That night, the entire village of An Tinh was busy with the sound of electric fireworks celebrating the wedding of Thu Trang – a gentle 26-year-old girl who had just married Trung, the only son of Mr. and Mrs. Phuc – a famous wealthy family in this area.
The wedding was lavish, the wedding gold was shiny, everyone said that Trang had the fate of “a rat falling into a jar of rice”.
There was only one strange thing: the people in the village whispered that Trung’s first husband had died 2 years ago, after the wedding night…
Trang felt terrible when she heard this, but when asked, Trung only smiled faintly:
“Don’t listen to those useless neighbors. The man is dead, it’s embarrassing to talk about it anymore.”
That night, around 11 o’clock, all the guests had gone home.
Trang was tired and went into the bathroom to change into a new nightgown.
Suddenly, the back door opened, and Mrs. Tu , the maid who had been with her husband’s family for over 20 years, panicked and pulled her hand out into the back garden, her voice trembling:
“Do you want to live? Do you want to be like your ex-husband? Run away, quickly…”
Trang was shocked and trembling, asking:
“What are you talking about? I… I don’t understand…”
Mrs. Tu only had time to whisper:
“The incense in this house is… disturbed. The ex-husband… also on the wedding night, died right in front of the altar…”
Before Trang could react, a loud scream rang out from inside the house.
A man’s voice, hoarse and panicked:
“Save me!… save me…!”
Trang ran inside, startled.
The smell of smoke rose from the ancestral altar, the incense burner burst into flames, ashes flew across the room.
Amidst the smoke, Trung collapsed to the floor, his hands clutching his chest, his eyes rolling back.
The family rushed in.
Mr. Phuc – Trung’s father – trembled as he watched his son tremble, foam coming out of his mouth.
Mrs. Tu knelt down, muttering Buddhist prayers.
The district police were called, and the initial conclusion was that Trung had died of anaphylactic shock, but no trace of strange food or poison was found.
There was only one strange thing – the incense bowl had burned for some unknown reason, and the ashes in the bowl contained a woman’s hair.
Three days later, while cleaning the altar, Mrs. Tu took a small wooden box from under the cupboard. Inside was an old wrapping paper and a picture of Trung’s ex-husband – his face looked so much like Trang’s, it was frightening.
Below the picture was a piece of paper with the following written note:
“If you betray me on our wedding night, I will come back…”
Since then, Trang left her husband’s house and returned to her mother’s hometown in Ky Lam district.
People say that every full moon, the altar light in that house still flickers – even though the electricity has been out for a long time.
And in the back garden, in the banana tree where Mrs. Tu drags Trang to hide, someone still whispers:
“Do you want to be like your ex-husband…”