DF Chapter 98

Chapter 98: This is probably what Sheng Jia meant by acting like a child in front of Sheng Huaiying.

Chapter 98: This is probably what Sheng Jia meant by acting like a child in front of Sheng Huaiying.

Cheng Fangyang’s injuries weren’t light.

She was sent to the hospital nearly unconscious and spent over two weeks there, leaving most of the funeral home’s work on Song Ji’an’s shoulders.

If she previously had time to get a full night’s sleep, Song Ji’an felt like she’d become a spinning top during this period, so busy that she couldn’t even think about anything else.

This continued until Cheng Fangyang was discharged from the hospital.

A hundred days to recover from a broken bone. Since she injured her leg bone, she still needed crutches even after being discharged. Song Ji’an simply bought her an electric wheelchair with the maximum compensation for a work-related injury.

The day Cheng Fangyang was discharged was a sunny day.

The orthopedic hospital was near Fajin Temple. Cheng Fangyang glanced at the temple eaves and sighed by the window, “Do you think it’s because the last time I came to Fajin Temple to pray for wealth, I didn’t specifically say I didn’t want to damage my body or pay any price, that I had this misfortune?”

Song Ji’an was a bit helpless, “The Master at Fajin Temple told us to believe in science. This was just an accident.”

“Alright then, I’ll believe the Master. This must be the heavens testing me,” Cheng Fangyang said, “But what will you do while my leg is injured? Xiao Zhou said you haven’t rested for half a month, only sleeping four or five hours a day. I’m worried you’ll suddenly die from overwork. How about we take a break during this time?”

“What do you want to do?” Song Ji’an glanced at her, noticing that her pale face didn’t have any expression of contemplation, so she clearly had already thought this through.

“Look, the investors gave us so much money and we haven’t used it yet. I calculated that we could hire two or three more skilled apprentices. With the remaining money, we can upgrade the place, like the reception room, it’s already very old, with cobwebs on the ceiling, and your embalming room, put in central air conditioning. The manpower can come slowly, but at least we should make our funeral home look presentable, right?”

This funeral home had been around for decades. The last renovation was fifteen years ago, when the area was expanded, but most of the equipment in the rooms was facing aging problems. These needed to be replaced. This was why Song Ji’an and Cheng Fangyang were still struggling even after taking over the funeral home.

Because this was just the beginning, running a funeral home required a constant stream of money. They had been losing money all year, constantly putting in their own funds. This was why Song Ji’an couldn’t easily relax. Her dictionary didn’t contain the phrase “giving up halfway.” Since she had decided to do this, she had to do it to the best of her ability.

Of course, another reason was that Cheng Fangyang was injured and unable to work. She couldn’t let Song Ji’an bear so much pressure. Working day and night for years was very harmful to the body. Although Song Ji’an looked healthy now, she didn’t know what her real condition was. Cheng Fangyang was very worried about her health, and even though she knew that Song Ji’an was currently in her prime, she wanted to find a longer period for Song Ji’an to rest properly without thinking about anything.

Originally, she thought that Song Ji’an might disagree, but who knew that after she finished speaking, Song Ji’an only remained silent for a moment before saying, “Alright, upgrading and renovating should take about a month and a half. During this time, we’ll temporarily close the funeral home. There are still two memorial services to hold recently. From today until next month, we won’t take any more orders.”

Cheng Fangyang was slightly stunned, “Why do you seem like you’ve already arranged everything?”

“Didn’t we make an upgrade plan before?” Song Ji’an replied, “When we first took over the funeral home, we calculated how much money we needed to achieve our desired effect and how long the renovation would take. Now it’s just bringing the old plan forward.”

“Really?”

False.

Song Ji’an looked ahead, silently answering in her heart.

In fact, before Cheng Fangyang was discharged, she also planned to take advantage of this time to give herself, Xiao Zhou, and Xiao Wang a vacation, and also upgrade the funeral home, because she would need a whole month of free time in the future.

Half a month ago, Sheng Jia went to Inner Mongolia. At the same time, an email was sent to Song Ji’an’s mailbox.

The sender of this email was Sheng Jia herself.

Inside was a record of a letter of intent for a natural gas extraction cooperation with the Opter family in Northern Europe.

The specific location was on the edge of the Arctic Circle near the border of Finland and Norway, where a large area of natural gas fields was discovered.

Norway was originally a major natural gas country, which wasn’t a big problem, but coincidentally, the island where the natural gas was discovered was in the hands of a group of Chinese people, or rather, in the hands of the Song family, the Fu family, and the Meng family. This was an island investment they made in their spare time, but they didn’t take it too seriously. There were originally many island groups around Norway and Finland, and they just happened to buy a large group. Moreover, this large group was definitely far away from the oil and gas belt of Northern Europe, otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to take it down.

But things were just so coincidental. In the very center of the island group, a large area of natural gas fields was detected. Unlike other natural gas fields that definitely had oil fields, this area wasn’t rich in oil resources, but the natural gas production was surprisingly high.

This was a good thing for everyone, but they would definitely not become natural gas distributors in Northern Europe. This was equivalent to holding a treasure in their hands but not being able to use it. Northern Europe wouldn’t allow domestic companies to touch their core interests, so the relevant personnel who came to negotiate for the right to take back the use of the islands immediately came.

The price offered by the other party didn’t meet their expectations, and it could even be said bluntly that it was too low, so low that it was somewhat arrogant.

After this matter was reported back, the families discussed how to deal with these islands. In the end, they chose the method of using the leverage of others.

They decided to cooperate with their old friend, the Opter family. The ownership of oil and gas in Northern Europe was distributed among several supply companies. Generally, the natural gas receiving end would be jointly developed by several companies and then form a joint venture, and choose suitable candidates as the main contractors.

And the use of natural gas in Norway and Finland was already saturated, and oil and gas fields could bring them countless foreign trade benefits every year.

This was also one of the reasons why the Opter family’s wealth was so large. This wealth had lasted for more than thirty years, but in fact, in recent years, the oil fields controlled by the family were almost exhausted. Their power was already greatly reduced, which was also why Hilda broke into the domestic market, because for them, not developing meant waiting to be eliminated by the times.

The one who came to negotiate with them was the Opter family’s competitor, the Zinton Company. The other party’s attitude was very aggressive and condescending. Businessmen valued profits. If they couldn’t give them suitable profits, then naturally they couldn’t blame them for joining forces to catch the other party off guard.

And there was an extremely important thing to do in the middle—to reach a cooperation with the Opter family on this matter and divide the profits.

They now held the most needed resources of the Opter family in their hands, so their ambitions also expanded greatly with this matter. They wanted 20% of the cooperative mining rights, and each year, they would import a portion of it back to the country at a price 20% lower than the market price.

This was an almost impossible thing.

But it was also their highest goal this time.

And the one who was sent to conduct the first round of negotiations this time was Sheng Jia. Her negotiating target was Hilda, who had given up a large sum of money some time ago to reach a cooperation with Sheng Jia. Now the identities of the two people were almost reversed.

Song Ji’an had not seen such a detailed letter of intent explaining the causes and consequences for a long time.

The purpose of Sheng Jia sending this to her mailbox was self-evident—she was inviting Song Ji’an to go with her.

But Song Ji’an didn’t understand why.

With Sheng Jia’s current status, she could find countless negotiation talents to form a professional team. Song Ji’an, from any aspect, was not a suitable candidate.

“Are you underestimating yourself or questioning my judgment?” Sheng Jia asked in her phone call with Song Ji’an five days later after hearing her doubts.

“Song Ji’an, you know that some things can’t be made up for in just five years,” Sheng Jia said bluntly, “I can’t quickly achieve your eighteen years of knowledge, experience, and handling of affairs. That was carefully crafted by Ms. Song and Ms. Fu bit by bit. You can’t say that after only five years, these things have all been formatted in your mind, right?”

“This time is not an ordinary negotiation. We are the first round of negotiation. Neither Hilda nor I can truly determine the distribution of profits. At most, we can only test the other party’s bottom line, so it is impossible to bring a professional negotiation team,” Sheng Jia said slowly, “But I don’t just want to do these things. I need your help, so I’m inviting you to go with me.”

“Me? What do you think I can help you with?” Song Ji’an couldn’t help but laugh, with a bit of sarcasm, “Sheng Jia, this is not a joke. What have I been doing for the past five years? You know better than anyone.”

“So what?” Sheng Jia said, “Song Ji’an, you can choose whether to go or not. Our departure time is in half a month.”

After saying that, she paused slightly, her tone seeming a bit tired, “After coming out of the hospital last time, didn’t you ask me why I was so anxious? This is the answer. I want to get what I want in this event.”

This was not the whole truth, Song Ji’an guessed in her heart after the phone hung up.

Sheng Jia seemed to be using an extremely thin thread to hang her and walk forward step by step, and using this half-hidden way, she was forcing her to get on her pirate ship.

In fact, Song Ji’an had listened to what Sheng Jia said last time and made some changes.

She didn’t know what to do when facing Sheng Huaiying, so she simply listened to Sheng Jia and tried it.

For the first time, she actively reported her mood and experiences of that day to Sheng Huaiying, both good and bad. Sheng Huaiying on the other end of the phone was overjoyed, constantly responding loudly and listening very carefully until the end of the call.

That was a completely different feeling.

It was more like a feeling of clearing away the clouds. In fact, it wasn’t that difficult. After Sheng Jia appeared, after she finally made up her mind to cooperate with Sheng Jia, the step that she should have taken towards Sheng Huaiying five years ago was finally taken.

There was no increased pressure as imagined, nor was it as difficult to speak as imagined. When she said what she wanted to say to Sheng Huaiying without thinking about the consequences, there was a moment when they looked very much like an ordinary mother and daughter.

This was probably what Sheng Jia meant by acting like a child in front of Sheng Huaiying.

There was no need to be cautious between mother and daughter.

Although Song Ji’an couldn’t completely open her heart to Sheng Huaiying now, she vaguely saw the outline and knew what to do.

Just like Sheng Jia said, Song Ji’an was an opponent recognized by her. Song Ji’an’s clarity and intelligence had never been buried. She just needed a hand that could pull her out of the fog.

So two days later, Song Ji’an replied to Sheng Jia’s email.

——Send me the ticket information.

That slight change seemed to make Song Ji’an regain a bit of her original courage. Even if she didn’t know what Sheng Jia was going to do and what kind of plans were secretly being made, this time, she was willing to move forward in an unknown situation.

Sheng Jia had helped her, so she would not refuse Sheng Jia’s request.

This was the cooperation they had agreed upon long ago.

–

Xiao Zhou and Xiao Wang weren’t idle during Cheng Fangyang’s hospitalization. They had already discussed holding a welcome banquet for Cheng Fangyang to wash away the bad luck. The location was set in a small restaurant outside the funeral home.

Song Ji’an directly parked the car in front of the restaurant. When she pushed Cheng Fangyang in with a wheelchair, Xiao Zhou was opening drinks, and the Sichuan dishes that had just been served were on the table.

Cheng Fangyang preferred a heavy flavor, basically liking everything spicy. Today, Xiao Zhou specially selected the most non-authentic Sichuan restaurant, combining it with local cuisine. It looked spicy, but tasted sweet, perfectly solving Cheng Fangyang’s problem of wanting to eat spicy food but not being able to. It received multiple complaints from Cheng Fangyang.

After a lively meal, Cheng Fangyang announced the news that they would have a paid vacation for a month. Xiao Zhou and Xiao Wang cheered, their faces filled with joy. They were already secretly asking each other where they were going to play.

While they were chatting, Xiao Zhou seemed to suddenly remember something. She said to Song Ji’an, “Someone called our service desk this morning, asking if you would be at the funeral home this afternoon.”

“Looking for me?” Song Ji’an frowned slightly, “Why did they go through the main service desk?”

“She said that because she couldn’t get through to your phone, it was always busy at first, and then it was directly turned off,” Xiao Zhou replied.

Only then did Song Ji’an remember that she had been processing a body this morning and turned off her phone. After turning it back on, because the workload had been too heavy during this time and the phone kept ringing, she went to pick up Cheng Fangyang and hadn’t looked at her phone since.

Now when she took it out, she realized that her phone was turned off again, probably because it ran out of battery from making too many calls.

She charged her phone and sure enough, she saw several missed call reminders. Among them, a string of numbers that she hadn’t noted down was very familiar to her during this time. It was Sheng Jia’s number.

After the group finished eating, they still had to go back to the funeral home to deal with follow-up issues, while Song Ji’an still had a body to process. Before she entered the cold room, she called Sheng Jia’s number once, but she didn’t get through. So she just told Xiao Zhou that if the person came, she should just lead them into the reception room.

It was already 2:30 in the afternoon when Sheng Jia arrived. She had just finished her trip to Inner Mongolia yesterday and had only landed in Jingjiang an hour ago.

After getting off the plane, she went straight to the funeral home. After telling Xiao Zhou at the front desk that she was here to see Song Ji’an, she was arranged into a reception room with a whole side of transparent glass.

Xiao Zhou didn’t recognize Sheng Jia, and didn’t know that she was a shareholder of the funeral home. She only thought that she was Song Ji’an’s client, so this reception room was facing the operating room, so she could clearly see Song Ji’an’s every move.

Sheng Jia stood in front of the glass, her eyes paused slightly.

On the other side of the glass, Song Ji’an was holding a brush and foundation, applying it to the deceased’s face. Her movements were gentle and careful, as if every step had been done thousands of times. She was very skilled. The mask covered half of her face, only revealing a pair of drooping eyes, her gaze focused.

Just then, Xiao Zhou brought in tea. Seeing Sheng Jia watching, she quickly said, “Sister Ji’an is our best embalmer here. She is very careful in her work. Every time, the effect she presents is very good.”

After a person dies, the body will gradually stiffen, and the face will become pale and haggard. There may even be corpse spots crawling on the face. These things may be very distant for most ordinary people, but Song Ji’an sees all kinds of bodies every day. She only needs a pair of hands to restore them to their appearance before they died as much as possible. This is also the reason why the funeral home doesn’t lack business now. Skills and techniques are still particularly popular overall. There are quite a few people who specify that they want Song Ji’an.

“She is very good,” Sheng Jia nodded, but her gaze fell on Song Ji’an’s gloved hands. Those hands were taking out other tools from the toolbox and starting to apply another color to the body. She remembered that Song Ji’an actually had some involvement in painting.

Song Ningqiu’s cultivation of her was meticulous. When Song Ji’an was a child, she would send her to learn whatever she was interested in, and then let her choose the best of the best and choose what she liked most.

This was something that Fu Minglang had once mentioned to Sheng Jia.

“Because ordinary makeup techniques can’t completely cover up the problem of the body’s complexion, Sister Ji’an generally uses painting techniques to depict the contours of the person’s face and make modifications,” Xiao Zhou explained very tactfully.

Neither of them said much after that. Halfway through, Xiao Zhou glanced at her phone and said that there were still things to deal with at the front desk. She brought Sheng Jia a fruit plate and then left in a hurry, only saying that she should wait a little longer. Song Ji’an’s work time was about two hours. Counting the time, it should be almost over.

Sure enough, it wasn’t long before Song Ji’an rubbed her sore hands and then picked up the internal intercom. Soon, Xiao Wang pushed the car in and then sent the body onto the car through the wheel track. The memorial service would start tomorrow morning. She would be temporarily placed in the cold room and then sent for cremation after the memorial service ended tomorrow.

The manually operated one-way glass made it impossible for Song Ji’an to see the opposite side. She casually took a bag of glucose from the refrigerator in the operating room and sat down on the spot.

In fact, embalming a body wouldn’t make people this tired, but she had consumed too much physical and mental energy in the past few days. At this moment, after getting off the operating table, she felt a little dizzy.

It was also at this time that the one-way glass suddenly retracted the film with a whoosh, and the people in the reception room behind were revealed.

Sheng Jia was standing by the glass, nodding to her.

Song Ji’an narrowed her eyes and raised her hand to point to another door for her. Sheng Jia understood her meaning and walked out of the reception room and entered the cold room along that door.

The temperature here was much lower than outside. Song Ji’an was still sitting on the ground and didn’t get up. She leaned against the wall and said slowly, “I don’t have the energy, I’m too lazy to go out, sorry.”

So Sheng Jia simply sat down beside her.

“Why are you looking for me?” Song Ji’an asked.

Sheng Jia didn’t answer her question. She threw a piece of candy to her from her pocket, “Your face is as white as if you’re going to faint in the next second. Restore your strength first before we talk.”