For Whom Do the Branches Grow Every Year?

The day Song Zhiyin returned to his old house, he met someone. The man wore faded green clothes and swept the yard for him, made hot tea, and tucked him in at night. He said that he was an old servant and had guarded the house for many years. Song Zhiyin thought he looked familiar - the curvature of his brow bones, the line of the bridge of his nose, the slightly pursed angle of his mouth, everything looked like the sandalwood doll he had carved all winter long when he was seven years old. But he only remembered that he had a playmate named "Xiao Tan" in his childhood, but did not remember that "Xiao Tan" never spoke. Tan Fusheng never explained. Only after Song Zhiyin fell asleep, he called out "A Yin" very softly. He had practiced those two words for decades and only dared to speak them when no one was around. Later, Song Zhiyin investigated his father's unjust case and found out things he shouldn't have investigated - the secret of royal immortality, the truth about the twin princes, and the eve of the prince's regicide. Every time he took a step forward, the knife came closer to his neck. Tan Fusheng stood behind him and blocked all the hidden arrows for him. The cause of his father's death was finally discovered, and the prince ascended the throne. Everything has settled, and finally there is no need to live in fear anymore. The new emperor gave him a mansion, and Song Zhiyin received a sinecure. He came back before sunset every day and sat in the yard drinking tea made by Tan Fusheng. Life is finally stable and peaceful. But his body was getting worse every day. The joints became stiff on rainy days, the wood grains climbed up from the wrists, and the fingers began to become unable to be straightened. The first thing he does when he wakes up every morning is to try to open his right hand to see if he can still bend it today. What he was afraid of was not turning back into wood. What he was afraid of was that Brother Yan's good days had just begun and he was about to leave. I'm afraid that after he leaves, the tea will be cold, the yard will be empty, and when Brother Yan calls "A Tan", no one will answer. On the day when the dragon was gone, the flood would surge into the sky and Mu Jing would be overthrown. Later, Song Zhiyin resigned from his official position and went to the mountains. He built a small temple there and buried the seed in the soil in the courtyard. Every morning, I chant sutras and put on a lamp at dusk. I don't seek this life, but only the next life - I hope that in the next life, the two of us will be ordinary, carefree and spend a lifetime together. Intention: They make a contract with their lives in exchange for a reunion and a bet on the next life.