The Morning of the Decisive Battle
The morning of the decisive battle arrived earlier than the rooster’s crow. “Zhi! Wake up! Today is an extremely important day!”
My mother’s thunderous voice sliced clean through the remnants of my light sleep. The window rattled open violently, and the deep-blue predawn air rushed beneath my blankets.
…It’s here.
I sat up on the bed, still disheveled. Cold sweat had soaked down my spine, making the thin silk nightclothes cling to my skin.
So sleepy…
Honestly, I had barely slept at all last night. How could anyone sleep when the fate of my second life was about to be decided?
I perched on the edge of the bed in a hazy daze. Mother’s battle-ready voice rang out again.
“Everyone, move quickly! Chulan, prepare the hot water! Peony, bring the garments! Chrysanthemum, fetch the cosmetics!”
Mother commanded the servants like a general leading a charge into enemy territory. That pure, terrifying zeal to secure the finest husband possible for her daughter.
If she knew the candidate is a nearly forty-year-old freeloader, she’d probably foam at the mouth.
I swallowed a bitter smile and let Mother pull me to my feet.
“Zhi, did you sleep well? How do you feel?”
“I slept very deeply, Mother.”
I forced my stiff lips into a professional smile. Luckily she couldn’t read my true thoughts; relief flickered across her face.
…Splash.
I lowered myself into the wooden tub, steam curling upward. Red flower petals drifted across the surface.
“Excuse me, miss.”
Chulan began applying fragrant oil to my hair. Her touch was far more careful and solemn than usual. In the strangely relaxed atmosphere, I stared down at my reflection in the water.
…Gulp.
Shoulders glistening with moisture. Firm, rounded breasts and a slender waist. Even in the steamy bathroom, this perfect teenage body shone without flaw.
This was my body now. No matter how many times I saw it, I still couldn’t get used to it.
“Chulan.”
“Yes, miss?”
“In your opinion… do I look like I’d be eaten alive?”
“Pardon?”
Chulan tilted her head, confused. I lifted my wet torso slightly and gazed at her seriously. Her eyes wavered at the sight of my bare skin.
“Tell me honestly. Will this body work on men?”
Objectively speaking, Lü Zhi was a beauty. Skin like white jade, delicate yet resilient curves. Petite in stature but generously endowed in the chest, the kind of figure that simultaneously awakened protective instincts and the urge to conquer.
But whether the aesthetic sense of a twenty-first-century Korean man would translate to these prehistoric barbarians remained to be seen. If their standard of beauty was something like the Venus of Willendorf, then I was basically patient zero for malnutrition. If my appearance didn’t work in this world, the entire plan to ensnare Liu Bang would be scrapped from the start.
To hook that sly old snake, I would need more than mere beauty.
“Work… how?”
“On men. You know… will they get turned on?”
“Hup!”
Chulan clapped a hand over her mouth. True, those weren’t exactly words befitting a refined young lady of a prestigious house. But she was a quick-witted girl. Even while blushing furiously, she soon nodded.
“Of course. Miss, you are… truly, impossibly beautiful. No matter how stone-hearted a man might be, once he sees you, his heart will surely stir.”
“Even a man in his late thirties?”
“What does age matter? I swear on my life, right now you are the most beautiful woman in Pei County… no, in the entire world.”
Her voice overflowed with sincerity. At the same time, the hands arranging my hair grew even gentler.
“I see. Thank you.”
Stage one cleared, then. I let out a sigh of relief and sank deeper into the tub.
Chulan, who had been watching me, asked cautiously, “Are you nervous, miss?”
Nervous. Yes. Very.
“Yes.”
I nodded honestly and submerged myself even further. Chulan smiled softly at the sight.
“Don’t worry. Madam loves you more than anything else in this world. She will certainly secure the very best marriage proposal for you.”
“…Right.”
Lü Gong truly was a good person. He loved his family more than anyone and treated the servants kindly. The reason he was sending Lü Zhi off to Liu Bang wasn’t to wield power through marriage ties, but because he genuinely wanted his daughter to be happy.
Which makes this all the more difficult…
I sighed and closed my eyes.
If only Lü Gong had some sinister ulterior motive, I could at least resent him with a clear conscience.
“Flying across that sky above~ the happy pheasant~”
Flying across that sky above~
the happy pheasant~
Taking my silence as a desire for quiet, Chulan began singing a lullaby in a gentle voice. I said nothing, simply closed my eyes and entrusted my body to her hands.
…After the bath came the makeup. And the cosmetics of this era were, by twenty-first-century standards, practically biochemical warfare.
Lead poisoning…
This was the third century BCE, the barbaric age when Qin Shi Huang chugged mercury in hopes of immortality. The main ingredient of the era’s finest whitening powder was, as the name suggested, lead.
“Miss, please don’t move.”
“Mmm, I know.”
Still, I couldn’t refuse. This was normal in this period. I held my breath as much as possible and surrendered my face to Chrysanthemum’s hands. Every time the cold powder covered my skin, I felt my lifespan shrink by a year.
Once the foundation was complete, it was time for the eyebrows. A fine brush dipped in indigo pigment carefully shaped them. The fashionable style was “moth-brow indigo”—in other words, long, slender, curved crescent eyebrows resembling silkworm antennae.
“Miss, do not move at all now. They’ll be crooked.”
Chrysanthemum’s eyes sharpened. I rolled my eyes sideways to stare at the bronze mirror. A face coated in snow-white powder. Eyebrows as black as ink, seductive and sharp. My lips, not yet tinted, were already an alluring soft pink.
…I look like a completely different person.
The already beautiful face, enhanced by makeup, possessed destructive power beyond imagination. My own heart fluttered just looking at it. The “me” I had only just grown accustomed to felt distant again, leaving me strangely unsettled.
“Next is the rouge.”
A red pigment made from safflower settled lightly on my cheeks, creating a shy blush. And then, the finishing touch.
“Lip rouge.”
The small container held a vivid crimson pigment, bright as fresh blood. Since it required direct contact with the lips, Chrysanthemum politely offered the dish to me. I dipped my little finger into the red and carefully applied the color myself.
My first lipstick in this life…
A strangely complex feeling. And as my lips gradually turned scarlet, I came to understand on a visceral level why lipstick had been a sex symbol across every era.
“Ha.”
The pure, delicate atmosphere from moments ago transformed into something bewitching with a single change of lip color. Deathly pale skin. Crimson lips embroidered upon it. The innocence of a girl and the sensuality of a woman began a perilous tightrope walk.
This… is Lü Zhi.
The woman who, according to history, made Liu Bang fall in love at first sight. The formidable lady who cursed out even Xiang Yu and lived to tell the tale. And… the future power broker who would eventually topple an emperor.
The childhood form of that monster stared straight at me from within the mirror.
“My goodness, Zhi! You look like a fairy descended from heaven!”
Mother embraced my shoulders, overcome with emotion.
“Every young master who sees you today will lose his heart. Expect excellent marriage proposals to come pouring in.”
Her voice brimmed with excitement.
“…You flatter me, Mother.”
I could only offer another awkward smile.
…After the ritual bath, the makeup, donning the pale jade-green deep-curved robe, securing my hair with a hairpin and crown, and saturating my entire body with sandalwood and musk, all preparations were finally complete. By then the sun already hung high in the sky.
The kitchen reeked of roasting pork and wine. Servants raced about until their soles nearly caught fire.
“Young misses, please wait here for a moment.”
I and my sister were guided to a secluded space behind a folding screen, directly behind the seats of honor in the banquet hall. As women, we could not sit at the main table and would only briefly show our faces during the feast to offer greetings.
And that’s when I’ll meet Liu Bang.
I straightened my posture and closed my eyes. Blocking my vision only made the noisy clamor surge forward like waves. The bold laughter of men. The clink of wine cups. Talk of politics, money, women. And cutting through all of it, one exceptionally loud and shameless voice.
“Krrgh! This wine is fantastic! Elder Lü, you must have worked your fingers to the bone preparing tonight’s banquet, eh?”
The third son of the Liu family. Liu Ji. The man who would later call himself Liu Bang.
It seemed the legendary bluff event of “ten thousand coins in congratulatory gifts” had already passed before I arrived. But from the tone of that voice and its sly charm alone, I could tell everything was unfolding exactly as I had read in the Records of the Grand Historian.
The man was confident without crossing the line, using his smooth tongue to melt Lü Gong’s heart.
“Sister Zhi, did you see? That’s him. The loafer from Sishui Pavilion.”
My younger sister whispered beside me, clearly disgusted.
“I don’t understand why Father seated such a scoundrel at the head table. He’s lowering the tone of the whole event.”
“…Indeed.”
The reason Liu Bang sat at the seat of honor was simple. The penniless rascal had hooked Lü Gong with nothing but sheer audacity. I took a deep breath and peered through a narrow gap in the folding screen.
There he is.
Right beside Lü Gong. The seat of honor, practically reserved for the protagonist of the banquet. He sat there at a careless slant. He looked surprisingly—remarkably—young for his age. His nose was straight, his eyebrows thick. A magnificent beard, the very symbol of masculinity in this era, covered his chin. The hand holding the wine cup was rough, yet veins stood out prominently.
And most striking of all—
His eyes.
He must have already drunk several cups, yet his gaze remained fiercely alive. Even while exchanging jokes with the people beside him, those sharp eyes continuously scanned the entire banquet hall. Who was an enemy, who was an ally. Where the prey was hiding. A mechanical search, like a hunter stepping into the forest.
And that radar net had now—
Swish—
…Ugh?!
Stopped exactly in my direction. The gap in the folding screen was barely the width of a finger. Through that narrow slit, my eyes and Liu Bang’s locked together in midair.
It was only an instant. A very brief moment. But in that instant, I saw it.
The faint twist at the corner of his mouth. Like a wolf that had spotted a rabbit hiding in the grass.
H-he noticed me?
I reflexively pulled away from the screen. My heart pounded violently. Heat—whether from shame or fear, I couldn’t tell—flooded my face.
“Huh? Sister, what’s wrong? Your face is bright red.”
“I-it’s nothing… Just… the smell of alcohol got to me.”
I clutched my trembling chest. A chill ran down my spine.
“Ahaha, exactly! Precisely! As expected of you, sir—your generosity is on another level!”
Beyond the screen, Liu Bang’s bold laughter continued without pause. He drank again as if nothing had happened and chatted casually with those around him. But I knew.
That man had seen me. He had clearly registered the presence of Lü Zhi spying on him from behind the folding screen.
So this is the intuition of the future Emperor Gaozu of Han.
It seemed today’s encounter would not go as smoothly as I had planned.