My eyes were fixed on him, and he came into the room and sat down, and the chair happened to be facing outwards before he noticed my gaze. He looked at me with a sharp gaze that seemed to be able to see through people. But after only a few seconds, he turned soft, and he got up with a smile and asked me, "What do you buy?" His accent is the local dialect of Qixian County, which is exactly the same as the accent of the shopkeeper recommended to Li Zecheng.

I was stunned, I wondered if he had really seen me in the elevator last time, or if it was just a coincidence.

"Do you need to buy anything?" He switched to Mandarin, but it was extremely non-standard.

"Oh, I came with the kids." I pointed to Zhang Yuchen in the distance and explained.

"Oh, then you sit, just call me if you need an introduction." He graciously brought a chair out of the back room and placed it in front of me.

"You're the owner's ......?" I asked curiously.

"He's my grandfather."

"What kind of business can you do here, except for selling paper ties? You're not a native of Hoh, are you? ”

"My grandfather is also responsible for doing white work, that is, presiding over the funeral ceremony, one-stop service. Uh, do you hear that? I'm here to visit my family, to visit my grandfather. ”

I hesitated for a moment before asking the question I was most concerned about: "Have you been to the sixteenth floor of the Affiliated Courtyard two days ago?" ”

He was late for a long time before he said lightly: "No, have you ever been there?" Do you see me? Did you recognize the wrong person? "The expression is natural and honest.

"Maybe." I replied perfunctorily.

"Let's go, I've bought everything." Zhang Yuchen called me.

I had to move and exit, and when I went out, I noticed that the plaque of the shop read: "Yan Qi funeral dragon." ”

Through the glass, the man inside stood side by side with the shopkeeper to see off customers, and he smiled ghostly at me just like last time......

Zhang Yuchen and I took our things back and arranged them together. dressed properly, took pictures with his body, and on the mobile phones of Li's mother and Li Zecheng, they sent dozens of moments of Li Zecheng's death in a row. We waited for his family and friends to visit while we set it up.

Everything is ready only to owe the east wind, and the east wind is the tears of 100% purity.

While waiting, Zhang Yuchen asked his mother again: "When relatives and friends come, you try to cry as hard as possible." We've got to make this show so we can convince them that you're going to get the gift money, right? Mother Li hesitated slightly, but nodded frequently in cooperation.

Zhang Yuchen can convince Li's mother when a child says such a thing. This pair of mother and son is really embarrassing, and it is difficult to sympathize with them in the true sense.

At noon, Li's mother cooked by herself and prepared a simple home-cooked meal for the three of us. After eating, the first group of people soon ushered in.

In the middle of entering the house was Li Zecheng's body, and everyone had dressed him neatly in a colorful shroud and covered with a white cloth. I stuffed his oxygen cylinder into my bulging shroud. At his feet is a half-meter-high square table, with a portrait of Li Zecheng in the center, and next to it is an incense burner and a paper pot for worshippers.

Li's mother specially went out to borrow an old-fashioned tape recorder and put it in the tape, which played bleak mourning music to set off the atmosphere.

The little nurse sat on the edge of the bed in civilian clothes, and when others were not paying attention, she left a gap to pay attention to the patient's vital signs under the white cloth.

Naturally, I didn't know Li Zecheng's relatives and friends, so I stood in the corner and smoked. I watched the guests coming and going in the house and the watch on my wrist.

The people who came to mourn Li Zecheng had similar opening remarks: "It was fine a few days ago, why did Zecheng suddenly disappear?" At a young age, God is unfair, and God is jealous of talent. Such high-sounding, sweeping rhetoric.

Mother Li stepped forward to cater to her relatives and friends, the man listened to them and comforted them, and the woman cried together when she was emotional. Mother Li's expression and emotions are quite in place, as if she is a sad image of a loving mother sending her child. If I hadn't known the truth in advance, I wouldn't have seen any obvious flaws in Mother Li.

Most of them would offer incense in front of Li Zecheng's statue, grab a handful of money stacks and light them and throw them into the brazier. Their expressions were solemn and solemn, and they looked gloomy and sad.

……

As time passed, batch after batch came, and there was an endless stream of guests. Zhang Yuchen rushed in and out, busy, he glanced at the condolences guests who still missed the net, and which did not get the news of his death in time. He prepared a small notebook in his own hand, and wrote a list of all the people he could think of, and crossed out one by one.

From time to time, he would hand me a Chinese cigarette to check if there were any changes to the watch on my wrist. I asked him curiously, "Where did you get good cigarettes?" And what's the deal with the money on your body? "He didn't make it explicit. I then said, "If you have money, pay me a little money for my living expenses, I'm dying of hunger." Zhang Yuchen used the excuse to slip away and avoid seeing it.

I vaguely heard that Li Zecheng's colleagues from the Industrial and Commercial Bureau, under the dispatch of the director, organized three people as representatives to come to mourn, and Li Zecheng dragged Zhang Yuchen's body and hesitated.

Li's mother received her one by one, and most of her relatives and friends asked about Li Zecheng's funeral; Colleagues, on the other hand, are more likely to say something to appease the emotions of the family, attaching flowery rhetoric prepared in advance.

I clearly saw that Li Zecheng's three colleagues called Li's mother aside, quietly stuffed Li's mother with a wad of money, and a note with handwriting, I guess it should be the list of gifts from the participants.

Time passed slowly, but my watch didn't move. Zhang Yuchen became more and more anxious, and he personally sent WeChat messages to the guests who had not yet visited, using Li's mother's mobile phone to tell them the news of Li Zecheng's death.

Originally, the news of Li Zecheng's death was so sudden, and it was only a day's work, and the mourners must have personal reasons for not being able to show up on time. For example, I didn't get the news in time, or I haven't decided on a time to mourn.

But there are still a lot of guests visiting today, and there is no place to put their feet at the moment. The more red and white things are, the more you can see the background and heritage of the whole family. The number, identity, status of the mourning guests, and the pomp and pattern of the entire ceremony can be guessed, and guess what grade and level the whole family is in in the social class.

Li Zechen's family background is still good, coupled with his status as a civil servant and employee of the Municipal Bureau of Industry and Commerce, whether it is the number or breadth, the people who mourn him involve people from all walks of life. In particular, he was born and raised in Hoh, and the huge Li family has many members, although his surname "Li" still needs to be studied.

I think if the fake funeral can't collect tears, Li Zecheng's tragedy is really more auspicious.