History of Women in the Wei Dynasty

Chapter 73 Credible Reincarnation After Death
Time passed unnoticed as she moved among the stacks of books. By the time Wei Yao felt hungry, the sun had already begun to set. All around was quiet, a quietness that was almost unsettling. What if a palace servant with ill intentions was among them?
With Chen Shushi's threatening words still ringing in her ears, Wei Yao looked at the distant livestock pen and dared not think about it anymore.

Filled with curiosity, she walked toward the first room of the storehouse. The brass lock was secure, and she would have to break it open to find out what was inside.

Wei Yao walked back, past the room where she had been reading that morning, and came to the sixth room. Although it was locked, the latch was loose. She carefully observed her surroundings, then banged hard on the door.

opened.

Wei Yao was disappointed. This room must have been Zhang's temporary sleeping quarters; women's undergarments hung on the clothesline against the wall. Zhang was indeed lazy; the bedding was spread out unfolded, and the pillow had stains that were difficult to wash off. Wei Yao used her foot to lift the bedding, but there were no books either.

The seventh room was locked, but fortunately the door wasn't completely sealed, and she could barely see that there was straw and firewood stored inside.

The eighth room, the ninth room... until the second to last room, which was already very close to the livestock pen.

Just like the sixth room, Wei Yao pulled hard on the door, and the lock broke completely. This room, which was originally a kitchen, had now become a real place to store miscellaneous items.

She didn't go in; instead, she went to check the last warehouse, which was the feed warehouse.

Before returning to the next room, Wei Yao observed her surroundings again to make sure no one was coming before entering the kitchen. Piled up beside the stove as firewood were bamboo slips and wooden tablets.

She quickly scanned through them; some were childish handwriting notes, while others were teaching notes. Two wooden boxes stood side by side against the wall. She opened the one furthest away, finding only four sets of bound wooden slips inside. Since there was enough room, Wei Yao didn't take any out or look at them for the time being. She quickened her pace, putting anything that wasn't in a primary school child's handwriting into this box.

Finally, she opened the nearby wooden box; it was empty.

She had to get back quickly! Wei Yao walked backwards, dragging the nearly full wooden box to the threshold. Overestimating her strength, she strained but couldn't lift it over the threshold. She took out a few scrolls of bamboo slips, lifted them out, put them back, and then dragged them with all her might!
drag--

drag--

drag--

Back in the fifth storeroom, she tried the same method again. After moving all the books inside, she went to Zhang's bedroom next door to get a broom and hastily swept the entire dirt road from beginning to end to cover up the drag marks.

As evening approached, Zhou Xiguan did not arrive. Another female servant, Qin, came over with a food box and explained gently, "Chen Shushi was still unwell after returning home. He took medicine but overslept. These dishes were made by her personally. I brought extra cakes. We all have to recite scriptures and do our homework tomorrow morning. If no one brings breakfast, you can make do with these."

Wei Yao bowed in thanks and asked, "This place is extremely remote. Am I the only one sleeping here at night?"

"To get in here, there's only the gate we came through. I'm on duty tonight, so don't worry about that. Besides, the surrounding walls are high and covered with thorns, so no one dares to climb them. Sigh, to tell you the truth, there aren't many people in this part of the palace. Most of the palace guards are sent to guard the Taiji Hall, the fish pond near Xiangwei, and the Huangxin Hall we passed by."

Qin Xiguan left after giving his instructions, without mentioning Zhou Xiguan.

Wei Yao, of course, didn't ask. But after dark, for the first time, she didn't read at night. She stuffed several bamboo slips into her bedding, pretending to be asleep, then sprinkled loose soil inside and outside the door, and carried the bedding left by Zhang to the wall outside the last storeroom, where she slept for the night.

When she returned at dawn, there were no footprints on the loose soil, and the bedding was exactly as she had stuffed it the night before.

Feeling much more at ease, she gradually read the notes faster, copying down all the teaching notes regardless of their usefulness, and even glancing at the moldy notes at the bottom to prevent missing any useful text.

She found a volume she had never read before, a collection of writings by Gao Lü, the governor of Xiangzhou, which was, of course, a copy. And so, Wei Yao copied each volume she found, even the fragments, never accumulating them all at once.

The official who delivered lunch at noon had changed again. Wei Yao knew that Chen Shushi would not change the library for her again, so she was too lazy to deal with it and coldly pointed to the two words on the ground: "Put it here."

The sun set once again, and Wei Yao went through all the letters and scrolls.

No, there are four thin wooden slips tied together at the bottom of the wooden box. Let's open them one by one and take a look. The hemp rope is wrapped around quite a few times and tied with tight knots, but fortunately it is not tied very tightly.

After being untied, both wooden slips had writing on them, which horrified Wei Yao!

The inscription on her left hand reads: "Believe in reincarnation after death."

The inscription on the right reads: Lurk in the surroundings.

Wei Yao almost threw the two pieces of wood away.

"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid!" She immediately reassured herself. Even if someone else had the same fate as her and was reborn, so what? As long as no one knew her secret, that was enough!
Wei Yao untied the lower set of wooden slips.

One piece reads: "A farewell."

Another piece reads: Sleep well. The left piece of the third set of wooden tablets reads: Brother, I'm afraid.

The right side reads: "I'm not afraid anymore."

The last set of wooden slips.

The left side reads: "In the eyes of all beings, there is no self."

The right side is empty; there is no writing on it.

"Ha—" Wei Yao exhaled deeply, realizing she had overcomplicated things. The person who wrote such content, which was incomprehensible to ordinary people, in this way was likely a lowly palace maid or eunuch who had been forced to work here for a long time, was bullied, separated from her family, and eventually driven mad.

She carefully reviewed the first two sets.

The four characters in the first group, “潜于周边”, are written low, leaving a gap between them and the top of the wooden tablet.

The two characters “一别” on the left wooden tablet in the second group are written at the top of the tablet; the two characters “好眠” on the right wooden tablet are written at the bottom, with a considerable distance between them and the top.

It's quite like a crossword puzzle.

Wei Yao had no time to waste on trivial matters, so she put them all back into the wooden box.

The item has been returned to its original place.

She dragged the wooden box back to the second-to-last storeroom, putting back the firewood that should have been placed there, and filling the stove with the rest... Then, Wei Yao glanced at the few wooden slips lying forlornly at the bottom of the box, feeling a pang of sorrow for them and for the slips' owner.

Even being used as firewood is a last resort; no wonder this person could write, "I am invisible to all living beings."

Wei Yao pondered for a moment, then returned to the fifth room, retrieved her travel bag and pen, and wrote on the blank wooden tablet that read "In the eyes of all beings, there is no self" that she had been told. From now on, she will be the eyes of all beings.

They retied the wooden tablets, made slipknots, and then tried their best to stuff them into the stove. Wei Yao believed that the writer was most likely no longer alive, so he hoped that when the stove was relit, he could burn them for the deceased as soon as possible.

She had already completed one set, so she decided to complete the entire set.

After this parting... never mind.

A full stomach... and a good night's sleep.

"Ha." She felt that this humorous addition instantly dispelled her pessimism.

Moving on to the next group.

Is reincarnation after death believable?

King Kong...lurks all around!
The last set of wooden slips.

Brother, I'm scared.

I'm not afraid anymore... I'll kill anyone who dares to bully me!

The next day.

After noon, the servants who brought the food didn't arrive, but Chen Shushi came, accompanied by two unfamiliar faces. "Miss Wei, your home is far away, why don't you leave the palace half a day earlier?"

"That's what I thought too. Luckily, Chen Shushi came, otherwise I wouldn't know who to ask to take me out of the palace."

"Heh, I brought you here, so naturally I'll take you out. But according to palace rules, I have to check whether Miss Wei has brought any books from here."

At the same time, a hundred weary riders arrived in front of the old palace.

(End of this chapter)