freenovelworld Chapter 658 Dawn (64)
Chapter 658 Dawn (64)
Yan Zhen, Jing Chen, and Aunt Zhang called a moving company overnight to move their belongings.
Aunt Zhang has lived in this house for more than ten years. Her belongings, big and small, filled half a truck, and it took her several hours to pack them all up.
Yan Zhen had quite a few things, but she only picked out some necessities to take with her.
Jingchen is only staying here temporarily, so he has even fewer belongings.
After moving things until the early hours of the morning and packing everything up, Aunt Zhang planned to return to her hometown that very night.
Before leaving, Aunt Zhang looked longingly at the place where she had worked for more than ten years, sighed deeply, and finally turned her gaze to Yan Zhen.
"Miss Zhenzhen, I'm leaving now. Let's keep in touch."
“Okay,” Yan Zhen said. “You know my mom, she’s always on a whim. She had such a big fight with my dad today, but they might make up someday. Maybe then we can ask you to come back and continue working. Keep your phone on, we’ll meet again someday.”
A glimmer of hope appeared in Aunt Zhang's eyes, and she nodded repeatedly: "Okay, I will."
After seeing Aunt Zhang off, Jing Chen, considering that Yan Zhen had to go to school the next day, booked a suite at a high-end hotel in the city center and generously paid for half a semester's worth of accommodation.
Yan Zhen looked at him paying a six-figure sum for the room and felt a pang of pain: "If you add another hundred thousand or so, you could buy a small apartment near the school... You might as well buy an apartment."
After Jing Chen finished paying, he reached out and ruffled Yan Zhen's hair: "Don't buy it. After we finish dealing with things here, let's go back to Haicheng. That's our home."
Yan Zhen was slightly taken aback.
After checking into the hotel, Yan Zhen went to school as usual the next day.
Yan Zhen soon discovered the benefits of staying in hotels for extended periods.
Three meals a day are provided in the hotel restaurant, and housekeeping is available on a regular basis. The hotel also offers laundry services and complimentary business shuttle service for monthly subscribers—Yan Zhen is picked up and dropped off at school by a hotel shuttle.
Jing Chen stayed with Yan Zhen for a few days to help her adjust. Seeing that she quickly got used to the rhythm of staying in a hotel, he felt relieved and went on his business trip.
Yan Zhen, who was living alone in a hotel, began her daily routine of going to school from Monday to Friday and going to the equestrian club on weekends.
Half a month passed in the blink of an eye, and during that time neither Chu Huian nor Yan Yi contacted Yan Zhen.
Yan Zhen focused on her own business and also made a new friend at the equestrian club.
The new friend was a man in his late sixties named Li. He had booked the cheapest beginner riding package at the club and would come for lessons every two or three days.
Yan Zhen called him Uncle Li.
Uncle Li has a friendly personality and is always smiling when he meets people, but he always smells of disinfectant, so not many people are willing to talk to him.
Yan Zhen is an exception.
After practicing horseback riding with Uncle Li a few times, Yan Zhen even gave him some pointers, and the two quickly became close friends despite their age difference.
From the conversation, Yan Zhen learned that Uncle Li worked at a funeral home as an embalmer, whose daily work involved cleaning, restoring, and beautifying the bodies.
When it comes to his job, Uncle Li speaks eloquently.
He has been in this line of work for over thirty years and has seen tens of thousands of people pass away.
For those who die of natural causes, only the body needs to be cleaned and dressed for burial. However, for those who die unnaturally, such as in a car accident or falling from a building and whose bodies are mutilated, the body needs to be assembled, filled, and stitched together so that these unfortunate people can complete their final journey with dignity.
Having worked in a funeral home, Uncle Li has witnessed all walks of life, and when he talks about these things, he has a detached sense of detachment from everything.
Yan Zhen initially viewed these events as other people's experiences. One weekend, she went horseback riding with Uncle Li. Midway through the ride, Uncle Li received an urgent call to work overtime. The funeral home wanted him to come over immediately.
The equestrian club is located in a somewhat remote area, with only one bus passing by every forty minutes on average, and taxis are even rarer.
Uncle Li called a ride-hailing car through a ride-hailing platform, but the nearest ride-hailing car would take more than 20 minutes to arrive.
Seeing that Uncle Li was extremely anxious, Yan Zhen simply borrowed a motorcycle from an instructor at the equestrian club who liked riding motorcycles, and rode Uncle Li to the funeral home.
Upon arriving at the funeral home, Uncle Li changed into his work clothes and went about his business. Before leaving, he reminded Yan Zhen to be careful on his way back.
These past few days, Yan Zhen had heard a lot from Uncle Li about things related to the funeral home. Listening to the mournful music and cries coming from the farewell hall, and smelling the burning paper money in the air, she did not leave immediately, but instead walked in the direction Uncle Li had left.
Yan Zhen walked down a long corridor and saw a door with the words "Corpse Restoration Room" on it. Outside the door, an elderly couple with gray hair were supporting each other.
The two were pale-faced, their eyes filled with despair and hopelessness. They huddled together on the bench, looking like statues whose spirit and soul had been drained.
Yan Zhen sat down on the bench opposite them and began to wait for Uncle Li.
She waited from morning till evening, until the sun went down, before Uncle Li and another mortician finally came out of the restoration room.
Upon seeing Yan Zhen, Uncle Li was somewhat surprised, but his gaze quickly shifted from Yan Zhen to the elderly couple. He removed his mask and said to them, "Family members, please accept our condolences. You may go in and say goodbye now."
The elderly couple exchanged a glance, then rose shakily and followed another mortician into the restoration room.
A short while later, the sound of an old man crying his heart out came from inside.
Even though Uncle Li was used to seeing such scenes, he still couldn't help but sigh.
He walked up to Yan Zhen: "Xiao Yan, what are you still doing here?"
"Anyway, I'm fine with nothing else, I'll wait for you," Yan Zhen said. "It's hard to get a taxi around here, and you didn't drive here today. Are you done with your work? I'll take you home."
Uncle Li was deeply moved: "Wait for me a little longer, I'll go change my clothes, and then we'll go eat together."
A moment later, Yan Zhen rode his motorcycle and took Uncle Li away from the funeral home.
The two found a noodle shop to eat noodles. Uncle Li talked about the elderly couple and the body in the restoration room. He said helplessly, "It was the old man's son. He graduated from a prestigious university, had a decent job, a car and a house, but he suffered from depression. He jumped from the 32nd floor without giving himself any chance to regret it. His body was shattered beyond recognition... A young man who was not even thirty years old. It's pitiful."
Yan Zhen picked at the noodles with his chopsticks, and frowned as he thought of the despondent look on the faces of the elderly couple outside the repair room.
Uncle Li thought she was disgusted, so he quickly said, "Let's not talk about this anymore, let's eat noodles, let's eat noodles!"
Yan Zhen explained, "Please don't misunderstand, I'm not afraid, I just feel..."
Uncle Li recalled how attentive Yan Zhen usually was when he talked about his experience working at the funeral home. Convinced she wasn't just trying to comfort him, he breathed a sigh of relief and smiled as he continued, "What do you think?"
"This way of dying is too horrible," Yan Zhen said in a low voice.
"There's nothing we can do about it. If someone is driven to suicide, they must be exhausted, too exhausted to care about what happens after they die."