The sweetest in the entertainment industry

Chapter 683 Funeral Arrangements
Using the connections she made on the first day, Song Lanxiang visited more than a dozen villages over the next three days, collecting a large number of questionnaires. Early that morning, while she was compiling data in her dormitory, she saw a message circulating in the class group that Professor Jiang from the School of Literature had passed away.

Song Lanxiang took his elective course "Appreciation of Classical Literature" to earn credits, but she was not familiar with Professor Jiang.

On the contrary, Professor Jiang's wife, Ms. Chen, who works at their School of Social and Political Sciences, knew that she came from a remote mountainous area. She pitied her hard work in her studies and her love for her hometown. She not only took good care of her in daily life, but also specially introduced her to a work-study part-time job run by the school.

This part-time job not only provides her with a decent salary, ensuring she doesn't have to struggle financially during her university years, but it also allows her to learn valuable lessons from the teachers in the school office. Most importantly, this experience will be recorded on her resume, helping her find a job after graduation.

Both out of compassion and reason, upon hearing such devastating news, she felt she had to go.

Professor Jiang passed away last night and was taken to Longhua Funeral Home this morning. Song Lanxiang specially changed into a decent black dress, wrapped a condolence money in white paper, and took out the money. She went to the flower shop at the school gate to buy a small bouquet of white chrysanthemums, and then went to the fruit shop not far away to buy a few pounds of apples before rushing to the subway station.

When she arrived at the funeral home on the earliest subway train, it was only a little past nine o'clock.

This was her first time here, and seeing several security guards at the main gate, she assumed it had always been like this.

Once inside the funeral home, just a few steps away, she saw a shed set up by the roadside, with a group of staff members sitting under it. As soon as they saw her carrying things in, someone came over to ask her what she was there for.

Upon learning that she had come to visit her teacher, he immediately led her to the most secluded yet spacious mourning hall in the funeral home.

As I approached, I could see several burly men standing guard from afar, protecting all the entrances to the mourning hall.

Song Lanxiang had never seen such a scene before and was a little surprised and uncertain. After confirming the name of the deceased, she realized it was indeed Professor Jiang, who had taught her "Appreciation of Classical Literature". Only then did she follow the staff inside.

Upon entering the mourning hall, to her surprise, the people keeping vigil were not Teacher Chen, but two very good-looking young men.

She didn't recognize the man, but she had met the woman a few days ago. Song Lanxiang breathed a sigh of relief and spoke more fluently.

"Sister Gu, I didn't expect to see you again so soon. Thank you for your guidance on writing papers last time. I have learned a lot in the past few days."

Gu Lanxi hadn't expected to run into her here. She politely accepted the apple and white chrysanthemums that Gu Lanxi offered. Seeing that Gu Lanxi seemed rather flustered, she quickly led her to the rest area to sit down.

Song Lanxiang looked around but didn't see Teacher Chen, so she stood there without moving.

"Um...I wonder if Teacher Chen is here? I just came to offer incense to Teacher Jiang. Sister, you don't need to make a special trip for me."

She was still young and inexperienced, and coming from a remote mountain village, she didn't understand many of the city's rules. However, she knew that more people would be arriving soon, and the host family was already exhausted, so they didn't want to take up too much of their time.

That's enough, as long as you've done your best.

"I……"

Gu Lanxi paused for a moment, feeling a little uncomfortable, but still answered her, "My grandmother was so heartbroken that she didn't sleep all night. I just managed to get her to bed..."

In that case, Song Lanxiang immediately suggested that she go and offer incense to Teacher Jiang.

Lu Nanting brought over some incense, handed it to her, thanked her, and then the two of them led her to the ice coffin.

“This is my husband, his name is Lu Nanting.”

Gu Lanxi was a little surprised when she saw Song Lanxiang in the countryside and found that she didn't recognize her. She found it quite strange that Song Lanxiang didn't even recognize Lu Nanting.

"Brother Lu, please accept my condolences!"

The elderly couple dedicated their lives to teaching and nurturing students. After graduating from university, they taught at F University, and over the decades, countless students, like Song Lanxiang, have benefited from their kindness.

Song Lanxiang held the incense sticks in her hands. When she saw the prayer mat in front of her, she knelt down without thinking.

Before she could finish bowing, another staff member arrived with a group of people.

However, it was Professor Jiang who brought a group of doctoral and graduate students.

Before they even graduated, the big boss suddenly fell seriously ill and passed away. Everyone felt like the sky had fallen, and they were all grieving. When they came in and saw the person lying in the ice coffin with a frown on his face, a group of people immediately knelt down and started crying.

They were genuinely saddened for their teacher, but also worried about their own future.

There was a single bed in the family rest room. Chen Wanzhen was lying on her side, feeling drowsy. Hearing the crying outside, she knew that people who came to pay their respects were about to arrive. She quickly got up, tidied her disheveled white hair, straightened her clothes, and came out.

When everyone saw her, they burst into tears again.

Upon seeing Song Lanxiang standing awkwardly to one side, Chen Wanzhen couldn't hold back her tears and burst into tears again.

Gu Lanxi and her husband rushed over to help her.

These students weren't like Song Lanxiang, who only knew how to bury herself in her studies. They recognized Lanting and his wife as soon as they came in, but they weren't sure about their relationship with their teacher, so they didn't ask.

After a while of conversation, seeing that Chen Wanzhen's tears had stopped, someone finally mustered the courage to speak up: "Teacher Chen, who are these two...?"

"Oh, my granddaughter and grandson-in-law."

After that, he introduced the group of students one by one.

Gu Lanxi and her husband greeted everyone politely. Chen Wanzhen gave them a few brief instructions. The students wanted to stay and help, but seeing that there were many staff members, they had no choice but to obey their teacher's wife and go back to school to do what they were supposed to do.

If a mentor passes away due to illness, the school will arrange for another teacher to continue mentoring them.

After the sadness, life goes on as usual.

But as soon as they left the funeral home, the group of people went completely up in an uproar!
"The teacher's granddaughter!! My God, how come I didn't know all these years?"

Chen Wanzhen and her husband had never mentioned their daughter to anyone, let alone Gu Lanxi. Those close to them were incredulous when they suddenly learned of this news!

In fact, Gu Lanxi received a call from the police last night, informing her to go to the hospital to see her grandfather one last time. She was even more incredulous than the group of people!
Because her mother had completely severed ties with her maternal family, she had never heard of this family since she was a child, and didn't even know how many people were in the Jiang family. Now, suddenly, a dying grandfather appeared, and she felt something was wrong. She quickly called Lu Nanting to drive them out. When the two arrived at the hospital, they saw Chen Wanzhen, as well as an old photo album and a box of letters.

To put it simply, Comrade Jiang Heng eloped for love and married the useless Gu Weihai. After that, she lived a miserable life. For the first few years, the elderly couple would often go to Wenzhou to see her, and each time they would have a big fight and part on bad terms. Over time, the elderly couple became too lazy to care about her anymore. Anyway, they knew that she now ran a large shoe factory and had children. With her abilities, she couldn't be living too badly.

When they learned that their child had been sent back to his hometown in Guangzhou to be cared for by his grandparents, they had no objections.

Firstly, the granddaughter is my own flesh and blood, so how badly could I treat her?

Secondly, they both disliked the scumbag surnamed Gu, and consequently, they also naturally disliked his child.

Thirdly, this child caused my daughter to have to have her uterus removed. Although it wasn't the child's fault, I still felt uneasy about it.

In addition, their daughter didn't seem to have much affection for the child. They couldn't even discipline their daughter properly, so they weren't confident they could raise their granddaughter well. Since the grandparents had raised her since she was little, they would just continue to do so.
As a result, after Jiang Heng discovered that she was sick, she was afraid that her parents would suffer too much in their later years, so when Gu Lanxi was twelve years old, she lied and said that she had divorced and immigrated with her child.

In the following years, she did not resume contact with the elderly couple, only intermittently asking friends to send things back to her.

Fearing that the elderly couple might become suspicious, she would occasionally have a friend send them a pre-written letter to let them know she was safe.

The letter was awkward; it expressed both a desire to go home and a feeling that he hadn't accomplished anything significant, and a desire to work hard for a few more years.

Every time the elderly couple sent a letter saying they wanted to call or visit relatives, they would never hear from them again.

In the end, having no other choice, he could only look at the photos that Jiang Heng had sent back with her letter over and over again.

When Gu Lanxi saw the pile of letters and photos, she was completely stunned.

"Don't you have any suspicions just because you only have her photos?"

“Oh, she said she sent you to a girls’ boarding school in England. She’s often away from home because she’s afraid we’ll get angry and she doesn’t want us to think about your dad because of you.”

"How did you realize something was wrong?"

"When 'Testing the Waters' was released, your grandfather and I went to see it in the cinema because of our love for martial arts. We were very impressed with you. Later, when you were being attacked online, we saw people talking about your dirty deeds. We rushed to Guangzhou to inquire and found out what happened back then. We wanted to contact you, but you were already doing well. We hadn't taken care of you since you were little, so we thought it was fine this way."

The reason she called them both over was twofold: first, Old Jiang wanted to see her before he passed away; second, the elderly couple only had one daughter, Jiang Heng, and now that Old Jiang had passed away, Chen Wanzhen was worried that she might also suddenly die one day without having properly settled her affairs. So she specially asked them to come over and talk to her about her will.

The elderly couple spent their lives sponsoring impoverished students. Apart from two staff apartments at F University, their only assets were a small collection of calligraphy and paintings that they liked, all of which were from modern times and not considered rare treasures.

Compared to Gu Lanxi's wealth, it was really nothing, but after death, it was something to be left to her bloodline descendants.

That's how the elderly are. They think about not disturbing you during the year, but when they're nearing the end, they still feel that if they could see each other one last time, they wouldn't have so many regrets in this life.

Especially since Gu Lanxi was filming in Shanghai, her home was only a 20-minute drive from the funeral home, and it only took her half an hour to get to the hospital.

The only pity is that Grandpa didn't get to see Tuantuan.

However, seeing Gu Lanxi relieved Old Jiang of most of his worries. He left quite decisively, only touching his wife's hand and solemnly instructing her that if they were to become husband and wife again in their next life, the focus of educating their children must be on preventing them from becoming love-struck.

"Ability is secondary; having a love-struck mind is a complete waste!"

The old man's face turned purple as he uttered those words while holding Chen Wanzhen's hand before passing away.

Gu Lanxi and her husband were standing nearby at the time.

Lu Nanting's mind was full of lessons from the past; he needed to strengthen Tuantuan's education on how to avoid scumbag men.

As for his grandfather, whom he had no feelings for and had only met once, he couldn't explain his own feelings.

But Gu Lanxi couldn't stop her tears from flowing, and he immediately knew what he had to do.

He appeases his wife, and then sends the elderly off with dignity.

As a grandson-in-law, all I need to do is keep my head down and do my job well.

As the two children grew older, the car bed became too small, and they often squeezed together.

In the morning, Sister Wang asked Er Mao to come over, but Er Mao said he was also in a crowded place and didn't want to go.

My sister cleverly suggested that she was bumped in the arm by XXX the day before yesterday, meaning she couldn't be squeezed anymore and needed more space.

The younger brother immediately frowned and raised his voice several decibels: "Who? Who bumped into you?"

The older sister immediately fell silent and never said anything about letting her younger brother move over again. However, the younger brother took the initiative to give up his seat, afraid of crowding her.

Good heavens, this is hilarious!

A funny little thing happened that warmed my heart all day, haha.

I don't remember if my mother's surname is Jiang or not. Regarding my maternal family, I only know that we have cut off all contact. Have I written about my family situation before?

If I've already written it, I'll revise it to make it more consistent.

If you can't find it, there's a bug, and you can only pretend you don't know.

It's over a million words; it would take me half a month to read it all.

This film makes up for the mother's regrets, re-establishes contact with her maternal family, and fills another gap.

Life is a constant process of losing and gaining.