One night, when I was 16 years old, I went to Botanical Gardens with my then girlfriend, April. I felt the urge to ease myself and without any thoughts, I relieved myself under a big tree near the pond. Suddenly, I felt a chilling gust of wind and I just shivered. The following day I fell sick.

After the diagnosis, the doctor told me it was jaundice and I was admitted to the hospital immediately. I almost died of an inflammed liver. After spending almost a month in hospital, I went home. As we were Chinese, my mother went to pray for me and when she returned, she told me that I had offended a tree spirit. She had instructions to burn incense to the spirit at a certain direction from my house. I was staying in Queenstown then. Guess what? The direction was exactly where Botanical Gardens is…..