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Pet Funeral Director: A Guide to Compassionate Farewells
墨書 Inktalez
"I only have one hundred yuan now, please help me arrange a funeral for Yuan Yuan," Qiao Yuxiang said, her bright eyes filled with seriousness. Though her petite frame appeared delicate, it exuded a stubborn resilience that contradicted her appearance.
The man behind the consultation desk raised his well-defined eyebrows slightly and replied, "Miss, are you joking?"
"Please help me hold a funeral for Yuan Yuan. I will pay the remaining amount in installments," she insisted, her expression unwavering. This time, she took out a crisp red one-hundred-yuan bill from her bag and placed it on the table.
"Are you joking?" The man paused for a moment, his tone unchanged as he crossed his arms over his chest, looking at Qiao Yuxiang with an incredulous expression.
To arrange a pet funeral would cost at least a thousand yuan. The man frowned, sensing that she was clearly trying to provoke him. "Aren't you the Pet Funeral Director?"
"I am."
Perhaps the man's cold and dismissive tone angered her. Having just lost her beloved dog in an accident, Qiao Yuxiang's emotions began to spiral out of control. She felt as if the entire world was against her, all misfortunes converging upon her at once. She slammed her hand on the table in frustration. "What kind of service attitude is this? How can you treat a customer like this? I want to file a complaint! I will go to the Consumer Protection Association to report you!"
The tall figure walked around the consultation desk toward Qiao Yuxiang. His blue eyes, unlike those of an East Asian person, took in her every detail. With an indifferent expression, he looked down at her and said with a slight smirk, "I am Yan Kehe. The Consumer Protection Association is located at the sixth station on Metro Line 3. Our working days are Monday to Saturday, and the hotline number is..."
His nonchalant demeanor completely infuriated Qiao Yuxiang. With tears streaming down her face, she shouted in outrage, "You bastard! You’re all bastards! You hit Yuan Yuan and then just ran away—how can you be so irresponsible?! What do you think a pet's life is worth? Yuan Yuan has been with me for nine years!"
Tears streamed down Qiao Yuxiang's face as she unleashed all the pent-up anger from recent events. "What did I do wrong? Just because I made a mistake on the quotation form, you say you want to fire me? Even my landlord is taking advantage of me and forcing me to move out! Why did Yuan Yuan have to leave me now... I just want to give Yuan Yuan a proper funeral; I'm not refusing to pay! But my savings are frozen by the bank! Is it really necessary to treat me like this?! You're too much! You call yourself a Pet Funeral Director—greedy for money, cold-hearted, stingy Shady Merchant! You look down on RMB; you look down on my hard-earned money..."
Qiao Yuxiang's unreasonable outburst had reached its peak. She acknowledged that her attitude was excessively harsh; she was venting her frustrations on him while making unreasonable demands and even unfairly accusing him.
"What do you think the original intention of a Pet Funeral Director is?" In the end, she cried so hard that she struggled to catch her breath, curling up in a corner as all her strength dissolved into tears that fell like rain.
The initial intention of becoming a Pet Funeral Director? This question left Yan Kehe frozen in place. He lowered his head in contemplation for a moment. Clearly, he wanted to open the door and send off this difficult customer, yet he found himself uttering words that surprised even him—
"I will help you hold a funeral for your pet."
What a loss! A huge loss!
He was a man skilled in calculations; how could he take on such a losing deal?
One hundred yuan wasn’t even enough to hire a musician to play a tune... He admitted that he had simply softened in the moment, or perhaps he was caught off guard by her sudden question.
But he had to acknowledge that Qiao Yuxiang's bluntness reminded him of the past, stirring up a bittersweet feeling within him.
His decision to enter the pet funeral industry stemmed from the death of his beloved dog five years ago.
Before that, his parents had perished overseas, leaving him to bear the sorrow alone. It was his pet Mina who accompanied him through the low points of his life. However, Mina's passing left Yan Kehe heartbroken, as if his world had collapsed in an instant.
At that time, there was an abandoned pet corpse near the garbage station close to his residence. It was still wearing the heartfelt sweater its owner had bought for it, yet after its death, it was treated so poorly by its owner. Yan Kehe thought then that pets bring happiness and joy to people during their lives, and humans should repay that kindness when they pass away, allowing them to depart peacefully in their final moments.
From that moment on, he resolved to become a Pet Funeral Director, organizing grand funerals for those who didn’t know how to handle their pets' final affairs and wished to pay their last respects.
A luxury car carried Yuan Yuan to its final resting place. Two staff members carried Yuan Yuan’s casket toward the grave, where two rows of toy guard dogs stood at attention, adorned with colorful flower baskets on one side.
A videographer recorded the entire funeral process while another staff member launched fireworks into the sky. Petals rained down like confetti, and at the end of the ceremony, they erected a gravestone for Yuan Yuan.
Looking at her beloved pet buried beneath the dust, no longer the lively creature it once was, Qiao Yuxiang felt a sudden pang in her heart. Yan Kehe stood silently behind her. After a moment, Qiao Yuxiang wiped away her tears and turned to him, her voice slightly hoarse. "Thank you."
"Mm." He responded lightly, then stepped past her, tossing over his shoulder, "What are you lingering for? Hurry up and follow me!"
"Uh, what... what?" Qiao Yuxiang was taken aback, unable to grasp his words that came like a gust of wind.
Though the intention behind being a Pet Funeral Director was noble, it was a different matter entirely that Qiao Yuxiang could not afford to hold a pet funeral. What did that have to do with Yan Kehe?
Yan Kehe was not a businessman willing to suffer losses. Even if he retained a shred of conscience, it did not mean he had an obligation to assist Qiao Yuxiang; thus, repaying debts was only natural.
"From today on, you will come back to the shop with me as my assistant. The debt will be deducted from your salary."
Qiao Yuxiang timidly asked, "Then... how much is the debt?"
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