Ming Mansion, northeast corner courtyard.
"Cough! Cough cough!"
In the house overgrown with wild grass, violent coughing continued to sound. The brush fell to the ground, and a young man with white clothes and white hair removed a pure white mask, turned his head, and coughed up a mouthful of fresh blood, splattering it on the ground.
He took out a handkerchief and used his withered fingers to press it tightly against his mouth, suppressing the burning pain in his lungs.
"Cough... cough..."
After a bout of wheezing, the man removed the handkerchief. The flickering candlelight revealed a gaunt face, devoid of any trace of a living person's complexion aside from the blood-stained lips.
Picking up the brush that had fallen to the ground, the man's indifferent, lifeless eyes turned to the manuscript he had just finished writing on the table.
