Chapter 9: Picking Up Bones
Master Liu from the urn room came in and scared me. He walked without making any sound.
"Master Ke, a friend of mine's grandfather passed away. Could you please help take care of him? Here's ten dollars."
He put the money on the table.
"Master Liu, we don't need this. Just take the money back. This is absolutely fine."
"This is the rule, you don't understand."
Master Liu is gone. Rules? What rules?
I didn’t understand. When I got home, my father had already prepared dinner.
"Dad, do you want a drink? I'll go buy some wine."
"good."
I came back with some wine and sat down to drink, and my father asked me.
"Did you give the money to Bai Jie?"
"Well, she took her father to see a doctor."
We never mentioned this matter again after that. When I told my father that he should find a partner, he glared at me.
After my mother left, my father has been single. I don’t know why he didn’t look for a partner. Maybe he felt sorry for me. But in this life, I owe my father too much.
The next day, as soon as I entered the office, Master Liu came in.
"That's the guy on stage one."
"I understand. I will clean the stove. Don't worry."
I entered the crematorium, lit the furnace, sat aside and lit a cigarette as usual, then went into the morgue, carried the body carried by number one onto the car, climbed in, and lifted the shroud. It was an old man in his eighties. After he was sent in, I stood aside and watched.
The master came in suddenly and scared me.
"Why are you here?"
"Where's Bai Jie?"
I told the master.
"Oh, well, when you finish your work today, come over to my place."
"office?"
"right."
The master went out, and his tone made me feel a little nervous. It seemed that something had happened.
I finished the work at around one o'clock, changed my clothes, and went into my master's office.
"master."
"Let's go eat."
The master said as we were drinking.
"I'll go outside the city with you tomorrow."
"What's up?"
"You'll know when the time comes."
I don't know what the master is doing, but judging by his expression, he seems very serious.
It's almost April, and it's still very cold in the north.
My master and I set off early. I sat in the back of the master's second-class car. After riding for more than an hour, we entered a village.
There were two old men waiting for us in the village.
The master waved to them, and the two of them led us up the mountain. When they arrived at a grave, they stopped. I kept wondering, what was the master going to do?
In fact, I know very little about my master, or even say that I don’t understand my master.
They were whispering something to the master, but I couldn't hear it. After a while, the master nodded, and the two of them went down the mountain.
"Ke Zuo, Master brought you here today to collect the bones. The ancestral tomb of this family was robbed, and the bones are incomplete. They asked me to collect the bones in their entirety."
I was stunned. They could have picked up everything themselves! Why did they have to ask the master to do it?
"Some of these bones were thrown away and couldn't be found, so let me look for them."
They can't find it, but the master can? This is weird.
The master cleaned up the dug-up grave and picked out the bones. It was the first time I saw the bones of a dead person. The master didn't wear gloves. He picked them out piece by piece and then put them on display. My scalp tingled as I watched.
The master arranged it very familiarly.
"There are two bones missing, one is the leg bone and the other is the pubic bone."
"Where are we going to look for it?"
The master ignored me, took out a cigarette and lit it, and I don’t know what he was thinking about.
The master's bone-retrieving process left me feeling dazed and strange. I had no idea how the master would find the bones.
The master stood up and walked away. I followed him. Half an hour later, the master stopped by the river and looked at the river. It was a small river that came from the mountains. The river had thawed at this time of year.
"Go down, that's the spot."
I looked at my master. At that time, my master was like a father. If he told you to get into the frying pan, you wouldn't dare to say no. You should respect your master like a father.
I took off my shoes and rolled up my trouser legs. The river water was freezing and I shivered. I walked to the place the master pointed out and reached out to fish. I actually pulled up the leg bone.
I went up and put on my shoes. The master asked me to hold the leg bone and continue walking. I walked around the mountain for most of the way and searched in a pile of weeds for a long time before I found .
I was so amazed, it seemed as if the master had put it there himself.
We walked back to the corpse and put them together. Sure enough, the corpse was complete.
I was completely bewildered by what had happened. I couldn't make any sense of it. First, why were two pieces of this person's bones discarded? Second, how had the master found these two bones so accurately?
The owner of that house came and after seeing the whole skeleton, he knelt down and cried. My master and I stood aside, and my master was smoking a cigarette.
A few minutes later, the family collected the bones and gave the master money.
My master and I returned to the village, said the master.
"One hundred dollars, fifty for you and fifty for me."
The master handed me fifty yuan and I shook my head.
"Master, I don't want it."
"Here."
The master said loudly, which scared me. I reached out and took it. In just a moment, one hundred yuan, one hundred yuan, I was a little bit unbelieving.
The master got on the bike and I sat in the second class.
When I got home that day, I was also in a daze, as if everything that happened that day was like a dream.
The next day, when I went to work, I entered the office and Bai Jie had already arrived. She had changed her clothes and the office was clean. There was a pot of flowers on my desk. I had never thought of growing any flowers or plants here.
"Your father..."
"The surgery is over. My mother is with me! The doctor said that once it recovers, it will be back to normal. Master, here's some hot soy milk."
Bai Jie brought the soy milk to my table in an iron cup. I was puzzled as to how she brought it here. It wasn't cold yet. I glanced at Bai Jie and said nothing.
The soy milk is very fragrant and I feel very comfortable drinking it. I didn’t eat breakfast when I got up in the morning.
Entering the crematorium, Bai Jie lit the furnace and said.
"Master, when can I help you transport the body?"
"You can't do this job."
"Why?"
"My master told me this, but I don't know the reason."
Bai Jie looked at me blankly.
"Work."
Bai Jie is in good spirits. It seems her father is fine. I feel relieved.
We finished it at noon, said Bai Jie.
"Master, I'll treat you to a meal."
"Okay, I'll treat you, and then go see your father."
I thought, I am a master, I need to do this, a master should act like a master.
"Just wait until you're discharged from the hospital! You'll be discharged in five or six days."
"Okay, then you don't have to come these few days. I can do it myself."
"It's okay, my mother can take care of it."
After Bai Jie and I had dinner, I went home. My father was not at home, so I went to sleep.
When my father came back, I woke up immediately. I don’t know why, but I always get woken up by some very small noises during this period of time.
My father carried the vegetables and I got up and cooked them.
"Okay, let me do it. Your cooking is terrible."
My father cooks while I read, all of them are his books. I seldom read before, but now I actually like reading. I guess I have nothing to do.
When I was drinking with my father, my father said.
"I'll introduce you to someone from our unit tomorrow."
I was stunned for a moment.
"Have I told anyone about my situation?"
"Yes."
"I mean, I burned people to death."
"What burns people to death? It's the refiner, the one who sends people to heaven, the most noble and great person."
I thought to myself, I am your son. If I were not your son, you would stay away from me.
The next day was Saturday, a day that had never happened before in my life.
Blind dates were a must in that era. Even if two people met each other, they would find a matchmaker, as if that was the only way to make it formal.
The girl was pretty and quiet. We ate and chatted, and then I said.
"I work in a crematorium, burning people to death."
The girl's eyes suddenly widened and she stared at me in amazement. After a long time, she came to her senses and ran away. The introducer and my father stared at me in shock.
I went home and was scolded by my father.
"You can't hide this. I won't do anything deceiving."
My father was speechless. This was probably the first time in his life that he had lied to someone.
The weather is getting warmer and people are feeling much more comfortable.
Bai Jie had actually changed into spring clothes in advance. When I went in, she was there, having packed everything up.
"Why don't you change your clothes?"
Bai Jie stood up and looked at me shyly.
"The clothes are beautiful."
After I said that, she laughed.
We entered the crematorium and the procedures were still the same.
It didn't end until the afternoon.
We came out and the master was in the office.
"Something's going on tonight."
The master left after he finished speaking. After the master left, Bai Jie said.
"He's a little scary."
I didn't say anything. I went to my master's house in the evening. He was already waiting at the door. When he saw me coming, he got in the car and left. I sat in the second class and didn't ask where I was going.
We arrived at a room in the east of the city. There were quite a few people standing there. As we walked over, a man came over.
"Master Yun, I'm sorry to trouble you with this matter."
My master and I were taken into a yard. The lights in the yard were on. It was getting dark at this time. There were bones lying on the ground in the yard. I thought, the master will always be inseparable from these bones. This is what I came to find the master for, what else could it be?
"All of you, get out!"
The person has gone out, said the master.
"When the graves were moved on the eastern mountain, the two graves were too close to each other, so they rolled over and the two bodies became mixed up."
I thought to myself, how can I sort it out if it gets messy? The dead can't talk.
The master didn't say anything. He squatted down and picked up the bones, arranging them bit by bit. Half an hour later, the two skeletons were arranged out. I thought to myself, who is the least aware of what is right and wrong? If it were now, they would have been burned to ashes, so what's the point of picking them up?
People from both families came in and picked up the bones respectively.
The master got 200 yuan that day and gave me 100 yuan. I said I didn’t want anything, so he yelled at me.
I've never understood this. Just two piles of bones jumbled together, and even my family couldn't tell them apart, but the master could? I think they probably believed that the master was a refiner and were just seeking psychological comfort.
During the Qingming Festival, many people offer sacrifices.
I went to the crematorium and couldn't sleep that night because I couldn't figure out why the master had picked up the bones.
I entered the crematorium and the master looked at me.
"Why are you here?"
"Master, there is one thing I just don't understand. If I don't understand it, I feel uneasy."
The master glanced at Yi He and Yi He left.
Yi He was never accepted as my master's apprentice and was very unhappy. He talked to the director several times, and the director also talked to the master, but the master just didn't agree and didn't say why.
"explain."
"The bone-picking incident."
"Actually, it's very simple. I always stay here. Remember, everyone has their own smell, even the dead, and bones. The smell will never go away, so you will always smell the smell of bones, just like everyone else."
I was stunned. Was what the master said true? I had never smelled it, but people said that if you stayed here for a long time, you would smell like a dead person. I believed that, but did bones have a smell too?
"Okay, don't stay here, get out."
I came out of the crematorium and was walking on the street when I met my classmates.
"Ke Zuo."
He called me, I turned around and saw it was my classmate, so I stopped.
"What are you doing now?"
"Oh, that's fine. Just hang out all day."
We chatted for a while, then he left. I didn't dare tell anyone I'd burned someone to death. Word would spread quickly among my classmates, and they'd probably avoid me and stop calling me when they saw me. I didn't want to lose all this. Perhaps it was important to me, but how could I face it? This was the dilemma I faced. I'll face many more, many more, even those with no solutions, that I'll have to endure on my own.
When I went to Bai Jie's house, I found that her father had returned home early because of money. I could see that.
I sat down and chatted for a while. It seemed that Bai Jie's father was in good condition, so I took out a hundred yuan.
"I just got out of the hospital, and I have a lot of money to spend."
Bai Jie stood aside without saying anything, and her parents became anxious and said they didn't want anything.
"Dad, Mom, just accept what the master gives you!"
Bai Jie actually said this, and I understand what she meant.
Bai Jie walked me out and said in a low voice.
"Master, if I really can't pay you back, you have to use me as collateral."
Bai Jie said half-jokingly, I know what that means.
That day, when I went home, I was thinking about Bai Jie. Actually, I also like Bai Jie. In that case, I would date Bai Jie. There shouldn't be any problem with that. At least we are both refiners, and neither of us would dislike the other.
