After the Tragic Novel's Protagonist Is Reborn

[Completed. Next story: The Villainous Antagonist Gave Up Competing and Became Everyone's Favorite]

Only after Lu Zhou died did he discover that he was the protagonist of a tragic novel.

...No wonder.

He had devoted himself to his junior disciples, caring for them meticulously all year round, yet they treated him like dirt.

He had adored his master and served him devotedly, but his master thought him frail and useless.

He had done everything he could, yet he couldn't stop his beloved disciple from dying after qi deviation.

No wonder he had looked toward the light, only to die in an abyss, with no one to gather his bones.

Lu Zhou: "..."

Why had he worn himself out for these people?

-

After being reborn, Lu Zhou couldn't be bothered to seek revenge, much less drag his sickly body around to manage the people of the sect. He only wanted to live a quiet life of his own.

He shut his doors to visitors.

Yet the people who had once treated him with coldness and cruelty all changed their tune.

The junior disciple who had resented his strictness now obeyed his every word and tried every way to please him.

His indifferent master, who had never even looked him in the eye, set aside his dignity and came to Lu Zhou's door, gently asking him to return.

His noble-born former Dao companion treated him with more warmth and courtesy than ever before, cautiously hoping they could reconcile.

The cool, sickly beauty lowered his eyes.

"Get lost."

-

As the King of Ghosts, Pei Jingzhan was rejected by the Heavenly Dao.

He yearned for a chance to live, again and again, but the Heavenly Dao showed him no mercy, and no one dared cross a mountain of corpses and sea of blood to stand by his side.

Until an immortal cultivator mistook his half-formed remains for a child and took him out of that cycle of struggle and failure, gently telling him, "Just be my disciple. I'll do everything I can to protect you."

An unfathomable possessiveness took root from that moment on, spanning life and death.

Later, Pei Jingzhan held the person he'd once been unable to reach in his arms, greedily breathing in his scent.

The ever cool and indifferent man let down his guard and shyly returned his advances, his voice smiling as he said, "Neither of us can turn back now... Make me feel good, all right?"

[Next story] The Villainous Antagonist Gave Up Competing

↓↓↓

Ning Chenghuai, the only legitimate son of the Marquis's household.

His mother died when he was young, and he was born frail, but he had an exceptionally handsome, refined face.

Unfortunately, his temper was terrible. He competed day after day with Su Jin, the household's adopted son, who was as virtuous as a white lotus. Ning Chenghuai schemed and plotted, only to die unexpectedly because of one of his own wicked plans.

It was only when he died that Ning Chenghuai learned what kind of role he played in the book that had determined his fate.

The family honor he had prided himself on and the noble principles of his healer's heart were all garbage in other people's eyes. The responsibility he'd silently shouldered for the whole family was dismissed as nonsense, and no one knew the truth after he died.

...This world didn't deserve all his devotion.

When he opened his eyes again, Ning Chenghuai was fifteen. Su Jin stood before him with red-rimmed eyes, asking for the jade pendant Ning Chenghuai treasured above all else.

He was sure Ning Chenghuai wouldn't hand over the keepsake from his birth mother, and had even squeezed out a few tears, ready to play the victim: a pure and innocent flower bullied by the wicked legitimate son.

But the red-lipped, pearly-toothed youth gently snapped the red cord around his neck and slapped the jade pendant into Su Jin's palm.

"I don't want it anymore."

These good-for-nothing people who couldn't be helped.

He wouldn't raise them anymore.

-

Ning Chenghuai had changed completely.

He no longer clung to the elder brother he had once adored, no longer agreed to his sister's unreasonable demands, and no longer deliberately defied his parents' scolding. He couldn't even be bothered to look at Su Jin, whom he'd once hated most.

People thought: He's only upset. Ignore him for a few days, and he'll learn his lesson.

Ning Chenghuai: ?

The youth packed his things and quietly left to study at an academy a hundred li away.

The day the marquis's household discovered Ning Chenghuai was gone, the entire family was thrown into turmoil.

-

In his previous life, Crown Prince Qin Youjun first noticed Ning Chenghuai at the academy's Lantern Festival. With a smile, the youth tricked him out of the flower pinned in his hair by getting him to drink three cups of wine.

Beneath the lantern light, those dark, sly eyes were so lively that, for the first time in his life, Qin Youjun wanted to protect someone.

Later, he realized he hadn't come into Ning Chenghuai's life early enough.

His most treasured white moonlight had been ground to dust and destroyed by a pack of worthless fools.

Before Ning Chenghuai's grave, the once lofty Crown Prince sacrificed everything to beg the heavens for just one chance, no matter how brief, to save the person he loved.

When he opened his eyes again, he had returned to the age of nineteen, before he had ever met Ning Chenghuai.

None of it had happened yet. He still had enough time to hold that poor child in his arms.

And those who had wronged him could pay for their sins with the rest of their lives.

Theme: Stand on your own and create a brilliant future.