As I scrolled through the densely packed red missed call list on Bai Yang's phone screen, my heart sank.
Previously, in order to boost the funeral home's business, I asked many people in the underworld to help with promotion, and it seems that the promotion has indeed been very effective.
It's also possible that several people who had previously contacted our funeral home and whose problems we had successfully resolved voluntarily started advertising for us.
But lately I've been so busy I haven't had a moment to myself, and I haven't been able to attend to the funeral home's affairs. I'm afraid my reputation will be ruined.
A funeral home that supposedly solves problems for people—when you call them, no one answers the phone...
If it were me, and a family had a major emergency, and this happened, I'd probably hate that funeral home.
Of course, this is an extreme case. Most people, after finding that they can't get through to our funeral home by phone, will probably choose to go to another funeral home.
"How about we pick one and fight back?" Li Huai's voice sounded a little weak.
At that moment, I developed an ostrich mentality. It's all Li Huai's fault. If it weren't for him, we wouldn't have remembered this matter, and we wouldn't have been under so much pressure.
Li Huai clearly realized this, as if he had opened Pandora's box. Although it wasn't really his fault, he still couldn't help but feel a little guilty.
He shrank back, silently trying to make himself less noticeable, while Luo Tianhe spoke:
"We can't just call back any random number, I think we should choose this one,"
As he spoke, he pointed to a number on his phone screen that started with 189.
I looked at him, signaling him to explain his reasoning.
"This number 189 just called half an hour ago, and has called at least 10 times already. Such persistence means they probably have a very good impression of our funeral home, and there must be a really urgent matter at home."
Luo Tianhe's observations were very thorough, and what he said made a lot of sense.
I nodded, dialed the number, and put it on speakerphone.
The phone was answered after only one ring, the speed was almost superhuman. I was a little surprised, and Luo Tianhe and the other guy were also stunned.
"Is this Yanhe Huai Funeral Home? God, you finally called back! Please save my family!"
Before I could even speak, an extremely anxious male voice came from the other end of the phone. He spoke very quickly, his voice was hoarse and tired, and there was a hint of nervousness in it.
The three of us exchanged glances. I cleared my throat, trying to make my voice sound as steady as possible:
"Um, sir, please don't be in such a hurry. How did you find out about Yanhehuai Funeral Home?"
“A relative of mine told me about this. He seems to have come here for help before, saying that you are very effective. My situation is indeed very urgent. Please help us. We are willing to pay any amount of money!”
The man's voice was almost breaking down in tears.
Have you ever come here for help before?
It's normal for them to have this reaction after witnessing my abilities.
"Don't panic, tell me, what exactly happened?"
"Something terrible has happened in my family. That thing won't leave. It wants us all to die!" the man said incoherently.
"I already told you, don't rush, tell me slowly what it is and where it is!" I tried my best to calm him down and gestured for Luo Tianhe to bring me paper and pen.
"Yes, he's my father!" The man gasped for breath, his voice lowered as if afraid of being overheard.
His father?
Upon hearing this, Luo Tianhe, Li Huai, and I exchanged bewildered glances. What had this kid done to deserve such torment from his father after his death?
Is he an unfilial son?
The man's voice continued to come from the other end of the phone.
“My father passed away half a month ago. We held a funeral for him according to the customs of our hometown and then sent him to Yong’an Funeral Home in the south of the city for cremation. But since that day, the whole family has been in chaos!”
He began to recount the story in fits and starts. The man's name was Zhao Jianguo. He wasn't a local; he came from a rural area. His father, Zhao Laoshuan, was brought from the countryside to live in the city by him. He was very stubborn and insisted on traditional customs.
Hearing this, I was a little confused.
The person who was willing to bring his father from the countryside to live in the city must not be a heartless and unfilial son. Why would his father torment him like this after his death?
So much so that he was terrified and made more than a dozen phone calls to us.
He continued,
“Before my father passed away, he specifically instructed that I must send him back to his hometown, otherwise his soul would be restless. But I didn’t believe in those things at the time! Besides, my hometown is extremely far away. Going back would mean taking time off work, not to mention the inconvenience of burning paper money for him or anything else. So I agreed on the surface, but I had already made up my mind to cremate him.”
Is that how it is?
To be fair, there was nothing wrong with what he did.
Perhaps to a normal person, his method is the most correct, but he overlooked the older generation's belief in returning to dust.
"The tragedy happened in my family on the very night after the funeral and the body was taken to the funeral home," Zhao Jianguo said, his voice trembling.
"First, my three-year-old son pointed to an empty corner of the wall and cried in the middle of the night, saying that his grandfather had come back to find him, but he was covered in blood, which was very scary."
"Then it was my wife. She was asleep in the middle of the night when she felt someone touching her ankle. It was ice cold. I thought she was having a nightmare, but when I turned on the light, I saw a clear bluish-black handprint on her ankle!"
"And then things that were perfectly fine in the house started moving inexplicably, and in the middle of the night we heard the sound of chopping bones in the kitchen. But when we mustered up the courage to go in and check, there was nothing there! But that's not the scariest thing, the scariest thing is my father's portrait!"
These things were already eerie enough, but in his opinion, they weren't even the most eerie. This made even someone as experienced as me feel a chill run down my spine.
Luo Tianhe and Li Huai couldn't help but take a step back, wanting to move further away from the telephone receiver.
Zhao Jianguo paused, his fear almost overflowing from the receiver:
“You don’t know, the portrait of my father that was displayed in the funeral hall, no matter which way we turned it or where we put it, the next day, the photo would definitely appear in our bedroom! Its eyes would be staring straight at the head of everyone’s bed in the family.”
Li Huai couldn't help but shiver and moved closer to me.
"Have you contacted the funeral home? Is there anything unusual? Was your father's body cremated or not?!"
I frowned and pressed for an answer.
"I did contact them! With something this serious happening, how could I not contact them!" Zhao Jianguo's tone became agitated, with a hint of anger.
"The people at the funeral home were stammering and wouldn't say anything at first, just saying everything was normal. I didn't believe them at all!"
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