The first thing I did was to find out

Chapter 581 A Unique Funeral (Bonus chapter for the Alliance Leader's donation from Feng Huo Lian!)

Funeral work is complicated and tedious.

If it weren't for Zhou Hu's professional team, Qin Huai wouldn't even dare to imagine what Luo Jun's funeral would have turned out like. It can only be said that Luo Jun's foresight in preparing for his funeral so far in advance was remarkable.

Although the funeral arrangement was a bit strange.

There was no specific date for Luo Jun's funeral, or rather, there was no memorial service. In Luo Jun's words, he disliked the idea of ​​his body lying in an ice coffin after he died, surrounded by a group of people saying insincere words of condolence. He wasn't a good person, and he wasn't popular. How many people would genuinely feel sad and regretful about his death?

Funerals are lively with many people; those who come should remember to give red envelopes (cash gifts).

Of course, Luo Jun didn't show favoritism; he gave everyone who attended the funeral an equal opportunity to become rich.

Two scratch cards per person per day.

Yes, two tickets per person per day.

After the funeral home proceedings are completed, and everyone moves to the branch venue to watch plays, crosstalk, and operas, Zhou Hu's team will distribute scratch-off lottery tickets. Considering that Luo Jun bought a huge number of scratch-off tickets worth 88 yuan, if the number distributed in the early stages is too small, it will obviously not be distributed all. On the last day, the distribution will be increased to 2-6 tickets per hour, until all are distributed.

This unusual funeral arrangement left the residents of Yunzhong Community, who rushed to the funeral home with red envelopes in hand, completely bewildered.

With a red envelope in one hand and a scratch-off lottery ticket in the other, someone who didn't know better would think they were there to buy a scratch-off lottery ticket.

Those who arrived that day were mostly residents of Yunzhong Community. Although at least 50% of the residents of Yunzhong Community had never met Luo Jun, as a well-known lonely elderly man in Yunzhong Community, every resident of the community, even those in kindergarten, had heard of his name.

In addition, Luo Jun is a close confidant of Qin Huai, so regardless of whether they have a personal relationship with Luo Jun, everyone is willing to support him in this situation out of respect for Qin Huai.

In fact, everyone thinks the same way: what relatives and friends could Luo Jun, an old man living alone, have? He was all alone when he was alive, and it would be so pitiful if his funeral was also cold and desolate after he died.

Everyone who arrived at the funeral home with this idea in mind was stunned.

Since Luo Junqian had arrived, Zhou Hu's team set up a small table at the entrance of the funeral home to register the names of those who came to pay their respects and the amount of their red envelopes, while also distributing scratch-off lottery tickets.

Li Liang, the owner of the convenience store across from the Yunzhong Canteen who never knocks when boiling tea eggs, came to the funeral home by carpooling, hoping to support the business and subtly curry favor with Chef Qin, in case Chef Qin remembered him and secretly gave him special treatment in the future. He bought three rice wine buns and packed them into three bags for Chef Qin.

Yes, carpooling.

Carpooling was necessary, Li Liang explained, as the funeral home was too far from the city center, and his convenience store was just a small business. If it weren't for his silver tongue, which persuaded three other convenience store owners to join him in this effort to impress Master Qin, he would have lost all his money today, including the round-trip fare and the red envelope money.

Li Liang had never attended a funeral before.

Seeing a small table set up right at the entrance of the funeral home to register gift money made me a little uneasy. I quietly asked my companion, "Is 300 yuan a bit too little for us?"

The convenience store run by my companion is located downstairs in an office building. Business is good and funds are plentiful. Hearing Li Liang say this, he gave him a look that seemed to say, "Who else would spend 300 like you?" and said, "I spent 500."

Li Liang: ...

The other person exclaimed in surprise: "What? You've packed so many? I only packed 200!"

Just as the fourth person was about to speak, his phone rang. He pressed the answer button, and Zhang Shumei's voice came from the other end of the line:
"Hello, are you Mr. Liu Qiguang, the owner of 101 Convenience Store? I am a friend of Mr. Luo Jun. Mr. Luo Jun passed away at home at 10:40 this morning. If you have time, we hope you can come within the next three days..."

"..."

When Liu Qiguang hung up the phone, he was stunned: "Mr. Luo actually specifically asked me to attend the funeral. Was my 700 yuan too little?"

"You've got 700???" the other three screamed.

Then the screams were interrupted by the ringing of the phone. The three of them received the calls almost simultaneously from different people, but the content was the same: inviting them to attend Luo Jun's funeral at the funeral home within three days.

Now the four of them looked at each other in bewilderment.

Everyone looked at each other, then asked in unison, "Did we all pack too few?"

Do you have cash with you?

Ultimately, because everyone had limited cash on them, and the four of them were not allowed to give each other too much money to highlight their own wealth and belittle others, they could only distribute the amount of money in the red envelopes evenly, with each person putting 500 yuan in their envelope.

Four people lined up to register.

The person in charge of registration was a capable member of Zhou Hu's team, a young woman with a very good memory. When she saw the four names, she instinctively asked, "Hello, did you four come by yourselves or did you receive a call..."

"We just received a call," Li Liang answered quickly.

The little girl rummaged through the basket behind her, found four envelopes based on the names, and handed them to four people in turn. Then she gave each person two scratch-off lottery tickets. "Go straight into Mr. Luo Jun's mourning hall and turn left after seeing the road sign. As per Mr. Luo Jun's instructions, he did not want guests to worship him or burn incense, so there are no kneeling cushions in the mourning hall. If you want to take photos to post on WeChat Moments, please take them nicely; this is also Mr. Luo Jun's last wish."

Four people:? ? ?
"There are two tables in the funeral hall specifically for scratch-off lottery tickets, with scratch card tools on them. If you win a prize, you can go to the room on the right side of the funeral hall to claim it."

"At the same time, hot dishes, desserts and fruits are served 24 hours a day in the mourning hall. The dishes are in the room on the left side of the mourning hall and you can help yourself. If there is a shortage of dishes, you can ask the staff to replenish them at any time. As for drinks, we currently have hot tea, cola, Sprite, water, lemon tea and juice. Drinking beverages is not allowed in the mourning hall at the moment. Please understand that it will be inconvenient to clean up if they are spilled."

"There are four mahjong machines and two PS5s in the inner room of the funeral hall. The movies and TV series played on the TV were selected by Mr. Luo before his death and cannot be changed."

“In addition, starting tomorrow, we will set up a stage in Wangjia Village, 120 kilometers away from the city. There will be continuous drama, crosstalk, opera, stand-up comedy and song and dance performances from 10 am to 9 pm. The venue there is larger and more diverse. Mr. Luo hopes that every guest who comes to pay their respects can go there to watch the show.”

“There are free shuttle buses at the entrance of Yunzhong Community every day at 8:00 AM, 10:00 AM, 1:00 PM, 3:00 PM, and 5:00 PM. You can take them as needed.”

The four people were completely dumbfounded.

The little girl was clearly used to this kind of reaction, and finally pointed to the envelope in their hands: "This is a gift from Mr. Luo. You can look at it after you scratch the prize."

After saying that, the little girl started fiddling with the recorder in her hand. She listened to a few sentences aloud and happily muttered to herself, "Great, I finally got it right this time."

Although the four people didn't understand why they had to scratch the lottery ticket before looking at it, they chose to do so. They took the envelope and the scratch-off ticket and followed the instructions to the funeral hall, only to find that the funeral hall had been transformed into a joyful sea of ​​people playing mahjong, watching TV, and scratching lottery tickets.

Even the music wasn't a funeral dirge.

They were playing rock music.

Four people:? ? ?
In the end, Li Liang exclaimed, "Mr. Luo really is...quite unique."

As the convenience store owner who had been scolded by Luo Jun several times for not cracking the tea eggs properly, Li Liang knew very well that Luo Jun was a very individualistic old man. The merchants in the Yunzhong residential area who had been scolded by Luo Jun all had complicated feelings towards him—a mixture of love and hate.

First of all, Luo Jun's swearing is really awful.

His negative reviews are truly terrible.

However, Luo Jun's negative reviews can bring in a lot of traffic, and as long as the negative reviews of the same level are not directed at him, he is happy to see them.

What in this world is more enjoyable than watching your peers get criticized?

Chen Huihong was completely absorbed in playing mahjong, oblivious to the world around her. Judging from her expression, she must have won a lot of money. In stark contrast to Chen Huihong was Qu Jing, who was playing so hard she was questioning the meaning of life.

Li Liang looked around and found that everyone was having a great time. Some people were taking photos and posting them on social media, while others were making videos.

Eating was not allowed inside the mourning hall, but it was permitted outside, which had become a large buffet, with everyone carrying a plate. The food looked quite good, including roasted lamb chops, roast duck, roast goose, char siu, braised pork, lion's head meatballs, deep-fried meatballs, and chicken stew with mushrooms. Desserts ranged from tiramisu to Basque cuisine, making Li Liang hungry.

Li Liang had reason to suspect that many people originally planned to come and give a red envelope as a token of respect and leave, but they were held up by the buffet, which is why there were still so many people in the mourning hall at 9 p.m., and the number of people might even increase.

Li Liang went and scratched the lottery ticket.

I was lucky and won 100 yuan.

Li Liang happily went to claim his prize, and after that, he went to eat, completely forgetting that he had actually come to attend someone else's funeral.

Just as Li Liang picked up his plate, he finally remembered that he had an envelope that he hadn't opened yet. So he took the envelope out of his pocket, opened it, and found a card inside. The card had only one sentence on it, which was written by Luo Jun himself.

[If you don't knock me when I boil tea eggs again, I'll knock your head off!]

There's not even any punctuation.

Li Liang smiled.

For some reason, tears welled up in Li Liang's eyes when he laughed.

Li Liang carefully placed the card into the envelope, then stuffed the envelope into his pocket.

Li Liang decided to eat more to make up for the white bread he had made today.

Just as he was putting the second roasted lamb chop onto his plate, Qin Huai's voice came from outside.

"The fermented rice buns are ready. Those who want to eat buns should eat them while they're hot. The tangerine peel tea will be ready in 10 minutes. Sister Hong, stop playing cards and come out to eat something."

"You've been playing mahjong all day. Qu Jing has almost lost her entire month's salary to you."

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(End of this chapter)