The dead deserve respect

Xie Songde sat in the reception hall of the Tianmen Funeral Home, his expression rather grim.

A week earlier, Xie Songde's father had suddenly said he missed home and wanted to visit his old village.

His devoted children naturally wouldn't refuse the old man's request. After discussing it, they decided to make it an outing for the whole family.

And so, the extended family set off from Shannan City in two cars and headed into the mountains.

Although roads had been built in the mountains over the years, Blue Stone Village was poorly situated, beyond the reach of the main road.

The family therefore parked in the nearest village accessible by car, then set off together on foot toward Blue Stone Village.

Fortunately, the mountain scenery was lovely. They stopped along the way, treating it like a countryside outing, and finally reached Blue Stone Village after more than five hours.

Old Master Xie had left the village to make his way in the world. Once he had earned some money, he moved out of Blue Stone Village and put down roots in Shannan City.

In those early years, Old Master Xie returned home once a year to clean the house, keep in touch with people, and reminisce about the past.

But as he grew older and his children established careers of their own, his visits to Blue Stone Village became few and far between.

The old family home was still there, but no one had lived in it for nearly ten years.

Fortunately, after speaking to the neighbors, Old Master Xie managed to borrow a few rooms in their homes for the family to stay in.

Otherwise, they would have had to turn right around and hurry back out of the mountains.

Xie Songde wasn't used to the crude accommodations in these mountain homes, but what more could he expect out here?

As the old man put it, they were remembering past hardships to appreciate their present comforts!

Xie Songde had originally thought they could pay their respects to their ancestors the next day, take a few photographs as keepsakes, and leave.

But the sights of his hometown stirred deep feelings in the old man, and he wanted to walk around and see everything.

By the time they finished making the rounds, it was too late to leave. They had no choice but to stay another night.

That afternoon, seeing that his children and grandchildren had nothing to do, the old man told them to clear the weeds around the old house.

By the time Xie Songde, his brother-in-law, and the children had cleared away the weeds, cobwebs, and dust inside and outside the courtyard with tools borrowed from the neighbors, they were all exhausted.

He could still endure it, but the children were already getting a little unhappy.

So Xie Songde decided they absolutely had to leave the next day!

Who could have known that disaster would strike on that very last night?

Unable to sleep, the old man left his room alone and returned to the old house. He accidentally tripped over the threshold and fell, losing consciousness.

Xie Songde and the others had long since fallen fast asleep, exhausted from cleaning the place, so no one noticed what had happened to him.

It wasn't until early the next morning, when a villager stepped outside, that someone discovered Old Master Xie had stopped breathing.

When Xie Songde was woken and told the news, he was stunned.

But no matter how distraught or grief-stricken they were, the old man was gone. They still had to arrange his funeral.

Xie Songde's mother had settled in Shannan City with the old man, and after her death, she had been buried in a public cemetery there. When purchasing her burial plot, the old man had bought two adjoining plots, making arrangements for himself as well.

Now that he had passed away, his children naturally had to fulfill his wishes!

But getting the old man out of the mountains became a problem.

Even walking from Green Mountain Village to the village where they had parked took four or five hours. If they carried the old man out, the journey alone would probably take six or seven hours.

Xie Songde and his brother-in-law couldn't possibly manage it by themselves.

Xie Songde naturally wanted to pay the people of Blue Stone Village to help carry his father's body out, but most of those still living there were elderly people and women!

Anyone with the strength and ability had long since taken their wives and children out of the mountains. If the elderly residents hadn't struggled to adjust to life outside, there was no telling how many people would even remain in Blue Stone Village.

Have these old men and women carry a body weighing over a hundred jin along mountain paths for an entire day?

Xie Songde was genuinely afraid someone else might die!

Besides, even after getting him out, they still faced a drive of nearly three hours back to Shannan City. Was the old man supposed to lie in the car, jolting along with them the whole way?

That clearly wouldn't do.

After discussing it with his sister and brother-in-law, Xie Songde decided to hire people from the village where they had parked to carry the old man out, then call a funeral home to prepare his body and transport him.

But when he explained the situation, the villagers demanded an outrageous price: ten thousand yuan per person!

And they would only go if he hired at least six people to take turns carrying him!

Xie Songde wasn't happy, but what else could he do?

Sixty thousand it was, then.

Yet as soon as Xie Songde agreed, they seemed to sense his desperation and revealed their greed.

They said the ten thousand per person only covered the trip there. Since they had to make a round trip, the price had to double to a hundred and twenty thousand!

That infuriated Xie Songde. A hundred and twenty thousand? It wasn't as though their money grew on trees!

After discussing it over the phone, Xie Songde gave up on those villagers and drove to Tianmen County, the closest county town, hoping to find a funeral home there to take over.

After all these delays, the old man's body had already been lying there for a day. Leaving it to professionals would give him greater peace of mind.

Xie Songde's first stop had actually been the Fushou Funeral Center, since it was larger and had more advanced equipment.

But once they heard about the complicated situation in Blue Stone Village, they wanted nothing to do with the job.

Only when Xie Songde offered a hundred thousand yuan did the owner of the Fushou Funeral Center relent, though he still imposed additional conditions.

He insisted that Xie Songde purchase the Fushou Funeral Center's Complete Funeral Services package. When Xie Songde heard the price, he realized they were even more ruthless than those villagers!

The hundred thousand only covered collecting and transporting the body. With all the subsequent expenses, the total would come to a full two hundred and eighty thousand!

That included twenty thousand for burial clothes and eighty thousand for an urn!

After hearing that, Xie Songde walked straight out.

Leaving aside whether the price was excessive, holding a memorial service in Tianmen County?

What a joke. Was he supposed to tell all their friends and relatives to come to Tianmen County to pay their respects?

After leaving, Xie Songde contacted Shannan City directly, looking for a funeral home there to handle his father's arrangements.

He had some connections in Shannan City, after all, and could still get something like this done.

His connections did indeed prove useful. After his call, the funeral home agreed to collect the body, and the total cost was lower than what the Fushou Funeral Center had quoted.

But then another problem arose.

They couldn't schedule it until three days later!

Shannan City had only one funeral home, albeit a very large one!

The trouble was that Shannan City was also large. On top of that, plenty of well-off families from the surrounding counties came there to make funeral arrangements.

Even with his connections, Xie Songde couldn't ask families who had already made all their arrangements to delay their funerals by a day, could he?

Three days later, plus the time needed to enter the mountains and the day they had already wasted.

Five days. The old man's body wouldn't hold up that long!

With no other choice, Xie Songde pinned his hopes on his final option, the Tianmen Funeral Home.

If the Tianmen Funeral Home couldn't help either, he would have to negotiate with the Fushou Funeral Center and see whether he could pay another hundred thousand on top of the original hundred thousand, buy that exorbitantly priced urn and burial clothes, and skip the memorial service.

After all, they only wanted to make money. They ought to accept those terms.

As he waited anxiously, Xie Songde saw the door to the reception room open.

Kong Fang, who had received him earlier, walked in, followed by an even younger man.

"Hello, Mr. Xie. I'm Chen Miao, the director of the Tianmen Funeral Home."

When the young man before him extended a hand, Xie Songde shook it instinctively.

But a moment later, his heart sank.

What could someone this young possibly do?

Before he could speak, however, Chen Miao's words left him stunned.

"Mr. Xie, I've been briefed on the situation. The Tianmen Funeral Home accepts your offered price and your condition that no other services be included."

"If you're ready, we can leave right away."

Xie Songde looked at the solemn young man before him, but his words brought him no joy.

Frowning, Xie Songde asked a host of further questions, including how they would move his father, how they would protect his body, and whether they could take him to Shannan City.

Chen Miao cooperated fully, answering each question in turn.

Yet it was precisely Chen Miao's willingness to cooperate that made Xie Songde uneasy.

After a moment's hesitation, he voiced his doubts.

"If you don't mind my asking, why did you agree so... so readily?"

"I'm sorry, but this concerns my father's funeral arrangements. I have to be careful."

Chen Miao paused in surprise before saying:

"I understand your concerns. My approach to this work comes from what my Elder Uncle taught me. When he handed the funeral home over to me, he told me something."

"In our line of work, we can make money, but we can't make it only about money."

"People entrust us with seeing their loved ones off on their final journey because they believe in us."

"So no matter what, we must always remember one thing."

"The dead deserve respect."