Secret Love · Orange Raw Huainan

Chapter 41

When Luo Zhi and her mother arrived at the funeral home, there were only a few cars in the always crowded parking lot.The suburbs are much colder than the city, and the north wind blows, like thin blades cutting across the face one by one.Luo Zhi wore gloves, but her hands were still so cold that she lost consciousness.

The building where the ashes were kept was empty.The administrator of the mail room in the hall was about to go out, and was a little surprised when he saw Luo Zhi and his mother. He took a look at the ID book and keys in his mother's hand, and said, "A copy."

The administrator was in a hurry to go out, thought about it, and said: "Anyway, there is no one else, I'm going to eat, you go in, and just close the small door for me after returning the ashes."

After he finished speaking, he opened the door of the corridor, nodded to his mother, and left.

Luo Zhi knew that there was nothing to steal here, except the ashes.

That building was weird, a bit colder than the outside.Luo Zhi and her mother went up to the third floor and found the fifth room, the fourth shelf, the sixth row and the fourth column.Inside the small glass window is a dark red urn, inlaid with black and white photos of my father when he was young.

Dad was handsome, with the optimistic air of a proletarian worker.

As soon as the glass window was opened, the small electronic recorder inside was activated, and the mourning music slowly sounded.Mother supported the ladder, and Luo Zhi stood on it, carefully taking out the peaches made of ceramics, the refrigerator, and the washing machine on the outside and handing them to her mother.After cleaning up, she gently took out her father's urn.

After years of remediation, the funeral parlor has moved the place for burning paper offerings from the loess field outside to the large courtyard dedicated to mourning.A row of brass stoves dedicated to burning paper was spread along the wall of the yard, and had been so smoked that the original color could not be seen for a long time.

At 11:30, a group of old women who usually gather here to make a living by "talking about rebirth" for the dead are not there.A gust of north wind swept the remaining paper ash in the hearth to Luo Zhi's feet.

With her frozen hands, she helped her mother arrange the fruit, wine, father's spiritual tablet and ashes, and then lit the paper money together.

The hot air rushed towards her face, slightly warming her expressionless face from the cold.

Mom was still crying.His face was pale, and his tears were like broken beads.

Luo Zhi turned her head to avoid her mother's nagging: "I brought you money, how are you doing over there? After Luo Luo was admitted to university that year, he couldn't come back to visit your grave in winter, so he came back specially this year to visit you. Your daughter can make money by herself, and my current job is much more satisfying than the previous one. I don’t have to stand all the time, and my legs and feet are much better..."

Luo Zhi's tears were in her eyes, but she didn't want to let them fall.

In fact, she blamed her father.

He treats his mother well and treats her well. It is not his responsibility for her and mother's life to this point. However, the cold heart of grandma's family and his own death still make mother lonely all her life.

The world is hot and cold.A cavity of resentment was spread equally on the heads of all the people in the world, and everyone's blame was not as light as a sigh.Therefore, Luo Zhi simply sent all her intense hatred to her father and grandma's family.In the past, it was also given to Sheng Huainan.

When she was admitted to university, her mother insisted on letting her visit her grandparents who had passed away.She resisted her mother for the first time.She doesn't want to look at anyone.

The grandfather is stubborn and old-fashioned, and the grandmother is snobbish and vain. Both of them strongly oppose the mother marrying the father. Of course, there are considerations of caring for the daughter, but I am afraid that it is also mixed with the problems of being well-matched and face-saving.The grandfather was clean and conservative all his life, and refused to help his father, who was an ordinary electrician, change jobs. The grandmother resolutely severed ties with her mother after her marriage.Luo Zhi's father died in an accident, her grandparents retired and died of illness, and among her mother's brothers and sisters, only Luo Yang's father was a kind man.Flesh and blood close relatives are nothing more than that.

As for the grandma's family, they failed to cling to their mother's position back then. After their father died, they coldly scolded their mother for being a misfortune, locked Luo Zhi in the room, but kicked her out of the house.

Grandma’s old house was relocated, and even the boards and furniture left by the old house were scraped clean by several aunts and uncles.

Why doesn't she hate?
The paper was all burnt, and there were sporadic red embers under the pile of black ash, and occasionally a spark burst out.

While her mother was packing up the spiritual tablet behind her, Luo Zhi leaned on the fire stick and asked softly:

"If you can collect paper money, then there is a soul in the sky, why don't you help us?
"I've wanted to ask you for a long time."

Mom's lips are pale, and some are about to collapse.

"I'll take it back by myself. Mom, take your things and get in the car first."

"No, go back together. Are you not afraid?"

"What are you afraid of? They are all dead."

With an indifferent expression, Luo Zhi took the spiritual tablet and ashes from her mother, put the key in her pocket, turned and entered the building.

The only sound in the stairwell was Luo Zhi's own footsteps, echoing back and forth in an empty space.

She stepped up the ladder, arranged the urn and altar and decorations, lowered the white sheer curtains over the windows, and closed them.

After a pause, it opened again.

"Father." Luo Zhi called, and tears suddenly fell down.

"I was wrong. Just pretend I didn't say anything. Please bless Mommy."

She closed the door, took out the key and locked it.

Luo Zhi walked slowly towards the stairwell, turned her head sideways, and saw that the angle of the window in room five just met the noon sunlight coming in, and the dust in the light floated slowly, flipping up and down.

It's too beautiful.She walked in like a lost soul.

There are small red satins on the glass cabinets in this room, connecting the two adjacent glass windows.

Both are dead couples.After the death, they were moved to this room by their children, and the ashes were placed side by side, connected with red silk, and a group photo of the old couple was pasted in the middle.

She stood in front of the glass window and looked at them one by one.

No matter how good the people were before, no matter if they loved each other or not, once the feelings accumulated, they would still stay together forever.

Once the red silk is pulled, life and death are fettered.Even if love cannot be born no matter what, at least it will be imprinted in my heart, which will never be erased.What's more, having a special liking is mostly the fantasy of the author in the novel, and people's hearts are unpredictable. After so many years, isn't there only a pair of Liang Zhuhua butterflies in the world?
It was too cold in the room, and her feet were already stiff when she was outdoors. She accidentally tripped her left foot over her right foot, and she staggered and fell.She wore a lot of clothes in winter, and the fall didn't hurt very much. She was about to get up, when she turned her head and saw the glass window on the bottom floor.

The glass window has been broken for a long time, but the pieces are all in the cabinet. If you don't pay attention, you can't see it at all. There is a lot of dust inside, and the group photo in the middle is also tilted to one side.Luo Zhi ghostly reached out and pulled out the photo.

Usual old couple posing for a photo.But the old lady's face was in a state of confusion, her nose and eyes blurred and drifted out of place.

Luo Zhi trembled in fright, her back was instantly covered with sweat, but she didn't throw away the photo.

She carefully stuffed the photo back, shivering, struggled to get up and rushed into the sunlight, leaning on the window sill and gasping for breath.

Suddenly the phone in her trouser pocket vibrated, and her first reaction was as if something was crawling on her thigh, but she finally screamed "ah" in fright.

Tremblingly, he took out his phone.

"Call from Sheng Huainan"

"Hey."

"Luo Zhi, you didn't come to class, did you? I called you just now, but you were not in the service area several times. Did you receive the text message? The law guide quiz. I answered it for you."

The heart settles down in an instant.The sun shone on her shoulders, and the side of her face was slightly warmed by the sun.

"Is it a small test? I didn't go, thank you."

"At Christmas, everyone seemed to have lost their souls. Zhang Mingrui didn't come. I wrote three copies by myself, and my hands were cramping."

Sheng Huainan's voice was bright and artificial.Luo Zhi changed the hand to hold the phone, breathed on the hand just now, and continued to repeat: "I'm sorry, thank you so much."

There was silence on the phone.

"Why didn't you come to class? Are you still sick?"

"I'm home."

"Go home?"

"Yes, there is something at home."

"Where are you talking, why do you feel so unclear, it seems that the signal is not good."

"I'm here..." Before Luo Zhi finished speaking, a woman suddenly flashed in from the doorway in front of her, her movements were too fast, as if she was floating on water.Luo Zhi was startled, and screamed, but the tail of the scream was cut off by the other party's fierce eyes, and she was dumbfounded in the air.

"Luo Zhi? Luo Zhi!"

The woman was actually wearing a bright red skirt, which was below the knees. Static electricity was caused by the bloated and heavy trousers, which clinged to her legs; her upper body was wrapped in a purple floral scarf, revealing only a haggard face.

"Luo Zhi?! Can you hear me?"

The woman stared blankly at Luo Zhi for a while, then went straight to the shelf on the left, found a small pane, looked inside through the glass, the height of the pane was just enough for her to touch her forehead.She turned her back to Luo Zhi like this, and began to mutter something silently in a low voice.

"Luo Zhi, are you alright?"

Luo Zhi suddenly came back to her senses: "I... am fine."

"Where are you?"

"I'm in the No. [-] Funeral Home, the building where the ashes are kept."

"That is……"

"My dad's death day, today. Fifteenth anniversary. Now I'm returning the urn and locking it back in the cabinet by myself. I thought I was the only one alive in the whole building. You know, I just saw a photo , the old lady in the group photo has no face. I don’t know if the soul floated out along the broken glass window, maybe it’s looking at me now. Hehe. By the way, are you afraid of ghosts? Actually, I’m not afraid, but It's really weird here, there are red silk everywhere, but why does that old lady have no face..."

Luo Zhi didn't know why she said this, her voice was light and clear, but she couldn't stop the brakes, and she was talking nonsense.

"Luo Zhi!"

Sheng Huainan's voice was so loud that Luo Zhi's eardrums hurt from the shock, and finally he woke up a little, and stopped talking.

"Sorry, I'm talking nonsense."

"Are you... scared?" Sheng Huainan asked gently.

The voice was stable and concerned, Luo Zhi smiled gratefully into the air, forgetting that he couldn't see.

"The dead are not as scary as the living." Luo Zhi smiled.

She turned her head, a smile froze on her face.

The woman looked back at her slowly, and then slowly pulled out a pair of large black scissors from the cloth pocket she was carrying.

"But there are living people here," she murmured.

(End of this chapter)