shui Yinzhu walk back to the bedchamber. As they left, the guard hurriedly went to the Imperial Study Room to report it to Yun Su.

Two palace maids would never have the courage to tell this story. Who would be spreading these stories when a tyrant ran the empire? No doubt it was the elder consorts in the harem. Some got to know the story and arranged this.

Yun Su was beyond mad at this. He picked the servants so carefully just so Shui Yinzhu wouldn’t know anything about Xuan Zhi. Yet, she still did. It wouldn’t mean anything even if he killed those big mouths now. However, this had completely drawn his attention away from Madam Li. And eventually, it would foreshadow Shui Yinzhu’s revenge in the future.

Yun Su was caught in agony as Shui Yinzhu turned lifeless. At least he thought that as long as this had nothing to do with him, the girl wouldn’t blame it on him. He thought that Shui Yinzhu would be in low spirit for days or even refuse to eat. She survived the death of Kong Yue, so the same thing would happen this time. However, his Sister Xi seemed to be in a vegetative state. She didn’t eat or drink. Her eyes were blank, and there wasn’t any sign of a human being.

Well, the young emperor would never know that Shui Yinzhu survived the death of Kong Yue, for Xuan Zhi slowly warmed her heart. If it weren’t for Xuan Zhi, his Sister Xi would never live to this day. How was she going to move forward? The devil in her heart would have either killed her or driven her crazy.

Shui Yinzhu belonged to the human world, not to heaven. Her heart was made of flesh. If it was hurt over and over again, the heart would stop beating at a certain time. Xuan Zhi was like the final breath of hers. As he passed away, she no longer had any oxygen. The girl had lost her desire to live.

In the beginning, Yun Su was anxious but not losing his mind. He still had hope that Shui Yinzhu would be tough enough to get past this. Even if she would still hate him, at least she would be alive.

The emperor didn’t realize the seriousness until Shui Yinzhu was at death’s door. He freaked out for fear that he might lose his Sister Xi forever. He canceled the morning court sessions just so he could stay with her all day.

But this was too late. Nothing was going to work. No matter what Yun Su said, Shui Yinzhu was no longer able to hear it, nor did she want to.

The girl in white, the beauty named Shui Yinzhu, didn’t eat or drink. She didn’t sleep or move or talk. She didn’t even shed tears. As she wasted away, she looked like a soulless jade doll, a woman without the desire to live. She was nothing but a vessel lying on the bed.

Yun Su grew insane. He gathered all the imperial physicians to treat her day and night, but none of this worked. However experienced the physicians were, whatever rare medicine was used, a woman determined to die couldn’t be resurrected.

Every day, they forced her to drink the medicine. She vomited right after. They let her drink more, and she would still throw it up. There was no way she got to absorb any of them. Thanks to their work, Shui Yinzhu didn’t die immediately, even though it was just a matter of time.

Imperial notices had been put up everywhere to find men with special abilities. As long as they could save Shui Yinzhu, they would have any power and title they asked for. Many came to visit, but the girl in white was still lying on the bed. Her condition kept worsening as if a gentle breeze would bring her away, and she would never wake up again.

The girl in white turned pale as her dress as if she was deprived of blood. Her life was as fragile as a thread that would break any minute. Anger turned Yun Su into a slaughter. Many imperial physicians and men with special abilities got beheaded. People died every day.

There were much fewer imperial physicians inside the imperial palace. They found every possible way to run out. Otherwise, it would be death waiting for them. Even though they would be sentenced to death once they got caught, they still sought the chance to live. The physicians had all panicked.

No one answered the imperial notices, no matter how much reward they were promised. At least these people needed to stay alive first to enjoy their rewards.

As the imperial physicians ran away, and Shui Yinzhu was getting worse, the young emperor ordered his soldiers to search for private physicians.

People started to complain in this formerly safe kingdom. Those who studied medicine were all terrified and began to hide.

Even though life went on, people would always get ill from time to time. As no one was there to cure them, people were afraid of getting sick. A simple cold might kill them. All of these were because no one dared to admit being a physician...

The entire Empire of Yun was lost in chaos in half a month. The life of ordinary people got racked. As the soldiers were ordered to search for physicians over and over again, they had to catch ordinary people to make up the number. That would be a death sentence for these people. Since people entering the imperial palace would die anyway, it didn’t matter for the soldiers if they were real physicians or not.

The emperor turned into an unshaven man with his clothes not changed for days. He even started to smell. The gentleman no longer existed; he did nothing but kill people and smash things up. His bloodshot eyes made him look like a harbinger of hell.

Everyone was getting cautious at this time. People had to be extremely careful with anything that might get them involved or even killed. The imperial palace became a terrifying place, and everyone inside felt imperiled.

Dark clouds hung over the Empire of Yun and the sky turned gloomy. The once-bustling Huaiyang City was no longer the same. Laugh faded away, and people locked themselves up at home.

Day after day, people wished someone would answer the imperial notice to end the horrible time. Or they would love to see Empress Xi die instead of being a living dead. Not caring about politics, people just wanted their life back. It didn’t matter who was in power anymore.

As Empress Xi suffered from the strange illness, a rumor spread, saying that she was possessed by some monsters. Otherwise, someone should be able to cure her already. What was more, some called her the reincarnation of a monster and said that she was here to bring disaster to this world. The emperor had his hand stained with blood for her, so God would punish the empress with this serious illness.

Women had always been the ones to scapegoat for disasters. Empress Xi did put an end to the Empire of Yun later. But who would spend any time learning her life experience, miserable childhood, and painful growth? Who would really care about why the throne ended?

Maybe God found it too hard to stand aside watching his people suffer, so he finally sent a monk to the imperial palace. The monk said that he had got a cure. That feels like a pardon to everyone. Maybe he was eventually going to fail, but maybe he was the hope everyone needed.

The monk was thin, but his bald head didn’t smudge his handsome appearance. The limited desire as a Buddhist, however, made him look otherworldly.

The soldiers at the imperial palace gate hurried to report to Yun Su. Their eyes shone when the monk arrived as if he was the savior.

This monk was Wu Chen. He walked into the bedchamber like a saint as everyone gazed at him hopefully. Despite the various incense burned, it was still difficult to cover up the smell of vomit, spoiled food, and musty air.

Wu Chen only frowned for a second. Then he put his palm together and greeted the man far from looking like the emperor. “Amitabha, Your Majesty, allow me to check Her Majesty.”

“Okay, let’s get started.”

“Her Majesty is troubled with her mind. I need to speak to Her Majesty alone. Please send away the servants, and I may need to beg you to leave for a while.”

This was the first time someone asked Yun Su to go away. He was the emperor, the man who ruled this world. Even though Yun Su was not happy with it, he managed to hold his anger back for Sister Xi. What mattered the most was the life of Shui Yinzhu now.

“All right, I’ll go. But if you can’t cure the empress, you won’t keep your head as you walk out.”

The young emperor sent away all the servants in the bedchamber. For the first time in a month, he left the room. Of course, he had still kept some confidential guards outside of the room to spy on them. No matter how lost and insane he was, he was still the same possessive man.

As the door closed, Wu Chen made sure that no other people were hiding in this room. Then he walked to the bed and took out a middle-sized pearl. It was a cheap one. But it looked exactly like that one on Shui Yinzhu’s hairpin.

Light shone in the blank-eyed girl in white for the first time in all these days. Weak as she was, she lifted her hand, took that pearl, and laid it onto her chest. A tear dropped, with a trace of blood.

This was the first time she moved after all the time. But she had already burned herself out. She had no more energy to shed tears except for the one made of blood. She clenched her hand tightly onto the pearl as if it was the hand of her beloved man Xuan Zhi. The pale girl still had her hair tidy. But the pearl on her hairpin was no longer shining, losing its vitality, just like its owner.

Shui Yinzhu was far from being the gorgeous lady she used to be. She was barely a living person. She wasn’t as fragile when she almost got killed the last time they met. The still water in Wu Chen’s heart rippled at this very moment.