I Cried at the Chairman's Funeral for Money novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: The Mourner's Word

The footprint was perfect, a leather sole in grey ash, and it ran from the study door to the corner where the safe stood.

The old lawyer photographed it from six angles with a camera as old as himself.

The five elders stood in the doorway with their sticks, and Shen Ke stood at the edge of the ash with his sleeves folded.

"It must be swept by noon," he said. "The monk reads the marks, the ash is burned, and the study is washed."

"No," said Hanzhou.

He had come in last, in a fresh black suit, with a face that said he had not slept.

"A stranger walked into my father's study during the vigil," he said. "That print is evidence. It stays until the lawyer has the lab out."

"It is also the soul's road," said Shen Ke. "If a stranger's foot lies on it past noon, the soul takes the wrong turning and doesn't come home next time."

"My father is dead, Mourner Shen. He is not choosing a turning."

A murmur went through the elders.

"In the hall, the mourner's word on ritual is final," said Shen Ke. "Those are the terms, Mr. Gu. You signed."

"This is a study."

"For seven weeks this is all one hall. Ask any of them."

The oldest elder nodded slowly, and tapped his stick.

"He is correct, boy," he said to Hanzhou. "The mourner has the house until the last lamp. It has always been so."

Hanzhou looked around the room, at five old men and a lawyer and a mourner, and his jaw set.

"I will answer to my father for it myself," he said. "The ash stays."

It was said in front of everyone, in a level voice, and it was the exact wrong thing.

Shen Ke knew at once that it was wrong.

"You can't answer for him," he said, low. "You can't even say goodbye to him."

He saw the words land.

Hanzhou did not flinch, and he did not look away, and something in his eyes closed.

"Then I will have to learn," he said, "won't I."

Shen Ke turned and walked out of the study, through the courtyard, and into the garden.

He walked until the sound of the house was gone.

He stood by the lotus pond among the dead leaves and found that he was shaking.

He had been hired to cry for a man who couldn't, and he had just told that man the truth to his face.

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