Hire a Suona Player!

Huayi Town School.

Inside the principal's office, Juan'er and her husband kept opening drawers.

They searched for anything valuable.

They discovered that aside from the ten thousand yuan in cash, there was nothing else!

"Why isn't there even a bank card? Where did Aunt hide her money?"

Frowning, Juan'er slipped the ten thousand yuan into her pocket, her gaze roaming around the office.

The man beside her looked around the shabby office with disdain.

"Look at this miserable place. Even the principal's office is this shabby. She probably didn't have much money as principal! Getting ten thousand is already pretty good!"

"What the hell do you know? Aunt managed so many students. Use that pig brain of yours and think carefully—how could she not have money! I heard from the second daughter of your Third Aunt's family that even teachers running tutoring classes with just a few hundred students make a considerable income."

"Now think about it. Aunt managed over a thousand students. Whenever she bought something, couldn't she skim a little off the top?"

Juan'er poked the man in the head and spoke irritably.

She looked as though she hated that he couldn't live up to her expectations.

The man had been about to lose his temper, but after hearing her words, he suddenly seemed enlightened.

"That's right, she must have had money! I'll look more carefully!"

"When I say you're stupid, you really don't use your brain at all. Let's go. The money definitely isn't here. Who would keep money somewhere with so many people coming and going? Let's deal with Aunt's funeral first, then we'll go to where she lived and search carefully! Anyway, Aunt doesn't have any other relatives. Her inheritance won't escape my grasp!"

Juan'er sneered.

Her eyes were filled with greed.

If she hadn't heard that Aunt had become a principal here and managed over a thousand students, she wouldn't have bothered coming to help arrange the funeral. It was unlucky enough already. If it weren't for the money, who would come to such a poor place?

Since she had come, she couldn't go back empty-handed!

By the time Juan'er and the man returned to the hospital, Xiao Ai had already handled everything here.

The most important matter now was arranging the funeral.

"What do we do now? Should we have the body cremated?"

Looking at everyone with tears in her eyes, Juan'er asked.

For no reason, she thought of her mother. When her own mother had passed away, she hadn't been nearly this proactive about making arrangements.

Xiao Ai walked over with reddened eyes and said to her.

"When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Here in Huayi Town, everyone has a burial. The townspeople have already gone to help bring the coffin over, but we'll need to trouble you to hire a suona player!"

"Hire a suona player!?"

Juan'er frowned. Hearing that they had to carry the coffin and hire suona players, she immediately found it terribly troublesome.

The man behind her promptly stepped forward with a dark expression.

"Hiring a suona player costs quite a bit of money, doesn't it?"

"Yes!"

Juan'er readily followed up.

"In my opinion, we should just hurry up and arrange the funeral! Why are there so many rules?"

"You!?"

Xiao Ai's expression changed, and she ground her teeth in anger!

How could there be people like this? They were simply making trouble for no reason and didn't want to handle anything!

And they still had the nerve to call Principal Tang their aunt?

Seeing how angry Xiao Ai was, Juan'er hurriedly added.

"Someone like my aunt always liked to keep a low profile. A burial is troublesome enough already, and now we have to hire suona players? All that noise is such a bother! Wouldn't that make me look unfilial? I only have this one aunt. If you want to mistreat her, then I, Juan'er, will be the first to object!"

The words that came from between her red lips and white teeth were chilling.

Xiao Ai forcibly suppressed the anger in her heart, helpless.

She glanced at the money clutched in her hand.

"Since you're unwilling to hire them, I'll return the money the townspeople pooled together for the Eight-stage funeral procession right now!"

Only then did the two notice the money in Xiao Ai's hand.

It looked like several thousand yuan!

Juan'er's eyes immediately lit up, and she hurriedly reached out to stop Xiao Ai.

"Ah, forget it, forget it. Since it's a gesture of goodwill from the townspeople, Aunt would surely be willing to accept it. I'll trouble myself to hire the suona players!"

As she spoke, she swiftly snatched the money from Xiao Ai's hand.

That sudden change of face came so quickly that it caught everyone off guard.

Before Xiao Ai could react, the money in her hand had already been taken away.

Who knew whether her filial piety had suddenly flared up, or whether she had simply seen the money and become greedy.

Seeing how delighted the two were, Xiao Ai felt that something was off and hurriedly warned them.

"This is the price for the Eight-stage funeral procession from the town's suona players. You mustn't pocket this little bit of money, or you'll be careful not to bring retribution upon yourselves!"

"Hey! Watch your mouth, little girl!"

Juan'er's husband was about to get angry upon hearing that!

He pointed and gestured at Xiao Ai.

Juan'er, who had gotten the money, tugged at her husband and said with a smile.

"Don't worry. Principal Tang is my own aunt! Leave the suona arrangements to us!"

With that, she dragged her husband away to hire suona players in town.

After leaving the hospital, the two whispered to each other on the road.

"An Eight-stage funeral procession is a huge affair! My mother didn't even have eight stages when she died. It's expensive and troublesome! Isn't spending so much money a waste?"

Holding the money, Juan'er was reluctant to part with it.

It was hard to get money into her pocket, but easy to take it out.

The man beside her nodded as well.

"How about we change it to four stages for her? We won't waste the rest of the money—we'll keep it!"

"Hmph, you're finally being clever for once!"

Juan'er snorted.

After hesitating for a moment, she ultimately tucked the money into her pocket.

She planned to first ask the suona players about their prices.

If eight stages really were too expensive, she would still change Aunt's funeral to four suonas!

There was a rather famous Li Family Band in town. They were professional suona players.

After asking around casually, the two learned where the Li Family Band was located.

They hurried over to hire the Li Family Band's suona players.

Huayi Town had unusually preserved some of its old customs. Whether it was a wedding or a funeral, the host family had to hire suona players to play a few tunes.

Only then would the occasion have some liveliness to it.

Without suona players, weddings and funerals would feel far too desolate.

Never mind whether the hosts could save face—even the guests who came would feel as though something were missing.

That was why suona players received extremely high regard in town.

Before they went out to perform, the host family had to personally visit the suona player's home to hire them!

The scale of a suona performance also varied.

The most common arrangement in town was four stages, meaning four suonas.

Families in somewhat better circumstances would hire eight stages.

Besides the four suonas, they also needed an erhu player, a sheng player, a flutist, and a drummer.

The grander the scene and the harder the music was to play, the higher the price naturally became.

As the saying went, once the suona sounded, ten thousand taels of gold were spent!

As for anything above eight stages, it was a lost piece of music.

A solo performance!

It was said that sixty or seventy years ago, there had been a blind master in town who knew how to play it.

There were probably only a few people in town who had heard that piece and were still alive.

There was likely not a single person in all of Dragon Country who could play it.

And that piece was called—Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix!

PS:

We're climbing the rankings, we're climbing the rankings! You guys are incredible!

I never even dreamed that I could make it onto the new book rankings!

You bosses are so generous, Q_Q!!!

Thanks to the top-ranking big boss, The End of All Songs, for the donation!

I still haven't repaid the chapter I owe the big boss, and today is another day of debt collection!

Thanks to the ranking-pushing boss, The End of All Songs, for the donation!

Thanks to boss Braised Pork Tenderloin for the donation!

Thanks to boss X1525 for the donation!

And thanks to all the other readers for your smaller donations, recommendation votes, and monthly votes!

A ninety-degree bow—thank you all for your support!

Enough talking. I'll keep staying up late and write an extra chapter.

(The next chapter will come out a little later. Those who can't wait can get some rest first and read it tomorrow morning! Good night, everyone! Take care of your health, and may you bosses enjoy abundant wealth and never have to wait at red lights!!)