1.
If he had another life, would he still travel thousands of miles to the academy?
You Ning didn't know.
He only knelt alone in the shadows, silently gazing up at the spirited young men on the high platform.
Perhaps his very presence was a mistake.
2.
His parents did not recognize him. His relatives treated him like a stranger, and his friends became his enemies.
He played the qin to help someone out of a difficult situation, only for his instructor to fly into a rage and mock him for imitating Xi Shi.
He kindly saved someone in a secret realm, only for his classmates to accuse him of having wicked intentions and plotting something underhanded.
Gravely injured and near death, he heard people sneer that he was merely pretending to be kind, hoping to win the imperial family's favor by suffering a little.
Even the face he was born with seemed to be deemed a counterfeit, another mark of his shamelessness.
3.
So this was how his life went after he saved the world and was reborn: a life as someone universally despised.
Later, You Ning's sword broke. His frail body struggled as he knelt once more on the frozen wasteland.
It's all right, he thought.
The world has flowers, wind, and moonlight. It doesn't need me.
* Winter, Year Thirteen of Yuanhe. There was no snow across the land.
Crown Prince You Ning destroyed the demon lord, then breathed his last before an unmarked stele.
He gave everything he had in exchange for the chance to live again. In this life, the demon lord was gone, the land was safe, and the nine provinces and four seas were clear and peaceful.
Except for this lonely soul, who should have died long ago, living again among the living.
Everything was fine.
Tips:
Saintly father figure x villain
A self-destructive, world-saving hero in a small role x an antisocial, world-weary apothecary
The protagonist sacrifices everything to bring back a beautiful new world without him [not really]
Wheelchair-using gong, Zong Shu, teacher-student relationship, older gong
From everyone's favorite to everyone's least favorite, with family-and-friend angst later on...
Theme: My heart is not stone, and cannot be turned
