[ILivestreamDivination] Chapter 45.3 — Prince Wei

After a long time, the scattered green smoke regrouped and turned into a sentence: Mine own freedom is not a treasure, choose again

For some reason, the smoke this time was much lighter than before, which seemed to indicate that the ever-burning lantern was not very interested anymore.

“You told me from the beginning that I can wish for a treasure, then it doesn’t matter whether it is tangible or intangible. Freedom is an intangible treasure. If you have it, you can benefit greatly from it, but if you don’t, then you can do nothing.”¹

[I will no longer speak with thee!]

The green smoke that was originally floating around gradually returned to the wick, and there was no more movement.

Why didn’t she want to come out? Because she couldn’t come out.

People could often remain silent even when they were in pain, but once they were comforted, the dam would easily burst and they’d end up in tears.

She gritted her teeth. How could there be people in the world who were not greedy? Why was this person so pretentious?

An Rugu, who didn’t know what happened: “…”

Was this ghost-in-the-lamp silly in the head?

She seemed to have poked the other person’s sore spot and made them angry, but An Rugu didn’t know how to coax people.

She raised her hand and looked at her watch. She had been chatting with the ever-burning lantern for what seemed like a long time—but it had actually just been five minutes. She didn’t like to go back on her words. She had told the audience in the livestream channel that she would be back in ten minutes, and so the livestream would not re-start until then.

She narrowed her eyes and looked at the ever-burning lantern in front of her, sorting out in her mind the clues she had obtained. This ever-burning lantern appeared in the mural, and its emotions were very human-like. There was a 90% probability that it belonged to the dead of the tomb.

She had walked from the first floor to here and found only two coffins. The luxurious underground palace was obviously a tomb for husband and wife.

Was the ghost the husband or the wife? Why was it attached to the lantern in such a weird way?

It was obvious that the two of them were in love with each other in life, were extremely wealthy, lived happily during their lifetimes, and were buried together after death. There should be no resentment or evil spirits.

After thinking hard for a long time, she suddenly thought of something and walked quickly towards the mural.

She raised her hand and used a flashlight to illuminate the last mural. In the mural, two people were buried together, and the ever-burning lamp was placed next to the coffin.

A characteristic of traditional tombs where husband and wife were buried together was that whoever died first would be entombed first. When the next person died, the tomb would be opened and the other person was then emtombed in it.

But in the last scene—

The two coffins were clearly carried into the tomb at the same time.

A deep realization flashed in her eyes. She always thought it was a bit strange before, but because the two of them were too in love her thoughts didn’t go in this direction. The truth turned out to be this!

Next, she just needed to verify her guess.

She turned back to the ever-burning lantern and said, “Were you… buried with the dead?”

… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

Powerful people felt that death was like life. They lived a very good life when they were alive, then of course they must be served by servants when they die.

Sacrificial burial had a long history, and women accounted for a large proportion of it. It was recorded that the Shang kings sacrificed their female slaves and had them accompany them in burial, and this practice still existed during the Qin Dynasty. With the development of productivity and the resistance of the people, human burial sacrifice gradually became a bad practice and was eventually abolished.

However, this bad practice was revived in the Ming Dynasty. In the 28th year of Hongwu, the emperor’s son died, and the emperor ordered the two princess consorts to be buried with him. This sacrificial burial set the example for the Ming Dynasty. After the death of Emperor Hongwu, more than 40 concubines were buried with him, and more than ten of them were entombed alive. After the death of Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty, more than thirty concubines were buried.

‘The ministers agreed to bury the concubines, and the concubines could not speak, so they died and was buried in Jinshan.’

The imperial court would reward the families of the concubines who were buried, and would also posthumously grant titles to the concubines, but it was just a false veil over the cruel system. A fig leaf.

This inhumane burial system was not abolished until Emperor Yingzong. When Yingzong was critically ill, he issued an edict stating: “I cannot bear to use people to accompany me in the tomb. I will stop this matter myself and will not do it in future generations.”

The owner of this present tomb spent extravagantly for his burial, and he was obviously a prince and of the imperial family, so it was not surprising that he was buried with someone.

After a long time, green smoke once again emerged from the mouth of the lantern and filled the air.

An Rugu was in a complicated mood. She had thought that the relationship between the two was stronger than gold—she never expected that it would turn out to be like this behind the scenes.

Although the ever-burning lantern didn’t say much, she was smart enough to guess the context of the matter. She was afraid that the man was indeed monogamous with her and had no concubines, and the two of them played music and sang in harmony. However, the man was in poor health and died within only a few years.

The longevity feng shui array was intended to make them have many children and grandchildren, and the gold and silver in the tomb would make them live a very wealthy life.

He entered the tomb at a young age, but his wife was still decades away from death. He would have to wait in loneliness for decades.

And so—arrangements were made for sacrificial burial.

Greed made him insatiable, and he wanted to have everything. He may have loved his wife deeply, but ultimately it could not compete with his love for himself.

I Livestream Divination to the World translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

T/N: This whole chapter is so heartbreaking to translate. I waded through so many articles about sacrificial burial practices both in China and other places—I ended up lying in bed staring at the ceiling trying not to cry. Some burial sacrifices were already dead when entombed—through poison or such—but some were just thrust inside still alive. Their food and water would be withheld a few days prior so they would be weak and unable to resist.

The Emperor Hongwu mentioned here is the founder of the Ming dynasty. Some speculated that he revived the practice to get rid of or control the factions left behind by the previous dynasty. Unfortunately, even if that was the original rationale, the succeeding emperors followed the practice and generations of mostly women—concubines, servants, slaves, even consorts—died for this.

I’m getting sad again so I’ll end this with a webtoon rec: Like Wind On A Dry Branch. It starts with the FL—a young, grieving widow who just lost her husband and child—drugged out of her mind and about to be entombed alive per last will of the recently deceased local lord (because he couldn’t have her when he was alive; seriously, the guy was nasty.). Do NOT read the fan translation—it’s free on official Webtoon. The language is archaic style and it’s integral to the charm of the whole thing, and the fan translation do not do it justice.