Chapter 855: The Dead Should Be Buried in Peace
"I want to burn him in a fire, and then scatter his ashes in the river."
Li Shuping's way of handling funeral affairs was unheard of in their village.
The village cadres were stunned after hearing this. They never expected her to do this.
"Shouldn't the dead be buried in peace?"
"If you burn a person and scatter his ashes like this, what's the difference between that and grinding his bones and scattering his ashes?"
"Cheng Weiping is your son after all, how could you treat him like this?"
After being stunned, the village cadres began to persuade earnestly one by one.
"If you are so good at handling it, then go ahead and handle it yourself."
"I'm Cheng Weiping's mother, of course I know what to do. Would I harm him?"
"You all said that I was the only one who could handle this matter, but now you are pointing fingers and thinking that I can't handle it well."
"Since you are so capable, what else do you want me to deal with? Can't I just leave now?"
Li Shuping threw the chopsticks onto the table, and a crisp sound was heard instantly.
The village cadres were shocked and no longer dared to blame her as they had done before.
They suddenly realized that they seemed to have neither the position nor the qualifications.
Li Shuping is older than them and really doesn't need to listen to them.
"Oh! Why are you so angry over such a small matter?"
"We are all from the same village, so let's talk it out nicely."
The director of women's affairs tried to ease the atmosphere, and Li Shuping's expression finally became a little more normal.
She didn't lose her temper on purpose, but if she didn't lose her temper, they would treat her as a soft persimmon.
This one teaches her how to be a person, that one teaches her how to do things. She is already old, shouldn’t she have some ideas of her own?
"I'm not losing my temper, I'm just stating a fact."
"If you follow my instructions, I will naturally deal with Cheng Weiping's body."
"If you all want to tell me what to do and think you are more capable than me, then you can handle it yourselves."
"After all, you are better than me in everything, and I am not qualified to make decisions. I can only leave now."
Li Shuping kept talking about leaving, and the village cadres' tempers were worn out.
They suddenly became obedient and now dared not say a word about her decision.
"But there is no such precedent in our village."
"When someone dies, don't they usually have a banquet first and then bury the person on the mountain?"
"It feels too cruel to just burn it down like this now."
The village cadres appeared to surrender on the surface, but were actually trying to persuade him secretly.
They are all stubborn and refuse to change. Each of them has his own little schemes.
They tried to use the boiling frog method to make Li Shuping surrender.
The former Li Shuping might have believed their words, but the current Li Shuping has become invulnerable.
Now almost no one can change what she has decided.
"If they're dead, why should we care how they're buried?"
"It's better to burn it now and throw it away than to see the graves being left alone."
Li Shuping's words touched upon the pain points of many people. Some old tombs have been deserted for decades.
Maybe it will be glorious when buried, but in the end no one will care about it.
But no one has said these words before, and everyone pretends not to know.
Now that Li Shuping said this in front of everyone, it was beyond their understanding.
"But at least now I have something to think about."
"That's right. We can't care about what happens in the future, but we still have to take care of the present, okay?"
"Even if you don't live in the village now, you will come back in the future, right? Aren't you afraid of being criticized for doing such a rebellious thing?"
What the village cadres said ended up coming back to the same old story.
"When he was alive, I didn't care about his life or death. Now that he's dead, what else should I care about?"
"And you guys didn't forget that Cheng Weiping and I severed our mother-son relationship, did you? You signed it at the beginning, have you forgotten about it so quickly?"
"If you keep nagging me, no one will blame me even if I don't care about Cheng Weiping's affairs after his death."
"Now you all should do as I say and buy me some firewood. I will pile the firewood on the wasteland beside the creek. I will pay anyone who brings firewood later."
"When the time comes, notify them that I will burn Cheng Weiping's body there. If anyone wants to come and watch the ceremony, just see him off. If not, just stay in your room."
Li Shuping is no longer as weak as before, and has become more and more dashing.
The village cadres looked at her in amazement, feeling that she seemed like a different person.
"Then you should go and settle the medical bills first, is that okay?"
"No problem, isn't it just paying the medical bills?"
"Then can you help me arrange all the things I mentioned before?"
Li Shuping and the village cadres made demands on each other, and no one wanted to be easily controlled by the other party.
When the village cadres heard that she was willing to pay for the medical expenses, their expressions immediately eased a lot.
They all smiled happily and agreed to the request readily.
After seeing off the village cadres, Li Shuping and Jiang Wan hurried to the health center.
Doctor Cheng was feeling annoyed when he saw that no one came to pay the bill. When he saw Li Shuping coming over, he immediately reached out for money.
"Li Shuping, Li Shuping, I didn't ask you for money last night, but I came here this morning and found that you didn't even close the door. Aren't you really afraid that my things will be stolen?"
"I trusted you so much, but you didn't pay the medical bills earlier, making everyone worried."
Dr. Cheng criticized him a few times, but didn't really blame him.
Li Shuping knew that Dr. Cheng was a pretty good person, so she didn't get angry with him even after being criticized.
"Doctor Cheng, how much did Cheng Weiping spend in total? Please settle the bill now. If it's not much, I'll give it to you all."
Although Li Shuping could afford the money, she didn't want to appear overly generous. If Dr. Cheng tried to rip her off, she might quarrel with him.
Her money didn't come from the wind, so she couldn't give it away casually.
Dr. Cheng was originally full of confidence and wanted to do a careful calculation.
Now hearing her say this, his face suddenly changed.
He quickly took out a pen and paper and did the calculations quickly. He did not dare to cheat her during the calculation process and only wrote down the places where he would actually spend money.
As for the labor I put in by staying and working overtime, I finally had to accept the five dollars bill for the surgery.
The medical expenses of the clinic were not particularly high to begin with, and although the operation was very complicated, he actually did not save the patient.
The most we did was to rescue him and prolong his life. It would be embarrassing to charge him huge sum of money.