Folk customs begin with the entire funeral procession

Chapter 44 Carrying the Corpse into the Mountains
The phrase "the dead are the greatest men" eased Xie Songde's furrowed brows.

He really didn't expect that Chen Miao, such a young man, would still adhere to the principles of the older generation in this industry.

Compared to Chen Miao, Mr. Du, the owner of Fushou Funeral Home, is so old, yet he's completely obsessed with money.

"In that case, I'll leave my father's matter to Mr. Chen."

Chen Miao stood up and shook hands with Xie Songde.

Afterwards, Chen Miao and Xie Songde signed an agreement in which Chen Miao would provide Xie Songde with a hearse and services for transporting and preserving the body, and would deliver the body intact to the Shannan Funeral Home. Xie Songde would pay 100,000 yuan for this and pay half of the deposit in advance.

After the agreement was signed, Chen Miao contacted Jiao Zhiyong, the only remaining hearse driver at Tianmen Funeral Home, and told him what to do next.

It was already 11 a.m., and by the time they arrived at their destination, it would be late, and they probably wouldn't be able to return until tomorrow.

Therefore, Chen Miao also needs to make arrangements for how to handle situations where a vehicle is needed during this period.

After that, Chen Miao prepared a coffin weighing no more than 20 kilograms. Considering that the old man had been dead for two days when he was brought to the coffin, Chen Miao also prepared some preservatives, alcohol and other items to stuff into the coffin.

This time he planned to take three people with him: himself, his driver, salesman Kong Fang, and gatekeeper Cao Jun.

After all, the road is difficult to walk on, so it's better to have two more people taking turns carrying it.

Chen Miao didn't choose these three people randomly; he would give each of them 10,000 yuan as a reward for their hard work.

The reason for seeking out Kong Fang was not only because he was the one who took on the job, but also because he frequently traveled for business, was in good physical condition, and could withstand physical strain.

The reason for seeking out Cao Jun, the gatekeeper at the west gate, was also because of his good physical condition.

Moreover, only hearses usually come and go from the west gate. Now that the hearse has left, it is unlikely that any more vehicles will come from the west gate, so calling Cao Jun away will not cause any problems.

As for the driver, Jiao Zhiyong, he was happy to carry someone for 10,000 yuan since he was going to do a job anyway.

After Chen Miao had arranged everything, the group of five set off.

Before leaving, Chen Miao put the wooden box where he stored the talismans and the corpse-controlling bell into his bag along with "Notes on Becoming a God in the Mortal World".

The main idea is to be prepared!
……

An hour later, Chen Miao and the others arrived at the village where Xie Songde had parked his car.

After parking the hearse, the group carried the coffin into the mountains.

The road into the mountains wasn't the primitive kind, covered entirely in grass; it was a path that had been waded through long ago.

Nevertheless, after walking for an hour, Chen Miao and the other three who were taking turns carrying the coffin all felt the difficulty of walking on the mountain road.

When Xie Songde and his group went in, they took more than five hours because they walked around and relaxed at the same time.

Chen Miao and his group were faster, but it still took them nearly four hours!
This is still just carrying an empty coffin. If the old man is put into the coffin later, we need to be careful to keep it balanced. We can't let him bump around inside, can we?
The return trip will probably take more than five hours!
Approaching Qingshi Village, Chen Miao took a long look at it from afar.

The village has about forty or fifty households. Due to the mountainous terrain, the houses are not as close together as those in other villages.

Each household in Qingshi Village is separated by some open space, and you can roughly tell from the vegetables grown on those open spaces.

Which households are occupied, and which are not?

There were probably four or five unoccupied houses. Although it wasn't as lively as the villages outside the mountains, it didn't feel desolate either.

I glanced at the time; it was already 5:30 PM, and there was still more than an hour before it got dark.

As we entered the village, we passed by those houses.

Almost every household has an elderly person sitting in front of their door, either doing handicrafts, chatting with others, or picking vegetables.

As Chen Miao sized up the elderly people, they were also sizing him up with curiosity in their eyes.

Of course, the curiosity wasn't about Chen Miao and the others, but about the coffin.

“This happened rather suddenly. I’ve already sent my family and the children back home. My brother-in-law is the only one there looking after the old man. Mr. Chen, you can stay in the room my family used to stay in.”

"We're almost there," Xie Songde said to Chen Miao, turning to him.

“Alright, but it’s been almost two days since the old man was placed in the coffin. Although the temperature in the mountains isn’t high, it’s still best to take some preservative measures first.” Chen Miao thought for a moment and then said, “It would be even better if we could buy a cotton quilt. I saw on the way here that there should still be gaps in the coffin when the old man is placed in it, so he will be jostled around. Filling the gaps in the coffin with a cotton quilt will help stabilize the old man’s body and make things better.”

"Okay, I'll listen to you on this. I'll figure out a way to get the quilt."

As Xie Songde spoke, he pointed to a house and said, "We've arrived."

As soon as they arrived at the door of that house, Chen Miao and the others heard a commotion coming from inside.

Xie Songde was taken aback and hurriedly went inside.

Chen Miao left Kong Fang and Jiao Zhiyong to watch over the coffin outside, while he led the tall and burly Cao Jun inside.

"If you don't give me the money, I'll burn your body to the ground!"

As soon as Chen Miao entered, he heard this sentence.

Looking up, Xie Songde was standing next to another middle-aged man wearing glasses in the courtyard.

Both of them were now filled with anger.

Opposite them stood four men in their thirties, with a sleazy and uncouth air.

"Don't go too far!"

The bespectacled man pointed to a bald man with his arms crossed at the head of the group and said.

"Excessive? You've kept a corpse in my house for two days, and I demand 30,000 yuan a day. You think that's excessive?"

"Do you know how angry my mother was when she found out there was a body in the room? I think 30,000 yuan is too little for you!"

"If you don't give me money, I'll burn the body to get rid of bad luck for my mother."

The bald man said slowly.

"You're taking advantage of our misfortune!"

The bespectacled man was furious.

Upon hearing this, the bald man squinted at the bespectacled man and sneered, "Robbery? Just tell me if you're going to give it or not."

After he finished speaking, three other men behind the bald man approached, each with a cigarette in their mouth and shouting.

"No money? Then don't even think about taking the body away!"

"Why pretend to be rich when you have no money? And charging 10,000 yuan per person to carry a corpse?"

"Hehe, if you ask me, we should just burn it. Everyone's happy!"

These words stung the bespectacled man.

Seeing that the bespectacled man was about to make a move, Xie Songde reached out and pressed him down.

Xie Songde looked at the bald man with a gloomy face.

"Thirty thousand it is, we'll leave first thing tomorrow morning."

"Hehe, the boss is so generous. But if we leave tomorrow, the body will be left overnight, which will cost another 30,000, making it 90,000!"

"Okay, let's round it up to 100,000 and I'll treat you to a good meal tomorrow."

Xie Songde looked at the bald man's greedy expression but didn't say much, only nodded.

"Haha, then boss, you should get some rest. I'll let you use this room for another night."

Seeing that Xie Songde agreed, the bald man walked out of his yard with a smile and his friends.

When passing by Chen Miao and Cao Jun, he only glanced at Cao Jun's slightly robust physique before leaving with his arms around his friends.

……

P.S.: If you have any monthly tickets, please consider casting them. This book isn't very popular, so monthly tickets are quite useful. Thanks!
(End of this chapter)