plum city

Chapter 4 Left and Right Hands
Fang Yan walked to the waiting hall next door, which was already bustling with people.

According to custom, the deceased must be buried before the sun goes down in the afternoon.The funeral parlor is therefore very busy every morning. Before noon or two o'clock in the afternoon, a funeral procession will pick up the urns from here and send them up the mountain.

It is rare for a memorial service or farewell ceremony to be held in the afternoon and then cremated, unless it is an unknown corpse sent from the hospital.

On the wall of the hall near the incinerator, there is a row of seven or eight one-meter-square glass windows. On the wall next to the windows, there is a display screen.

Fang Yan walked to window No. [-] and looked at the screen. He saw that there was another person in front of him who was "in progress", and his adoptive father "Fang X Fei" was "waiting".The scene is like queuing up to go to heaven, or waiting in line for an interview with King Yama. If you fail the interview, will you be asked to go back and wait for notification?
Fang Yan walked to the glass window and saw that his adoptive father's cart had been pushed to the incinerator facing window No. [-].The adoptive father probably had no face, so he was among the people who came to be cremated in the morning, which is really rare here. The other staff members also came over, looked at the adoptive father lying on the cart, and chatted with each other. Look this way at window six.

Fortunately, there was not only Fang Yan standing in front of the huge glass window, but also the relatives and friends who were "in progress" in front of him. Fang Yan concluded that they couldn't tell which one was his adoptive father's family, and he just wanted to scold "beasts" , I don’t know who to scold.

Fang Yan stepped away from the glass window, walked to the rows of chairs in the hall, and sat down.

For the other deceased, the group of relatives and friends was very grand. There were dozens of relatives and friends waiting here. Only Fang Yan sat alone.

The cremation took more than an hour. Fang Yan sat there, feeling indescribably tired. His head hung down and he fell asleep soon.When he woke up, almost an hour had passed. He turned around and looked at the display screen. Now "Fang X Fei" was still "in progress" and someone was already "waiting" behind him.

When he just woke up, Fang Yan's mind was still numb, but he still thought about it. Even when he just fell asleep, his adoptive mother didn't come to tell him that she didn't want to be buried with his adoptive father.

From this point of view, the adoptive mother is still casual. She is an honest person and is not likely to do anything outrageous. As long as there is no divorce and she is not buried with her husband, she probably cannot do it. Although this husband, she is not very It's pleasing to the eye.

Fang Yan sat there blankly. He heard two women whispering in the row of chairs back to back with him.They were talking about someone who was not sitting with them at the moment, probably their sister-in-law, who hid the old man's goldware.

They also suspected that the old man had not only the bankbook they saw, but also other money.

"A pension of more than 8000 yuan a month. For so many years, she has not had any big expenses and only saved about [-] yuan. Who would believe it?" said one.

Another one added: "It must be more than that. Only a ghost can believe it. She just wants to keep it all! I don't care whether you mention it or not. Anyway, when we eat tofu rice later, I will definitely not be polite and will pay for it in person."

"You raise it, you raise it, I support you 100%. The old man is gone, and we won't be able to have reunion dinners with her in the future. Why are you being polite? Don't be polite!"

"that is!"

Fang Yan stood up, not bothering to listen to their noise, and walked to the row of chairs opposite to sit down.

As soon as he sat down, he heard the staff shouting: "Fang Guofei's family! Fang Guofei's family!"

Fang Yan looked at the screen. "Fang X Fei" had disappeared from the screen.He quickly walked to the glass window. At this time, his adoptive father's ashes had been put into the urn and placed on the stainless steel table inside the glass window.

Fang Yan took out his wallet, took out a receipt from his wallet and handed it in. The staff member muttered:
"Fang Guofei?"

Dialect says yes.

The staff moved the urn from the stainless steel stand inside to the marble stand by the window. There was a neatly folded red cloth on top of the urn.

Fang Yan opened the red cloth, placed the urn on top of the red cloth, tied two cross-knots, then held the urn in his hand, said thank you to the staff, and turned around to go out.

In front of him, there happened to be a long queue going out. At the front was a boy of thirteen or fourteen, holding a picture frame in both hands. Behind him was a middle-aged man, holding an urn. Behind him was someone holding a black umbrella, shielding the middle-aged man. On top of people and urns, even in an indoor gallery.

Following closely behind was a group of crying men and women.

Fang Yan took a few steps, pressed against the wall, passed by the side of the queue, and passed to the front of the queue. When he walked to the parking lot, got in the car, and saw the long queue, he walked up to the high steps. above.

Fang Yan started the car and left the funeral home to go to the cemetery.Entering through the mountain gate of the cemetery is the parking lot. At the end of the parking lot is the three-story office building of the cemetery management office.

Fang Yan parked the car, got out of the car, opened the back door, picked up the two red cloth bags from the back seat, and closed the door with his heels. The car key was in his pants pocket. He didn't have any extra hands, so he was too lazy. Locked the car.

With the two urns in his hands, which were a little heavy, he walked through the parking lot and walked to the service hall on the first floor of the cemetery management office. There were three tables facing the door, and only one of them had a little girl sitting behind it. The girl was staring at the phone in her hand and giggling.

Fang Yan walked to her desk. The urn was very heavy. He thought it would be inappropriate to put it on the ground, so he picked it up and placed it on the office table in front of him.

"what……"

The girl raised her head as she asked. She was startled when she saw the two red cloth bags on the table in front of her. She looked behind Fang Yan and saw that there was no one there. The girl felt a little strange and asked:

"You are..."

"My surname is Fang. I contacted you on the phone yesterday. I'm sending my parents here today." Fang Yan interrupted her.

"Oh, I see... Why, are you alone?" the little girl said, looking behind Fang Yan again.

When Fang Yan said it was right, he asked, "Why, you can't do it alone?"

"Okay, okay... Oh, by the way, is it West Sixteen, Twelve, and Nineteen?"

Fang Yan nodded and said yes.

The little girl picked up her mobile phone and dialed. The call was connected. She said to the other party: "The family members of West Sixteen, Twelve and Nineteen are here. You can go over."

After hanging up the phone, the little girl looked at Fang Yan and asked, "Do you know the place?"

Dialect said, "I know, I've been here."

"Then can you go directly there by yourself? The master has already passed. Look at my place. I am the only one now."

The dialect is good.

He picked up the two urns on the table, said goodbye to the girl, turned around and walked out.

The girl stared at his back until he went out and was out of sight. The girl shook her head.She then lowered her head, still staring at the phone, and soon started to giggle.

The March sun shone warmly on him. Fang Yan carried two urns and walked toward the valley. As he walked, he suddenly remembered the lyrics "A chicken in the left hand and a duck in the right hand." He I thought that now I have a mother on my left hand and a father on my right hand. If I send them all up the mountain, I will be an orphan.

Fang Yan turned his head to the left and whispered:

"Mom, you will always live here from now on. If you miss me, come and see me. I have always lived there."

Saying this, Fang Yan felt a little sad.

For the first time in several days, he felt sad.

(End of this chapter)