Chapter 528: Chapter 270
The guests left the Funeral Shop with their worries relieved, evidently well pleased with Xu Qing’s service.
At this moment, the first ray of dawn fell across the street; Xu Qing looked out at the doorway and saw the guests’ figures seemingly covered with a veil of soft white light, which then gradually faded until it finally vanished among the crowd in the street.
Xu Qing was just about to withdraw his gaze when he saw several passers-by dressed in mourning clothes coming in the direction from which the guests had disappeared.
These people were driving a flatbed cart, covered with white cloth, directly towards Xu Qing’s shop.
Well! It seems today’s visit to Boss Liu will have to be delayed for a while.
Familiar opening remarks, familiar words; Xu Qing quickly welcomed the esteemed customers into the shop in a few words.
"I am Tian Yongfu; my brother docked his boat at the Tangu River mouth for night fishing the day before yesterday. Who knew the weather would suddenly change? My brother was caught in the middle of the river and couldn’t escape in time; unfortunately, the boat capsized, and he drowned. Here is a certificate from the Government Office..."
The leading guest’s face could not hide his grief as he clasped his hands and said, "Shopkeeper, excuse me."
Xu Qing nodded and skillfully carried the body from the cart into the shop.
"The passing of your brother is indeed a great sorrow; I offer my condolences." Xu Qing took out the ’Book of the Departed,’ used for recording funerals, and asked, "May I ask the honorable name of your brother, the hometown, and age at passing so I can engrave the inscription and make a spirit tablet for him..."
"My brother, Tian Yonggui, lived in Pingxi Town and lived to be thirty-nine."
Xu Qing opened the thick Book of the Departed, in which the names recorded were densely packed; the writing alone was two fingers thick.
After Xu Qing finished recording the information, Tian’s elder could not help but ask, "This book..."
Xu Qing nodded and said, "It’s a ledger recording all the guests that my family’s shop has served in the past."
"..."
It’s not a ledger; it’s obviously a list of ghost names!
Tian Yongfu said jokingly, "It seems the shopkeeper’s business is quite thriving."
Xu Qing pretended not to hear; could he reply with, "Well, it’s all thanks to the support and patronage of the guests?"
While Tian Yongfu waited nearby, Xu Qing sent Xuan Yu to the Paper Mache Shop while he stayed in the shop to prepare the body.
Once the rites for the body were completed, Xuan Yu returned from the Paper Mache Shop with newly made paper fishing tools.
"These paper objects?" Tian Yongfu asked in confusion.
"I noticed your brother loved fishing, so I made some paper fishing gear and boats. Consider them complimentary gifts from my shop; no charge; the guests can take them freely," Xu Qing explained.
Tian Yongfu was taken aback, feeling a bit fearful, "Indeed, some fishing gear should be burned. After my brother died, people said that my brother had promised Jiang Konglou he’d burn some paper boats and fishing gear, but my brother was so focused on going to the Tangu River mouth to fish that he forgot about it. People say Jiang Konglou harbored resentment, turned into a Water Ghost, dragged my brother into the water, and caused his death..."
Xu Qing was noncommittal upon hearing this; he had just performed rites for Tian Yonggui’s body, and the saying of failing a promise to the dead and getting harmed by a ghost was merely a result of people’s imagination.
Moreover, Jiang Konglou was executed and his body had been attended to by Xu Qing; how could there be any possibility of haunting?
Tian Yonggui died because, after discovering a fishing spot, he feared someone else would beat him to it and went to Tangu River mouth that night.
By then, it was already late at night, and Jin Sect’s weather was unusually oppressive; a fellow fisherman warned him to go to the river mouth another day, but Tian Yonggui thought the other person was trying to trick him into leaving so that they could go to the river mouth themselves to grab the fishing spot.
He believed he saw through everyone’s plots and tricks. When he arrived at Tangu River mouth and steered the boat to an isolated shoal in the river’s heart, Tian Yonggui suddenly heard a thunderclap above his head.
Then came raindrops the size of copper coins.
At that moment, Tian Yonggui realized what the fellow fisherman had said was true.
But since he was there, heading back empty-handed would be a loss of face!
It was destined that Tian Yonggui would face a calamity.
The old saying goes, "Carp leap through the dragon gate when the rain pours heavily"; also, "if fish jump out of the water, wind and rain are sure to come."
When Tian Yonggui arrived, the weather was oppressive, and the fish crazily swarmed up from the water, dazzling to behold.
To a fishing enthusiast, those fish were like beauties clad in light gauze, dancing gracefully, just waiting for him to disrobe and indulge.
If he left without doing anything, what man would he be?
Even though the wind and rain grew stronger, Tian Yonggui continued to reassure himself, boost his spirits.
If he could catch big fish today and bring them back, he’d become famous in the Jin Sect region!
People of Jin Sect admire those with unique skills; he dared to fish in stormy weather; who should be famous if not him?
In the end, Tian Yonggui indeed became famous and indeed performed an ’unique skill.’
In the Funeral Shop, Xu Qing placed Tian Yonggui’s body into the coffin, whereas Tian Yongfu and his relatives helped lift the coffin onto the flatbed cart.
As the cart driver urged the horse to return, Tian Yongfu subconsciously glanced back at Xu’s shop and saw a pair of couplets under the white paper lantern inscribed with "Welcome" and "Send-off."
It read: "Do not worry about affairs after life, but always conduct and support the worldly."
"Shopkeeper Xu is truly a good person!"
Tian Yongfu exclaimed sincerely.
...
Nothing can withstand delay; after the Tian family left, there were still sporadic cadavers delivered by Funeral Houses, or fishermen who drowned at the berths, brought to Xu Qing here.
In Jin Sect’s watery region, besides the Jing-Jin canal, there are nearly a hundred waterways of various sizes, including the river mouth and Baisha River. Hence, naturally, there are many fishermen who rely on fishing for livelihood.
Fire and water are ruthless; after two or three consecutive days of heavy rain, the water levels of all rivers in Jin Sect rose, making the number of people dying in the waters significantly higher than usual.
Just in this one day, Xu Qing received not less than fifty bodies who died by drowning, the majority originating from a sunken cargo ship at the berth.