Cremation

"...That concludes Qian Xiaomei's farewell ceremony. Thank you all for your heartfelt farewells."

With that, Chen Miao walked toward Qian Xiaomei's parents.

He glanced at her mother, who was still grieving, then turned to her father.

"Mr. Qian, it's time for the cremation."

At those words, Qian Xiaomei's mother began sobbing aloud.

After leaving his wife in the care of the others, Qian Xiaomei's father nodded to Chen Miao.

"Then...let's go."

Chen Miao nodded, signaled to the staff carrying the coffin, and led everyone to the Funeral Hall.

As everyone watched, Qian Xiaomei's coffin was lifted and carried through a side door of the Funeral Hall, with her family following close behind.

The cremation room wasn't far from the Funeral Hall. Chen Miao could walk there in two minutes on his own.

With the deceased, however, the journey took five minutes.

After reaching the cremation room, Chen Miao asked the other relatives to wait outside, then brought Qian Xiaomei's parents and a few other immediate family members inside.

Once inside, Chen Miao asked them to wait where they were while he took the cremation consent form signed by Qian Xiaomei's father, her death certificate, and the other documents to Old Yu, the crematory operator.

These documents had already been verified, but the procedure still had to be followed before cremation.

Tedious as it was, it provided another safeguard.

Otherwise, if anything did go wrong, it would be a serious matter.

Old Yu was a small man in his fifties. His full name was Yu Huanshui, and he was fairly easy to get along with.

Of course, that was the conclusion Chen Miao had reached after two years of working with him.

An outsider seeing Old Yu would only feel an oppressive weight from his expressionless face.

"Everything's in order. I'll go preheat the furnace."

Old Yu kept the documents and went over to the cremation furnace.

After returning, Chen Miao informed Qian Xiaomei's parents, then had the staff lift her out of the coffin and place her in another coffin made of paper, which they lifted onto the steel rack at the furnace's entrance.

At the sight, Qian Xiaomei's mother began crying again.

"Let me look at Xiaomei one more time. Just once."

Chen Miao didn't stop them and let her parents step forward.

They had said one look, but they stayed for a full five minutes.

Only when Chen Miao went over to persuade them did they finally step away.

At Chen Miao's announcement, "The cremation will now begin," the conveyor carried the steel rack into the furnace.

After two clacks as the furnace doors closed, everyone could see fierce flames through its little window.

Cremation wasn't a simple process.

It wasn't over with a scene transition, as it was in films and television.

The furnace burned for a full two hours before it stopped.

But it still wasn't finished.

The ashes needed another half hour to cool naturally so no one would be burned.

There was another step after that. Chen Miao knew about it, but Qian Xiaomei's parents didn't.

Drawing on his experience, Chen Miao suggested that Qian Xiaomei's father have her mother taken outside to wait.

Her father didn't refuse. He had someone escort his grief-stricken wife out.

Half an hour later, Old Yu came out of the cremation room, opened the furnace, and pulled out the cooled ashes.

Then he used a tool to sweep the ashes into a sieve and sifted out the larger bone fragments.

Next, Old Yu put those fragments into a bag, took out a tool, and began crushing the contents bit by bit!

This work should have been done by a machine inside the furnace, but Tianmen Funeral Home's furnace had been purchased nine years ago—and even then, Elder Uncle had bought it secondhand.

If Elder Uncle hadn't kept hiring people to service and repair it over the years, and installed a flue-gas purification unit at the exhaust outlet, the furnace would long since have been shut down for failing to meet standards.

So the crematory operator had to perform this step himself.

Crunching sounds rang out one after another.

Chen Miao turned to look at Qian Xiaomei's father's pale face and sighed inwardly.

Although the cremation was more brutal, at least they couldn't see it.

Now, however, Old Yu was crushing his daughter's bones right in front of him.

Anyone putting themselves in his shoes would understand how Qian Xiaomei's father felt at that moment.

That was why Chen Miao had asked for her mother to be taken away for a while.

Ten minutes later, Old Yu opened the bag, poured the crushed remains into a container, then looked at Chen Miao.

Chen Miao understood and turned to Qian Xiaomei's father. "Mr. Qian, please bring the urn over."

Qian Xiaomei's father stood dazed for quite a while before picking up the urn he had purchased at the funeral home and letting Old Yu fill it with the ashes.

After attaching a label with Qian Xiaomei's information inside the urn, Old Yu handed it to her father.

From there, it was Chen Miao's responsibility.

"Old Yu, we'll be going now."

After saying goodbye, Chen Miao took Qian Xiaomei's father to the service hall to have a cremation certificate issued.

Since Qian Xiaomei's ashes wouldn't be kept at the funeral home, her family had hired someone else to handle the burial.

With that, all the procedures at Tianmen Funeral Home were complete.

Standing outside the service hall, Chen Miao watched Qian Xiaomei's family leave, then took out the white envelope her father had given him.

When he first came to the funeral home, he hadn't been comfortable with this unwritten "rule." But after the previous funeral officiant told him that refusing it didn't necessarily signify respect, he had accepted the custom.

Chen Miao couldn't change this custom, so he could only strive to do his own work as well as possible.

Tucking the white envelope away, Chen Miao turned and headed upstairs to Elder Uncle's office on the second floor of the service hall.

"Elder Uncle, you wanted to see me?"

"Yes. Have a seat."

Chen Weiyi got up, sat on the sofa, and boiled water to make tea.

"How did it go? Everything smooth?"

"Yes. Qian Xiaomei's family weren't the sort to cause trouble. Everything went smoothly."

"Good."

After pouring Chen Miao a cup of tea, Chen Weiyi asked, "San Shui, what do you think of our funeral home?"

Chen Miao took a sip of tea, moistening his throat after several hours without water.

"It's doing all right."

"Heh. Be honest."

Chen Weiyi smiled.

Chen Miao looked at Chen Weiyi. "Are you worried about the North City Fushou Funeral Center, Elder Uncle?"

Chen Weiyi shook his head.

"Worrying won't help. I'm just asking what you think."

Chen Miao considered it. "Actually, if we're not aiming to make more money, our funeral home's income is pretty good for a little place like Tianmen County."

"How is it pretty good?" Chen Weiyi asked.

"The Fushou Funeral Center does have newer equipment and more comprehensive services than we do, but their prices are higher, too."

"Not every family in Tianmen County can afford a grand funeral for their loved ones. Some only want cremation services."

"The Fushou Funeral Center certainly won't be their first choice, so those are customers they can't take from us."

"Besides, our funeral home has a great location! With mountains behind it and water beside it, it's an auspicious spot with excellent feng shui. Customers who care about that will naturally choose our funeral home to send their loved ones off on their final journey, and even store their ashes in our columbarium, rather than at the barren Fushou Funeral Center in the north of town."

"Looking at it that way, as long as nothing serious happens to ruin our reputation, our customer numbers will stop falling once they reach a certain level."

"That's why I said we're doing all right...but compared with before, we're definitely worse off."

After listening to Chen Miao's analysis, Chen Weiyi smiled and nodded.

"Well said. Looks like you have been paying attention to how things are going here."

Chen Weiyi set down his teacup and looked at Chen Miao.

"In that case, San Shui, would you be willing to become the director?"

"Huh?"

Chen Miao froze.

"Me? The director?"