"What did he say?"
"I don't know. I couldn't hear him clearly, but he was talking. My head was all muddled. My younger brother had to nudge me and say we couldn't just leave things like that... With Dad like that, we didn't even know if we could have him cremated. We had to invite a senior monk to perform a ritual and chant sutras. The three of us were afraid to stay at home. It took us two days to find some monks. We invited them from the City God Temple in town. You're locals from Minqing, right? The most famous temple around here is the City God Temple. It's not like we're near Mount Pushi... We were worried the monks might not be up to the task. We'd already invited the oldest monks at the temple; they said those were their best... They chanted sutras and burned incense for a whole day. We thought everything was settled... We thought it should be fine... To be honest, we didn't want to make a fuss about it anymore. Once he was cremated, he'd be reduced to ashes... But then we felt we'd be letting Dad down... The three of us stayed up all night again after the chanting was over... We're all getting on in years, and we don't have much stamina. Kang was the youngest, but even he couldn't stay awake. The next morning, we woke up. I'd spent the whole night sitting up, and my back was sore all over. When I woke up, I noticed... there was a sound..."
"Do you mean your father's voice?"
"No, not just that. There were sounds of pots and pans, too. I thought one of them had woken up, so I turned around. They were both still there. My younger brother