The Aloof, Sickly One Reborn

Main story complete

[Pre-release: After the Gloomy, Universally Hated Guy Becomes Beautiful. A universally loathed character gets a makeover! Please add it to your favorites! Synopsis at the bottom.]

1.

People always said Xueshi had ambitions as high as the heavens, but a fate as fragile as paper. He couldn’t get along with Gu Wangjing, the most powerful man of the age, and insisted on fighting him to the death.

No matter how talented Xueshi was, how could he possibly beat Gu Wangjing, who had three powerful admirers pursuing him?

On a long winter night, he vanished into the snow, as lightly as his name.

2.

When Xueshi opened his eyes again, he had returned to ten years earlier.

Gu Wangjing had yet to meet the three benefactors who would change his life. At the time, they were both living in the same orphanage.

By a twist of fate, Xueshi, who should have gone straight home, came to an alley with an umbrella. He looked at the man slumped in a corner, and frowned slightly.

The man leaned against the wall in a wretched state. Hearing someone approach, he warily raised his eyes, only to see a pair of pale hands holding an umbrella, above a glimpse of a snow-white chin.

The person crouched down. Even through the rain, sharp with the smell of blood, the man caught a unique fragrance coming from him. It was like lily of the valley, or perhaps iris. For a moment, he forgot the pain.

He told him his name was Xueshi.

3.

In the eyes of those powerful men, Xueshi was their friend, and the object of their secret fantasies in the dead of night.

Xueshi’s indifferent gaze and the fragrance that clung to him made them ravenous. They were willing to give him everything.

They were like vicious wolves with green eyes, circling Xueshi and waiting for a chance to sink their teeth into his fragile, fair neck and drag him back to their den.

But Xueshi betrayed them.

They frantically demanded an explanation.

Xueshi merely gave a light cough and told them it was because they deserved it.

Yet none of that could compare to the bone-deep agony of watching him throw himself into someone else’s arms.

Reader’s Guide

1. The protagonist is a cool, self-serving, sickly heartthrob adored by everyone.

2. All four men will face their comeuppance and pay for what they did in their previous lives.

3. The true love interest is someone else.

Synopsis: After the Gloomy, Universally Hated Guy Becomes Beautiful

At twenty-two, Tao Wei was seen by everyone as a useless, lazy fatso who wasted his life.

He had long hair, but was as round as a ball. Everyone in his social circle made fun of him.

Tao Wei was gloomy and timid. His adoptive older brother was outstanding and disciplined, and had been helping their parents with work from an early age. The words Tao Wei’s parents said most often were, “Why did we have you in the first place?”

Then, after a car accident, Tao Wei fell seriously ill. His bulky body quickly slimmed down until even his smallest old pants no longer fit.

When his brother saw him, his gaze held a subtle curiosity. His parents looked even more astonished.

Tao Wei gritted his teeth. He strongly resisted his parents’ demand that he return to their social circle.

If he got this thin, they wouldn’t just call him a fatso anymore.

But Tao Wei had no choice. To his surprise, when he returned, the people who used to beat and berate him acted as if they didn’t recognize him. Some even gave him gifts.

But when those people learned he was Tao Wei, their gazes turned strange. Sharp as blades, they swept over the back of his snow-white neck.

They had all changed.

Those pampered young heirs had never imagined Tao Wei could become like this.

When he lowered his head timidly, his long hair brushed aside, revealing his fair neck.

The red cord on his slender wrist, which they had mocked for ages, now hung loose, yet somehow became an unspoken fantasy they could not shake.

Theme: Through hardship and adversity, one can be forged into something fine.