Half Jade Sophora Japonica

The locust tree deep in the old alley bloomed again, and fine white petals fell all over Lin Xiaoman. She stared at the half-cut lotus jade pendant in her palm, and suddenly remembered that on her eighteenth birthday, Jiang Yi said when he gave this thing to her: "When we find the other half, we will bury our wishes under the tree." But before the wish could take root, Jiang Yi became a taboo in the alley. Some people said that he died under the locust tree three years ago, wearing a strange red wedding dress; some said that he never left at all, but hid behind the curtained window opposite, watching her every night. It wasn't until the copper box engraved with "On the seventh day of July, old friend Angelica" appeared out of thin air that Lin Xiaoman discovered that all the "hearings" were false—— The courier flew by on a bicycle. Aunt Zhang's long black hair was wrapped in a red cloth bag, and Jiang Yi's wrist had the same pinprick as hers. When the two halves of the jade pendant were put together in the hole of the locust tree, she finally saw clearly the figure in the red wedding dress under the tree: half was Jiang Yi's blood-stained profile, and half was the rotting neck of the bride. "Xiao Man," the voice was half a boy's low voice and half a woman's shrillness, "Look, we are finally complete." The clock in the old alley struck thirteen, the water stains on the bluestone began to flow backwards, and all the disappeared people were walking under the locust tree. Lin Xiaoman touched the half-moon mark that suddenly appeared on the back of his neck, and finally understood: some debts must be paid with life; some people must be accompanied by souls. And the ending has already been engraved in the annual rings of that old locust tree—— "The day when the two souls return to their respective places is when the substitute pays his debt."