Dong Xiaoqiang talked about some things about painting, then gave me a painting and left.
I closed my eyes, wondering what the painting was about this time. What was it talking about? Was it about my father's death
I don't know how my father died. I still don't understand it. I asked He Dana, but he didn't tell me. Every time I asked him, he got angry with me. I wanted to strangle him to death. Can I die if I tell you? He said that my father didn't let him tell me about his death. So, there must be something going on. My father was afraid that I would take revenge. I can understand it if I think about it, but I must know.
When I went home that day, Liu Yang was at home. She told me that her father had returned to the columbarium. The crematorium in Chixian County was also closed. I don’t know if he wanted to go take a look or what.
I opened the painting and was shocked. The painting was empty, there was nothing inside. Did Dong Xiaoqiang take it by mistake
People say that Dong Xiaoqiang has the same weird personality as his father, and his paintings are also weird.
Liu Yang took a look and said.
"Kong Huaer, what do you mean?"
I don't think it was taken by mistake. Dong Xiaoqiang is a very serious and methodical person, I can see that.
When I hang the painting on the wall, it looks like a blank piece of paper.
I turned on the TV to watch TV and Liu Yang sat next to me and said.
"Wait until you're done with your business, then we can get married, okay?"
"OK."
"Then I'll prepare it and schedule it for July 1st!"
"Well, you'll worry about it."
"I don't want to get married here. I want to live in a rich family."
I was stunned. It was the wealthy family compound in Chi County, but Liu Shougui wouldn't let us go because she wanted to get married there.
"It's far from both of our workplaces, and it takes more than an hour to drive there by car."
"I don't like this place. It's weird. Although it's beautiful, I always have an illusion, just like in the South. I always feel uncomfortable."
I didn't expect Liu Yang to have such a feeling. I think I'm used to it.
"But… "
"I know. I've only been in one of these eighteen rooms. But it's okay. My father will be here to guard you. If you want to come, come. I won't stop you."
Since Liu Yang said so, it can only be like this.
"But Uncle Liu is against us going to the rich family compound."
"No, I convinced him."
"That's it."
I was distracted. Liu Yang originally hated staying in Chi County, but now he wants to go back to Chi County. What does that mean? And it’s a wealthy family compound.
In the middle of the night, I heard footsteps. I thought it was Liu Shougui coming back. But when I listened carefully, I sat up. It was the footsteps of my mother Yun Bai. I was very familiar with them because I could hear them since I was a child. When my mother walked towards me from a distance, I knew it was her footsteps.
I opened the window and saw my mother standing in the yard dressed in white. She was actually wearing all white. What does that mean
I opened the door, came out and walked over.
"Why are you here?"
"Xiaozhe, I don't object to you marrying Liu Yang, but you have to remember not to go to a rich family compound. You must not go there."
"Why? Aren't you and the rich boss living well? I think you should just stay out of this matter."
"Son, Mom is doing this for your own good."
"I know. If you came to see me, I thank you, but you can't stop us."
Yun Bai shook her head and left. She came in the middle of the night, wearing all white. The white was too eye-catching in the dark night.
I don’t know what happened to my mother, but it always makes my heart ache. No matter how I think about it, she is my mother after all. We share blood. It is impossible for me not to feel pain, and it is also impossible for me not to miss her.
The next day, I went to the site, made some arrangements, and left. It was Saturday, and there were people on duty, so I didn't have to come, but I was worried. On Monday, I would receive old corpses and urns from four sites, and the allocation and transfer of personnel had basically been arranged.
When I came out, Bu Lele was at the door.
"Director Ke, I would like to invite you to dinner."
I originally wanted to go to my mother's place to see what had happened, but then I thought it was not something to rush. I had to have a good talk with Bu Lele so that she could cooperate with me at work and not show up again. She didn't even tell me about the meeting, which seemed like she wanted to sideline me.
Bu Lele got into my car.
"I heard that you like to go to Xilailou, so let's go there."
I didn’t say whether I liked it or not. I drove to Xilailou, entered the private room, ordered the dishes and they were served.
"This is my first time here. I've heard of it, but I didn't expect it to be so weird. I heard that the former boss, the current boss's father, was hanged in a room here."
I didn't answer. It seemed that Bu Lele really liked hearing this weird thing.
"Deputy Director Bu, I think we should communicate about work matters, especially about the meeting. It's not good for you not to notify me or tell me."
"Oh, I was young and ignorant."
I think it's not that you are ignorant, you just want to hold me back. If I let you play with me, sooner or later something will happen and you will cry.
That day, Bu Lele and I did not have a pleasant conversation. She did not seem to think highly of me. Yes, my father is a refiner, and I am also a refiner by birth. Of course, I am not as good as her whose father is a minister and who has the capital to brag.
I went home that day, Liu Yang said.
"Today I went to knock down the words 'Fu Jia Da Yuan' on the gate tower and had someone replace it with 'Ke's Residence'."
"Isn't this a bad idea? Isn't this too conspicuous?"
"I thought so at first, but if you don't do this, who knows, it's our yard?"
That does make sense.
I don't care if Liu Yang messes up the rich family's house. If there is anything he doesn't understand, Liu Shougui will naturally help. Since he has agreed, he will also handle some of the problems.
The next day, Sunday, I didn't go to the place, but Bu Lele would definitely be there, because she was the boss there and I was the second in command.
I went to Yunbai, a small city outside the province. This small city is close to the sea, and there will be power and water outages at 9 o'clock every night. The whole city is just such a small city, but it is clean, beautiful and small enough.
I found the place, a small bungalow with a small yard, but it was very exquisite and matched the small city in the sky.
Yunbai asked me to sit in the yard and didn't let me into the house. He poured me some tea and said.
"Xiaozhe, Mom is really sorry for you, but..."
"You don't have to say all that. You gave birth to me and raised me. You did nothing wrong."
I looked into the house, but the windows were blocked and I couldn't see anything.
"No need to look, the rich man's eldest son is sick and will die soon."
I thought about what happened in Tusui. It’s not easy for the head of a rich family to survive until now.
"You can come with me to get the soil."
My mother was stunned for a moment, then she covered her face and burst into tears. There was a coughing sound in the room, and it seemed like she was about to die from coughing.
My mother Yunbai went back with me and took a piece of earth. After she left, I said to my father's photo.
"I'm sorry, Dad. I really don't want this to happen. I'm sorry."
I was really conflicted. My father and I were happy that the man died, but why should I save him
On Monday, we received the old body and the urn. This was also the day when the other four crematorium employees reported. I sat in the office looking at the TV wall. Bu Lele was giving the instructions. Everything was in order, not chaotic or rushed.
Bu Lele does have some ability, it seems that we can't underestimate this woman.
In fact, I have no interest in a career in government, but Bu Lele is different. If there are people in my family who have careers in government, it will have an impact, but I don’t. However, I got on the path.
Everything seemed to be going well, and just when the work was about to end, Li Xiaohuan called me.
"Master, I'm in the old corpse's cold storage. Something happened. Come quickly."
I didn't think that something would happen after the old corpse was put into the cold storage. The surveillance there showed that everything was normal. I looked again, how could something happen
I went downstairs and entered the cold storage. I was stunned. There were two old corpses running around.
Bu Lele was so scared that she was stunned. Li Xiaohuan looked at me.
"Master, what should I do?"
"What's going on?"
"When Deputy Director Bu saw that the two bodies were covered with colorful shrouds, he ordered them to be replaced with white ones, saying that they were not neat and looked awkward."
I closed my eyes. The colored corpse cloth belonged to a twenty-year-old corpse. It had to be replaced every year. One function was to mark the corpse, and the other was to suppress the corpse in Yin science.
Bu Lele seemed to have just reacted. She screamed and ran out.
Damn it, you reacted so slowly. That scream scared me to death.
At this time, a man in his fifties came in.
"Director Ke, I'm Yang Xiaoming, the refiner at the Chi County Crematorium."
"Hello, Master Yang."
"Director Ke, let me do it."
Yang Xiaoming walked over, wrapped the colorful corpse cloth around himself, picked up another one, and walked towards the corpses. The two corpses were unexpectedly motionless. He walked over and covered one of them, picked it up and put it on the corpse bed. Then, he picked up the other one, put it on the corpse bed, and covered them with the colorful corpse cloths respectively.
"Director Ke is fine."
Yang Xiaoming went out.
I returned to the office, but I didn't expect that I didn't see any of these weird things on the surveillance camera. No, I didn't see any old corpses running around. It seems that things in Yin science cannot be explained.
Bu Lele drove away, and I thought, she will probably never come to the crematorium again.
Of course, I was wrong, Bu Lele came.
There are now more than 300 employees in the crematorium, so naturally the workload has increased. Sometimes we are busy until two or three in the afternoon.
Bu Lele came into my office and said after sitting down.
"Director Ke, you have to teach me something about the crematorium."
"What do you teach?"
"It's about Yin studies."
She actually knows Yinxue, it seems someone said something behind her back.
"I don't understand any Yin studies, and I don't know any Yin studies."
"Mr. Ke, you are just a former refiner. Don't brag. In a few days, you will be my refiner again."
Bu Lele said this and left, and I shook my head.
I called the director.
“This job can’t be done anymore.”
"I'll put up with it. Bu Lele still has some working ability. Maybe she will leave there after a while."
"Excuse me, I want to go back to the dressing room, I love that job."
“Isn’t this a bit bad?”
"There's nothing wrong with it. I don't take this director seriously."
"Then let's do this. Your salary level remains the same. Go back to the dressing room and wait until Bu Lele leaves before you come back."
I went to put on makeup, which stunned everyone. Li Xiaohuan was also a little upset, but then she quit her job as director and learned how to put on makeup from me in the dressing room.
In fact, there is nothing you can do about this kind of thing.
I was assigned to the 13th dressing room. The 13th? Your grandfather's.
When the crematorium was built, I told them not to have the number thirteen. However, when the workers were making the sign, they didn't understand and made the number thirteen and hung it up. Now that it's hung, it can't be taken down. That's the rule.
The dressing room here is quite exquisite. The dressing table can be raised and lowered electrically. The corpses are sent in electrically through the hole, and after makeup is done, they are taken out electrically.
There is a coffee machine and tea here, just like the Wude Hotel.
Li Xiaohuan and I were sitting there drinking coffee, with the body on the dressing bed. We weren't assigned many tasks every day, just three to five. If the two of us worked together, it would only take about three hours. We couldn't leave for the rest of the time, so we could only stay in the lounge and lean on each other.
Bu Lele arranges his work according to his schedule, there is no such thing as shift work.
Bu Lele came in.
"You two are not working, so you have coffee."
"Captain Buchang, the coffee here is not good, let's change it to something better!"
"Li Xiaohuan, I'll fine you 500 yuan."
Bu Lele said this and left.
"Idiot."
Li Xiaohuan cursed and I shook my head. This was directed at me. She could be in the office, my office. She is the director now and can see what we are doing from there.
I walked to the makeup bed and sat on the chair. Nowadays, the chair is quite advanced, with wheels, which can be raised and lowered, and has a hand position on the side, which can hold all the things needed for makeup. Unlike before, you have to stand and put things aside, which is inconvenient to hold.
“That’s great.”
I lifted the shroud and nearly fell off the chair. (To be continued)