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First Page Husband gone two years. Now know some words. Write this. Second Page Today learned "home, safe, Yu…

First Page Husband gone two years. Now know some words. Write this. Second Page Today learned "home, safe, Yue, Xia, return"... Home safe. You well? Fifteenth Page They came to take soldiers again today. Even Aunt Zhang's boy was taken. Know more words now. Fewer people in the village now. Twenty Fourth Page Today Xia'er and I wrote again. Father taught Caiwei. Picking ferns... going home... Xia'er said I wrote it wrong. Daughter grown now. When will you come home? Forty Fifth Page The reeds are yellow. Winter is here again. This morning I went to the river to catch fish and heard people crying out. I pulled a mother and daughter from the water. Fiftieth Page That little girl has burned with fever three days now. Father found some herbs. I hope she lives. I asked the girl's mother where they came from. She would not say. A mother and child alone must have troubles of their own. Only... the way they look... Fifty Seventh Page The girl's mother is called Liduo. So she is not Khitan after all, but Xi who escaped. Xi... is that from the west? There is war now in the north and in the west too... I asked why she fled, and again she would not speak. Sixty Eighth Page The weather grows colder by the day. Father has taken a cough too. Liduo brought some herbs. She is slow with letters, but very good with herbs. I gave her some fish in return. (The hand is unsteady here, and the characters slant.) Seventieth Page So this is how the Xi in Xi people is written. Today I did embroidery with Liduo. Her needlework is good, and she learns fine patterns quickly. She also knows many designs from other peoples. We talked of saving up more pieces to trade for a little food and spending money. Only today did I learn that she came here looking for her husband. He was taken by the Khitans and forced into the army. Not long after he left home, word came back that he was a coward and a weakling who had deserted. Others said he had broken military law and been put to death. She would not believe he was dead, so she went looking for him. But with Heaven so high and the world so wide, where could she go? She kept walking, hiding as she went, and only then found she was with child. Even so she kept heading south. By the time she reached our place, the child was already several years old... Ah, and now there is no going back. Father says that if we too surrender, then what the Xi are today, we will be tomorrow... Lately my heart has often been uneasy. I wonder whether you are safe. (The hand grows weaker here, the writing more twisted and uneven.) Seventy Second Page Liduo... came to see me... asked me to name her daughter... I said... call her Luhua... (The writer can no longer hold the brush. The characters are harder still to make out.) Last Page River frozen... no fish... must go out... trade for grain... (That is where the notebook ends. Nothing more follows.)