My family owns a shroud shop.

When I was a junior in college, I dropped out of school because my dad disappeared for no reason, so I ran the shop with my mom.

This shroud shop in my house is handed down by the elders, and my dad can't tell how many generations it has been in business, and my dad said that it has been around since the Qing Dynasty anyway.

In the past, the old man would find my coffin shop after his 60th birthday to make a coffin and put it at home, in the past, the coffin was not a bad thing, but a representative of health and longevity.

The craft of making coffins was lost to my grandfather's generation.

Due to the large-scale implementation of cremation coffins, it became useless, and later my father became the main business of shroud and funeral, although he did not make much money, but he was better than the average salaryman.

One day a few years ago, my dad said he went out to do something and never came back.

In the past few years, my mother and I have been looking for news of my father, and my mother and I have gone to the police station every once in a while to inquire about my father's news.

But there was no news, the whole room evaporated, and my mother told me that she had a premonition that my father was still alive.

My family's shroud shop is called Jixiang shroud shop.

The business next to the best top three in the city is okay, and the old Wang in the hospital morgue is a good friend of my father.

After my dad disappeared, he also took better care of my mother and my mother, and introduced us to some white business every once in a while, my mother gave him money and he didn't want it, he said that he didn't come to help us two for money, and my mother and I were very embarrassed.

Lao Wang is a three-person person, no car, no house, no children, usually lives in the dormitory provided by the hospital, and his biggest hobby is to eat roast chicken and drink two pots.

I came to him every once in a while with roast chicken and Erguotou Hospital, and Lao Wang saw the roast chicken and Erguotou's eyes, not to mention how pious he was.

If there's nothing going on in the store, I'll have a few drinks with him in the hospital dormitory.

Lao Wang said that my father was a good person.

Lao Wang's job was found for him by my father, and if it weren't for my father, Lao Wang might not be doing anything now.

I asked Lao Wang how he met my father, and Lao Wang thought about it carefully and didn't remember anything, saying that it had been too many years, and he couldn't remember it for a long time, so he tore off a chicken leg and ate it.

My dad once told me that a long time ago my family was a big family, and most of our children and grandchildren were scattered all over the country, and now most of them are in the white business.

My grandfather is a descendant of blood, and naturally inherited the old shop passed down from his ancestors.

Making coffins is a craft, and it is passed on to men but not women.

This craft can not tolerate a little sloppiness, every industry has the rules of each industry, especially this industry has more rules, if you cut corners or do not meet the standards, not only damage the yin morality will also be retaliated by the deceased.

My dad and two brothers, I have an uncle, when I was young, I was idle in the society, and after a few years of wandering, our city established a chengguan brigade, and my uncle became a glorious chengguan member.

Over the years, he has rectified the unlicensed traders who have not had a thousand but also eight hundred, and a few years ago he became the leader of the city's urban management bureau, and now he is also pot-bellied, without the figure and skills of the urban management team members back then, sitting in the office every day drinking diet tea and retiring.

My uncle is really good to my mother and my mother, and from time to time I come to the store to see if there is anything I need help with, it is precisely because of this relationship between my uncle that there are some gangsters and scoundrels near the shroud shop who have never troubled my family.

My dad once told me before that my grandfather wanted to leave the shroud shop we are running now to my uncle, but because my uncle felt that it was not his pursuit to keep such a small shop in his life, my grandfather gave it to my dad without forcing it.

My dad also had a very good relationship with my uncle before he disappeared, and the two of us would get together from time to time for a drink and chat.

My uncle has a son, my cousin is three years younger than me, now in college in our city, and now there is nothing to do in his senior year, so this kid has been in the shroud shop for a long time, and he is also a part-time guy who is busy with the store, and I won't feel too bored with him.

In addition to operating a shroud business, the store will also receive some funeral one-stop intermediary services.

Most of the funeral companies in our city have cooperation with the store, and we will choose the funeral company that suits them according to the requirements of the deceased's family, and we will charge a certain commission to the funeral company after the matter is completed.

Most of the companies have cooperated with the store for many years, and the owners of most funeral companies have become good friends of my dad, and we have maintained cooperation since my dad's disappearance, and some funeral companies with better relationships will return some more intermediary fees to us, which can be regarded as helping my mother and my mother.

Today in the shroud shop, my cousin was describing to me how a girl he dated a few days ago when Lao Wang called the store.

Lao Wang said that the 23-bed patients in the Department of Internal Medicine are not good, let us send a set of good women's shrouds to the past, and let us contact the funeral matters, I said thank you to Uncle Wang on the phone, and then Wang laughed a few times and hung up the phone.

After hanging up the phone, I asked my cousin to look at the store, and I found a few styles of women's shrouds from the store that were not bad, put them in a backpack, and went straight to the hospital.

My shroud shop is located next to this hospital, so I am very familiar with every department and bed in this hospital.

When I came to the bed with a big bag of shrouds, I saw Lao Wang, Lao Wang nodded at me and pointed to the ward and shook his head at me, Lao Wang meant that the person had not left yet, let me not go in first, I nodded to Lao Wang and sat on the bench in the corridor of the ward, Lao Wang also sat on the bench with me and said to me

"It's an old lady, a lot of children should be good, I talked to them about the funeral to be a big deal, you look at the blending"

After Lao Wang finished speaking, I nodded, I took out a cigarette from my pocket and handed it to him, Lao Wang waved his hand at me, I lit one myself, just smoked a few puffs of the 23-bed ward door opened, and a middle-aged woman ran out of it and shouted doctor, I have seen a lot of this kind of scene, generally this means that the patient is dying, and after a while, the middle-aged woman hurriedly walked into the ward with a doctor and two nurses.

I took a few puffs of cigarette and put out the cigarette, stood up with Lao Wang and walked towards the ward, and when I walked to the door, I looked through the window of the ward door, and the doctor and nurse were rescuing the old lady, and everyone stopped in less than a minute.

The nurse wrote down the time of the old lady's death in the notebook, and then the two nurses began to dismantle the instruments attached to the old lady's body, and a group of children knelt beside the old lady's bed and cried, I sighed and pushed the door in with the old man.

Obviously, the family of the deceased knew what I was doing, and Wang called aside the middle-aged woman who had just run out to call the doctor, and after whispering a few words, Wang nodded to me and left, what Wang meant was to signal that I could start dressing the deceased, and he had already negotiated with the family.

I cleared my throat and coughed to the crowd

"The deceased has passed away, everyone mourns and changes, I am from the auspicious shroud shop, our male family members avoid it, and leave a female family member to help the deceased dress with me"

After listening to me, several male family members wiped their tears and went out of the ward.

I stayed with the middle-aged woman, I took off the backpack on my body and asked the middle-aged woman to pick a set, the middle-aged woman asked me which one was the best, I said it was all good, I brought it all very good, the middle-aged woman looked at it and chose a set of black Ruifuxiang's shroud.

It is best to wear a shroud when the average person has just died, because the tendons and bones on the body of the person who have just died have not been completely stiff, if you wait until the person is really dead and then wear it, it will be troublesome, some people directly break the joints of the deceased and wear the shroud, I have never done this, I always feel that this is a little too much, although the person is dead, but let me do this I really can't do it.

The so-called dressing is not just as simple as passing the shroud to the body for the deceased.

The so-called wiping is to clean the body of the deceased with warm water, and after cleaning the body, use cotton to seal the deceased's five orifices, that is, nose, tongue, mouth and ears, and put a copper coin in the deceased's mouth.

The middle-aged woman and I put the shroud on the deceased in less than 20 minutes, and after wearing it, the children outside rushed in and knelt beside the bed and cried.

I called the middle-aged woman aside and asked her what she planned to do about the funeral, the middle-aged woman was the eldest daughter of the deceased, looking at the posture and talking at home, there should be a place, the eldest daughter wiped the tears on her face with a tissue and said that the mother has worked hard for her children all her life and must let her go.

I listened to my eldest daughter say this and had the bottom, after a few words of comfort, I walked out of the ward, took out my mobile phone to call Brother Jiu, the phone was quickly connected, I told Brother Jiu about the other party's requirements, Brother Jiu said several times in a row, no problem, said that he would arrive in 10 minutes.

Brother Jiu is a native of Northeast China, not a few years older than me, and he is an atmospheric person, and when my father was not missing, all the bereaved households who had this kind of money sent their business to Brother Jiu's company.

Don't look at Brother Jiu's age, but he is definitely a veteran in the industry, Brother Jiu said that he helped Shili Baxiang do funerals when he was a teenager, and Jiuge's mother is also a famous old fairy in Shili Baxiang. (The meaning of the old fairy is the sorcerer of the Northeast folk, commonly known as the dancing god, who can drive away evil spirits and ghosts)

Brother Jiu came to the ward in less than ten minutes, and when Brother Jiu came to the ward, Lao Wang and the others were loading the old lady's body onto the pulley cart in the morgue.

I called the eldest sister and introduced him to Brother Jiu, Brother Jiu shook hands with the eldest sister and said a few words of comfort, I patted Brother Jiu's arm and told him to leave the hospital after finishing things.

When I returned to the store, my cousin was holding a mobile phone and smiling cheaply, I walked in and she didn't notice me at all, I walked over lightly and looked at the grandson who was chatting with a girl on Momo, I hit him on the head and scolded him angrily, obviously because my cousin was so mentally concentrated just now that I was startled by such a beating, and screamed.

After seeing that it was me, I touched the position of my heart and muttered that the soul scared me, I glanced at him angrily, took out the account book from the counter and wrote down the cost of today's shroud, and my cousin had put away his mobile phone and said to me after I finished remembering

"I said brother, I think you should really find a girlfriend"

I squinted at him and motioned for him to continue, and my cousin pulled out his phone and leaned over to me

"Brother, look, now that communication is so developed, it's definitely easy to have a girlfriend, or I'll teach you to play this, look at me, I've never lacked a girlfriend at all"

I lit a cigarette and cursed angrily

"Get out of the way"

As soon as I finished speaking, my mother walked in with a big bag of things, and my cousin saw my mother come in and immediately greeted me, took a bag of things from my mother's hand and took it aside, and then sat on the side and took out her mobile phone and began to flirt again, my mother sat down and took a fan to fan hard, and said to me angrily

"You see that you are not as sensible as others, and when you are so old, I know how to come and pick up things when I am carrying"

I didn't pay attention to her, I reported that I had just sold a set of Ruifuxiang's shrouds, and introduced the funeral to the Jiuge company, my mother nodded and wiped the sweat on her head with a tissue and sighed and said to me

"The old lady who left just now, I know that there are a lot of children and they are quite capable, but none of them are filial"

I looked at my mother in surprise and said that I felt that the children were very filial, and the crying was heartbreaking, and the funeral specifications were the best.

My mother said that it was their children who did not do much filial piety before the old lady's death, and they were afraid that the old lady would become a ghost and retaliate against them, and then picked up the fan and sat aside to fan the wind, I picked up the air conditioner remote control from the side and wanted to turn on the air conditioner, but my mother drank it, saying that it was too much electricity, and I would ease it after a while, I looked at my mother and really cried and laughed, and let her spend a penny more than anything else.