Grandma Chen tugged at his ear, Chen Maidong disliked pain, so he quickly promised to talk about the daughter-in-law issue this year.
Grandma Chen was most worried about her grandson. Soon, he would be turning 30. He looks dignified and is handsome, but he just can’t get a girlfriend. He doesn’t even have a matchmaker. Even though she wants him to find someone, she still has requirements. The woman can be unattractive, but she cannot work in a funeral home. It means that he can’t marry a co-worker or work colleague, any other conditions are fine.
She had gone to the Association twice over this issue, insisting that they take care of this matter. However, to use modern terms, she said that no girl will dare marry his grandson because of the work of the funeral home. She said it was unfair, discriminatory, and anti-socialism.
Don’t underestimate Grandma Chen, she was very capable when she was young. She was a table tennis coach in the city. It’s just that she’s getting older, and her head is sometimes sober and sometimes confused.
Before going to bed, Chen Maidong received a short video from a friend. He had gone to a nearby village to run some errands, and saw people there were having a striptease in the middle of the night. Chen Maidong recognized that this was the one where the funeral had been held during the day. Since he couldn’t sleep, he took his motorcycle to go check it out. He was not aiming at the dancers, but at the oboe players. The oboe in the video just now was actually being played very well.
Because of his special occupation, he doesn’t have many friends, and there are only a few people he can actually talk to. Except for funeral matters, he basically doesn’t go to any festive occasions. Even if someone invites him politely, he is usually wise enough not to bother them and actually show up.
Chen Maidong had been leaning on the motorbike watching from a distance, but someone from the bereaved family recognized him. They dragged him to sit in front of everyone, and shoved two packs of cigarettes at him. The family had invited a song and dance group and an oboe player for the occasion. The stage of the two groups were set up opposite each other, singing and blowing, and moving energetically with each other.
At about that same time, Zhuang Jie happened to arrive to make her delivery. The family had ordered fifty roast chickens. With the family occupied with the delivered chickens now, she had nothing else to do for the moment. She was very surprised that Chen Maidong was sitting there watching the dancers. When she didn’t fix her expression in time, it prompted Chen Maidong to stand up instinctively when he saw her staring.
Seeing him get up, Zhuang Jie raised her arms immediately, and said to him familiarly: “Sit down, keep watching.” After speaking, so as not to embarrass himself, he stood where he was and continued to watch. The striptease was just, but she was actually wearing something more underneath still.
Seeing that she was also enjoying the show, Chen Maidong brought her a stool over and sat back down. The song and dance troupe changed their program now. A man and a woman stood on the stage and sang decently. At first, it was very serious, but later it was almost unbearable. Chen Maidong glanced around, the only ones still watching were some bad old men. All the younger or middle-aged men had already been taken home by their wives. He and Zhuang Jie were the only two young people sitting in front of the stage watching.
He glanced at Zhuang Jie, only to see her spit on the ground and curse: “Bah, that is disgusting!” She didn’t say anything to him after she said that, she just got on her delivery bike and left.
He took out a cigarette and smoked it, then continued to sit and watch the show, as steadily as Mount Tai. After it ended, he rode his motorcycle back home with the cigarette still dangling in my mouth. He stood in front of the fig tree in the yard and urinated. After urinating, he shook his head and heard the grandma in the house asking, “Is Dongzi back?”
Chen Maidong answered with the cigarette in his mouth, then he patted off the ash that fell on the front of his shirt. He went back to grandma’s bedroom, took out the camp bed, and lay down on it. Grandma Chen asked what time it was, and he said it was almost eleven o’clock.
Grandma Chen suddenly lost her sleepiness. She started talking about broken sesame seeds, rotten millet, and scolding Chen Maidong’s father for being unfilial. She would never scold his mother, ever. Even though she wouldn’t come back all year to see her. Grandma Chen occasionally gets a little confused, and will say some things that she doesn’t realize she is even saying. If she was clear-headed, she would never say these words in front of Chen Maidong.
Since grandpa passed away, grandma has been more and more timid. She won’t dare to sleep by herself at night, so Chen Maidong will sleep with her at home. Just when he was closing his eyes to go to sleep, he stretched out his arms and patted the bed for grandma to come and go to sleep.
He had merely slept for two hours when his phone vibrated under the pillow. The funeral home called, saying that a child had been found, and that it was already unbelievably decomposed after soaking in the water for a few days. A child from a neighboring village went missing for a week and had finally been found on a riverbank some twelve miles away.
Chen Maidong went to the scene, put on his gloves and took a look. With the consent of the police, he carried the child, who currently looked like a balloon, back to the truck. As soon as the car arrived at the funeral home, he met the parents who had already heard the news. The mother fainted when she saw the clothes on the child.
Chen Maidong transported the child back to the refrigerator, and the child’s father went so they could go through the formalities. He didn’t see it clearly at the riverside, but he was able to look at the deceased more carefully under the light. The facial features of the child were deformed, and so much that the age could not be discerned at all.
The police had said he was fifteen, and he was just a freshman in high school. The school notified the parents that the child was not in class. The parents searched for him for two days and later called the police. The police initially suspected accidental drowning.
By the time Xiao Sun arrived, Chen Maidong had already put on the protective clothing and was ready to clean up the body. Xiao Sun had only been here for three or two months, and when he glanced at the deceased, he took one look at the deceased, and instinctively retreated to the door and bent over to vomit. Chen Maidong wasn’t concerned about him in the slightest, he already had the scissors and started cutting the clothes of the deceased.
“Boss, give me a few minutes to make a mental preparation.” After Xiao Sun finished speaking, he stood out in the corridor. He tried his best to calm himself down, but after calming down for a minute, he got wind of the smell again and rushed out the door. Vomiting, again.
It took another ten minutes or so for him to calm down. He gathered up his strength, put onhis protective gear and went back in. He served as Chen Maidong’s assistant, watching him calmly and patiently, he even gently reshaped the face of the deceased.
The mourning hall was already being set up outside, and the child’s family checked Feng Shui and appointed a time and place for cremation, so that the child’s death journey will be smooth.
Several hours later, the child’s family saw him and didn’t want to admit that it was indeed their child. He didn’t look like this, and he was still studying at school, talking and wailing in despair.
Chen Maidong came out of the shower, and Xiao Sun said in admiration: “Boss, you are so amazing, you didn’t even react at all. This is the first time I have encountered such a situation.”
“You’ll get used to it later after you see more of it.” Chen Maidong said as he walked out of the funeral home. Once he was further away from the funeral home, he took out a cigarette from his pocket, and took a few deep puffs.
Xiao Sun looked at the white clouds against the blue sky, and said sincerely that the world was really a nice place. Chen Maidong kept smoking, he didn’t even bother to respond to him.