Grasping Evil - Chapter 9: Dugu

The journey of a generation’s male empress started because of four words.

“Send a dowry escort.”

During the 19th year of Yuanqing, Qi Yunruo boarded a carriage and entered through a corner door of the second prince’s estate. Then, across the watery corridor, he gazed at the prince from afar.

Notes:

For aristocratic women in imperial China to marry into a family part of the upper nobility, they must be of the legitimate line and must also have an escort/dowry maid that married into that family. That escort would be a “ying” (媵) and could be considered a concubine.

- Description from Novelupdates

Once upon a time, a boy was referred to as a “War Hero.”

In another world called Aletia, the boy who had saved the Lost Kingdom, conquered their neighbouring countries, and led to the rise of a grand empire decided to throw everything away, returning to the modern era at the cost of his memories.

As three years passed, the boy who was happily enjoying his daily life was once again called back to the other world.

However, what awaited him was the Aletia of 1000 years in the future.

As his past glories became a “myth,” the legend of the youth referred to as the, “Twin Black Hero King,” begins.

Markus spent his life piecing together fragments of his past life on Earth, flickers of faces, half-remembered streets, the ghost of a world that no longer existed.Slowly, gradually, he’d finally found his footing in this new world of monstrous beings. He felt grounded, as if his fractured memories could finally settle into something resembling a family.But it all went downhill from there.A lingering touch, a promise, an obsession. As if fate itself was playing a cruel joke, his life begins to spiral down. Gradually tumbling down like a crescendo of madness, dragging him deeper into something inescapable.Every attempt to claw his way back only pulls him further down, like a bottomless pit with no end in sight.How much can a person endure before they break? And when they do, can they ever truly piece themselves back together?

Wealthy, powerful and handsome; Gu Jingze is the cream of the crop in the entire country. Every guy wants to be him and every girl wants to be with him. His life is perfect… except that he has one tiny secret that keeps him from getting close to any woman—apparent impotency.

That is, until he wakes up in bed with a total stranger one day. The next thing he knows, he is forced to marry this stranger; a feisty and boisterous woman by the name of Lin Che.

Lin Che is an average girl whose only aim is to become a successful actress. Ostracized by her family and forced to become independent, she cooks up a scheme to attain her goal. But her plan fails and she ends up marrying this cold and seemingly heartless Gu Jingze. Not only that, she must now find her place in high society, where jealous women and devious plots lay abound – all while juggling her new career.

Two strangers under one roof: From the outset, they agree to stay out of each other’s lives, but he somehow always manages to appear during her moments of crisis. Slowly and unwittingly, Lin Che begins to find it difficult to imagine a future without him. Will their relationship grow, or is their marriage destined to remain just a contract?

- Description from Novelupdates