I Only Want to Lie Flat But Am Forced to Cultivate Immortality-Chapter 266 - 149: Appraisal and Ghostly Craftsmanship

At midnight, the living sleep peacefully.

In the Funeral Shop, Xu Qing held a hammer and chisel, continuously clanking away.

Ling Yangzi’s golden-faced papermen, after his modifications, had all turned into Straw Spirits.

To create a complete paperman funeral procession, Xu Qing took out a coffin made of Dark Wood that was lying idle in the shop.

With masterful carpentry skills, it didn’t take long before an extra dark red coffin, carried by thirty-two pallbearers, appeared before him.

In funeral rituals, the pole used to carry coffins by the Funeral House is called a ’Dragon Pole’. During the procession, depending on the size of the coffin, it can be divided into several levels like eight-pole, sixteen-pole, thirty-two-pole, and so on.

Xu Qing obtained only about forty golden-faced papermen from Ling Yangzi, far short of the sixty-four needed for a pallbearer team, not to mention the one hundred and twenty-eight used in Emperor Long Ping’s funeral.

Xu Qing didn’t need such a top-tier funeral procession at the moment.

One hundred and twenty-eight people, just carrying the outer coffin would be as big as a house. In his Funeral Shop, there was only that one slightly larger coffin.

"Speaking of which, Old Hu’s coffin is quite big..."

Xu Qing, at some point, developed a fondness for large coffins, so much so that he couldn’t resist them.

Just like men worldwide love good steeds and most women cherish their makeup chests, what zombie doesn’t like a spacious coffin?

Xu Qing’s aesthetic tastes differ from those of the Yong Dynasty. He looked at his own sleeping coffin and felt somewhat dissatisfied.

At the time in the Yong Dynasty, there were things like glaze and jade medicine, which was essentially glass.

If only a panoramic window could be added to the coffin, the design might be even better.

However, different people have different preferences—some deceased like wooden coffins, others prefer stone coffins, and in previous dynasties, a noble even cast an iron coffin.

There was even a saying among the people that a ’light’ official entered an iron ’heavy’ coffin, and from then on, there would be no upright officials.

Regardless of the truth of this saying, there are no fixed rules when it comes to choosing coffins.

Currently, Hu Baosong, who runs a coffin shop on the street, is exhausted of energy, spending his days enjoying retirement and has no time to bother with his coffin shop.

But Xu Qing is different; he has a long time to live, and if one day he takes over Old Hu’s coffin shop...

He would surely innovate on the existing foundation and aim for diversified management, crafting stone coffins, iron coffins, or even displaying several crystal coffins in the shop for the deceased or their families to choose from.

The focus would be on offering a full range of designs, ensuring there is nothing the customers can think of that the coffin shop doesn’t have—only then can it be considered a proper coffin shop.

As for how the deceased choose their coffins...

In the Yong Dynasty, once a person lived past forty, many families would prepare a coffin in advance for future needs.

This may sound absurd, but it is an ancient custom passed down through generations.

...

Late at night, in a deep alley, a mist surged out from within, followed by a group of tall, thin papermen, wearing bamboo hats and veils, draped in white paper cloaks, breaking through the thin fog and appearing on the silent streets.

The papermen landed without a sound, as if lifted by a breeze of white mist underfoot. When the sound of the Night Watchman’s clapper came from the distant street corner, the group of papermen lightly carried the coffin, jumping onto the eaves and ridges of the tightly packed buildings along the street.

The funeral procession of papermen advanced effortlessly across the rooftops of establishments like tea houses, gray stone shops, and second-hand clothing stores.

It wasn’t until a wind accidentally blew off a thin tile that the Night Watchman, hearing the sound, looked up.

Upon seeing papermen carrying a dark red coffin on the rooftop, the Night Watchman couldn’t help but shout in amazement.

All thirty-two papermen turned their heads in unison, and a corner of the white veil under the paperman’s bamboo hat was lifted by the wind, revealing a face like a dead person’s.

What’s more, the face was applied with blush and red lips, with a tint on the ghastly pale face that was neither yellow nor green, a color indescribable by people.

If one must say, it was the color of deathly stillness!

Meeting ghostly pallbearers carrying a coffin at night would frighten anyone.

The Night Watchman thought to himself that after years of sending note, he had finally encountered a ghost.

I better run right away! If I hesitate a moment longer, these papermen might shove him into the coffin for a live burial!

In a flash, while the papermen were turning in unison, the Night Watchman turned and ran for his life, even dropping his clapper and gong on the ground.

...

The next morning, a pale young man with a weary spirit walked out the front door of the Funeral Shop.

He looked as though he had been frequenting brothels and theaters for four or five days, tirelessly day and night, as if a yawn could leave him asleep for days.

Xu Qing pounded his lower back, glanced up at Boss Cheng across the street, who was throwing water out the door.

The latter saw his state and teased: "Oh, what happened to Scholar Xu? Were you reading hard with the young lady last night?"

No sooner had Cheng Caiyun finished his sentence than Sun Erniang appeared at the shop entrance: "Xu Qing, the fried fish tasted good yesterday. Bring some back when you return, and I’ll watch the shop for you!"

After taking over Sun Erniang, Xuan Yu would call him by his name directly in front of others.

Xu Qing was used to it and nodded in agreement. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ

After talking about the fried fish, Xuan Yu turned back to look at Cheng Caiyun who was teasing Xu Qing.