1
For three years, I’ve dreamed of a woman. In the dream, I push her gently as she sways on a swing, its chains creaking softly.
I can hear her laugh, clear as silver bells, and catch her scent on the breeze as her long black hair lifts. It smells like apricot blossoms—so lovely.
She loves to caress my skin. Her soft hands are always tender, gently stroking my neck and sending shivers across my skin. I’m captivated by the novelty and thrill of it.
But sadly, I still can’t see her face clearly. All I remember is a blood-red birthmark on the back of her shoulder. Every time I wake, my love for her grows deeper. I’m sure she’s my destined lover.
And at last, we’ll meet. The day I’ve been hoping for will come very soon…
It was the first day of school. I’d been wandering around, unable to find my dorm, and was both irritated and exhausted. As I roamed aimlessly, I spotted a woman in a performance costume.
She stood in a bamboo grove at the edge of campus, facing a wall as she practiced singing “U Cấu Chi Vãng Sinh.” It was a mournful song, but when she sang it, there was also an indescribable hint of romance and mystery.
As if hypnotized, I walked closer. A familiar scent rushed into my nose… apricot blossoms.
It was her!
I reached out and lightly tapped her shoulder. She seemed startled and fell back onto the ground. Frowning, she slowly turned around, revealing a rather frightening face.
Her flawless, pale face was adorned with bright red blush, dark red eye shadow, and blood-red lipstick. She looked like a vengeful spirit straight out of hell.
I jumped and took a step back. She seemed to notice my reaction, hurriedly covered her face with her hands, and said, “Who are you? I thought there was no one around here! I’m just practicing a song for tomorrow’s performance. I don’t know how to put on makeup… don’t look at me!”
With that, she fled in a panic. Seeing how flustered she was, I wasn’t scared anymore. In fact, I found myself looking forward to seeing her face after she’d taken off her makeup.
Looking down, I noticed she’d left behind a shoe—a red embroidered shoe that matched her costume.
Without hesitation, I picked it up and put it in my pocket.
At last, I found the dorm. There were four of us in the room, and the place was pretty decent. The only drawback was that the bathroom was shared and located at the end of the hall.
My three roommates were:
A Văn, a cheerful, energetic guy whose family worked in construction.
Tiểu Béo, a bespectacled, rather quiet guy who liked anime.
Lão Tam, who never said a word and just kept his head down playing games.
2
On our first night, the conversation inevitably turned to the school’s ghost stories.
A Văn began slowly, “This school was built when my dad was young. He was a low-level worker on the construction crew. A lot of strange things happened back then. For instance, when they were building the school’s cultural hall, the foreman seems to have mixed up the blueprints. From above, the hall looked like a tomb, with its two sides stretching out in the shape of the Chinese character 八.”
The day before the building was finished, the foreman had a few drinks to celebrate, and then he disappeared… Guess where they found him?
A Văn paused there.
I got goose bumps and even held my breath. Even Lão Tam, who’d been playing a game, turned around and stared at A Văn.
A Văn gave a faint smile and continued. “They found him lying beneath the cultural hall’s floor, surrounded by pillars and planks, as if he were inside a narrow coffin. But you know what? The place had been sealed off three days earlier. No one knew how he’d gotten inside—not even the foreman himself. All he remembered was seeing a girl in white standing in the middle of the hall, singing a lilting song…”
“After that, more strange things happened. Construction workers would often sleepwalk at night, then wake up to find themselves lying in the cultural hall…”
“Later, to put an end to all the bizarre incidents, the construction crew invited a feng shui master to take a look. He said they needed to place a few bronze statues in front of the hall to keep unclean things at bay. They did as he said, and sure enough, nothing like that happened again.”
When A Văn finished, we looked at one another and instinctively pulled our blankets up around ourselves. Suddenly, a voice came from the corner of the room. It was Tiểu Béo. “Do you guys know about Tưởng Hân Đồng from the art institute next door?”
I didn’t realize his voice was trembling a little.
“Do you mean our school’s campus beauty? Is she famous?” I asked.
Suddenly, A Văn raised a finger to his lips and shushed me. He stared at me, and I saw my own bewildered reflection in his eyes. A chill ran through me.
He lowered his voice. “You don’t know? No one dares mention that girl. A few years ago, Tưởng Hân Đồng hanged herself. They say it was because she had a messy personal life and her boyfriend broke up with her. She was devastated, so she chose to take her own life. Do you know what she looked like when they found her? She was wearing a traditional wedding dress, hanging from a beam in the cultural hall.”
“Her jet-black hair hung down beside her. It seemed she’d carefully put on her makeup before she killed herself. Her eyebrows were thin and arched. Her eyes were closed. Her lips were painted a vivid red, so dark they looked like blood…”
The cultural hall has been abandoned ever since, but people still often see a pair of legs dangling in midair inside…
“Ah! Stop!” A scream cut A Văn off. It was Lão Tam, now huddled under his blanket.
Since we had to get up early for class the next morning, everyone decided to call it a night.
That night, I dreamed of her again.
This time, I finally saw her face clearly in the dream. She was wearing the performance costume I’d seen her in that day in the bamboo grove, only without the heavy makeup.
She was beautiful, like a plum blossom. Her eyes were just a little vacant as she stared straight at me.
She sang, “Though the soul returns, its shadow remains; longing is stained by worldly dust. Who waits for whom to return…”
The sorrowful melodyThe sorrowful melody pierced my heart, making me want to hold her and protect her in my arms.
I was jolted awake by a piercing scream. As soon as I opened my eyes, something came flying straight at my face.
I instinctively raised a hand and caught it. It was a shoe, dark red, and strangely familiar.
I looked toward where it had been thrown. It was the bed across from mine. Lão Tam had curled up in the corner, both hands clamped over his face, mumbling, “No, I don’t know you! Please don’t come after me!”
The commotion woke everyone in the room. A Văn asked irritably, “What the hell is going on? Why are you screaming like that? What a coward. It was just a story about Tưởng Hân Đồng—what’s so scary about that?”
Lão Tam lowered his hands, revealing a clear shoe print on his face. His eyes were red as he kept complaining, “I was asleep, but I felt like something was pressing down on me. I could barely breathe. Then I woke up and found this shoe on my face! A red embroidered shoe! Doesn’t it look just like the one that went with Tưởng Hân Đồng’s wedding dress in the story A Văn told yesterday? A Văn, tell me the truth! Did you do this to scare me? You even prepared this shoe ahead of time!”
Suddenly, a hand reached out and took the shoe from mine.
It was Tiểu Béo. He turned the shoe over and over, his small eyes seeming to ponder something.
Only then did I fully wake from my dream and hurry to check the bag beside my bed. Sure enough, it was the shoe the girl had left behind yesterday. But I’d clearly put it in the bag. Could someone have seen it and played a cruel prank?
I glanced at everyone’s reactions. A Văn looked a little annoyed as he scolded Lão Tam, who kept complaining, while Tiểu Béo stared at the shoe as though deep in thought.
Luckily, no one knew I’d brought the shoe back. Otherwise, they would probably have thought I was behind the prank.
The days of classes passed quickly, but I still didn’t see the woman who had captivated me in my dreams. My mind was filled with images of her beautiful, makeup-free face. I regretted not asking her name.
Ever since that night, Lão Tam had grown terrified and suspicious of everything. Whenever he returned to the dorm, he carefully checked his blankets, sheets, and pillows to see if anyone had hidden anything inside. He even put a talisman above his bed.
A Văn was always teasing him for being a coward, but everyone understood and stopped bringing up Tưởng Hân Đồng’s name.
3
That night, I dreamed of the woman again. She walked ahead of me, her long black hair hanging loose down her back, carrying the scent of apricot blossoms.
Suddenly, she darted away. I wanted to grab her hand. The moment I reached out, I woke with a start.
In the real world, I realized I was actually reaching out. A bone-chilling cold spread from my tailbone through my body, because in the darkness, my hand had touched something. It seemed to be a slender wrist.
Fear made me scream and jerk my hand back.
The dorm lights came on. A Văn asked impatiently, “What is it now? Lão Tam, did you have another nightmare?”
Lão Tam stared blankly at him and replied, “It wasn’t me!”