Please don't forget he SA the female lead.

Xiaowan couldn't leave him even when she wanted to, because she had no legal rights to live on her own in ancient China. It's only when he dies that she can rest in peace, literally, because although he kept her safe and her sons, he never did it gratuitously. He asked her to care for him like a son, to treat him like her husband, to serve him in bed and out of bed. He demanded complete obedience from her. Zhang Xiaowan once says that the real her (the modern her) only met Wang Yongzhao once: when she pointed an arrow at his heart. Later, the world showed her that it was a world built by men where women were treated like objects with no rights or place to speak, so she had to stay as a loyal wife to a man she would rather not marry, and was forced to marry. Meanwhile, the male lead could have concubines and chambermaids, have children with other women, go to war, or pretend to be sick when he did not want to go to war or to work. When he disliked the female lead, he threw her into a poor village and slept with other women. When they fought, he slept with other women to make her jealous (wishing to make her distraught and suffer). But when he wanted her, he made her pregnant with his child, because only then would she remain wholeheartedly on his side. Even when the pregnancy threatened her health, he did not regret it, and later even made her bear him another son. Now Zhang Xiaowan had three burdens to take care of, and couldn't bear to leave him.

We see many instances of this, like ch214, and I bet she was exhausted by the end of her life. Even in ch223, which everyone found funny, she is exhausted by his repeated questions. She has a jealous husband who punishes her, sexually and psychologically, when a suitor from her childhood sends her rabbits. It might be funny at first, but would you imagine living day after day with a paranoid, chauvinist, jealous husband like the male lead? We can see many more moments where she says and shows she's exhausted.