The Fishmonger

Chen Haisheng was helping a market vendor gut fish when he got the call: his younger sister had died suddenly. When he reached the school, the director of academic affairs handed him a cremation certificate, speaking as casually as if announcing a make-up exam. “The body has already been taken care of. You can collect the ashes in three days.”

Chen Haisheng stood frozen. He didn’t know what “taken care of” meant and thought it was standard procedure. Only later did he learn that that afternoon, his sister’s body had been dismembered, her organs removed, and her remains sent to the crematorium. The whole process took less than four hours.