Chapter 7  “Fifth Youth”

Chen Maidong touched the cigarette in his pocket, “Why were you kicking me?”

     Zhuang Jie said, “Because I think you are great.”

     Chen Maidong glanced at her, bit his cigarette and nodded, heading towards the funeral home.

     Zhuang Jie followed him and asked, “Why didn’t you smile when the mayor praised you?”

     “Professional habit, I never smile.”

     “What professional habit?”

     “Oh. Understood.” Zhuang Jie understood instantly, “Facing dead bodies and mourning family members all day long, you really can’t laugh.”

     “You used to be very quiet and seldom talk.” Chen Maidong thought she was noisy.

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     “That’s just because you don’t have much affection for Nanping Town. You came here when you were fourteen.” Chen Maidong smashed out the cigarette butt with the toe of his shoe, and pointed to the industrial area. “A meat joint factory.”

     “Meat joint factory?”

     “Terraces have been planned on Xingshan Mountain, and tens of acres of yams have been planted in Yanggou Village. These are all made for their hometown by people working out of town. Many soil conditions are not good, and the town can only develop according to its conditions. Everyone gathering firewood makes a high flame, and the mayor’s meeting is also for this purpose.”

     Zhuang Jie looked at him for a long time, and then said, “You are really scary when you are serious.” After speaking, she lowered her head and flipped through the promotional coloring page in her hand. The second page was about the Introduction of the Yam, the advantages of the variety and the annual output, and the bottom says: Welcome to call and negotiate.

     “This yam has no advantage. The yam in Henan is so famous that there are several planting areas. And the planting areas in Shandong and Hubei…”

     “You recommend an idea then, let’s see what you have in mind to plant.” Chen Maidong interrupted her.

     “A new type of product.”

     “You have such a wide network, do you know anyone who grows trees?” Chen Maidong asked her.

     “What tree? I’ll ask later.”

     “It’s like the golden tree in the game. It can grow gold coins, and when the wind blows, it will fall down. It’s okay to grow red RMB.” Chen Maidong said seriously.

     …

     Zhuang Jie raised her head and laughed loudly. After laughing, she thumped him, “Let’s go to dinner together? We have tickets to watch the movie anyway.”

     Chen Maidong hesitated for a while, borrowed her mobile phone to make a call, and asked if the funeral parlor was busy. Hang up the phone and ask her, “What do you want to eat?”

     “Let’s have a home-cooked meal. I had surgery on my stomach a while back, so I can’t eat hard and greasy meals for the time being.”

     “Then let’s do Xiaoli Congee House.”

     “Let’s!”

     “The big city, is that good?” Chen Maidong asked her.

     “Of course. It just cut out my stomach.” Of course it was a joke.

     “It’s not that serious, then.” Chen Maidong replied.

     “You have your grandma in town. If she wasn’t here, you would come back to the city again.” Zhuang Jie laughed at him, “Why are you talking about building a hometown?”

     “This is what the mayor told you.” Chen Maidong didn’t even bother to answer her. He glanced at the dilapidated farmyard by the roadside, and said to her, “Wait for me a second.”

     Zhuang Jie waited for a while, wanting to see what he was doing in a run-down courtyard. As soon as she stepped in, she heard the sound of water, and she stretched her head to look, “Don’t you have any sense of public morality?”

     “Peeing is considered a matter of public morality?” Chen Maidong said with a cigarette in his mouth, holding up his trousers.

     “Why don’t you go in your own yard?” Even though the yard had long been abandoned for decades.

     “I can’t hold it.”

     After drinking tea all afternoon, Zhuang Jie also felt the urge to go to the restroom, she could hold out until they were at the congee room though. Unexpectedly, Chen Maidong decided to stop by the funeral parlor to pick up his phone.

     Standing far away at the intersection, Zhuang Jie motioned for him to go on into the funeral parlor to get it; she refused to go in there. Chen Maidong came over on a motorcycle, and Zhuang Jie got on and asked, “Why didn’t you ride the motorcycle during the meeting?”

     “The motorcycles of the funeral parlor cannot just be parked anywhere randomly.”

     “Is there such a thing when it is a funeral parlor vehicle?” Zhuang Jie didn’t quite understand, so he asked her casually, “Then would it also not unprofessional to park out in front of the congee house?” After speaking, she said suddenly, “Stop, stop.”

     Chen Maidong stopped the car, Zhuang Jie cursed and got off the motorcycle, “I want to take a walk.”

     Chen Maidong raised the corners of his mouth, chased after her and said, “I see I’ve upset you already. Just go ahead and apologize.”

     Zhuang Jie understood that he was joking, so she clasped her hands together and muttered, “Sorry, sorry, that was not a very sensible comment.” After speaking, he got on the motorcycle again.

     Zhuang Jie was very curious, and asked him if he had encountered any supernatural events during the meal. Chen Maidong looked at her with the eyes of a mentally retarded person, “Never met any before.”

     “Have you ever pulled someone out from a cremation furnace that  had come back to life…”

     “Impossible. And once it’s pushed in, there’s no way around it.” Chen Maidong said in popular science: “There used to be people who opened their eyes during the process of encoffining, but when it comes to the process of cremation furnaces, there is basically no possibility of people coming back to life.”

     “That’s pretty scary, too. People who go into the encoffining shouldn’t be scared to death.” Zhuang Jie became interested, “I have experienced it myself. When I was young, I had an aunt who was in poor health. Suddenly one day she went crazy and cried and said that she was missing home and thinking about her own children. What she said was completely off and turns out it was about another person in our village, and that person had died in an accident.”

“Many people in our family couldn’t hold her down. She was very strong. Later, she called an older woman. She didn’t know how to handle her, but eventually my Aunt passed out. She didn’t remember anything after waking up.” Zhuang Jie said seriously: “I believe in science, but I also believe in things that science cannot explain.”

     “I also believe it. People should be in awe.” Chen Maidong said.

     “A friend of mine said that she had seen her mother. Her mother didn’t have long hair and a white robe, but she was dressed the same as she was when she was alive. So, the ghost stories in the movies are all lies.”

     Chen Maidong drank the congee with his head down.

     Zhuang Jie looked at him for a while, and took a sip of her own bowl, “Actually, you are quite attractive, you shouldn’t be single.”

     “Don’t lower your mate selection standards just because of your occupation. People who understand you will naturally accept your occupation. If you don’t, it’s useless for you to change occupations for her.”

     Chen Maidong looked at her.

     “Why are you in a daze?” Zhuang Jie saw him looking at her funnily. “You are a bit of a bastard, but the general direction is very good.”

     “Wouldn’t the prodigal son be exchanged for gold when he turned back?”

     “Why are you single?” Chen Maidong asked back.

     “Me? I am single because I can’t love.” Zhuang Jie smiled.

     Chen Maidong replied, “You just said you like me the day before yesterday.”

     Zhuang Jie raised her head and laughed.

     Chen Maidong continued to drink congee and ignored her.

     The two sat down in the movie theater, Chen Maidong couldn’t hold back and asked: “Did he dislike your legs?”

     “Who?”

     “The one you can’t love.”

     Zhuang Jie was taken aback for a moment, and after thinking for a while, she said, “The main thing is that he loves me two points, and loves himself eight points.”

     “How much do you expect him to love you?”

     “Five points are qualified, and satisfaction is seven points.” Zhuang Jie said, looking at the screen.

     Chen Maidong didn’t ask any more questions.

     After watching the movie theater, Zhuang Jie waved goodbye to him, humming the theme song, “My motherland and I can’t be separated for a moment, no matter how high I am…” She kept forgetting the words.

     “Zhuang Jie.” Chen Maidong called her.

     “What’s up?” Zhuang Jie turned around.

     “It was my number that I borrowed your mobile phone to call, and that’s also the number on WeChat.”

     “Success! I will be messaging you later.”

     “When are you going back to Shanghai?” Chen Maidong asked.

     “The tenth.”

     “I wish you peace.”

     “Thank you.” Zhuang Jie felt that it was weird not being able to say it back, so she kindly reminded him, “Don’t say things like that casually, it’s a bit creepy.”

     What she wrote as Chen Maidong’s WeChat was: Fifth Youth.

     What Chen Maidong wrote to her on WeChat was: Zhuang Jie.

     She put down her phone and carefully looked at the village’s promotional materials. She edited the yam page and added the selling points of these yams compared to other yams. Then she saved the document and planned to send it to a potential buyer tomorrow.

     Closing the tablet, yawning and she went downstairs. There she ran into Liao Tao and He Zhangyue who were coming back from work in the factory. She glanced at the time and it was almost twelve o’clock. Liao Tao asked her what the mayor had said, and Zhuang Jie basically told her.

“The town is really interesting. The meeting purpose was not very clear though. It was lots of ‘You golden phoenixes flying out of the chicken coop, but don’t forget your old nest, don’t be too high, and don’t forget Ben.’” Liao Tao said.

     He Zhangyue said that he smelled something asking if a goose had pooped?

     When Zhuang Jie took a whiff, there was indeed a smell. The goose from yesterday, had stepped in poop and then it ran on the lower rug in her bedroom in broad daylight, making her sick.

     The three of them were looking for goose droppings in the living room, and Liao Tao accidentally stepped on it. She threw the whole shoe in the fire, went straight to Zhuang Yan’s bedroom, grabbed the goose’s neck and threw it into the courtyard.

     Zhuang Yan heard the scream of the goose, took advantage of Liao Tao’s inattention, grabbed the goose quickly and went back to the bedroom. Then he came down to wash Liao Tao’s shoes, one which was saved from completely burning. Zhuang Jie also threw the rug that was still in the corner at him to wash together as well.

     The next afternoon, Zhuang Jie took Zhuang Yan to the high-speed railway station, and Zhuang Yan entrusted the Jishan goose to her as its sole protector and told her not to let Liao Tao eat it. Zhuang Jie thought it was funny, she was about to leave soon herself, and she couldn’t blame Liao Tao for wanting to eat it either.

     Zhuang Yan asked her to talk to Liao Tao, and make Liao Tao promise not to eat the goose. If the thing opens its mouth, there is probably nothing that will stop Liao Tao from eating it tomorrow. After chatting, he complained that the vacation was too short, said that he was reluctant to leave Zhuang Jie, and started to cry while talking.

     Zhuang Jie hugged him and said that she would see him during the Spring Festival, and she would take good care of the Jisan goose so that Liao Tao would not eat it.

     He Niaoyou looked puzzled, she didn’t understand why Zhuang Yan was crying. 

She and her sister never cry, which is why she admires her sister more than her brother. She felt that Zhuang Yan looked too much like a girl when he was crying.

     After Zhuang Yan checked the ticket and entered the station, Zhuang Jie went back to the parking lot. She was driving a small trike, and He Niao was sitting in the back pocket of the car with the goose in her arms. She didn’t know how to drive the manual stick shift van at home, she can only drive automatics. A few years ago, Liao Tao wanted to buy a car, but considering that a van was not practical, she bought a van.

     The wind was strong, and the country roads were rustic. Zhuang Jie would shed tears every time the gusts would blow across her face.

     There was a car in front of her blocking the way, Zhuang Jie was anxious to pass it, and was just about to do so when the phone in her pocket rang.  She slowed down to answer the call, the call was from Chen Maidong, he told her to drive carefully, not to pass the hearse.

     Zhuang Jie hadn’t clearly seen that the car in front was in fact from the funeral parlor. She asked if it was unlucky to pass it, Chen Maidong said: “You are not allowed to pass it, because the deceased is most important. You have to try to make way for them.”

     Zhuang Jie learned cold knowledge again, and replied: “Then you go on ahead, I’ll wait.”

     She pulled over to the side of the road and took out a cigarette from her pocket to smoke. Seeing He Niao in the back seat of the trike, she suppressed the craving for the cigarette.

     Chen Maidong hung up the phone and looked in the rearview mirror. The old man who had passed away was from a nursing home. So, he decided to be a part of the funeral procession today. Other than cleaning out the cremation furnace, driving a hearse, and being a receptionist, he can do anything else. Moving the body, running the scene, suturing makeup, if there is not enough manpower, he can also preside over the farewell ceremony.

     He went home that night and ate the radish cake made by his grandma. The cake was mushy, a little salty, and not too filling. He went to the food street to order a bowl of wonton stew, and packed one for grandma as well. Grandma Chen is very good at eating, and she likes small wonton stew best.

  On the way back, he hesitated and finally decided to go over to the roast chicken restaurant. He ordered a salt and pepper chicken nugget and a marinated chicken gizzard. After scanning the QR code and paying, he looked up. Zhuang Jie was not there. There was only a young girl who was packing and two older aunts who fried chicken in the shop.

     He took it home and ate it, but his grandma complained that he would not always be broke. There was only a 1 yuan difference between the larger portioned wonton stew and the small. His money worth was in the larger size.

     “I was afraid you wouldn’t be able to finish it.” Chen Maidong said.

     “I can finish it, I didn’t even eat the radish cake because it was too mushy.” Grandma Chen said, “I was afraid that if I said it was mushy, you wouldn’t even eat it, so I didn’t say anything at all.”

     …

     “People who like to eat sticky rice are lucky, and it’s easy to save money.” Grandma Chen said while chewing on wonton stew.

     …

     “Your dad just called, go and see what’s going on.”

     Chen Maidong called, but his dad had nothing going on, he just asked him how he was doing.

     Chen Maidong said: “I’m good.”

     His dad talked about other things, asked about grandma’s health, and then asked him if he was short of money recently? Said that he transferred 500,000 to grandma two days ago. He also said that if he was short of money in the future, he should call him directly. He also told him not to tell any prospective girls about his job first, and to wait until the relationship stabilized. Wait, wait, etc. He talked about non-important things for more than half an hour.

     Chen Maidong understood that he was drinking, and only when he was drunk would he remember that there was a son in his hometown.

     Chen Maidong turned on the phone’s speakerphone. His dad could keep talking freely, and he could focus on playing games. After playing the game, he looked through the WeChat Moments that Zhuang Jie had posted as a status three hours ago. She took her sister to dig wild yams on Xingshan Mountain.

     In the photo is a yam with four or five knots broken. She is holding the yam with a dirt covered smile with the accompanying text: Wild Yams from my hometown.