Liu Xing and the others successfully followed Ms. Margaret into the Flower Cemetery, but since they were about to start the early performance, Liu Xing and the others followed Ms. Margaret to the performance hall.
The performance hall is located on the first floor of the mausoleum building, and it is equipped with a full set of musical instruments provided by the Flower Cemetery. Although Liu Xing did not know how to play any instruments, he could see from the brand names on the instruments that the Flower Cemetery had invested a lot of money in building this performance hall.
It seems that the Flower Cemetery is quite willing to spend money.
Five minutes later, the members of Ms. Margaret's Symphony Orchestra gradually arrived at the performance hall, but Ms. Margaret did not introduce Liu Xing and the other two to the members of the Symphony Orchestra.
The reason is simple, Liu Xing could see that these members of the Symphony Orchestra were just here for a day's work, because they all had a lazy and indifferent look on their faces, and they were chatting about all kinds of random topics in small groups.
But then again, these days, the families of those who can learn musical instruments should be doing well, and their purpose of learning music is definitely not to perform for the dead, so the current members of Ms. Margaret's Symphony Orchestra should all be some frustrated and financially struggling people, otherwise they would not be working here.
Of course, this is a good thing for Liu Xing and the other two, after all, they are here to be "undercover", so it's better to have less contact with these people.
Unfortunately, Liu Xing soon found that things did not go as planned, because a young and beautiful woman like Jill was easy to attract attention, and most of the so-called artistic musicians had a strong sense of self-importance, so many band members came to flirt with Jill.
However, Leon was quick to seize the opportunity and decisively arranged Liu Xing and Jill as a couple, finally driving away those single dogs.
"Chris, you need to act more intimate with Jill these days, so that those guys won't find out you're not a couple, otherwise Jill will be in trouble again." Leon said to Liu Xing with a wink.
Of course, Leon did not control the volume of his voice when he said these words, so Jill next to him heard it clearly as well.
Liu Xing was not a pretentious person, so he looked at Jill with deep affection and said, "Jill, it looks like we'll have to cooperate well these two days."
Jill nodded with a blushing face.
At this moment, Ms. Margaret clapped her hands and announced the start of the performance.
Since Liu Xing and the other two were still "interns", Ms. Margaret arranged for them to just observe from the side, without having to join the other band members.
So Liu Xing, Leon and Jill sat in a corner and chatted.
As the one with the highest musical level among the three, Leon couldn't help but comment on the level of the band members.
Just as Liu Xing had seen, these band members were just here to kill time, so their performance level could only be said to be around the passing line, and sometimes there would even be some mistakes, so according to Leon, if there was a musician buried in the Flower Cemetery, he would probably be revived by anger.
While Leon was commenting, Liu Xing saw a floor plan of the mausoleum building on the wall, so he got up and walked over.
According to this floor plan, the mausoleum building is divided into four floors, one of which is an underground parking lot and temporary morgue.
Then there is the ground floor where Liu Xing and the others are now, in addition to the symphony orchestra performance hall and the sales office, there is also a restaurant and a rest area, as well as a room that seems to be a consultation room.
As for the second floor, it is the staff rest area and the logistics department, as well as a very large manager's office.
But the third floor of the mausoleum building is entirely a reception hall.
Liu Xing rubbed his chin, feeling that the third floor of the mausoleum building must have a problem, after all, the mausoleum building should not need such a large reception hall, especially when there is already a 20-square-meter "consultation room" on the first floor, which should be the normal reception hall.
So Liu Xing felt that the third floor of this mausoleum building is either a sacrificial site, or a special gathering place for the Cult of the Cadaver or Ghoul believers.
And as for the manager's office on the second floor, Liu Xing felt that the area was also unreasonably large, as it occupied nearly a third of the second floor, which was clearly unreasonable, unless the manager of the Flower Cemetery was actually living in the manager's office.
So there might be something in this manager's office.
As for the underground floor of the mausoleum building, Liu Xing felt that it should not have any problems, although the flow of people in the Flower Cemetery is not very large, but according to Liu Xing's observation, the number of staff in the Flower Cemetery plus the members of the Symphony Orchestra is already in the dozens, and the Flower Cemetery is located in the suburbs of Manchester, not on a public transportation route, so most of the visitors come by car.
And the existence of the morgue is also a very normal thing, after all, the families who can be buried in the Flower Cemetery must hope that the remains of the deceased can be kept intact, so the Flower Cemetery needs a temporary morgue.
Of course, since the viewing of the remains is still needed during the funeral, Liu Xing felt that the Ghoul would not start feasting in the morgue.
So Liu Xing felt that he needed to investigate the reception hall on the third floor, the manager's office on the second floor, and the consultation room on the first floor, because these places might hide some important information.
Soon, an hour passed.
The members of the Symphony Orchestra finished their performance and left the performance hall in small groups, heading to the restaurant for breakfast, and Liu Xing and the other two naturally followed Ms. Margaret.
"I believe you have all seen that my Symphony Orchestra is now in a state of disarray, so I plan to disband this Symphony Orchestra and go to London to spend my twilight years soon." Ms. Margaret sighed.
Liu Xing nodded and asked with some puzzlement, "By the way, Ms. Margaret, I actually had a question I wanted to ask you yesterday..."
Before Liu Xing could finish, Ms. Margaret smiled and said, "I know what you want to ask. Actually, Chief House and I have been childhood friends, but I've always been the one with a one-sided crush, because how could Chief House possibly like me, an ugly duckling? Moreover, you should also know that in the era when I was young, racial discrimination was rampant. Although my family's financial situation was not bad, I still suffered all kinds of discrimination at school. At that time, only House was willing to talk to me and play with me, so I've always seen House as my hero, especially in my teenage years, I often vowed that I would only marry House in the future. So you can see now that I'm still single, but I've come to terms with it, it's not a big deal."
Liu Xing chuckled a bit awkwardly, because the question Liu Xing wanted to ask was not that.
But getting back to the topic, since Ms. Margaret and Chief House were of the same age, Liu Xing knew that Ms. Margaret was born in the 1940s, a time when England, as an established empire, was also one of the major slave-trading countries, so racial discrimination in England was rampant, permeating all levels and circles of English society.
Especially the students who had not yet matured, they were the vanguard of racial discrimination, so Liu Xing could imagine the kind of treatment Ms. Margaret had encountered at School back then, and the importance of Chief House to her.
Just as Liu Xing was pondering whether to ask Ms. Margaret another question, Jill helped Liu Xing ask the question he originally wanted to ask Ms. Margaret, "Ms. Margaret, I also want to ask you a question, which is why you accepted the invitation from Floral Cemetery to bring the Symphony Orchestra to perform in this place."
Ms. Margaret chuckled, taking out a 100-pound note from her pocket and said, "The answer to this question is very simple, that is one word - money. You need to know that maintaining a Symphony Orchestra costs a considerable amount of money every month, and the main way for the Symphony Orchestra to generate income is through performances. But nowadays, people are more inclined to listen to pop music concerts than classical music, so the Symphony Orchestra is becoming more and more niche as it becomes more refined. Therefore, for a small private Symphony Orchestra like mine, we used to only receive three or four performance invitations a month, and the income was not very high. So before accepting the invitation from Floral Cemetery, my Symphony Orchestra was on the verge of disbandment due to operating at a loss."
"I also mentioned earlier that my family is not bad, because my parents were both moderately famous black musicians, and the Symphony Orchestra I'm in charge of now was also founded by my parents. So I definitely don't want this Symphony Orchestra to disband under my watch. Therefore, when I received the invitation from Floral Cemetery, I accepted it without hesitation, as the conditions offered by Floral Cemetery were very good, and I had no reason to refuse. However, the Symphony Orchestra in my eyes is now just a shell, so after helping you all, it will be time to disband it."
Liu Xing felt that Ms. Margaret had set a flag...
Upon arriving at the restaurant in the cemetery sales building, Ms. Margaret introduced, "The restaurant at Floral Cemetery is a full self-service buffet, so you can freely choose the food you want to eat. But we need to finish our meal early, then I'll take you to find Jeannie to get an official work pass, so you can enter and exit Floral Cemetery more conveniently."
Liu Xing and the others nodded and randomly selected some food for breakfast.
Ten minutes later, Liu Xing and the others followed Ms. Margaret to find Jeannie.
Jeannie wasted no time, directly taking Liu Xing and the others to the backroom on the second floor, where they had their headshot photos taken on a red background. After that, Liu Xing and the others waited on the sofa in the hallway for their official work passes to be made.
At this time, Jeannie also accompanied Liu Xing and the others outside, as the backroom was cramped with no extra space.
"Mr. Jeannie, I want to ask you a question. Why is the manager's office on the second floor so large? Is the manager actually living there?" Liu Xing couldn't help but ask.
Jeannie furrowed his brow, pausing for a moment before speaking, "I'm not too sure about that. I'm just an ordinary security guard, and I've never seen the manager before. I've also never been to the manager's office, so I can't answer your question. But now that you mention it, I do think the manager might be living in the manager's office."
Liu Xing nodded silently, surprised that the manager of Floral Cemetery was so mysterious that even the security guard had never seen him. It seems this manager might not be an ordinary person.
Thinking about this, Liu Xing couldn't help but look towards the manager's office door in the distance. From the outside, there was nothing strange about the office, except that the door was painted bright red, contrasting sharply with the clean white walls around it.
Liu Xing shook his head and turned back to look through the glass at Floral Cemetery's Burial Hill.
To be honest, if one ignores the tombstones and the stone walls used for separation, Floral Cemetery's Burial Hill can indeed be considered a decent forest park. The design company hired by Floral Cemetery was quite creative, managing to create an artificial stream by utilizing the terrain.
This made Floral Cemetery come alive.
However, this is still a Burial Hill where hundreds of people are buried, so Liu Xing always felt that this Burial Hill had a strong ominous aura, giving an uncomfortable feeling.
When Liu Xing's group received their official work passes, the free activity time in the morning had already ended, so Liu Xing and the others could only wait in the performance hall with the other Symphony Orchestra members.
"I think there might be something wrong with the manager's office on the second floor," Leon said, stroking his chin.
Liu Xing nodded and pointed to the floor plan, saying, "You're right, the manager's office on the second floor is likely just a facade, because logically the manager's office shouldn't be set up so large, and the manager of Floral Cemetery has no reason to live there permanently, especially since the security guard has never even seen him. So I suspect this manager might not be human."
"In addition, the third-floor reception hall is also unreasonably large, occupying an entire floor. This is clearly abnormal, as the reception hall's area is almost the same as the auditorium in my elementary school, and Floral Cemetery can't possibly be receiving hundreds of guests at a time," Jill continued.
Leon chuckled and said seriously, "It seems great minds think alike. It looks like these large rooms may be hiding some unsavory secrets, and who knows, Dio might be hiding in one of those rooms!"