Minh Thê

About this story

I went to teach in a remote village notorious for its bad reputation. The previous teacher who had taught there disappeared mysteriously, and her body has never been found. At dusk, an old woman used the excuse of “visiting a student’s home” to ask me to come give extra lessons to her “little one.” When I arrived, I discovered that the “little one” was over thirty years old. The old woman told me that her son still had no one to keep him company. She wanted me to try teaching him how to get a wife. I was reluctant, but the old woman locked me in the room, intending to let her son use force to assault me and force me to accept the fait accompli. I began to wonder. Can the dead... also be taken as a wife?