Listening for Truth in Chu and Han

Liu Yue was a powerless figurehead chairman who inherited his position through a will. After falling into the schemes of his family's shareholder, Third Uncle, he was investigating whether a construction project under Third Uncle's name had been built with shoddy materials when he unexpectedly transmigrated to the Chu-Han era and narrowly escaped execution. Carrying Chinese cigarettes, he was mistaken by a Chu army shaman for a divine relic that could reach the heavens. A general even held a cigarette between his lips while making offerings to Heaven. Rising from a latrine-cleaning soldier in the Chu army, Liu Yue eventually became a marquis and prime minister in the Han army. He weathered the bloody struggle between Chu and Han, mastered the art of political maneuvering from the likes of Liu Bang and Zhang Liang, and used his modern financial knowledge to help Liu Bang solve the problem of military expenses. After returning to the present, he put what he had learned during the Chu-Han era to use and ultimately reclaimed real power...

One of the novel's fresh twists is that Xiang Yu doesn't kill himself at the Wu River as in the traditional historical accounts. Instead, as recorded in the biography of Guan Ying, he is killed by the combined efforts of five men, including Lu Matong and Yang Xi, giving Xiang Yu's heroic image more depth and making him feel like a real person!

(This story is entirely fictional and does not disparage any historical figure. Everything is done for the sake of the plot.)