Highlights from his life

Zhang Youzhi sat on the memorial table with his legs crossed and instinctively grabbed a handful of sunflower seeds left as offerings.

He couldn't pick them up.

Unlike the theatrical funeral that morning, the afternoon service had very few people, and no helicopters thundered overhead.

A handful of people were cleaning up the rubbish left by the morning session.

On a patch of grass, a Western brass band holding tubas, trumpets, trombones, and French horns leisurely rehearsed. So far, their music was soothing and elegant, filling the venue with a lighthearted atmosphere.

They weren't the only musicians there. Nearby, several elderly men in sunglasses were polishing their erhus. The only one who looked lonely was a man holding a suona, standing there with an air of defiance.

Zhang Youzhi found the music very pleasant. He loved instruments with low, mellow tones-not just Western classical instruments, but traditional ones like the hulusi, too.

That suona made him a little nervous, though. Unfortunately, nobody could hear him speak, and he couldn't make any adjustments to his own funeral arrangements. All he could do was watch them get on with it.

Outside the courtyard stood two food trucks converted from shipping containers. The apron-clad cooks wielding large ladles and the Michelin chefs in tall hats holding trays faced off, seemingly looking down on one another.

On a stage farther away, a group of opera performers were rehearsing. Zhang Youzhi watched with keen interest, completely oblivious to the gravity of the situation.

At the entrance to the funeral venue.

An attendant stood guard.

"Hello. May I see your invitation, please?"

A woman leading a little girl with a cat in her arms handed over the black funeral notice.

Not many people had come. Even counting the staff, there were only twenty or thirty.

But there were plenty of tables left over from the morning session. Even with all the staff included, there were probably more than enough for everyone to have a table of their own.

As He Min put it:

"There are fewer guests than table legs."

Zhang Youzhi's headstone was enormous, with a QR code engraved on it. Every so often, a curious staff member would come over and scan it.

Then a folder titled [Highlights from his life] would appear on their phone.

Inside were seven spectacular videos.

They were:

[Zhang Youzhi plays Angela and scores a clutch pentakill with a sliver of health in a Diamond promotion match.]

[Zhang Youzhi skips stones with friends, getting seventeen skips.]

[Zhang Youzhi fights off seven vicious dogs with a tree branch and escapes unscathed.]

[Zhang Youzhi is hit by a car, accidentally performs a backflip, and lands in style, with plenty of passersby watching.]

[Zhang Youzhi catches an incoming basketball one-handed while chatting with a female classmate, then casually tosses it into the hoop from an incredible distance!]

[After being scammed, Zhang Youzhi uses a voice changer to start an online romance with the scammer, cons him into returning his money, and swindles an extra 294 yuan out of him.]

[Zhang Youzhi takes down a crime boss single-handedly with a dagger during an organized-crime crackdown.]

Most of the seven videos came from surveillance footage, but after editing, they were all surprisingly exciting!

While waiting for the funeral to begin, the staff scanned the QR code and watched the seven spectacular videos, showering them with praise.

Zhang Youzhi's soul floated behind one of them. Watching the videos, he couldn't help smiling in satisfaction.

Not bad. These moments were the pride of his life.

The White Jade Capital Company hadn't fooled him. They had actually made a dedicated mini app for him, accessible through the QR code.

While Zhang Youzhi was reliving his highlights, the final invited guest finally arrived.

It was the homeless man.

Only now, his thick beard and overgrown hair were gone. He had a neat haircut and a clean-shaven face. He wore prison clothes, but a police jacket draped over him concealed what was underneath.

The homeless man's apprentice, Hao Shanzhi, accompanied him.

When Hao Shanzhi saw his junior fellow apprentice in the little girl's arms, he wanted to go over and retrieve the cat for his master.

Wu Fuzhang shook his head.

Gray Kitten jumped down from the little girl's arms and bounded over to the homeless man's feet, affectionately rubbing against his trouser leg. Then the cat turned and ran beneath the enormous headstone.

The cat climbed onto the memorial table in front of the headstone and meowed twice toward Zhang Youzhi's ghostly form.

Zhang Youzhi greeted Gray Kitten.

Cats could always see things people couldn't. Perfectly normal.

A staff member tried to pick the cat up and take the cat down, but He Min stopped him.

Just then, an angry shout rang out.

Yang Donglin, who had only recently returned from the police station and was wearing just a white shirt, had grabbed a shifty-looking young man and delivered two sharp kicks.

"Hand it over! A leopard never changes its spots. You've come all the way here and still dare to steal!" With that, he kicked him again.

Zhang Youzhi floated over curiously. It was actually the thief he had met during his stint in lockup.

Looking miserable, Zhang Shuke pulled a phone from his pocket. Yang Donglin raised it and shouted, "Everyone, check whose phone is missing!"

A bewildered staff member shouted, "My phone's gone!"

Yang Donglin tossed the phone over, slapped the young man on the head, and deftly pulled a pair of handcuffs from his trouser pocket.

"Seriously? You brought handcuffs to a funeral?!" Zhang Shuke stared incredulously at the handcuffs in Yang Donglin's hand, though he had already obediently brought his wrists together.

"I'm a damn cop."

After declaring that in a booming voice, Yang Donglin cuffed him and gave Zhang Shuke another sharp slap on the head.

The young man was slapped to tears, but fortunately, the farce soon ended.

The funeral was about to begin.

Holding the microphone, He Min looked at the people below, feeling a little nervous. This was her first time acting as host.

A police officer, a homeless man, a thief, a student, a little girl, a steamed-bun shop owner, a limping cat, and a wealthy young woman made up Zhang Youzhi's only "friends and family."

This was a funeral attended entirely by strangers.

They sat scattered around at different tables. The homeless man and his apprentice shared one, silently gazing toward the headstone.

Zhang Shuke was forced to share a table with Yang Donglin.

The steamed-bun shop owner occupied another table with her daughter in her arms.

The limping cat had the place of honor all to the cat's self.

"Everyone's here." He Min smiled at them.

"For certain reasons, he didn't really have any friends. Everyone here is someone he met after coming to this city, so I took it upon myself to invite you all."

"You don't need to go out of your way to do anything. Just chat, watch the opera, and listen to the music."

"I just didn't want him to be too lonely when he left..."

Even so, the venue remained overwhelmingly empty. The staff stood solemnly in the distance.

He Min's voice mingled with the sound of the river, drifting from far to near before finally dissolving into the waves.

Zhang Youzhi's soul quietly listened as He Min recounted his life. He gazed into the distance, his heart undisturbed.