Book 1: Chapter 41: Rough Guess

Name：Daomu Biji: Restart Author：
+ - Turn off Reset
Book 1: Chapter 41: Rough Guess

Last words?

I frowned, thinking that it really did make sense.

The overall tone of these last words did seem to be kind of desperate. After careful consideration, it seemed that someone had made up his mind to enter this hole, even after knowing what would happen when he did.

I translated this seal script using the interpretations I was accustomed to. It got the general idea across, but ancient words often had different meanings compared to their modern counterparts. It suddenly dawned on me that I had forgotten to look at the grammar from an empiricist (1) perspective.

Never see the light of day in modern Chinese, it meant that the present situation was hopeless and there was no chance of being saved. This idiom began to have symbolic meaning in the Song Dynasty, but if the words were carved before that, then it should be a literal translation.

Cant see the sky or the sun.

I looked at Fatty, "Is itwill we go blind?"

Fatty touched his chin, thinking that it was starting to make more sense now.

If entering the hole was fatal, then doing so was tantamount to suicide. But why not use a simpler suicide method like beating your head in or something? Based on this stone tablets text, entering the hole was very dangerous. But the words on the suicide note were also full of despair, which indicated that the person who carved them was in a state of panic and couldnt do anything.

I immediately rejected this theory. First, it was obvious that the person who left the words behind knew what would happen when he entered the hole. That was why he sounded so desperate. Second, slaves who acted as burial sacrifices were usually poisoned first so that they wouldnt destroy the tomb. Moreover, seal script wasnt something that slaves would know.

The person most likely to leave this kind of writing was a grave robber who got trapped here. In order to find an exit, they let their companion enter the hole first. But then their companion had an accident. Under the crushing despair and loneliness, they also chose to enter the hole.

Uncle Three and the others entered this ancient tomb, but Poker-Face said they probably stole the sarcophagus directly from the back chamber. That meant they had probably never entered the same area as us.

So, it shouldnt be Uncle Three, but someone in the same situation as us.

Fatty looked inside the hole and saw that the glow stick was getting dimmer. He took out a pack of cigarettes, but there was only one left. He tapped on it as he looked back and suddenly stood up.

"Stop guessing."

We followed his line of sight and saw that the hole in the floor where we had come up earlier was gone. At some point, a rock wall had magically appeared in its place. It was blocking the view and the way out.

****

TN Notes:

(1) Empiricism is a philosophical theory that states that knowledge comes only or primarily from sensory experience (like you learn stuff from sight, taste, touch, smell). More info here.The source of this content nov(el)bi((n))