As for the welfare cases... these are managed by a special fund office established by the city government, the church, charitable organizations, and other parties, specifically to provide a decent funeral for those who have no relatives or friends—in other words, for the deceased who have no one to pay their funeral expenses.

Welfare cases are something that multiple funeral homes have to actively compete for, and they are basically divided up by district. After layers of deductions, the actual profit that ends up in the hands of the funeral home is so thin it’s almost negligible, but it does ensure the funeral home can keep running. After all, even if there’s no work, you still have to pay your staff, right?

Correspondingly, welfare cases are also easier to handle, since there are rarely any relatives or friends to supervise or nitpick;

The body is simply prepared, placed in a coffin, and Grandpa, dressed in a priest’s robe, stands by the body. Someone sent by the relevant government department takes a few photos for record-keeping, and then it’s just a matter of waiting for the end-of-month funding.

“Yes, madam, I know him. His name is Jeffrey, a poor guy who always loses at cards. Sigh, I’m even more unlucky—every time he goes to the tavern to play cards, I’m not there,” said Ron.

“Madam, there’s one more case. We need to go to the Huashuiwan Nursing Home,” said Paul.

Aunt Mary immediately reminded loudly, “Tell the nursing home attendants to give the person a bath first, or don’t bring them back. Last time, the old man we brought back from there had dried feces crusted on his body.”

“Yes, understood,” Paul promised at once.

After speaking, he and Ron switched to an empty gurney and returned to the hearse.

“Beep beep...”

Sitting in the car, still holding a cigarette, Uncle Mason honked the horn twice.

He first called out to Karen:

“My little Karen, looks like you’ve recovered well.”

“Yes, uncle,” Karen replied.

“Haha, that’s great.” Then he looked at his wife and called out to her, “Darling, I want to have your meat pies for lunch when I come back. That’s one of the only two things I love most in this life!”

“Eat it in the bathroom, I don’t have time!”

Uncle Mason shrugged,

and shamelessly continued with a grin:

“Oh, that’s my other favorite!”

Aunt Mary couldn’t keep a straight face, turned her head away, and her lips twitched.

“Let’s go, darling!”

Mason started the car and drove off.

Aunt Mary took two deep breaths and reached out to push the gurney.

Karen naturally came over to lend a hand;

Aunt Mary glanced at Karen, but didn’t move;

Karen looked at her, a bit puzzled.

“Karen, you seem a bit different from before.”

“Maybe.”

Karen couldn’t be bothered to hide the fact that he had “traveled through worlds.” In fact, as a “transmigrator,” this is the last thing you need to worry about. Who around you would ever think your soul had been replaced?

You’d have to be crazy!

“Go to the basement.”

“Okay, auntie.”

The aunt and nephew pushed the gurney with the body past the corner of the first-floor lobby and then downwards.

The way to the basement was a ramp, with a flat section in the middle for transition.

When pushing down, you had to control the speed to prevent the body from sliding off.

“If only we could install an elevator,” Karen said when they reached the basement, his hands gripping the gurney a bit strained.

“Like the ones in department stores?” Aunt Mary mocked, “Are you crazy? Do you know how expensive that would be!”

The basement had only one floor, divided into three rooms, or rather, functional areas.

One was a storeroom... though it couldn’t really be called a storeroom, since it contained many items needed by the funeral home, all stacked quite neatly.

One was the morgue, which didn’t have a single body inside. Karen didn’t see any freezers in there either.

Karen didn’t ask why they didn’t buy a freezer, because he was sure if he did, Aunt Mary would answer, “Are you crazy? Do you know how expensive that would be!”

But this also showed that the business of the Inmeres family wasn’t actually that big—they didn’t even need to “stock up.”

But from another perspective, it also showed that, no matter the era, no matter the cultural background, the business of death... is truly profitable.

The last room was Aunt Mary’s workspace, where she needed to “beautify” the bodies.

No matter how good-looking someone was in life, after death, they all look... pretty ordinary.

Not to mention, quite a few didn’t die of natural causes, which made the work even harder.

For regular welfare cases, you only needed to take care of the face—no family would care about the rest. But for the big cases, where the family was willing to spend for a more refined service, the whole body needed to be cleaned, even the nails had to be trimmed. After that, everything from the coffin to the clothes, the priest’s prayers, even the setup of the memorial service—all of it could be done to different standards.

Karen helped Aunt Mary push the gurney into the workspace.

Aunt Mary pulled over a chair, sat down, and placed an ashtray on the gurney, almost right in front of Jeffrey’s face.

“Snap...”

Aunt Mary lit a cigarette, took a drag, and slowly exhaled.

Aside from her “sharp tongue,” Aunt Mary was actually quite good-looking. Even though she was getting older now, she still had a certain charm.