Ever since I read "Norwegian Wood", I have paid more attention to the tree in the courtyard in front of the building, which has lost its life, and gradually attracted to it, and I have endless reverie and various feelings, but I can't say why this is so. Although it is a dead tree, it is independent, in the night, in the sun, in the wind and rain, experiencing the cold and summer, all the time staining my thoughts, showing off the vitality of the past years. And it's so lonely in my eyes. Lonely as an asteroid. Although it stands quietly, every time I look at this tree, the silence that sometimes arises in my heart will be like a huge wave set off by a tsunami, sweeping away all the noise around it, and then everything around it will be gloomy, it must have wanted to confide in people, so it sent a message to me in this way.

As for what species, family, and scientific name of this tree belongs to, it is difficult to say, in short, the branches are thick, and the crown and branches without leaves are intertwined, and when you look at the past, it is like many withered arms stretched out into the air when an indigenous people holds a religious ceremony, and the trunk and branches show an indescribable gray-black, which makes people feel even more indestructible. The height of the tree stretched to the height of the 4th floor, and from my view, I could see the top of the canopy, parallel to the line of sight. I used to ask people in the neighborhood about the tree after I moved here.

"How old is this tree?" I asked.

"Why bother asking this?" The owner of the grocery store downstairs, a middle-aged man in his 40s, was puzzled by my question.

"Because I look at this tree so specially, I want to know a little bit about it!"

"Hmm...... Probably ten years before this building! The owner of the grocery store said, "We used to be under the tree!" ”

"Must have been lush at that time?"

"Of course, in the summer, there is a large shade of trees, where the elderly and children are cool, and in the autumn, the fallen leaves are swept up by the people nearby to make fires."

"What is the scientific name of this tree?"

"You're asking the right person, I used to understand a little bit of people who said that the scientific name of this tree is yellow barberry. I heard that it is still a very valuable tree species. As he spoke, he wrote the word "Huang Bai" on a small piece of paper with a pen to show me. It was indeed the first time I had heard this scientific name.

"Was there a forest here? Or is it just this one tree? ”

"Only this one! I heard from my parents that this was originally a wasteland, with only three or five families, but then the number of households began to increase, and they all came to reclaim the wasteland. And it doesn't seem that the tree you mentioned was planted by anyone, how did it grow here, I don't know, anyway, since I was a child, this tree has been here, and it was still alive at that time, and it seems to be lower than now. The owner of the grocery store flattened his right hand holding the cigarette and moved it down about 10 centimeters to indicate what he meant.

"Later," he continued, "the roads were slowly being built, the houses were built, and the farmland began to get smaller and smaller, and then the buildings were built again, and finally there was such a large yard left." Strange to say, when the people who built the house and the road were working here, they didn't occupy the position of this tree, and the walls on both sides of this yard were left by the builders to divide the scope of the construction site, and absolutely no one had the idea of cutting down this tree! It seems that this place was reserved for this tree. I don't think anyone will have this idea in the future, so let's just let it be like this, I think so! ”

"Maybe the construction guys think the same way you do?" I said.

"Probably! Who knows? ”

"Since this tree has been here for so long, is it a witness to the story of what happened in the past? I mean, or maybe there's some lore or something? ”

"Legends? No! It seems like it's been so normal for so long. But when you say that, I do remember that there was indeed a story under this tree! ”

"Can you tell me?" With that, I handed him a cigarette and lit it.