Elm-Bark Letters Betray the Years

Angst, lots of angst, and a bad ending. No cheating. The plot leans a little old-fashioned. (The outline was written by Hetao at the end of 2022, and this is my first angst novel, so please be kind (ʘ̥∧ʘ̥))

Lin Baiyu was once the young master of a prominent family in the capital, but after injuring someone while drunk, he ended up losing everything. The person who brought him down from his pedestal was the impoverished student he had pursued for two years...

Reduced to a servant, Lin Baiyu suffers endless torment in the Shen household. Then he loses both his parents, one after the other, and is repeatedly toyed with by the very person who claims to hate him yet keeps giving him hope. At last, pushed to the brink, his heart dies completely, and he chooses to leave this world.

The person who had hurt him so deeply also falls apart upon hearing of his death. Only when his own older brother tells him does he finally learn the whole truth. In the end, he personally deals with the one who had been sabotaging them all along, then goes to hell to atone for his sins.