DF Chapter 91

Chapter 91: What if Song Ji’an is deliberately avoiding me?

Perhaps in life, one might miss out on many people, but Sheng Jia felt fortunate enough. As she watched that car drive away, the oppressive feeling in her chest for so many days suddenly dissipated.

So what if Song Ji’an is deliberately avoiding me?

So what if Song Ningqiu is deliberately helping her erase all traces?

Heaven will still secretly give them a push from behind, letting them reunite, giving Sheng Jia a chance to understand everything she wants to know.

Meanwhile, Song Ji’an, who was catching up on sleep in the car, didn’t notice that momentary glimpse. After her last break, she worked two more overnight shifts, and now she could fall asleep just walking a few steps.

Xiao Wang kept the car speed moderate. Having learned from the last lesson, she now drove much more steadily. While watching the road ahead, she asked, “Was that Sister Cheng’s friend just now? That sudden appearance startled me.”

“Not exactly,” Cheng Fangyang explained, “Just someone I met at the temple. It’s always good to have more friends, right? Especially someone who looks rich and influential. I just chatted with them for a bit and added them on WeChat.”

“Well, even if they are rich and influential, they wouldn’t drag their relatives and friends here to hold a memorial service, would they?” As soon as Xiao Wang said that, Cheng Fangyang tapped her head.

“Shouldn’t you work on your emotional intelligence?” Cheng Fangyang said, “If an ordinary boss heard you say that, they’d be furious!”

“Although we’re not showing off or anything right now, we’ll definitely become one of the top funeral homes in Dongjiang Province in the future. Don’t be so pessimistic here.”

Xiao Wang nodded. She had been following Cheng Fangyang since she entered society and trusted her very much. Only because Cheng Fangyang treated them well enough could they be so outspoken, even smiling foolishly when scolded. However, she touched her head and couldn’t help but say, “Although I only have a junior college degree, ‘not showing off’ isn’t used like that, right?”

Cheng Fangyang: …

She expressionlessly pushed Xiao Wang’s half-turned face back, “Just drive your car properly.”

The two’s bickering caused Song Ji’an, who had fallen into a dream, to frown. She looked out the window and confirmed that there was still a distance to the countryside they were going to. She wanted to continue sleeping, but the sudden silence in the car made her unable to fall back asleep.

“Who did we just meet?” Song Ji’an asked groggily.

She didn’t hear the conversation in front too clearly, and she wasn’t fully awake at the moment, so her words didn’t make much sense.

Cheng Fangyang was used to her like this and waved her hand, “No one, just a new friend I met at the temple. Maybe they can become a customer in the future.”

“That’s what you say about everyone you meet,” Song Ji’an smiled, “You said that when you first met me too.”

“Hey, who knew you’d end up not doing research and joining our little funeral home?” Cheng Fangyang threw her a small blanket from the back, “Is our air conditioning too cold, or is the car always this cold?”

After thanking her, Song Ji’an stretched and casually glanced at the navigation, “Because I realized that doing research wasn’t interesting. It’s more comfortable to be an embalmer.”

Song Ji’an’s major in college was software engineering, probably because it was a job with great potential for future development. Even now, whenever anyone asks her about her college major, she would recommend this one first. However, she herself had little interest in this major, at most earning a lot of income from it starting in her sophomore year, leading her to believe that she would settle in this industry in the future.

But when she was a junior, she met Cheng Fangyang, and her interests completely changed.

At that time, Cheng Fangyang was an “old senior” who had been in society for two years. Her teacher was originally an economics professor at Song Ji’an’s school, but made an exception due to special reasons to open a credit-based elective course on funeral and embalming.

Song Ji’an met Cheng Fangyang in that class, and also met Teacher Fang in that class.

When Teacher Fang was young, she inherited her mother’s funeral home and had been trying hard to support it ever since, hoping to find a better home for it. After all, she also knew that she wasn’t cut out for running this business. Her only successor was Cheng Fangyang, but after teaching for two years, she found that Cheng Fangyang wasn’t very good at running the business either. She was better at interpersonal relationships.

Song Ji’an was the only student in her class who didn’t space out or play with her phone. She could listen to her talk about the restoration and decoration of corpses and other bloody courses without changing her expression. Their acquaintance later was a matter of course.

Song Ji’an became interested in entering a new industry, so starting in her junior year, she simply followed Cheng Fangyang and Teacher Fang everywhere. After graduation, she directly entered Wangfen Funeral Home to work.

But last year, Teacher Fang suddenly passed away from a heart attack before she could even write her will. The funeral home was in danger, and Song Ji’an was ordered to buy the entire plot of land and the ownership of the funeral home, becoming the new director.

“Doing research isn’t comfortable?” Xiao Wang has always had a filter for intellectuals and thinks that working with the brain is much more comfortable than working with physical strength. She was surprised to hear this, “Doing research is respectable and the salary is high. If I had your brains, I would definitely do it too.”

“Is that so?” Song Ji’an was completely awake at this moment. She only smiled, “But I don’t think doing research is as comfortable as doing funerals. It’s much more tiring.”

“Xiao Wang, don’t say that. Your Sister Ji’an is telling you the truth from the bottom of her heart. Where do you think we got the money to buy the funeral home?” Cheng Fangyang folded her arms and snorted softly, “That was using my entire two years of savings after graduation, and your Sister Ji’an’s four months of crazy research and the bonuses she got from selling programs to get it down.”

“During that time, she and I slept for less than five hours a day. Not only was she racking her brains to do this every day, but I also had to help her with the things I had never learned, looking at those parameters over and over again. I felt like our white hair was growing out like crazy during that time.”

“In just four months, Sister Ji’an got the money to buy this land?” Xiao Wang was incredulous.

“We’re here,” Song Ji’an responded, patting her head to remind her, “We’ll talk about these things later.”

With that, Song Ji’an began to put on her gloves and mask.

By the time they had collected Grandma Qian’s body and transported it back to the funeral home, it was already past ten o’clock in the evening. Everyone was exhausted. Grandma Qian’s daughter cried all the way because she lost her mother. Accompanying her was her aunt, who endured the pain and comforted her.

Xiao Zhou had accompanied them for the entire afternoon and evening and was already exhausted. When the others left, she simply fell asleep in the rest room. Song Ji’an and Cheng Fangyang didn’t disturb her, leaving her a light and retreating.

Song Ji’an actually has her own car. It was a used car she bought in college for her convenience. Later, she drove it back to Jingjiang and has been using it ever since.

Cheng Fangyang, who was sitting in the passenger seat, finally had time to process the messages on her phone. Her personal account and work account were not separated. Checking messages every day was basically equivalent to working. The final payments for several funerals she had handled a few days ago had been transferred. She clicked to accept them one by one and transferred them to the company account, which added a bit of joy to her tired face. Then, further down, was a string of friend requests. When she saw an account that she didn’t have much of an impression of, she clicked into the source of the search and nodded in understanding.

“So it’s her…”

“Who is it?” Song Ji’an asked.

“It’s the owner of that Mercedes-Benz that I marveled at that day, and also the person who Xiao Wang said was a bit strange for peering into the car window and scaring her today.” Cheng Fangyang explained, “The one who I thought was rich and influential. She didn’t talk much at the time and seemed difficult to communicate with. I didn’t expect her to add me as a friend.”

Hearing this, Song Ji’an didn’t ask any more questions. Cheng Fangyang was in charge of interpersonal relationships and had to add twenty or thirty people a day, all kinds of people. It was normal to have a few interesting and special ones occasionally.

After dropping Cheng Fangyang off, she didn’t go home immediately. Instead, she stopped at the convenience store downstairs and bought a few bottles of liqueur and Sprite. Her refrigerator at home was empty, and she was still thinking about restocking.

The salesperson, Xiao Wu, had long been familiar with Song Ji’an. Seeing her come in and head straight for the liquor cabinet, she walked over to greet her with a smile, her voice full of the vigor of a young girl her age, “Sister Ji’an? Here to buy wine again?”

Song Ji’an carried a shopping basket and shook the few bottles of wine that had just been put in it at her, “Today is a member’s day, right? I’m just here to restock.”

Most of the wines she picked had an alcohol concentration of around fifteen degrees, not too easy to get drunk, but drinking a little could help her sleep. Xiao Wu carried them for a few steps and quickly placed them on the checkout counter to pay.

“Don’t you have a night shift today?”

“No more.”

When handing the receipt to Song Ji’an, Xiao Wu revealed a sweet smile, her clear eyes seemed to glow, “Sister Ji’an, welcome to come again next time.”

She was a college student working part-time and couldn’t hide her emotions at the moment. Her admiration and love for Song Ji’an almost overflowed.

Song Ji’an paused slightly and ultimately didn’t say anything, silently walking out the door, deciding not to come to the convenience store recently.

She had become somewhat tired of dealing with interpersonal relationships since she didn’t know when, and she couldn’t let everyone draw energy from her as she had in the past.

If it were the old Song Ji’an who met Xiao Wu, she would probably choose to have a good chat with her, bluntly break through this layer of hazy window paper, tell her that she was not her good match, and enlighten her properly.

But now she only wanted to escape such eager eyes, with no energy to deal with it.

The work at the funeral home plus the several software orders that hadn’t been completed yet had made her exhausted every day. According to their current revenue, they really couldn’t support the operation of the funeral home. Most of the time, the money she got was transferred from her left hand to her right hand. When there was income from software orders, she quickly moved it over to cover the urgently needed funds for the funeral home.

But this was also good. Being busy could make her forget eighty percent of her troubles.

She casually opened a bottle of wine, took out her phone, and there were two sixty-second messages in the top contact’s dialogue box belonging to Sheng Huaiying.

“Ji’an, are you busy this week and not coming home for dinner? What have you been eating recently? I stewed a pot of chicken soup for you. Should I send it to you in a few days? It’s okay if you’re busy. I’ll put it in the refrigerator, and you can heat it up when the time comes…”

The first paragraph was a long expression of concern. Song Ji’an opened it and listened to it several times. Sheng Huaiying’s voice was the kind of voice that was very much like a mother’s, generous and warm, not showing even a bit that she had suffered a lot and shed a lot of tears, like a warm sun. It seemed that as long as she spoke, it represented a warm room and steaming food. Song Ji’an had often collected many voice messages from her in recent years, and this one was the same, put into her favorites.

But the next one made her slightly stunned. Sheng Huaiying’s tone was obviously a bit hesitant, but in the end, she truthfully opened her mouth to her, “Sheng Jia has come to Jingjiang these days. She even asked me about you. But you didn’t let me say what you were doing, so I didn’t say anything.”

Song Ji’an hadn’t heard Sheng Jia’s name for a long, long time. Sheng Huaiying not only didn’t mention Song Ji’an much in front of Sheng Jia, but she also basically didn’t mention Sheng Jia in front of Song Ji’an. She was afraid of causing any more harm to her two daughters, so she simply clumsily shielded each other’s names in front of them.

Sheng Jia hasn’t returned to Jingjiang in recent years, Song Ji’an was very sure. What she was even more sure of was that Sheng Jia didn’t want to come back here, so what would make her come back this time?

Song Ji’an lowered her eyes and pondered for a moment, and the phone rang again. This time it was Cheng Fangyang who had just been sent home.

As soon as she answered, Cheng Fangyang’s voice came from the other end.

“Ji’an, you absolutely don’t know what happened in the past ten minutes!” She said with barely concealed excitement, “The one who I said was rich and influential just sent me a message saying she wants to invest in our funeral home and has arranged for someone to come over tomorrow morning to talk.”

Song Ji’an: ?

She was silent for a moment before slowly asking, “Are you saying that someone who just met you said they want to invest in us, and invest in a funeral home?”

Cheng Fangyang’s excitement was immediately cooled down a bit by this question, “That’s right, why does she want to invest in a funeral home? Are rich people that bored?”

Song Ji’an felt that this matter was a bit strange. Although she knew that there were definitely not a few rich people who had too much money and were too full, she had done this kind of thing before, but at least the company’s resume would reach her, right?

“Can I ask where this person is from?” Song Ji’an asked.

“I don’t know, but the car she drives is from Beijing-Tianjin.” Cheng Fangyang pondered for a moment before saying, “But no matter what, she has already made an appointment with me for tomorrow. Whether it’s true or false, we’ll see tomorrow.”