Back to the Villain's Youth

Kind, gentle, and honest heroine x capricious, cruel, later-on-deranged hero

Zhu Ting was the daughter of a wealthy family. Only after she died did she learn that she had been a disposable side character in a tragic romance, a stepping stone for the male and female leads' love story.

After being reborn, the System tells her that she has returned to the world eighteen years in the past. If she wants to go home, she must kill Wen Sui, the obstacle keeping the protagonists apart, within three years, so they can achieve their perfect happy ending.

Killing someone is already impossibly hard for her. To make matters worse, Wen Sui has a special constitution. She has to wait until he forms his core and ascends, then stab him in the chest with a sword to make his soul vanish completely.

As luck would have it, less than an hour after Zhu Ting transmigrates, she sees this very obstacle cut a rope and watch expressionlessly as several companions fall to their deaths over a cliff.

He did it because they had insulted and humiliated him, over and over.

Zhu Ting covers her mouth, but still meets his deep, unfathomable gaze.

The boy wears black, snow resting on his shoulders. His eyes are clear and beautiful, yet he is the mastermind behind every disaster of her previous life, the culprit who led the male lead to a glorious death and a tragic ending.

She's terrified and wants to run, but the System tells her that the only way to kill him is to stay by his side. The day he lets down his guard completely will be the perfect time to strike.

Cold and hungry, Zhu Ting stammers as she asks him for a steamed bun.

The boy tilts his head, as if he's heard a joke. The next moment, he slams the bun onto the ground, leaving it covered in dust, just like his own ashen face.

He wants to see her react like everyone else, with disgust and contempt, then curse him and leave. That way, he can once again savor the pleasure of killing in revenge.

But the richly dressed girl doesn't hesitate for a moment. Right in front of him, she eats every last crumb of the dusty bun, taking small bites.

Zhu Ting looks up at him expectantly and asks timidly, "Can I come with you?"

And so, from that day on, Wen Sui has a little follower.

But she meddles in everything. She won't let him do anything dangerous, like fighting someone stronger than him.

When he gets caught stealing, she disguises herself to rescue him. Behind a mask bigger than her face, her eyes are full of unmistakable fear.

She also nags him to practice every day, hoping he'll form his core soon.

He's such a cruel person, so why does she want him to be well so badly?

*

On the day the villain ascends, Zhu Ting grips the knife in her hand and regrets it for the first time.

She doesn't want to listen to the System at all.

Wen Sui isn't a bad person. He shouldn't die. She doesn't want to kill him.

Before leaving, the boy smiles at her tenderly as always and tells her to wait for him at home.

She nods and promises she will.

But he doesn't know he's about to complete the final step of forming his core. If she misses today, she'll never have another chance to kill him or go home.

Zhu Ting leans quietly against the doorway, watching the day wear into night. She counts the stars in the sky, then closes her eyes as the System explodes again and again.

She knows she will never open her eyes again. She threw away her only chance, and this world will erase her completely.

What Zhu Ting doesn't know is that after she loses consciousness, the boy kneels before the bed, distraught. He clutches her cold body with trembling arms and kisses her pale cheek, almost obsessively.

Years later, when Zhu Ting returns in a new body, she stares dumbfounded at her perfectly intact "corpse" in the ice coffin.

She hears that the young devil who ascended in the shortest time ever went completely white-haired overnight and crossed the entire River of Forgetfulness, all to beg his beloved to look back at him once more.

[Reader's Guide]

1. The heroine was exactly fifteen when she died in her previous life. The deadline is three years because her counterpart in a parallel world will be born three years later. Two identical people cannot exist in the same world, so she will be erased.

2. The hero isn't normal and won't age, so don't worry about the age gap.

3. Romance-focused, with little plot. Her fake death later on may be a little angsty, but the ending is guaranteed happy.

4. The hero's behavior is abnormal, but he'll gradually change because of the heroine. After she fakes her death later on, he'll sleep while holding her corpse. Please avoid if this bothers you.

5. The original male and female leads don't have much screen time and aren't bad people.

6. The blurb may be revised before the story starts, but the core premise won't change, so feel free to bookmark it.

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