Although Chen Shouyi was a good forty or fifty meters away from the two of them, his keen ears still caught his sister's conversation with her Martial Arts Teacher.
He couldn't help but laugh wryly.
He understood his sister's awkwardness and embarrassment.
At sixteen, she was at the age when she already thought of herself as an adult. On top of that, her strength in class put her head and shoulders above everyone else, so she was naturally even more sensitive about her pride.
Having her older brother accompany her at a time like this—if her classmates found out, it would be mortifying.
Still, he decided to save her face.
It didn't matter how awful she was to him at home; they'd been bickering since they were little. But outside, he didn't want to put her in an awkward position.
Before long, his sister and a group of students set off on their bicycles.
Chen Shouyi waited until they had gone some distance before getting on his own bike and following at a discreet distance.
The funeral home was not far from the safety zone, only a dozen or so kilometers away. It wasn't particularly remote either; it stood right beside the highway, surrounded by farmland, with no other buildings in sight.
By the time they were nearly there, dusk had begun to fall. The funeral home in the distance seemed shrouded in gloom. Even the setting sun looked a little dimmer as its light touched the place.
A huge chimney belched black smoke, and the air was filled with a strange, indescribable smell.
It was already evening, but the place was still quite busy.
From time to time, police officers could be seen riding flatbed tricycles with bodies wrapped in white cloth in the back, bringing them to the