Volume 1 Chapter 057 Mortuary
I took a bite of the fragrant pancake and said with a smile, "This funeral home is a place to say goodbye to the dead. It's nothing special."
The uncle continued to shake his head: "You are young and ignorant. Other funeral homes may not be a big deal, but you can't go to Ronghua Funeral Home!"
I became curious: "Is there anything special about Ronghua Funeral Home? Why can't we go there?"
The uncle looked at me and said, "You are such a troublemaker. When someone dies here, they are usually sent to Changfu Funeral Home. No one goes to Ronghua Funeral Home."
I exclaimed, "Huh?" and said, "There's a funeral parlor in our Sanhua District?"
The uncle nodded and said, "Yes, cremation has become popular in recent years and business is booming."
I am just puzzled. A funeral home is not a restaurant. One is enough for each area. Sanhua District is not a big district. How can they open two at once?
The uncle groaned and said, "No one usually goes to Ronghua. But when someone dies, everyone sends them to Changfu."
I was even more confused. Funeral homes are not just any place. The basic specifications are similar. Why is there such a big difference? I asked, "Is it that Ronghua's service is particularly bad?"
The uncle shook his head and said, "I don't know about that. Anyway, I heard that the place is always deserted and has no business. It is full of ghosts and no good people should go there."
But in the end, after much persuasion, Uncle Pancake finally pointed out the location of Ronghua Funeral Home to me. After walking five or six miles out of here to the suburbs, I finally saw the Ronghua Funeral Home I was looking for next to a low grove of trees. The area was very empty, with few people and a rocky beach on both sides.
This is normal. Who would want to live near a funeral home?
I didn't meet many people along the way. It was very quiet. From time to time, I saw a few black crows flying over my head, making a few crow cries. Most people hate crows, but for me, I feel a sense of familiarity with them. Because they are very similar to people in our industry, they represent death, are tabooed by people, and wander on the edge of the gray world.
As we got closer, we could see the original appearance of the funeral home. It was a large area with buildings of different heights. It was surrounded by a dark yellow wall more than two people high. The wall was covered with vines such as creepers. At first glance, it looked lush and green. The wall was damp and dark, with thick moss at the base. There was a large iron door in the middle, which was rusty.
I stood outside the door and pushed the iron door. It banged and was locked from the inside. The iron door was cold and wet, as if it had been soaked in dew overnight.
This is a bit strange. It has been sunny every day these days, and the air is very dry, so there should be no dew at night. On the way here, many dead leaves were dried hard by the sun and could be ignited by a spark. Where did all the moisture on the iron gate come from?
Look at the wall again, there are also drops of water hanging on it.
I walked over and banged on the iron door a few times, shouting, "Is anyone there? Is anyone there?"
There was no response for a long time. I knocked a few more times, but the situation was still the same, there was no movement inside. I began to wonder if this funeral home had been abandoned, and if the job posting had expired long ago?
I took out the paper and read it again, confirming that the notice was posted more than half a month ago. I waited outside for a while, knocking on the door but no one answered. I couldn't just sit there and wait, so I climbed up the iron gate when I saw that there was no one around. The iron gate was only about two people high, so it was easy to climb over. But the iron bar was surprisingly cold when it touched my body, which was a bit strange.
After jumping down from the iron gate and landing inside the wall, I immediately felt a tightness in my chest and a cold air current rushing towards me. As I landed, it seemed to stir up a small whirlwind. I felt a chill on the back of my neck and a chill all over my body.
The tallest house here is only three stories high, and most of them are one-story bungalows. The walls are all dark yellow, a bit like the color of old paper. There is no special smell in the air, which is different from some funeral homes I have dealt with before.
The funeral homes I've been to before always have a smell of incense and candles after entering the door. Because there is always a place in the funeral home for the family members of the deceased to burn incense and mourn, light candles, burn some paper money and gold ingots, etc. But the smell of incense and candles is different from that in the temple, maybe it is mixed with the smell of the embers after the dead are refined.
But there is no such special smell here. When I breathe it into my nose, it is cool and has a hint of dampness. Standing inside and outside the wall, I can clearly feel two different temperatures.
It was already past seven o'clock, the sun had risen, and the temperature was quite high, but inside the wall, it was chilly. Even the sun in the sky seemed to have lost its power, and the sunlight that fell was soft.
I couldn't help but feel alert. The reason for this phenomenon is obviously due to the excessive yin energy in this place. My uncle and I have encountered similar situations before, but they were all special caves in some deep mountains. The cold air in this place is not formed naturally, but comes from the yin energy that seeps out from the ground.
This is different from the cold air caused by air conditioning or refrigerator. If a normal person stays in a place with excessive yin energy for a long time, he may become weak and sick at best, or mentally ill and have hallucinations at worst.
It seems that there is a reason why Ronghua Funeral Home has a slow business. Funeral homes are unlucky places to begin with. In addition, the yin energy is so strong that ordinary people will feel uncomfortable when they come here and avoid it as much as possible. Over time, how can business come to the door? I don't know what the people who built the funeral home were thinking when they chose such a place.
I walked around for a while, but didn't see anyone. If it weren't for the clean floor, which was obviously cleaned every day, I would have thought it was an abandoned place. I shouted a few times, but still no one responded, so I just wandered around casually.
We are in this business and we often go to funeral homes, so we are familiar with the layout inside. This Ronghua is obviously an old funeral home. The buildings are very old, probably because they have been used for many years. However, funeral homes have all the functions, and they are basically the same.
Although the building of Ronghua Funeral Home is old, it is very large. It took me quite some time to walk around. All the way, inside the whole wall, there is only a small bungalow in the northeast corner and a small piece of yellow mud in the southwest corner. The yin energy level seems to be normal, without that kind of gloomy feeling.
I couldn't help but feel a little confused, wondering if the entire funeral home was closed for the day? There wasn't a single person in sight. But even if it was a day off, there should have been someone on duty.
I walked around and saw a bungalow next to me. The door was painted dark red, which looked a bit bloody, as if it was painted with blood. It was really strange. Generally funeral homes are most taboo about using red, especially this bloody color.
Since I couldn't find anyone anyway, I took a few steps forward to see what kind of room this was. But when I got closer, I smelled a different smell.
It smells like cinnabar. It turns out that the door is not painted red, but cinnabar. In our industry, cinnabar is a common evil-repellent, and its uses are extremely wide. For example, some talismans for suppressing ghosts and exorcising evil spirits are mostly written with cinnabar. To be honest, this is the first time I have seen someone paint a door with cinnabar in a funeral home.
There was a wooden sign on the door, with two words written in black ink: "Mortuary."
Mortuary, in layman's terms, is a morgue. In our industry, most people are still accustomed to following the old customs and like to call it a mortuary. However, few funeral homes call mortuaries a mortuary now, because for the general public, this name is a little less intuitive.
I have always been most familiar with this place. Every time I received business, I would go to the morgue. I can say that I am very familiar with the place.
I accidentally pushed the door and it opened. The door was ajar and not locked.
I couldn't help but give it a bad review in my heart. Even such an important place as the morgue, they forgot to lock the door. It seems that the management of Ronghua is really not good.
