Grandson
Chapter 69: The Odd Great-Grandson
Translator: Min Lee Editor: Tennesh
Fang Zhao spent the night at his second uncle's home. In the morning, he visited the apartment he'd bought in Yanbei and tidied it up a bit. It was just a place to crash—80-odd square meters, a bedroom, and a study. After he was done, he went to the cemetery to pay his respect to the parents of his body's previous owner.
In the New Era, cemeteries for the masses weren't typical cemeteries. They were run by individual companies. The parents of his body's original owner had died in an explosion. The entire building was reduced to ashes, so the cemetery held not their remains but some of their personal items.
The original owner of his body never visited his parents' gravesite in Yanbei. Instead, he would pay his respects remotely by logging into the website of the company that ran the cemetery where his parents were enshrined. You needed to make an appointment in advance to pay your respects in person. You were assigned a waiting area, and the remains of the deceased or their personal items were pulled from central storage. In contrast to the martyrs' cemetery, these centralized corporate cemeteries were more compact. When Fang Zhao arrived, he was told he owed a year in back fees. After paying the overdue bill, Fang Zhao went ahead and paid for 10 years of storage in advance.
In the New Era, rank-and-file citizens weren't allowed to be buried. Their remains were housed in cemeteries like this one. You chose from the various private cemetery companies according to preference and affordability. Some were backed by the government. Others were completely private. The cemetery where the parents of the original owner of Fang Zhao's body were enshrined was funded by the government. Even though it wasn't something to write home about, it was managed with more discretion. Despite incurring a year's worth of back fees, the Fang parents' storage box hadn't been cleared. All the cemetery company had done was send a reminder via text message. Fang Zhao had not been pestered endlessly.
Second Uncle wanted the whole family to visit Great-Grandfather Fang at his retirement home on Memorial Day. He also wanted Fang Zhao to meet other elders in the family, so he kept Fang Zhao for the night. As a result, Fang Zhao had yet to spend a single night in his new apartment in Yanbei.
Fang Yu's military assignment had been settled and Fang Zhao was back, so Second Uncle couldn't stop smiling. This gave Fang Qi, who'd almost flunked his exams, some breathing room. But what Second Uncle and family felt awkward about was the fact they were still guarded in front of Fang Zhao. It wasn't entirely due to the favor Fang Zhao had extended, although that was part of it. Second Uncle couldn't quite explain himself. He just followed his gut feeling.
Fang Yu also felt that the way Fang Zhao looked at him reminded him of the old man who lived upstairs. Fang Zhao's gaze was somewhat paternalistic, to the extent that Fang Yu felt inferior in front of his cousin. He even spoke with caution.
Fang Yu tried to figure out why he acted this way. Maybe it was like his father had said—people who are competent command a sense of respect.
Fang Zhao also noticed that Second Uncle and family were wary of him, but he couldn't change overnight. He didn't know how to act young, or rather, he didn't know how to pretend to be a young man. The reason for his visit was simple—he wanted to see what Yanbei looked like in the New Era. It had been six years since his last visit. Even if his personality had undergone massive changes, friends and family wouldn't make a big deal of it.
On Memorial Day, Fang Zhao, Second Uncle, and his family took a public train to a retirement home for former officials in the suburbs of Yanbei.
It was a bustling day at the retirement home.
Rapid advancements in technology and improved human health after the Period of Destruction had increased life expectancy. The retirement age for most industries was now around 150. At that age, it was common for five generations of the same family to be alive. As a result, families were quite large. Some families had six or seven kids. The numbers added up.