The Lü Family's Fourth Daughter (3): Liu Bang's Path
The time that followed felt like torture. The banquet continued without pause. The men’s boisterous laughter, the splash of wine being poured, and the savory aroma of grilling meat drifted endlessly from beyond the folding screen. As the gathering reached its peak, the musicians’ skilled performance lifted the atmosphere to a fever pitch.
“Ugh…”
Yet even amid all that merriment, Su-a and I remained trapped in the shadows behind the screen, forced to hold our kneeling posture. Feeling had already fled my thighs. My waist felt ready to snap, and the golden hairpin weighed on my temples like a dumbbell. Cold sweat soaked the inside of my silk robes.
How long do I have to endure this…?
I longed to stretch my legs, even for a moment. But movement was impossible. In this barbaric age, a daughter existed as a flower behind the screen, waiting until her father summoned her with “Come forth.” That was etiquette. The prototype of the Three Obediences that would torment Eastern women for millennia was crushing my knees in real time.
“Sister, my legs feel strange…” Su-a whispered, her face crumpling.
She seemed at her limit, shifting her weight restlessly.
“Just hold on a little longer. He’ll call us soon.”
“Ugh, all right.”
Grumbling, she straightened her posture again. For all her complaints, she was a sister who listened well to her elder.
Whew.
I forced strength back into my numb legs. Yes. It was almost time. The wheels of history were about to turn. If I endured just a little more, surely Father would…
“Miss Chi. Miss Su.”
A maid’s voice, like a savior’s, cut through.
“The two young ladies are to join the banquet. The mistress is calling for you.”
Finally…!
I rose slowly. My legs screamed in protest, but my expression remained a tranquil lake. I pressed the mask of “Lü Zhi” that I had perfected over the past six months firmly onto my face.
“Su-a, let’s go.”
“Yes!”
Su-a sprang up, drunk on liberation. Her steps were light, like a child tagging after her sister to the market. My own footsteps, however, were heavy, as though I walked toward the executioner’s blade.
My first meeting with fate.
I swallowed a deep breath and stepped past the screen, into the light.
It’s so bright…
The instant I entered the hall, dozens of gazes struck me like arrows. Men’s eyes. Appraising eyes. Eyes that weighed my worth. And eyes glistening with naked lust.
I met those sticky stares head-on. Without flinching or showing shame, I advanced, the hem of my silk skirt rippling across the floor. Lü Zhi’s flawless beauty merged with Choi Dae-ri’s unyielding nerve.
“So that is the rumored…”
“Indeed.”
“The elder has raised truly exquisite daughters.”
Exclamations and whispers erupted on all sides.
I kept my gaze lowered and approached my father, Lü Gong.
“Father, you summoned me?”
“Oh, yes. Chi-a. Come here.”
Lü Gong’s voice dripped with oily satisfaction, the pride of a man whose daughter had overwhelmed the room. I knelt gracefully beside him. Then, for the first time, I lifted my head.
The banquet unfolded before me like a panorama. Unfamiliar men filled every corner. Among them I spotted figures who could only be Xiao He, Cao Shen, and Xiahou Ying.
And.
“……”
Liu Bang sat directly before me, in the seat of honor beside my father. He was the eye of the storm, dominating the air itself. Larger than anyone, more brazen than anyone, radiating an overwhelming presence that eclipsed all others.
He was looking at me. Rudely. Piercingly. Yet with a glint of amusement.
“Hooh.”
A low sound rumbled from Liu Bang’s throat.
“So this is the rumored young lady. The rumors were no exaggeration. She is quite the beauty.”
His voice was as unrestrained as his gaze. The assembly stirred at such blunt speech.
“Chief Liu, some propriety, please…” The intelligent-looking man beside him (undoubtedly Xiao He) clutched his sleeve in alarm.
Liu Bang merely snorted and continued.
“Why? Did I insult anyone? I simply said she’s pretty because she is. I’m sure Lord Lü Gong wanted my honest impression.”
A faint, easy smile curved his lips.
“So, young lady, what is your name?”
Informal speech. He was speaking down to me despite our first meeting. I glanced reflexively at my father, but Lü Gong only chuckled, eyes fixed on me. He seemed utterly bewitched by Liu Bang’s supposed physiognomy.
…Of course he would be.
My heart hammered, yet I maintained composure. Hiding my trembling hands in my sleeves, I met his gaze directly.
“My name is Lü Zhi. Chief Liu, I am truly grateful that you have honored this humble gathering with your presence today.”
Fortunately, my voice remained steady. A passing grade.
As I bowed politely, Liu Bang twirled his wine cup.
“Lü Zhi. Using the character for pheasant? A fine name.”
His eyes narrowed.
“They say the pheasant is kin to the phoenix. Perhaps the young lady will one day soar like one herself.”
…The phoenix.
I swallowed a bitter smile. The phoenix was the symbol of an empress. To an ambitious man who modeled himself after Qin Shi Huang, those words were far from empty flattery.
“Chi-a.”
My father’s voice cut in.
“In truth, I have something to tell you. Chief Liu here…”
His gaze moved naturally between me and Liu Bang. I understood at once. He was about to announce my marriage to Liu Bang, exactly as history recorded, cementing it as fact before all these witnesses.
“……!”
My mother, seated beside Father, turned deathly pale. But I did not panic. I was Lü Zhi. More precisely, I was the twenty-first-century salaryman Choi Dae-ri wearing Lü Zhi’s skin.
“Father.”
I raised my voice. The entire hall fell silent, as if doused with cold water.
“What?”
A daughter daring to interrupt her father at the moment he announced something so momentous. By the standards of this era, it was an unforgivable breach of filial piety that could earn a slap across the face.
Mother covered her mouth. Even Su-a stared with wide eyes. Still, I did not retreat. Because I was me. Because this was my life. I refused to be sold off passively. My future would be chosen and decided by me.
“Though it is presumptuous, may I speak a word?”
I spoke clearly, head bowed. My heart threatened to explode, but my mind was ice-cold.
“……Chi-a?”
Bewilderment and faint anger colored my father’s voice. His brow furrowed openly.
“What is the meaning of this? When your elders are speaking.”
“This girl has not the slightest intention of objecting to any decision Father makes.”
I pressed my forehead to the floor. Yet my words continued.
“However, I have one earnest request.”
“A request?”
“If Father is choosing my marriage partner by reading his physiognomy… please allow me to exchange a few words with the gentleman first.”
My first counterattack as Lü Zhi. The banquet erupted as though a bomb had detonated.
“What? Exchange words?”
“An unmarried maiden wishes to speak with an unrelated man?”
“Unheard of. Lord Lü Gong, how exactly have you educated your daughter?”
Whispers of reproach and astonishment spread like ripples. Still I kept my head lowered, waiting only for my father’s response.
“Just what do you intend to discuss?”
Lü Gong’s voice had grown frigid. Understandably so.
I pressed on without yielding.
“Father clearly values Chief Liu’s physiognomy highly.”
“Indeed. That man bears the face of one who will embrace the world.”
“I know little of physiognomy. Yet I do know that judging a person by appearance alone is insufficient.”
“What?”
“When you speak with someone, you see their heart. You see their capacity, their thoughts. You learn what they hold precious and what they deem worthless. Surely that is a realm physiognomy alone cannot penetrate.”
I raised my head and looked straight into my father’s eyes.
“This girl will trust and follow Father’s insight. But before that, I wish to confirm the gentleman’s heart with my own ears.”
Lü Gong’s eyebrows twitched. Anger vanished, replaced by a strange emotion. Surprise. Bewilderment. And…
Interest.
Lü Gong was a physiognomist who believed people could be read by appearance alone. A daughter’s bold logic of wanting to see beyond the surface to the heart would naturally stimulate his professional curiosity.
“……Hm.”
He stroked his beard and fell silent. Every eye in the hall focused on us.
And at last, the one who broke that heavy silence was—
“Kukuku… Interesting. Most interesting.”
Liu Bang.
I lifted my gaze. He held his wine cup, grinning so widely his gums showed.
“Lord Lü Gong, grant your daughter’s wish. I have no objection. When such a beauty asks to speak with me, what reason does a real man have to refuse?”
“Chief Liu…”
Xiao He squeezed his eyes shut and clutched the sleeve again.
“Hey, young lady.”
But Liu Bang did not wait for my father’s answer. He leaned forward and called to me.
“You want to talk? Fine. Let’s hear it. Just what are you curious about regarding a man like me?”
His voice was testing me. Go on. Show me what tricks you have. His eyes sparkled with curiosity and wild instinct.
He really has guts.
I clicked my tongue inwardly. This man trusted his own capacity completely. He feared no conversation with a woman. He even planned to turn this verbal duel into another of his heroic tales.
So this is Liu Bang.
I drew a deep breath. The trembling stopped. Groundless confidence had overcome fear.
“Chief Liu.”
I began in a clear, resonant voice.
“First, I would like to ask you one thing.”
“All right, what is it?”
“Chief Liu, what do you live for?”
The banquet fell utterly silent. Liu Bang’s eyes narrowed. All traces of drunkenness vanished, replaced by a razor-sharp gaze that raked over me.
After a long pause, he slowly set down his cup.
Clack.
“What do I live for, you ask.”
He toyed with his beard, looking both troubled and amused.
“You pose a difficult question, young lady.”
“Is it difficult?”
I refused to yield.
“Everyone lives for something. For money, for honor, for family, or… for the world.”
The hall stirred. The word “world” carried immense weight in this era. It was not something a commoner, let alone a woman, should utter lightly. Yet I had dared to speak it, to test his reaction.
“Hooh.”
Liu Bang’s lips twisted faintly.
“The world, is it? You have quite the ambition, young lady.”
“I am asking you, sir. What do you live for?”
Silence. Liu Bang simply stared at me—sharp, deep, searching.
“Do you truly wish to know?”
At last his voice continued. A strange smile played at the corner of his mouth.
“Very well. I’ll tell you what I live for.”
Without hesitation, Liu Bang rose. His frame, a full head taller than mine, cast a long shadow. He glanced at me once, then strode to the center of the hall.
“I, you see.”
Having swept his gaze across the assembly, he looked down at me again. There was no falsehood in those eyes.
“I live for myself.”
“……Pardon?”
The unexpected answer drew an idiotic sound from me before I could stop it. Wait—not for the world?
Liu Bang continued, unconcerned.
“Not for money. Not for honor. Not for family, and certainly not for the world.”
He thumped his own chest.
“I live because I want to live. I drink because the wine is good. I eat because the meat is good. And if there’s a pretty woman… ahem. That’s not something to say in front of the elder.”
Coughs and stifled laughter broke out around us. An utterly materialistic, utterly Liu Bang answer. Yet he remained perfectly composed. He turned back to me with an unchanged expression.
“Is there something wrong with that?”
His dark eyes bored into me.
“You probably wanted to test me. Hoping for some splendid answer befitting a hero. But I’m afraid I must disappoint you. I, Liu Ji, may bluff before others, but when it comes to my own desires, I am honest.”
Liu Bang took another step closer. The thick scent of wine and sweat, and beneath them the even stronger smell of a man. At the corner of his mouth sat the confident smile that only a man utterly certain of himself could wear.
“I live exactly as I please. That is my path. So? Any complaints?”
He spread both arms in a shrug. I saw Xiao He clutching his forehead and Cao Shen shaking his head, but Liu Bang ignored them completely.
…This man is something else.
I felt a thrill of awe. As a prospective son-in-law’s answer, it was a zero. What sane father would hand his daughter to a thug who declared he would live as he pleased?
Yet Liu Bang had known that and still chosen the direct approach. By revealing his base desires without filter, he paradoxically planted trust as “a man without falsehood.” Among pretentious scholars, his raw, barbaric honesty made him shine all the brighter. To Lü Gong, already captivated by him, it would appear as the bold spirit of a true hero.
As expected, he is no ordinary man.
The match was over. The mood of the banquet had completely swung to Liu Bang’s side.
But I did not avert my eyes. If I faltered now, I would be dragged along for the rest of my life. Without hesitation, I spoke once more.
“Chief Liu.”
“What, there’s more?”
“May I ask one final question?”
One of Liu Bang’s eyebrows rose.
“Again? You really are greedy. Fine. Let’s hear it.”
I drew a deep breath. My final gambit. The last test to see whether the woman called Lü Zhi could find any opening in his heart.
“Our Chief Liu, who is so honest about his desires…”
I paused briefly, then asked in a calm, crystal-clear voice.
“What do you want from a wife?”