Because her attention was currently focused on the old man who had just been sent from the nursing home,

　　very soon,

　　she heard Aunt Mary's shriek:

　　“Oh my god, how does he still have feces on him!”

　　……

　　Paul and Ron, who had failed to complete their assigned task, were ordered by Aunt Mary to be responsible for cleaning the body. Facing the furious Mrs. Mary, they didn’t dare resist at all.

　　Paul first wheeled the stretcher to the basement, while Ron walked up to Karen:

　　“Master Karen, I need to borrow a bucket and a mop.”

　　“I’ll help you carry them down.”

　　“No need, no need.” Ron twisted his neck. He was tall and a bit fat; though not very old, his beer belly was already quite obvious. “We’ll handle it ourselves.”

　　Karen smiled and asked, “So why didn’t the caregiver clean the body properly?”

　　This should have been the job of the nursing home staff—to do a preliminary cleaning of the deceased client’s body. Otherwise, if the family came to see their loved one and found the body still dirty, it would not look good.

　　“Sorry to make you laugh, young master.” Ron scratched his head a bit embarrassedly. “I made a date with the nurse in charge of Mr. Mossang to go see a movie in a couple of days.”

　　So that’s how it was…

　　Ron’s face turned slightly red as he continued:

　　“She said she likes watching movies and eating popcorn. When we watch the movie, she can feed me popcorn by hand, so… so I didn’t want the hand that feeds me popcorn to have just wiped that stuff off a corpse.

　　You know, young master, couples feeding each other popcorn at the movies is really a sweet thing. In the dim light, when she puts the popcorn in your mouth, you can even lick her fingers with your tongue;

　　Oh, my god, it’s just wonderful!”

　　“Keep dreaming.”

　　Paul’s voice came from behind. He had already taken Mr. Mossang to the basement and was now coming up to get rubber gloves and laundry detergent.

　　“Paul, I know, you’re just jealous of me!”

　　“Jealous of you? Please, Ron, besides Mrs. Hughes, the owner of Hughes Crematorium, I doubt any other woman would be interested in you.”

　　“You’re talking nonsense!”

　　Ron angrily pointed at Paul.

　　“Mrs. Hughes?” Karen asked curiously.

　　It sounded like the owner of the crematorium was a rich lady, so why was Ron so agitated?

　　“Haha.” Paul laughed first, then explained, “Master Karen, you probably don’t know, but before a body is pushed into the furnace for cremation, gasoline needs to be sprayed on it to help it burn. Thin people often need more gasoline, otherwise the bones won’t burn through. But fat people, the fat on their bodies helps with combustion.

　　So, Mrs. Hughes at the crematorium likes people with Ron’s build the most, because he saves on gasoline.”

　　“So that’s how it is.”

　　“Damn it, Paul, how dare you talk about me like that in front of Master Karen!”

　　“Come on, let’s get to work, or else Madam Mary will lose her temper again in a bit.”

　　Ron and Paul bickered as they carried their things down to the basement.

　　In the hall, Aunt Mary lit a cigarette, her mood much improved.

　　Because Paul had told her some good news: this old man named Mossang had children, and they would be coming over later.

　　If it’s not a welfare case, that means there’s profit to be made—even the lowest-tier package has some margin.

　　And Aunt Mary’s “salary” depended on the “performance” of the household. After deducting expenses, the remaining profit would be distributed as allowances to the family;

　　The accounts were managed by Aunt Winnie.

　　This was also why everyone in the family feared Grandpa but no one spoke ill of him behind his back. He was very strict, but definitely not a stingy or greedy old man.

　　Karen went back to the second floor to help his cousin Mina wipe the furniture.

　　When they were almost done, he heard Ron and Paul coming up from the basement—they had finished cleaning the body, and now it was Aunt Mary’s turn.

　　Because the family might come in the afternoon to arrange the memorial service, it was necessary to make the old man look presentable at this time.

　　However, it seemed there was a guest at home. Karen heard Aunt Mary calling him from downstairs:

　　“Karen, come down and entertain Mr. Hoffen.”

　　Putting down the rag, Karen quickly searched his mind for “Mr. Hoffen”:

　　He was an elderly man, a retired university philosophy professor, with a good pension and a decent life. He was a good friend of Grandpa’s and often came over for tea and a chat.

　　In addition, he was very interested in divination and had once given Karen a delicate deck of playing cards—not tarot cards, but the kind you could use to play Dou Dizhu.

　　Karen first went to the second-floor kitchen, made a cup of tea, prepared some simple snacks, and carried them to the living room on the first floor.

　　Mr. Hoffen was very tall, but extremely thin;

　　Thin people often have more defined features, and their emotions are more directly expressed.

　　When Karen saw him,

　　he found Mr. Hoffen’s gaze was locked directly on him.