The Big Hand of Peixian (1)
As the late autumn morning mist wrapped itself around Peixian, I made my way to the main residence of the Lü family for the first time in nearly a month. Stepping across the rustling fallen leaves beneath my feet, I rehearsed the script in my head again and again. How exactly I would persuade my father. Which words to select, in what order to unfold the story. Had this been the modern world, I would have prepared a full presentation, but in this era even paper was a luxury. Everything would come down to winning the argument with nothing but my tongue and no supporting materials.
The key is explaining the concept of investment.
There was no such thing as venture capital in this era. Commerce and usury existed, yet trying to make ancient people understand the idea of “funding a venture while shouldering risk in anticipation of future value” was no different from slamming one’s head against a brick wall. Lü Gong, however, was different. He possessed his own unique investment philosophy—one that transcended the age itself.
Physiognomy.
He had seen the face of a future Son of Heaven in Liu Ji. That was why he had unhesitatingly married his precious daughter off to a penniless rogue. It had been a form of ultra-long-term value investment—betting his daughter on a blue-chip stock destined to skyrocket, thereby securing the eternal prosperity of the Lü clan.
That is precisely the point I will exploit.
That was the conclusion I had reached. It was the first step toward the promise I had made to Liu Ji yesterday with such confidence: I will make money.
Far ahead, the Lü family mansion revealed its imposing silhouette. Unlike Liu Ji’s ramshackle plank house, it boasted high earthen walls like a fortress and rows of tiled roofs arranged with the precision of dragon scales.
My family home…
The feeling was strangely disorienting. This was the very place where I had opened my eyes six months earlier—the place where my life as Lü Zhi had begun. Yet what I felt now was not nostalgia but tension. It felt less like coming home and more like stepping up to an enormous negotiation table.
When I reached the main gate, the elderly gatekeeper who had been dozing jerked awake and hurriedly made way.
“Aigoo, is that the fourth young lady?”
“Yes. Is Father inside?”
“Yes, yes! He is in the study. I’ll inform him at once—”
“No need. I’ll go to him myself.”
I passed through the gate with familiar steps. The impeccably kept garden, the pond where silk carp glided, the pine trees stretching their branches with quiet dignity. Until just a month ago this had been my home, yet after adapting to life in that plank shack it now seemed like an entirely different world.
“Young lady! Oh heavens, the young lady!”
While I stood gazing absently up at the pines, Chae-ran came running in a flurry of excitement. She looked exactly as I remembered her. I offered her a bright smile.
“Greetings can wait. Is Father in the study?”
“Hm? Ah, yes! Shall I announce you?”
“Please do.”
I perched on a large rock and waited. Fortunately, Father’s permission came quickly.
With a soft rattle, the sliding door opened. The study looked exactly as it had in my memory. Shelves piled high with bamboo slips. The faint scent of ink mingled with the fragrant smoke of white sandalwood rising from the incense burner. And at the center sat my father, Lü Gong.
White hair, a long beard, a face deeply etched by the years. He set down the bamboo slip he had been reading and regarded me with eyes that held both warmth and piercing insight.
“So. Zhi’er. You’ve come.”
Lü Gong’s voice was gentle. I bowed my head respectfully and took one step closer.
“It has been a long time, Father. I greet you.”
I knelt neatly and performed a proper bow. Lü Gong smiled with satisfaction and gestured for me to sit.
“Yes. Sit down.”
“Thank you.”
I took the seat opposite him. Whether he was reading my physiognomy or simply observing, Lü Gong studied my face in silence for some time.
“Your expression looks relaxed.”
He finally spoke.
“Yes, I am well.”
“And how is… Magistrate Liu?”
“He is in good health. He devotes himself to his duties every day.”
It was not a lie. That man might laze about when he could, but when he worked, he worked seriously.
Lü Gong, who had been watching me, stroked his beard.
“Yet you seem a little thinner. Your cheeks have grown hollow.”
His gaze sharpened.
“Is Magistrate Liu making you suffer in some way?”
It was the first time I had ever heard such a cold tone from Lü Gong. A sharp pang struck my chest. As expected, he truly cherished his daughter. He cherished her so much that he had sent her to Liu Ji for the sake of an even greater future.
“…I am enduring hardship.”
I answered honestly.
“Life there cannot be compared to life here. Drawing water, lighting fires—I must do everything with my own hands.”
“……”
“However, I am not unhappy.”
I looked straight into my father’s eyes.
“My husband treats me with care. He respects my opinions and never handles me roughly. My body is weary, but my heart is at peace.”
These words, too, were sincere. The hardship came from Liu Ji’s poverty, not from Liu Ji himself.
Lü Gong’s eyes narrowed. Once more that gaze seemed to pierce straight through me.
“…Is that so.”
When he finally spoke again, his voice carried a clear note of relief.
“Good. If you are happy, that is enough.”
“Yes.”
When I nodded without the slightest hesitation, a faint smile touched Lü Gong’s lips.
“Then return to your room and rest. Your mother and Su’a have gone to the market and should return by lunchtime.”
“Thank you. However, Father—”
“Hm?”
“Today Zhi has come with a request for you.”
Lü Gong’s eyebrows rose slightly.
“A request? What is it?”
I clenched my fist tightly atop my knee. Now came the real battle. Choosing every word with care, I began.
“How does Father currently view my husband’s—Magistrate Liu’s—physiognomy?”
The first pitch was a fastball. Bewilderment flickered across Lü Gong’s face.
“Why would you ask such a thing?”
“I believe in Father’s physiognomy.”
“You believe my readings?”
“Yes. At the banquet Father saw Magistrate Liu’s face and decided on our marriage. You said then, ‘This man possesses the face to grasp the world.’”
“…You remembered.”
“How could I forget? Those words changed my entire life.”
Lü Gong fell silent for a moment. Only after the sound of the cool autumn wind passed did he speak again.
“Yes. Liu Ji bears the face of a Son of Heaven.”
Conviction. His voice was almost religious in its certainty.
“Dragon features, phoenix eyes. And the seventy-two moles on his left thigh spoken of in rumor. Every sign marks one chosen by Heaven. In more than forty years of reading faces, I have never seen a man of such caliber.”
His gaze drove into me.
“That is why I sent you. Zhi, your own face also carries the signs of an empress.”
Empress.
A chill ran down my spine at those two characters. This old man had not chosen Liu Ji on mere impulse. He had been utterly convinced that the only “dragon pearl” worthy of the “dragon” named Liu Ji was his own daughter.
“Father.”
I lowered my voice and continued.
“If Magistrate Liu is to obtain the world…”
“He will certainly obtain it.”
“…Then what does Father believe is necessary for him?”
Lü Gong frowned.
“Necessary?”
“Even with destiny, without the proper means nothing can be achieved. Without soldiers one cannot fight. Without money one cannot feed soldiers. Without connections one cannot seize the right moment.”
I placed weight on every syllable.
“Magistrate Liu possesses destiny. Father’s physiognomy proves it. Yet the current Magistrate Liu has no means.”
“……”
“He has no money. His debts are mountainous. He has no soldiers. His only allies are a handful of market ruffians, and he holds no real position. He is merely a minor official in this rural county.”
I drove the point home.
“If things remain as they are, destiny alone will change nothing. Even a dragon’s egg will rot if it is not incubated. A man bearing the face of a Son of Heaven could live out his days as a lowly rural magistrate and die unknown.”
I recited the script I had prepared for this meeting without a single stumble. Lü Gong’s expression clouded slightly.
“…What exactly are you trying to say?”
“Father.”
I drove straight to the heart of the matter.
“Father’s physiognomy allows you to ‘see’ the future. I wish to propose that you go beyond simply seeing and instead ‘create’ the future.”
“Create?”
“Yes. Rather than waiting endlessly for destiny, we should pave the road so that destiny may arrive.”
Silence. A heavy stillness settled over the study. Lü Gong stared at me with eyes that seemed to peer into an abyss.
After a long while, his lips parted.
“Creating the future…”
He rolled the words on his tongue as though tasting them.
“An interesting notion.”
“……”
“I believe in fate. That is why I have always considered destiny something that cannot be defied.”
Lü Gong stroked his beard.
“However… the mindset of bringing it into reality is not bad either.”
A small smile rose to his lips. Inside, I let out a tiny breath of relief. At the very least, it seemed I would not be thrown out.
“So. What exactly do you want?”
“Money.”
I answered without hesitation.
“Money?”
“Yes. Funds to clear my husband’s debts, gather followers, and prepare for the great changes to come.”
“How much?”
“Five hundred jeon are needed immediately.”
Five hundred jeon. It was a substantial sum—equivalent to half a year of Liu Ji’s salary—yet not beyond the Lü family’s means. I would use it to pay off his debts and turn what remained into the founding capital of the Lü Zhi Trading Company.
“Five hundred jeon. Is that all?”
“No. More may be required later.”
I chose my words with care.
“The world today is unstable. The Qin court is in chaos and the people suffer. It would not be strange for a turbulent age to descend at any moment.”
“……”
“Therefore, should a great upheaval occur, Magistrate Liu must be ready. Ready to purchase horses, acquire weapons, and raise troops. That will require considerable funds.”
Lü Gong listened in silence, his expression complex. At length his voice trembled.
“Zhi… do you know something?”
My heart lurched. Had I been discovered? That I knew the future? But cold reason quickly reasserted itself. Lü Gong was a master of physiognomy. He could read faces with terrifying accuracy. He must have sensed that his daughter was concealing something.
“…I know nothing.”
I lowered my head and played the part of an innocent daughter.
“Yet I do feel something.”
“Feel?”
“Yes. That the Qin is forcibly damming the natural flow of the world. And that a dam built by force will one day burst with even greater destruction.”
A calm confession. Lü Gong stared at me for a long time. Then he let out a soft chuckle.
“…You’ve changed.”
“Pardon?”
“After that high fever six months ago, you became someone else, Zhi. Your eyes, your speech, that boldness.”
Lü Gong toyed with the teacup before him.
“I have wondered about it all this time. But what you just said helped me understand.”
He smiled faintly.
“You have awakened.”
I flinched despite myself and met his gaze.
“Awakened?”
“The old you always seemed to be asleep. Passive, simply following the path of fate… like a cartwheel rolling endlessly toward a predetermined destination.”
Lü Gong gave a gentle smile.
“But the present you is awake. You see the world with your own eyes and measure the realm with your own will.”
He moved closer.
“Very well. I will grant your wish.”
“Father…!”
“I will give you two thousand jeon.”
“T-two thousand?”
I doubted my own ears. I had asked for five hundred and received four times that amount.
“If it is not enough, come to me again. My wealth will belong to you and your siblings eventually. Whether I give it now or later makes little difference.”
Lü Gong gripped my shoulder firmly. From the strength of that grip I felt boundless trust in his daughter.
“My physiognomy tells me Liu Ji will become the Son of Heaven. And you are that man’s wife. Supporting the man who will seize the world is the duty of a wife—and, in time, of an empress.”
“……”
“All I can do is give wings to you, my little pheasant. I will not ask how you use them. The decision rests entirely with you.”
Lü Gong lightly stroked my hair.
“Do well, Zhi.”
At that rough, warm touch, something hot surged up from deep inside my chest.
…Father.
This old man did not know who I truly was. He did not know what thoughts filled my mind. He did not even know I was a soul who had come from the future. Yet he believed in his daughter. On nothing more than the changed light in her eyes, he had entrusted an enormous fortune to a nineteen-year-old girl.
That heavy trust struck my heart like a bell.
“Thank you, Father.”
I bowed deeply, then raised my head wearing the most confident expression I had ever shown in this world.
“I will certainly make Liu Ji the Son of Heaven.”