Have you ever wandered about the origin of mosquito? Why do they only want human blood? But in fact, according to the legend, they only wants 3 drop of blood. Curious? interested? read on and find out!
Lead Character :- - Ngoc Tam, the devoted husband - Nhan Diep, the betrayer - Thien Thai, the genie of medicine - Merchant, the bastard seducer
The Origin of the Mosquito: a Vietnamese Legend
The Legend of Nhan Diep Far back in the mystery-shrouded past of old Vietnam, there was once a young, hardworking farmer named Ngoc Tam. He was an honest, generous man who had taken for his wife, a beautiful, charming girl from a neighbouring village. Nhan Diep was a slender, dark haired girl, full of life and good humour, always wearing bright flowers about her clothes, that seemed to perfectly complement her own natural beauty. Yet despite being gracious and of good breeding, Diep despised work and had always longed for a life of luxury and pleasure. She soon grew tired and disillusioned with breeding the silkworms that had brought her husband such renown. She was also disappointed with hardly seeing her husband during the day, while he tended to the rice fields and mulberry trees, toiling endlessly to try and ease their poverty. A restless spirit, Nhan Diep dreamt of a day when she might have all that she wished for… One day without warning, Diep fell horribly ill and slipped into a deep, debilitating sleep. Tam found her lying on the ground surrounded by the silkworms that had been scattered from their trays in her fall. He picked her up and carried her back to the house, where he put her into bed. Despite his best efforts to ease her suffering, Diep died in her distraught husband's arms. Tam was inconsolable and wept for days. He shunned the help of friends and family and refused to leave the body of his wife or allow her to be buried. Tam didn’t know how he could live without his precious Diep. In desperation, he sold all his assets and bought a raft and a beautiful casket in which he placed body of his wife. Taking the raft to the nearby stream, he set sail with neither direction nor purpose, just an innate hope that somehow he could find a cure for his broken heart. With his thirst rising and his skin dry and reddened from the salt in his tears, he began hallucinating, imagining his wife singing softly to him from her casket. He knew what he heard was all in his mind, but it made him ache to open the casket, to see his wife alive once more. In his grief and desperation, Tam sought help of any kind, and on the twenty-second day, help found him. Tam woke from a troubled sleep that morning, to find the raft had stopped at the foot of a verdant, flower-carpeted mountain, from which drifted the most enchanting of scents. Leaving the raft and the casket behind, he stepped on to the land and soon found himself walking across a carpet of a thousand rare flowers, beneath colourful trees that boasted magnificent, ripe fruits. Beguiled, Tam continued up the mountainside, not realizing the heights to which he had ascended, until he began to feel dizzy. He stopped in a small clearing to regain his breath and see how far up the mountain he had climbed. As he walked to the edge, he noticed an old man on the path before him, leaning on a curious bamboo staff. The man had long, white hair that floated gently on the caressing breeze and wrinkled, sun-burned skin. But his eyes had a youth to them, a playful spark, and Tam felt as though somehow this stranger already knew him. At once it dawned on Tam that the old man was in fact Tien Thai, the genie of medicine, who travelled across the world on his mountain to teach his science to men and cure illnesses. Tam fell to his knees, his hands clasped together, and pleaded with the genie to restore his beloved to life. "Ngoc Tam… I know of you and your virtues," the old man said. "You are a good and loving man. That is why I stopped my mountain along your way. I wish to accept you into my company of disciples. You have earned the right to learn much wisdom." Tam was flattered and thanked the spirit humbly, but he was immovable. "I regret that I am in no state of mind to learn anything. I am nothing without my beloved. I feel neither alive nor dead." He gazed imploringly at Tien Thai, who shook his head in pity, then said: “Her hold on you is still strong Ngoc Tam. It will not be relinquished. You must learn to grow, not suffer from your love for her.” "But I cannot live any kind of life without her. I beg you, if it is within your power, bring my Diep back to life." The genie regarded Tam with a kind resignation, then replied: "I shall not deny your request, for your love and grief are sincere and you are worthy of such a powerful gift. But I must ask why you choose to cling to this life of bitterness and gall. The joys of this world seem seldom and transitory, always failing to eclipse it’s woes. I have seen men of greater potential than yourself, entrust their minds and hearts to the whims of selfish, fickle women. I have watched women of wonderful wisdom, surrender themselves whole to the mercy of evil, heartless thugs. In a way I am glad to not understand. Yet it pains me to be ignorant.” Ngoc Tam was at once defiant. "I have loved nothing in life like I have loved her. I must have her back, or life itself is pointless." The old genie sighed. “Do you see this?” The genie closed his palm, then opened it again. Sitting on the flesh near the ball of his thumb was a small, yellow butterfly. “This was once a very different creature indeed. Ugly, creeping, slow. Now look at him.” He let the insect flutter away. “Your grief will not last forever. In time you will be stronger… A new man.” The genie’s words were to no avail, Tam seemed unmoved. "Very well then,” the genie conceded. “Do this: Pierce your finger with a thorn from one of the bushes over there and let three drops fall on the body of your wife. Do this and she shall return to you." Tam jumped to his feet, rushed over to a large bush and snapped off a mean looking thorn. He thanked the genie profusely, even as he ran off back down the path. The genie disappeared from the spot where he'd been standing, and rematerialized at the foot of the hill. Tam nearly fell into the water in his desperation to get onto the raft, noticing with only some surprise that the genie had beaten him to the water’s edge. He scrambled on to the craft and lifted the lid from the casket. His wife's poor body had deflated somewhat, and Tam could hardly bare to peel away the layers of clothes to the bare skin. Then he noticed her left hand lying by her side. He pricked his left forefinger with the thorn and squeezed three drops of blood, so that they fell on to her exposed palm. Almost instantly Diep opened her eyes as though awakening from a deep sleep. Her wrinkled, pale skin suddenly bloomed with colour and vitality. She gasped and drew in huge breaths and sat up, looking around her. Her eyes took in her surroundings, before settling on Tam who laughed in barely contained joy and dropped to her side. He took Diep in his arms and hugged her passionately. The genie approached the couple slowly. His eyes met Diep's. "Forget not your obligations, Nhan Diep." the genie said to her. "Remember your husband's devotion to you. Return his love, and work hard." The genie turned from the emotional couple saying only: "Go now. May you both be happy." On their voyage home, Tam rarely took his eyes off his wife. He felt as though he had awakened from a long nightmare to find that his life was what it had always been. Diep returned his loving gaze, though often her thoughts seemed to take her far beyond the raft and the stream they sailed down. Tam rowed day and night, eager to reach his native land, and to pretend Diep’s death had never happened. One evening he guided the raft ashore near a small trading settlement to buy provisions, leaving Diep aboard the vessel, stargazing. Diep was still coming to terms with her experience, and since returning to life, she felt almost like a child, as if the world was an exciting, magical place full of exotic wonder. Tam meanwhile, wandered through the trading post, carefully selecting provisions, remaining forever thrifty and cautious. While Tam was ashore, a large vessel came into the wharf and pulled alongside the small raft where Diep lay peacefully. The owner of the vessel was a rich, powerful merchant, who, on noticing Diep was instantly struck by her natural beauty. Standing on the large deck of his ship, staring in wonder at the female below, he made his mind up that he would have her. He disembarked, strolled across the shore and engaged Diep in conversation, immediately dazzling the young girl with his fine clothes and jewellery. Her interest was at once aroused and she accepted the merchant's invitation to join him aboard his ship for refreshments. As soon as Diep was aboard, the dastardly merchant gave the order to his crewmen to set sail and leave the settlement behind. When Tam returned from buying supplies he found the raft untended and his wife missing. In a wild panic, he scoured the beach and the settlement for hours, before taking to the stream in a desperate search for his true love. Once more, tears rolled down parched skin, and it was nearly a whole month before a thin, haggard Ngoc Tam came alongside the rich merchant's vessel and in pure euphoria spotted Nhan Diep on the ship's deck, sunning herself and giving orders to a slave. After a lengthy commotion, the merchant allowed Tam on board his vessel to converse with his wife. Diep was happy to see her husband, but even though she answered his questions and had food and drink brought to him, she refused to leave. She had grown far too accustomed to her new life of luxury. All her dreams had now been satisfied. Seeing Diep's true colours, Tam became enraged. All love for her vanished in an instant and he no longer desired her. "You are free," he told her, feeling for the first time like a man devoid of emotion. "All I ask is that you return to me the three drops of blood I gave to bring you back to life. I will have no trace of me within you." Diep felt relieved to be given her freedom of Tam so cheaply, and called for her man-servant to bring her a fruit knife. She stood, and with mock ceremony cut the tip of her finger, so that three drops of blood dropped into the palm of Tam's left hand. Almost as the last drop had left her finger, she paled and fell to the ground. At Tam’s feet, the body of his wife exhaled and shrank until it was the size of a small fly. Stunned by the spectacle, Tam turned and fled to his raft, nearly falling over the fat merchant who had come out on deck to see the man who had come to try and take away his woman. Tam jumped onto his raft, nearly capsizing it, and began frantically rowing away from the ship. There came a buzzing and Tam saw the small fly land on the mast before him. It spoke: "I'm sorry my darling, forgive me. Only, please give back the blood. I must have it!" With that, the fly flew at Tam's face, but he swatted it away with a hand and it went careering toward the waves. Tam could not believe all that had happened. He rowed with all his strength until at last he was once again confronted by the mystical, floating mountain. Tam left the raft and ran up the scented slopes until he reached the summit where he dropped to his knees and prayed until the genie appeared and comforted him. The old man listened patiently to what Tam had to say, then sat down next to him and spoke gently. "From now on, Diep will search everywhere for your blood. She will stop at nothing. She will surpass death, she may even reproduce to better her chances of finding you. You must find a new wife Ngoc Tam. One who loves you unconditionally and who will work hard alongside you all your life." Tam nodded and stood, breathing in the wondrous scents of the mountain. He thanked the genie profusely, then took his leave of him. Tam soon find another wife, a lady he came to love even more than Nhan Diep, and who gave as much love back in return. She worked as hard as her husband and they both enjoyed prosperity and fortune. The only time Ngoc Tam would ever be troubled, would be when he heard a faint buzzing pass by his ear, as of some maddened insect. Nhan Diep suffered eternally for her betrayal, and could do nothing but wait for the moment when Ngoc Tam was away from his new beloved, the only time he was vulnerable to Diep's attack. But he would never leave her side, nor she his. And so Diep watched and waited, her bloodlust forcing her to feed on anyone who might cross her path, eventually becoming a prisoner to her hunger and knowing nothing but her desire to find the blood of her once betrothed… Ngoc Tam.
Does this story arouse your interest? Lets just hope that she will find back her blood from either one of you... hahahha*Evil Laugh*