Chapter 238

After lunch and reading for an hour, Xia De went out.

Finding a carriage from the street corner, he crossed the entire city district eastward to reach the cemetery outside the city. On the way, the bored Xia De talked to the coachman about the recent weather, complained about the high prices together, and then talked about their respective jobs.

Perhaps because of Xia De's slightly young face and that approachable tone, the coachman was also willing to chat with him a few more times. This carriage was of course not his. The coachman rented the car from the Tobesk Taxi Carriage Society in the city, carried passengers according to the designated area, and handed over the daily income to the society in proportion, using the remaining money to support his family.

Although such a job has an income exceeding that of a porter carrying bags near the station, it actually hasn't escaped the status quo of family poverty. The main reason is that the coachman has five children at home.

Four of them are his own children, and the other is the child of his deceased eldest brother. In this era, it is normal for anyone to pass away suddenly, just like Detective Sparrow.

"The recent income is still okay. I even ordered milk from the Silver Parrot Milk Delivery Company, one bottle a day, and the children can share it. Oh, sir, I heard from others that drinking milk can make you grow taller."

"There is such a saying... I remember, isn't the milk price of the Silver Parrot Milk Delivery Company very expensive?"

Xia De asked hesitantly, and the coachman smiled:

"The milk subscription price there was lowered some time ago. It seems that there was a problem with the warehouse. Before it was repaired, the daily stockpiled goods had to be sold as soon as possible. When I carried a middle-aged gentleman who worked there last time, he told me this news. My neighbors also plan to order some before the price rises again. This is really not bad."

Tobesk Public Cemetery is an important part of Tobesk's basic municipal engineering. Although it is a "public cemetery," except for members of the royal family, even nobles will be buried here.

The park area is very large, and choosing to be buried on the ground or in an underground tomb, in the shade or in the sun, and even the surrounding environment and the density of the graves are all very particular.

The appearance of the public cemetery in the steam age is of course not because the City Hall has a large amount of funds and nowhere to use them, but because it encountered the land occupation problem of the original cemetery around the city during the expansion process of Tobesk city area.

In a world where mysticism truly exists, funerals are not a simple matter. Therefore, it was finally decided to establish a city public cemetery in the eastern part of the city. As for choosing the eastern part, it is because the eastern part of the city is adjacent to the mountainous area, while the other three sides have flat terrain, and Tobesk's expansion will not choose the eastern side.

Compared with the shabby rural small cemetery managed by Mr. Copus that Xia De had been to once, the Tobesk city public cemetery is much more imposing. There are specially built roads extending from the city to here, and except for the cemetery's carriage, no foreign carriage is allowed to enter the park area.

The stone road is laid in the cemetery, connecting various parks. The public cemetery is not just one place, usually divided into northeast, east, and southeast, and the eastern cemetery that Xia De went to this time is divided into five parks. The No. 3 burial area in the eastern cemetery where Mr. Watson, who had turned into bones, was buried, is the so-called burial area for the rich.

And the burial place of the underground tomb is even more expensive. Not to mention the current 1853, even more than twenty years ago when Mrs. Watson bought the tomb, the price definitely exceeded 30 pounds.

The above information was all heard by Xia De from the coachman. The journey was boring, and the two talked about many things. The coachman was very happy to talk to people like Xia De. Therefore, when getting off the car, Xia De specially gave an extra 5 pence as thanks for relieving boredom along the way, and the coachman also took off his hat to express his thanks to Xia De.

Because the city public cemetery is managed by the City Hall and the Church of Nature, there is of course a church in the cemetery.

The small white church stands next to the gravedigger's hut, with an obituary posted at the door, informing people of the identity of the person buried here today.

When Xia De, who was tidying up his clothes, stood on the stone road in front of the small church, some guests attending the funeral had already arrived one after another. Attending such a funeral does not require bringing anything extra, just wear a black formal suit.

All the way inside, Xia De found the old woman standing beside the coffin in the small church. On the lid of the wooden lacquered coffin was a silver wrench logo, which is the holy emblem of the 【God of Creation and Destruction】, that is, the Orthodox 【Lady of Creation】, representing the faith of Mr. Watson who had been dead for many years.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Hamilton."

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Watson, please don't be so sad."

Xia De comforted her in a low voice for a few words, and then the old Mrs. Watson introduced him to the middle-aged man in a black top hat who was also standing beside the coffin.

Saying he was middle-aged, he was actually almost fifty years old.

This is Mr. Watson's younger brother, Johns Watson, the youngest son of the previous Earl of Watson. Although he also failed to inherit the title, this gentleman also relied on the family's influence to have his own industry locally, and today he came to attend the funeral on behalf of the family.

Although old Mrs. Watson said that the two had some conflicts, at least this conflict was not shown in front of Xia De. The middle-aged gentleman thanked Xia De very politely for coming specially, while Xia De asked about the funeral process and confirmed that the priest could be present.

This was the first funeral Xia De attended in this world. When looking at that coffin in his spare time, Xia De couldn't help but think about how Mr. Watson, who was sealed in the wall after death, would view the relationship between his wife and the family.

"A funeral thirty years late."

Even though this funeral had nothing to do with him, he couldn't help but sigh.

The funeral customs and habits of this era are similar to the Western-style funerals in Xia De's hometown. Friends and relatives with sad faces arrive, presided over by the priest of the church the deceased believed in, and the family elders or high-status friends read the eulogy, and then let the relatives recall the things about the deceased during his lifetime one by one.

These procedures all took place in this cemetery small church, and the longest process among them was led by a priest with a business license to pray for the deceased with everyone, praying for his soul to rest in peace.

The Watson family and the friends and relatives of old Mrs. Watson sat on the long seats in the church hall. Because of the family influence and money influence, the guests today almost filled the entire hall.

Xia De's speaking order was very early. After the funeral started at two o'clock in the afternoon, he was the second person to speak after the priest. The eulogy had already been prepared. He first explained his identity, and then read the sentences on the paper he was holding that praised Mr. Watson and regretted his early death.

The whole process lasted 10 minutes. After it ended, people politely applauded in a low voice, and several old women sitting in the front row seats even covered their faces with handkerchiefs and cried, not knowing whether it was true or false, but Xia De at least thought old Mrs. Watson's crying was true.

He couldn't leave yet. He had to wait until the coffin was sent into the tomb before he could leave. After all, the agreed checkout time was after the process. Only then could he walk to visit Mr. Sparrow Hamilton, who was sleeping not far away.

Because he didn't know anyone, Xia De found a seat in the back row near the church door and corridor. When walking quietly to the back, there was actually a young girl wearing a black lady's small hat with white flowers inserted, who suddenly stuffed a note to him.

He originally thought it was something important, but didn't expect that after opening it, an address was written on it, and there was a lipstick kiss mark under the letters.

"Hmm..."

【What did you think it would be?】

The voice in his head sounded in his ear.

"Something like asking for help when encountering trouble."

He replied, crumpled the note into a ball and stuffed it into his pocket, thinking of throwing it away somewhere after the funeral ended.

Xia De had no intention of getting to know a strange girl now:

"Attending a funeral, and actually being chatted up, it's really interesting."

He muttered in a low voice, although it was a low voice, but probably no one sitting beside him could hear what he was saying.

"It's really interesting."

Hearing such a voice in his ear, Xia De was stunned, thinking someone had heard his words. But he realized that the voice came from his left, and to his left was clearly the aisle carpeted between the long rows of seats. It was reasonable to say that it was impossible for anyone to be there.

"What's the situation?"

So he glanced to the left, and actually saw a middle-aged man with a transparent body standing beside him.

He stood with his hands behind his back, looking at Mrs. Watson, who was recalling her husband behind the small church podium, with a look of regret.

The middle-aged man with a transparent body was like a guest who arrived late for this funeral. After discovering that there were no seats, he could only stand at the end and watch the scene in front of him. But the transparency of the body and the constantly coming cold feeling all proved that this was not a human.

Xia De didn't show panic, just glanced at it, then withdrew his gaze, and complained in a low voice in his heart:

"So, what exactly is the situation? I just came to attend a funeral..."

The fundamental reason for not panicking was that the man beside him was not strong.

【Simply put, you encountered a ghost.】

She smiled and gave the answer.

Xia De still maintained a sitting posture, his eyes occasionally looking to the left. And the thing that was probably a ghost standing beside him had all his attention on watching Mrs. Watson in front, so he didn't notice that the person beside him could see him.

Although the body was transparent, the appearance of the face could still be seen clearly. It's just that Xia De hadn't seen this face, but he highly suspected that this was Mr. Watson, but that unlucky guy who was outdated more than thirty years ago didn't leave any photos at all, so Xia De was just guessing.

"When did it appear?"

【Probably a second before you expressed your sigh, that is, at the same time the old woman went on stage to speak just now.】

"If so..."

Xia De tried hard to scrape knowledge about "ghosts" in his head, because someone had died in the house he lived in not long ago, so after contacting the textbooks of St. Byron, Xia De focused on finding relevant content.