plum city

Chapter 3 Funeral Home

The adoptive mother passed away and Aunt Yu left. The first week when the adoptive father was alone, he went to war and drove his and his adoptive mother's two cars to the public parking lot of the community.

Then, he filled two garages, one filled with all kinds of wood, and the other, bought a full set of woodworking tools, turned into a woodworking workshop.

Growing up, Fang Yan didn't know that his adoptive father could do carpentry, but when he saw him doing it, he looked dignified and didn't look like a novice.

Fang Yan didn't ask any more questions, thinking that he had nothing to do with the carpentry work and it was also an exercise, so he just let him go.

When Fang Yan went home again, he saw a big hole dug in the yard. It turned out that his adoptive father had called some construction team to dig it. There was a large pomegranate tree lying on the edge of the hole, with the roots below. Straw ropes were tied into a ball.

His adoptive father told him that this was the kind of pomegranate tree he bought from someone else's house. It was the kind of pomegranate tree that would bear fruit. It was not a good-looking tree.

Fang Yan has heard his adoptive father tell it more than once since he was a child. When he was a child, there was a big pomegranate tree at home, and he would look forward to it bearing fruit every year.When the pomegranate is ripe, each fruit is bigger than a fist. His mother does not allow anyone else to pick it, so she only takes him to climb the tree to pick it.

Every time he picked them, there would be a big basket. His mother would go to every house to deliver pomegranates, two to a family, and they would go all the way.

It can be seen that the pomegranate tree is the root and source of memory of the adoptive father.

The adoptive mother passed away, and the adoptive father probably had to rely on the pomegranate tree and memories to survive alone.Fang Yan felt a little sad thinking about it.

Fang Yan asked his adoptive father, the hole has been dug, why not plant it?

The adoptive father said: "It's not deep enough. I want them to come tomorrow and dig deeper. The tree must have deep roots to grow quickly and well."

Dialect nodded.

Fang Yan entered the living room and saw his adoptive father's carpentry achievements.He imitated Ming Dynasty furniture and made a very exquisite shelf out of mahogany. It was all made of tenons and not a single nail was used. On the shelf, the urn of his adoptive mother was placed neatly.

The urn was folded in a square shape and covered with the red cloth brought back from the funeral parlor.

On the wall behind the urn, there is a photo of the adoptive mother. The adoptive mother is smiling slightly and looking at everything in front of her.

After his adoptive mother passed away, Fang Yan and his adoptive father went to choose a cemetery and chose a double grave.After the adoptive mother was cremated, the adoptive father did not allow the adoptive mother's ashes to be sent to the mountain. Instead, he took the urn home. At first, it was placed on the adoptive father's bedside table. With this shelf, the adoptive mother then lived on the shelf for a long time.

Although Fang Yan felt that it was not very good to have an urn in the living room, his adoptive father insisted that he could forget it since no one came here.

Fang Yan walked to his adoptive mother's urn, bowed, and called "Mom", then he inspected the shelf.

Dialect Company has exported a lot of this kind of Ming-style furniture, all made by furniture factories in Jinhua and Dongyang.Fang Yan looked at it and felt that his adoptive father's work was not inferior to those made by those manufacturers at all, and he couldn't help but feel a little impressed.

After the pomegranate tree was planted, the adoptive father began to close the door and thank guests. He did not sit in the living room or study all day long (except when eating, even if the adoptive father sat in the study, he would not read. Fang Yan even suspected that the purpose of reading when the adoptive father was eating was Either to avoid the embarrassment of speaking), or to work in the carpentry workshop.

The property manager called Fang Yan and told him that their two cars had been parked in the parking lot for more than half a month. When he called his adoptive father, no one answered the phone. He didn't open the door when he rang the doorbell. There was nothing he could do. You can only make this call to dialect.

They hope Fangyan can handle this matter and not keep occupying the parking lot.

Fang Yan thought about it, called a second-hand car seller, followed him, and drove the car away. He knew that his adoptive father would no longer need the car.

I woke up early this morning, washed up, had a simple breakfast, and then went to the villa first.

Walking to the shelf with the urn of his adoptive mother and looking at the photo of his adoptive mother behind the urn, Fang Yan hesitated. He didn't know if his adoptive mother would be happy if his adoptive mother and his adoptive father were buried together today, but if they were separated, it seemed like There is no reason.

Fang Yan looked at his adoptive mother's urn and said softly:

"Mom, if you don't want to, just tell me anytime, okay, I'll take you back."

The relationship between the adoptive father and the adoptive mother is a bit strange. According to Fang Yan, the adoptive father is very dependent on the adoptive mother and even a little afraid of her, so he appears to be fawning over her at every turn.The adoptive mother's attitude towards the adoptive father has always been very cold and somewhat disgusting. Fang Yan felt that there seemed to be something wrong with the adoptive mother and she had been unwilling to forgive the adoptive father.

But Fang Yan didn’t know what it was.He had never seen his adoptive mother speak ill of his adoptive father, but her body language and attitude were always a bit repulsive.Fang Yan graduated from university and returned from England. When he returned home, he found that his adoptive mother had suffered from depression.There is one more member in the family, Aunt Yu. Aunt Yu is a distant relative of a friend of her adoptive father. Her adoptive father invites her to his home to take care of her adoptive mother.

At that time, his adoptive father had to go to work in the company every day and he was worried about leaving his depressed adoptive mother at home alone.

After suffering from depression, the adoptive mother's attitude toward her adoptive father was that of a stranger. She looked at him with a dead look, not lifelike at all.

When the three of them were together, the adoptive mother's eyes always stayed on Fang Yan, and she rarely looked at the adoptive father. Her eyes seemed to be locked, locking the adoptive father out.

Fang Yan took off the red cloth covering the urn, spread it on the ground, put the urn of his adoptive mother into the red cloth, and then tied two cross-knots into a package that could be carried in his hand.

Fang Yan went out with the urn, got in the car, and drove to the funeral home.

Fang Yan arrived at the funeral home, parked the car in the parking lot, and looked at the time. It was only nine-ten, which seemed too early.

He got out of the car and walked up the steps to the main building of the funeral parlor above. There were more than a dozen farewell halls of various sizes, with a wide corridor at the door.Fang Yan walked from beginning to end and found that there were people in every farewell hall. It seemed that the business of the funeral home was booming today.

According to the general process, the relatives and friends of the deceased will attend the memorial service or farewell ceremony in the farewell hall, and then walk around the body to pay respects. Finally, the staff will open the flowers surrounding the body and pull the body away. come out.

It turned out that the body had been lying on a stainless steel cart.

Relatives and friends pushed the body and followed the staff out of the back door of the farewell hall, passed through a long corridor, turned, and then along an uphill corridor, pushing the body to the cremation workshop built on the mountain col.

His adoptive father was critically ill and hospitalized. Fang Yan did not notify anyone, not even Noi knew about it. If she had known, she would have definitely gone to the hospital to visit her adoptive father and even accompany him.It was Noi who was recruited into the company by her adoptive father. Until now, she does not call her adoptive father uncle, but calls her chairman, although the new chairman already speaks dialect and is no longer her adoptive father.

Fang Yan thought that when his adoptive father was lying on the hospital bed, he definitely didn't want to see anyone. If possible, he didn't even want to see Fang Yan.If Noi goes, he will definitely be disliked, so why bother making it so embarrassing.

I was cremated today, and no one told me the dialect.

Dialect goes to 09:30 below. He stood at the door of each farewell hall and looked inside.At the door of a large farewell hall, he looked at the name on the sign at the door. He felt that the name seemed to be someone he knew, so he wanted to go in and take a look. The receptionist at the door held black cloth and white paper flowers and wanted to pin them on his body. , Fang Yan quickly said:
"Come by yourself, come by yourself."

He took the black cloth and white flowers into his hands and walked in, intending to throw them into the trash can.But I saw that everyone around me was wearing black cloth and white flowers, and then I thought about the whole funeral parlor now. Everyone is wearing black cloth and white flowers, and those who don't are the aliens.

Fang Yan pinned the black cloth and white flowers on his arm, thinking that his father had taken advantage of his neighbor.

Fang Yan walked inside and saw the photo of the deceased playing on the big screen in the middle. Then he realized that it was not the Xu Lijun he knew who was similar to him. The deceased was already 80 or [-] years old and had the same name.

Fang Yan exited the farewell hall and looked at the time. It was almost time. He walked to the uphill corridor and walked towards the cremation workshop at the back.

Just as we approached, the stainless steel door at the end of the corridor opened. A staff member opened the door wide enough for one person. He held a stainless steel pipe in his hand, knocked on the stainless steel door, and shouted:

"Who are Fang Guofei's family members?! Who are Fang Guofei's family members?!"

Fang Yan quickly took a few steps and shouted: "I am, I am."

The staff member glanced at him sideways and pushed the door open a little to let Fang Yan in. Fang Yan saw a stainless steel cart inside the door. His adoptive father was lying on the stainless steel cart with his face facing the sky, his mouth tightened and a grimace on his face. Not even the stubble was shaved off.

The adoptive father's appearance was very different from the dead people Fang Yan had just seen in the farewell halls, with thick eyebrows, red lips, and rosy faces, who seemed likely to sit up at any time. He looked a bit shabby and miserable.

Just as Fang Yan was thinking about whether this was too sloppy, the staff interrupted him:

"Look, right?"

The dialect is right.

"On the [-]th, go and wait outside the window." The staff member said to Dialect.

(End of this chapter)