After one-hour drive, Yang and his colleagues arrived at the hospital. After counting all the needed items like hat, foot straps, gloves and body bag, Yang picked up the deceased through the guidance of family members. Life often comes and goes in the dead of night, and the nature of the job is to be on call. Yang still remembers that 3 hours before he and his wife met for taking wedding photos, he was given the task of carrying the dead at a fire site. The dead were a father and a son, and one of them was about 100kg and Yang had to pick up the body himself and put him on the stretcher.

When asked why not picked the body with another colleague? Yang said, “at that time, I knew at a glance that the body couldn’t be lifted by more than one person and it would be broken as soon as it was lifted. It was a big accident when the body fell to the ground, so I could only pick it up by myself.” And he met his wife with bloody clothes at that day. But his wife Xiaoyan (pseudonym) who knows his job said nothing but asked him, “Will you be able to laugh later?” Yang answered, “I must laugh for our life.”

Carrying, loading and farewell are the procedures before the deceased is sent to the funeral home for further processing. Yang and his colleagues bow 90 degrees each time. But this is not the end, but the beginning of another "journey" of the dead. It is learned that, after the dead is transported to the Shiqiaopu Funeral Home, Yang will draw out the ascites, conduct anti-corrosion treatment and other treatments before put the body into storage room. The whole process needs at least 2 hours.

Most people keep from talking about death, but Yang determined to face death in his youth. Why? In the corridor of the body room of Funeral Home, he talked about his experience for the first time, “During the Wenchuan Earthquake in 2008, I was a volunteer. I was young and couldn't do anything, so I helped carry the bodies." He had no time to be afraid and hesitate, but to carry the dead down the mountain and he never expected to have a rest even his arms were numb. “Later, when my uncle told me that there is a school with major about funeral and interment in Chongqing, I applied for it.” Yang deems that his “fate” with this job was connected in 2008. (Translated by Ma Shuangshuang, Fathom Language Limited)

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