Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Early the next morning, we met up in Bamboo Grove Village, Taihe County.
As the name suggested, the village was famous for its moso bamboo. Emerald stalks covered the mountains, forests, and valleys. When the wind swept through, waves of green rolled and surged across the hillsides.
The few of us stood in the bamboo grove while Song Feifei used foundation to make Jiang Haoyan’s face look sallow, then thickened his eyebrows. Finally, she nodded in satisfaction.
“Okay. That should do it.”
Jiang Haoyan checked himself in the mirror and sighed, shaking his head.
“Why am I still so handsome? Are they really going to believe I’m a bone collector?”
I rolled my eyes.
“The moment a man realizes he’s good-looking is the beginning of his downfall. Have you forgotten that guy in showbiz?
“Even if you’re just a paper man, you still need to stay vigilant!”
Jiang Haoyan jumped in fright.
“Sorry, sorry. My bad. I’m not handsome.”
Lu Lingzhu swung the bamboo basket in her hand.
“All right, enough. Let’s hurry up and collect the bones for them, then go pick mushrooms. I can’t believe I actually bought your nonsense!”
Last night, as soon as we arrived in Taihe County, I contacted another local bone collector, Old Zhou.
Old Zhou was getting on in years and had already washed his hands of the business. But then something happened to Chen Junzhao. There were still several funerals in the area, all with dates fixed in advance, so the villagers had no choice but to ask Old Zhou to step in as an emergency replacement.
Old Zhou’s first reaction was to refuse. Even Chen Junzhao had gotten into trouble-how could he dare take on another job?
He was being pestered to no end when I came to his door and said I was willing to do the bone collection, as long as he recommended me to the villagers. He agreed immediately.
According to the previous arrangement, the family who needed bones collected today was a Liu household in Bamboo Grove Village.
The Liu family grave was in the bamboo grove on the back mountain. By the time we arrived, members of their clan had already dug up the soil.
“Are you… Master Jiang, the one Master Zhou mentioned?
“You’re so young?”
Liu Nengshan stood off to the side with a frown. When he saw that several of us were girls, his expression darkened even further.
“Why did you bring so many outsiders?”
Jiang Haoyan nodded expressionlessly.
“They are all my assistants. Since everyone is here, have the eldest son open the coffin first.”
Although he was young, he hadn’t gotten a single step of the procedure wrong. Liu Nengshan’s expression eased a little. It had to-on such short notice, his family had no other bone collector to call on.
“Fine. Uncle, raise the coffin first-”
At Liu Nengshan’s order, several older men turned the pulley, and a pitch-black coffin was slowly hoisted up from underground.
The instant Lu Lingzhu and I saw the coffin, our faces changed.