MTL - Forty Millenniums of Cultivation - ~ Enemies of Tekken (71) Matryoshka

The Empire stands triumphant.

For twenty years the Dread Empress has ruled over the lands that were once the Kingdom of Callow, but behind the scenes of this dawning golden age threats to the crown are rising. The nobles of the Wasteland, denied the power they crave, weave their plots behind pleasant smiles. In the north the Forever King eyes the ever-expanding borders of the Empire and ponders war. The greatest danger lies to the west, where the First Prince of Procer has finally claimed her throne: her people sundered, she wonders if a crusade might not be the way to secure her reign. Yet none of this matters, for in the heart of the conquered lands the most dangerous man alive sat across an orphan girl and offered her a knife.

Her name is Catherine Foundling, and she has a plan.

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A Practical Guide to Evil is a fantasy series about a young girl named Catherine Foundling making her way through the world – though, in a departure from the norm, not on the side of the heroes. Is there such a thing as doing bad things for good reasons, or is she just rationalizing her desire for control? Good and Evil are tricky concepts, and the more power you get the blurrier the lines between them become.

Her step-sister just died three months ago. Now, she insists on marrying Chu Lui, who is supposed to be her future brother-in-law, the mind behind the Chu Enterprise. The world is sure that she, the new bride-to-be, had caused her step-sister’s death in order to seduce him.

Even her own mother says to her cruelly, “Don’t call me ‘Mom’. I don’t have a daughter as vicious as you.”

- Description from Novelupdates

She, has always refused to let go of her childhood pride.Initially, he forced her into submission in the harshest way possible, which made her despise him to the bone.At twenty, she abandoned her husband, followed a man she thought was worthy of her, only to end up being violently mistreated.Yet, it was he who raised her from the rain when she was at her most helpless moment.Fate brought her back to her eighteenth year, for a do-over. She emerged from her cocoon, when hate was replaced by regret, she shed her thorny exterior, but does she still have the right to pursue happiness?But why does he always remind her in the coldest voice, “He Zhilan, I don't want the He Family to raise an ungrateful wretch.”Or menacingly warn her, “He Zhilan, don't force me to take away your freedom!”

She was the illegitimate daughter of the Gu family from N City, and a gloomy coward in everyone’s eyes.