The Fourth Daughter of the Lü Family (Complete): A Dreamlike Honeymoon
“Equals?” A deflating hiss escaped Liu Bang’s lips. As if he found it ridiculous. As if he found it absurd. But I refused to yield. If I gave an inch here, I would be stepped on for the rest of my life.
“Yes. Because I am not your possession, but your partner.” I continued, forcing my voice to remain steady. “You said it yourself at the banquet. You wanted a woman who could walk through hell beside you. A woman who would grab you by the collar and haul you back to your feet when you fell.”
“Yeah. I said that.”
“Then allow me to ask. Is that woman your tool, or your comrade?”
Silence. Liu Bang stared at me. In those unfathomably deep black eyes, complex emotions swirled.
“Keep talking.”
“If she is your comrade, then please respect my will.” I swallowed hard and met his gaze head-on. “Tonight I have become your wife. Yet the heart of a wife is still something I do not possess. I am not the sort of woman who decides the course of her entire life after a mere few hours of conversation.”
“……Hm.”
“So for tonight, let us only talk. I want to know you better—your past, your dreams, your thoughts. After I understand all of those things, I wish to become your wife in the truest sense.”
This was the best compromise I could offer. I would not slam the door shut entirely. But I needed at least enough breathing room to decide with my own heart.
…….
Liu Bang closed his mouth. A long, heavy silence followed. The only sound in the room was the soft crackle of the candle wick burning down. Tendrils of incense smoke rose like snakes, drawing a hazy line between us.
…Did it work? I held my breath and waited for his judgment. Truthfully, this was a gamble. This was an era of male supremacy and female inferiority. Besides, I had never been given a real choice to begin with. If he snarled “Enough with the nonsense!” and simply took me by force, that would be the end. I had no means to resist.
But.
This man—Liu Bang—will surely be different.
I knew the man called Liu Bang. The one I had read about in the historical records was undeniably a great lecher. Yet he was also a man who loved interesting women. He showed no interest in dull ones. But toward women who challenged him, who betrayed his expectations, he felt a peculiar fascination.
Just like Lady Cao.
That was why I had challenged him. I demanded an equal relationship. I insisted I was not a mere possession but a comrade. I had bet that this audacious claim would capture his interest.
Answer me. I straightened my spine. Concealing my fear, I faced him with dignity.
And after what felt like an eternity—
“……Ha.” A short laugh burst from Liu Bang’s lips.
“Haha… kkhaha… uhahaha!”
The laughter swelled instantly into roaring guffaws. He clutched his stomach and rolled across the bed, howling with mirth.
“Ahahaha! How entertaining! Truly entertaining!”
“……My lord?”
“A wife who lectures her husband on their very first night? This is quite the find! Quite the find indeed! Old Master Lü has raised one terrifying daughter!”
Liu Bang roughly wiped the tears that had gathered from laughing so hard. His round eyes now turned toward me, brimming with curiosity.
“You… are different. You’re no ordinary woman.”
My heart gave a sharp jolt.
“W-what do you mean by that?”
It felt as though a needle had pierced my chest. Fortunately, his intuition did not seem to reach any further. He chuckled and nodded.
“Fine. I like it. Tonight, we’ll do exactly as you asked.”
“Y-you truly mean it?”
“Yes. Tonight we’ll talk and then sleep.” Liu Bang grinned. “But there is one condition.”
“A… condition?”
“Starting tomorrow, you will behave as my proper wife. You will come to my house, cook my meals, mend my clothes, and one day bear my children. Don’t tell me you aren’t even prepared for that much.”
His voice continued as though stating the most obvious truth in the world. Bear my children. The words settled heavily on my shoulders. I had barely avoided it tonight, but the future I might one day face flickered before my eyes.
“Your answer?” Liu Bang’s low voice pressed.
“……Understood.” I bit my lip and lowered my head. “From tomorrow onward, I will conduct myself as your wife and as the daughter-in-law of the Liu family. …Except for sharing the bed.”
“Haha, good. Very good. Deal sealed.”
Liu Bang slapped his knee in satisfaction. Then, without hesitation, he rose and walked toward the candlestick.
“Right, then let’s split the bed in half. You take the inside. I’ll sleep on the outside.”
“……Pardon?”
“What, you dislike even sharing the same bed?”
“N-no, not at all.” I shook my head hastily. If we used separate rooms, the servants would gossip. A rumor that the bride was rejected on her wedding night would make my position untenable.
“Understood.” I curled up in the innermost corner of the bed, pressed tight against the wall.
“Don’t hug the corner like that. The chill will rise from the wall.”
Liu Bang chuckled and pinched the candle flame with his fingers.
Whoosh. Darkness swallowed the room.
A moment later the bed creaked as a heavy weight settled beside me.
“Are you going to sleep…?”
“Why? Changed your mind already?”
“N-no, of course not.” I squeezed my eyes shut. The words lead poisoning hovered in my mind, but I had no desire to risk bathing in front of this man.
I… survived.
Liu Bang lay less than a meter away. Yet there was no movement toward me. His breathing remained steady, and I heard no rustle of clothes being removed. Perfect silence.
Once the tension drained, exhaustion crashed over me like a wave. Then, from the darkness, his voice drifted over.
“Hey.”
“……Yes.”
“You said earlier that you wanted to know more about me.”
“……Yes.”
“Then I’ll tell you. Think of it as a lullaby.”
He took a short breath, then continued in a strangely gentle tone.
“I’m the son of a poor man from a remote corner of Pei County. There are four siblings, and I’m the third. Ah, of course among those born from my mother, I’m the youngest. That’s why my name is Liu Ji.”
Liu Ji. It meant the youngest son of the Liu family. According to history, he had two older brothers and one younger half-brother. All of them would survive until the founding of the Han and become kings.
“Honestly, I was the family burden. I hated farm work more than death, and studying even more. The moment I grew up, I drank, gambled, and chased women, so my father beat me with a broom almost daily, calling me ‘the world’s biggest good-for-nothing.’”
Liu Bang chuckled, the sound laced with self-mockery.
“Even after twenty I remained a jobless bum. So I ended up taking the post of pavilion chief because I had no other choice. The salary? A pittance. But at least wearing the armband let me get free drinks and meals. So I lived like a parasite.”
“…….”
I listened without a word, barely breathing. The utterly human, utterly pathetic past spilling from the mouth of the man who would one day unify the empire.
“Even now, well past thirty, I have nothing. No savings, only mountains of debt, and my position is still that of a lowly pavilion chief. The only thing I can boast about is….”
“What is it?” The question slipped out before I could stop myself.
Liu Bang paused, then answered simply.
“Friends.”
It was such a Liu Bang answer.
“I have friends. Fan Kuai, Xiao He, Cao Shen, Xiahou Ying, Lu Guan, Zhou Bo… All of them would throw their lives away for me without hesitation. And I would do the same for them. That is the only asset I’ve accumulated in thirty years.”
“…….”
“So, Zhi.”
“……Yes, my lord.”
“Could you become one of those friends?”
“…….”
I could not answer immediately. I turned my head in silence and studied the faint outline of the man bathed in moonlight.
Liu Bang’s friend.
A drunk nearing forty, a gambling addict, the greatest lecher under heaven. Yet a man of loyalty who would risk his life for his companions. The Liu Bang from the history books and the one breathing beside me now seemed to overlap, if only slightly.
“……I don’t know yet,” I answered honestly. “Right now, I still don’t know. But… I will try.”
“Ha, I like that honesty.” A soft, deflating chuckle. “Well, it’s fine. We’ll find out as we live. Both you and I.”
Then silence. Soon the sound of steady snoring filled the darkness.
Liu Bang had truly fallen asleep without laying a single hand on me.
Friends….
I stared at the ceiling in the dark. Could I become that? Not his wife, not his partner, not even his comrade. Simply… a friend.
…I don’t know.
The current me knew nothing. I had no idea how my future or my relationship with this man would change. But one thing was certain.
I survived.
Tonight, I had won the first survival game. I had overcome the crisis of the wedding night and imprinted the existence called Lü Zhi upon the man named Liu Bang.
Let’s keep going like this….
I closed my eyes. The first night of my new life deepened, unexpectedly peaceful.
The next morning at dawn, before the sun had fully risen, I left the Lü family estate. No matter how wealthy the Lü family was and how poor Liu Bang might be, etiquette remained etiquette. The bride leaving her parents’ home to enter her husband’s house—that was the true beginning of marriage.
“Zhi, take good care of yourself.” Mother clutched my hands, her eyes red. She must have cried all night; her eyelids were badly swollen.
“Don’t go hungry there… If anything happens, come back anytime. You understand?”
“Yes. Thank you, Mother.” I forced a bright smile. Yet seeing her expression—like a mother sending her daughter off to war—stirred a sudden curiosity in me.
What sort of place is Liu Bang’s house, really…?
The historical records had simply said he was poor. They never specified exactly how poor. A pavilion chief’s meager salary, gambling debts, drinking expenses, and the secret concubine and son he supported. Taken together, I could imagine quite a harsh life.
Still… everything remains unknown until you see it with your own eyes.
Even so, he is a government official. The basics should be covered.
“Right, let’s go.” Liu Bang’s voice cut in abruptly. He stood crookedly beside the ox cart the Lü family had lent us. The back was piled high with my dowry.
“……Yes, husband.” I released Mother’s hands and climbed onto the cart. Su-a, who had been sniffling behind her, finally looked at me and waved.
“Sister, please stay healthy! You must come visit again!”
“……Yes. See you next time.”
The ox cart lurched into motion. The Lü estate grew smaller behind us. The comfortable fortress that had sheltered me for six months disappeared from sight.
Goodbye, my silver-spoon life….
For the past six months I had lived as Lü Zhi inside that mansion. A clean, orderly existence without a single worry about meals. And that life ended today.
From now on… it was the wilderness.
“Hey.” Liu Bang spoke from the driver’s seat without turning his head. “Why the long face? Anyone watching would think you were being dragged to the butcher’s block.”
“……It is only that I feel some reluctance at leaving the home I have grown fond of.”
“Ha, you say the oddest things. Don’t worry. No matter what, I do have a proper house.”
Liu Bang hummed a tune and cracked the whip.
……
The ox cart headed endlessly toward the outskirts of Pei County. The scenery of the wealthy district vanished in an instant. Well-paved stone roads gave way to bumpy dirt paths. Tile-roofed houses disappeared, replaced here and there by thatched cottages.
The landscape is growing harsher…?
Instead of clean wells, stagnant muddy puddles appeared. Half-naked children played along the roadside. And above all else—
Ugh….
The smell changed. The sharp stench of animal dung. The rot of decaying manure. Sweat and dust.
Surely it can’t be around here….
Unease crept over me. I covered my nose with my sleeve and lowered my head.
And a short while later—
“We’re here.” Liu Bang stopped the cart and spoke indifferently.
“That’s our house.”
He pointed without the slightest trace of shame.
I cautiously raised my head and looked where he indicated.
And.
……A shed?
I froze on the spot.