karaoke mourning

They were starting a karaoke relay race. But instead of a karaoke club, it was under a temporary shelter on the floor of my apartment building. And it was not a open concert either; but actually it was a mourning ceremony.

An old man, who I haven't met at all, died several days ago. So there was a grand ceremony. A shelter was put up, where over 60 flower baskets from family members and friends were displayed. On them all expressed their sadness and condolence over his death. And a band was invited too for the last two days.

It was around 8:30 am when they began their performance. The first tune was the sad music we can hear from most funerals of leaders on TV news. And then came next some local opera singing, and Buddhist prayer enchanting, and on and on. Sad did I feel for him, for leaving the world on such a icy cold day, but a little angry at such loud music. And at lunch time and evening they did stop. But from the red drunked faces, I could tell they had big feasts.

It lasted two days. The second day happened to see the biggest snow in two decades in Hangzhou. The team continued their job outdoors in the cold air, playing trumpets and other instruments. At the lunch intervals, they even helped shovel the snow on the streets in the yards. And apex came around 7:30 pm when I came back from new year shopping. They were kinda cleaning the tables and chairs. I was telling to myself, maybe the loud ceremony would be over soon?. Almost immediately as I returned to my room, I questioned by what I heard.

The fun part got started. The Karaoke game finally kicked off. One man ( honestly with good voice) and one woman were doing the duets one song after another. And all songs they sang were about 15 years old and, all love songs.The first, 'last time to miss you'. The lyric goes, it's my last time to miss you, for tomorrow I will somebody else's bride.' The second, 'guess who I am'. ' I covered your eyes and let you guess who I am. But none of them is mine. My heart is broken even you say you've been just kidding.' The third,'choice'. 'you are my only choice this life and next life.'

It went about 45 minutes and all the neighborhood, like me, must have heard the concert, although I was not sure how many of us enjoyed it. But compared to the grief funeral music they'd been playing, at least we were not going to kill ourselves.And, all in a sudden it stopped with no any signals.

So the night, holy, festive, and peaceful night finally came.