Old Master Lian has already passed away, he can no longer be kept on the bed, and instead, a small funeral must be held. Sending off the elderly, handling the funeral rites for the deceased, typically involves friends and family helping rather than immediate family doing everything themselves.
This is both a necessity and a custom. It is deemed necessary because, at such times, the bereaved family is usually overwhelmed with grief, having no energy to handle various affairs. It's a custom because it has always been this way through history. This embodies the excellent tradition of mutual assistance among community members, suffused with the warmth of human relationships and the respect of the living for those who have passed, and for the very notion of death itself.
