He said: "Just now, just now, I saw... The tree... moved."
"Moved?" I asked him.
He nodded and said, "Really moved."
"Should I look at it through the mirror?" I took all equipment for Yin and Yang Tattoos, and also brought the Wu Sa and the mirror. My mirror could show the ghosts.
I put on the Wu Sa, pierced my middle finger, and let a few drops of blood drip onto the mirror.
Blood slowly spread out on the mirror... In the mirror, a strange sight appeared.
I saw, from under that ghost tree, a woman in white clothes stand up, and look up at the tree branches with a pale face.
Then there was another woman.
And another.
And another.
After a moment, I saw a circle of women standing under the ghost tree, all looking at the sky.
Then one of them turned her head and stared at me fiercely.
I was a little afraid.
I heard her say three words.
The first two words I could not hear clearly, but reading her lips, it was easy to identify the third: degree.
"'Degree'? What does that mean?" I murmured.
Feng Chunsheng said, "May it wasn't 'degree'; maybe it was 'death tree'."
Hearing these two words, my hands started shaking and I almost threw the mirror to the ground.
Fortunately, I soon adjusted my mood and said, "We should walk around it. This tree is too weird."
Feng Chunsheng said, "From its birth to the present, how many people were hanged on it? It's probably full of ghosts, so stay away from it."
"OK."
Feng Chunsheng and I slid along the wall of the front yard towards the front door. When I knocked the door, I secretly glanced at the mirror. The ghosts in the mirror had all disappeared, but I suddenly found that the lines of the tree formed a face.
The face smiled at me. The smile was very grim, and I felt my heart tighten. What the hell was this thing?
I was a little scared. What the hell was going on? Was the thing that troubled Liu Qinghua this tree? A death tree? The name of the tree sounded very scary.
I started knocking on the door.
I knocked on the door three or four times before it opened.
A pretty girl opened the door, smiled at us, and said, "Brother Yu, you finally came."
I did not speak at first. Looking at her, I found that this girl was not as lively as when she first came to me for a tattoo.
A few years had passed, and she became more haggard, and a lot paler. She might only have been twenty-five years old this year, but the corners of her eyes had a lot of wrinkles.
In my impression, she was a dynamic girl.
I smiled to her and said, "It's been several years. Is the beautiful lovers tattoo on your leg still cute?
"It's all right." When she spoke, she sounded more mature. She didn't even smile.
She was born an optimist,but time was ruthless in changing our appearance.
I said to her: "Let's go upstairs."
"Yes."
She took us upstairs.
This house was for rent, so each floor had a separate iron gate.
She opened the gate and let us in.
When I got into her flat, I was immediately surprised.
This was such a shabby house, but she had redecorated it to look brand-new. If someone didn't know better, they would think it was a high-class house in a gated community.
I asked her, "How much was this redecoration?"
She said: "Seventy or eighty thousand Yuan."
She spent seventy or eighty thousand Yuan to redecorate this rental apartment? She was silly. Once she moved out, the money for the redecoration would be wasted.
However, in my heart, there was a thought. What if she wanted to stay there forever? Was it stupid then?
But a woman renting a flat for a lifetime? Was it possible?
She let us sit on the Stockholm sofa in the living room, and asked me, "Brother Yu, you see, I spent seventy or eighty thousand to redecorate this apartment, almost half of my savings. I have to live here. You have to help me."
I looked at her and said, "This house has many threats. At least, that tree outside - it's pretty weird."
"It is really weird." She said to me, "That tree often makes sounds in the evening. Did you notice the heavy rain a few days ago?"
"What's the matter?" I asked her.
The heavy rain washed the tree, but also washed out the soil under the tree, revealing a skull.
I nodded and said, "The big tree, in fact, will not be easy to deal with."
"Alas. I think it's a little strange," Feng Chunsheng suddenly interrupted. "Are there other renters in this building?"
"Of course there are."
She said, "There are three families renting here, but one of them spends most of their time traveling and they aren't here now. One of the residents is a programmer. The guy loves to sit around the house, but he's pretty smooth, and he can bring a new girl here every night."
This person was probably Wei Xiaoyu's boyfriend.
I smiled and said, "In fact, you don't need to get rid of that tree. If it is evil, I will give you a tattoo to suppress the ghost. That can also solve the problem. It's just that I need to know your specific symptoms."
I asked her what kind of ghost she met. What kind of nightmares, for example? What was the sound of crying?
When I asked this, she suddenly used one hand to cover her chest, and had tears in her eyes as she said, "I actually know who it is… I know that ghost. The ghost that has been haunting me is not just anyone. It is Brother Feng."
"Brother Feng?" I asked her, "Was that the man who got a bunny tattoo with you?"
"Yes."
She lowered her head and sighed, "Actually, I broke up with him a year ago."
In my impression, when she and her boyfriend came to me to get the tattoo, they loved each other. So why break up?
And how did he suddenly become a ghost?
It didn't make any sense.
She said, "Because he was poor."
"Oh." I suddenly understood.
These years, how much love was destroyed by poverty?
Feng Chunsheng was a little angry. He was always calm, but now suddenly stood up, pointed at her nose, and shouted, "What's wrong with these little girls? How can money-worship be so commonplace these days? I used to be poor, but my wife never left me. We loved each other for more than ten years. Now you are loved by men, but you are still nitpicking, considering marriage to be a business deal? Does that suit you? Is that right?"
She burst into tears and curled up on the couch, crying.
I thought her crying was of no use to anyone, so I her, "Don't cry, this matter... In fact, it doesn't matter who was wrong. He died anyway, so don't think about it."
"No... I'm going to talk." She suddenly became strong.
She said, "To be honest, I feel that my life really has no meaning. So although many phenomena here are very strange, I don't think about them; I am not afraid. Brother Feng's ghost is at my side, so I am not afraid."
"What do you mean?" I asked her.
She said to me, "When Brother Feng and I set the pledge, when we were in your tattoo shop, that was the beginning of our feelings. You are the witness to our feelings. I hope that you will also be the witness to the end of our feeling."
I took a deep breath. I suddenly found that she was really a very thoughtful girl.
Then she revealed her calf tattoo. That tattoo was still very cute, but not worthy of her temperament.
She said, "Our love is my youth, Brother Yu. You are also a part of my youth. Can I confide in you?"
I felt she suppressed a lot of words in her heart. She needed to find a person to say them to.
I said to her: "Yes."
She asked me, "Do you know how we met?"
"How did you meet?" I asked her.
She said that when Brother Feng had just entered university, he was a very simple boy. His family didn't have much money, so he was considering ways to make a living.
He went to the market and bought a lot of basketballs, footballs, badminton balls, and so on, and then sold these balls on the campus, earning enough for his living expenses.
Back then, she liked playing volleyball.
One time, Brother Feng sold a volleyball to her.
After seven or eight days, Brother Feng used his mobile phone to send a message to her, "Do I have the potential to be your boyfriend?"
"No." Her impression of Brother Feng was actually not very good.
After that, Brother Feng never met her.
She spent two years in a failed relationship with another male classmate. Finally, the relationship ended because the man loved another woman.
On that lovelorn day, she sat in the middle of the campus flower bed, crying, but also tearing the green leaves and red flowers and muttering to herself, "In this world, is there any faithful boy?"
"Of course. I've never stopped my love since I saw you for the first time." Brother Feng walked onto the flowerbed.