That day, the children in the neighborhood picked up a red premature pig that belonged to a certain family and found it difficult to raise so they threw it away in the field. They brought it home to play with, using the stick to pick it back and forth as if they were playing a game, causing the poor animal to cower as if to avoid the more and more horizontal and vertical wounds that appeared on its thin skin.

Mrs. Tam saw the children huddled together excitedly about the new game, curiously walked closer to see. Seeing the crooked, dirty animal lying trembling on the ground, she shouted angrily:

– You evil and unscrupulous people! What crime did that puppy commit that you guys beat him to death like that!?

The children were scolded by the adults so they remained silent, but some still spoke softly:

– A “leper” pig, not a dog, Mrs. Tam!

Mrs. Tam spread her hands out to cover the children, bent down to pick up the abused animal, and whispered:

– Oh, it’s a pig… milk! Why doesn’t every family use it to make porridge and then throw it away here?

Binh, whose nickname is “Binh Heo”, smiled at his nose and said:

– Does Mrs. Tam not think it’s “lame”?

Mrs. Tam lifted up the pig’s ears to look at it. Indeed, this newborn pig looked very strange. It had two hind legs, but the two front legs were receding somewhere and only appeared a little like the tip of a fingernail. Seeing the pig still moving, Mrs. Tam used her other hand to lovingly pat the pig’s back, expressing pity:

– Everyone go away, let me bring this pig back to see if I can save it!

Having finished speaking, Mrs. Tam took off the conical hat she was wearing on her head and put the piglet in – then walked quickly – as if afraid that the children would reclaim the animal they were playing with.

Mrs. Tam is a midwife in the neighborhood. Although she did not have much education, when the commune’s medical station opened, she was immediately accepted as a “midwife”. Her skills are very good, so good that many cases from the neighboring commune also bring their cars to pick them up, hoping to “have a healthy mother and a healthy child”. Ms. Tam is also a person with a strange kindness. She never accepts an abortion for anyone, no matter how difficult the situation that person is in, or how high the salary is… she shakes her head. refuse. Therefore, when she saw the children playing with the disabled pig, she immediately took it home to cure it in the hope that it would survive, but if not, she would bury it at the end of the garden.

Indeed, Mrs. Tam was very cool. Just a few days later, the pig that was thrown out on the trash pile was squirming around in a cardboard box lined with old, torn black pants. Every day, she injects medicine into the pig’s mouth and feeds it diluted powdered milk. All of these things come from the commune’s maternity home where she works, so it doesn’t cost anything. When the piglet learned to squeal every time it was hungry, Mrs. Tam discovered that in addition to only having two hind legs, this deformed pig was also blind! She could still cure the injured pig, but she couldn’t accept the fact that it was “congenital” blind, even though in the past she had persevered in giving medicine and sucking out pus for an abandoned baby – because its mother was a girl. prostitute, seeing her child unable to open her eyes because they were covered with pus due to the illness left by the players. Mrs. Tam felt sorry for her and took that little girl home to raise, named her Hieu and now she is 8 years old – and fortunately she is not blind like everyone thought, and now that girl is her great joy. an old woman without a husband or children like her.

 

 

 

 

 

When the pig was strong and healthy, she told little Hieu:

– I took it to the back of the kitchen and raised it near the ditch, but I couldn’t stand the smell of manure if I kept it in the house all the time!

Little Hieu, from the day he got the pig that his mother brought home, he liked it very much and considered it a friend. It regularly bathes, feeds the pigs, and then holds and cuddles it just like people raising a dog at home. Even though he left the pig behind the kitchen and surrounded it with bamboo, little Hieu still often sneaked up on Tam’s mother to take him into the house to play with. Thanks to the constant care of Mrs. Tam and baby Hieu, the pig became more and more plump, and at first glance no one could tell that it was a disabled pig – because even though it only had two hind legs and was blind, it still knows how to run back and forth with joy every time he hears the cries of “woo, boo” from little Hieu and Mrs. Tam.

The pig grew so fast that in just a few months it could no longer move like when it was a baby, because its hind legs could no longer support its heavy body. Therefore, every time I want to move, it just seems to slide forward, or lie in one place and spin around, but it is difficult to go far! By this time, little Hieu no longer took the pig anywhere to play like before, and could only help Mrs. Tam by throwing small pots of water into the cage every time he smelled the bad smell from the blind pig’s feces.

 

 

 

No one knows what kind of food Mrs. Tam fed that disabled pig to make it grow and gain weight so quickly. The pig became fatter and fatter, its meat was so loose that the whole mass was protruding from its head to its belly, even its hind legs. Little Hieu, because he was young, didn’t have to worry about what to feed the pig, but every time he threw water to bathe the pig, he saw puddles of red blood flowing from the animal’s bed, and sometimes he even I saw a stream of bright red blood pouring out of its snout, especially when the pig had eaten its fill and then turned back to sleep, breathing heavily.

One time little Hieu saw Mrs. Tam throw a pile of bloody meat into the barn to feed the pigs. The child asked curiously:

– What kind of meat do you feed the pigs? Why don’t you cook it and mix it with bran?

Mrs. Tam turned and whispered:

– Mom fed him beef, the kind of “scumbag” that no one bought at the market, so they left it cheap for mom to give to the pigs. You see, he likes to eat this type of meat very much, the bran and vegetables that I mix and put in the trough, do you think he will ever eat it?

Little Hieu admitted that what Tam’s mother said was true, this blind pig only liked to eat the “meat” that his mother sometimes brought home after working hours at the commune’s maternity ward. The pig grew fatter and smelled horribly. When little Hieu went down to pour the bath water, he lay still without moving, but when Tam’s mother brought the bag of meat to the barn, he nudged his red nose and hissed. long “uh…uh”s waiting for the delicious food that Mrs. Tam has fed him since he stopped breastfeeding. Every day he doesn’t have this dish, he lies down like a sick pig, looking so sad!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That year, Mrs. Tam saw that the pig weighed nearly a kilogram, and immediately thought about selling it to the butchers at the commune market to have more money to spend during Tet. Two people came to bid, but they criticized the blind and lame pig for being too fat and asked for a lower price. Mrs. Tam refused, because the price of fat and meat were actually the same at this time, and the fact that the pig was blind or missing its front legs had nothing to do with… slaughtering the meat.

As Tet approaches, more hunters looking to buy pigs and cows appear in the area. Mrs. Tam knows that, so she is not foolish enough to sell immediately to those who pay cheap prices. Because of her not being impatient and showing that she did not need to sell, the price for weighing her disabled pig was increasingly raised, and when she wanted to call the highest bidder to come weigh it, something happened again.

When little Hieu learned that she was about to sell the blind pig, he became angry and cried, refusing to let Mrs. Tam sell the animal that he had spent many hours taking care of and treated as a friend to play with. joke every time I come home from school. Mrs. Tam comforted her adopted daughter, whom she loved more than her own daughter, saying that when she sold the blind pig, she would buy two piglets for her to pet and raise – but she definitely refused and said The blind pig… is about to have a baby, so it must be allowed to give birth to a “baby” before it can be sold.

Hearing little Hieu say that, Mrs. Tam wanted to laugh at his innocence, because even though the blind pig was a female pig, if she didn’t allow her to “jump the venom”, how could she have piglets!

But thinking back, she saw that this method could also be done, because if she called someone to bring the boar to let it “grow”, then maybe her family would have a whole herd of chubby piglets. She almost burst out laughing when she thought that when he was “driving the pig”, he would definitely sweat profusely, because he had to find a way to lift the pig, which only had two hind legs, to stand up, and then he had to guide the pig to get in. Right position from behind… While thinking about selling the disabled pig, or waiting for it to give birth to its first batch of pigs before selling it, it’s not too late, when Mrs. Tam met a neighbor who had a spinach pond next to the back. home.

Mrs. Mau is famous for being an annoying and talkative person in the neighboring neighborhood. As soon as she saw Mrs. Tam, she immediately raised her hand and waved loudly:

– Hey Mrs. Tam, come here and I’ll tell you this story…

Mrs. Tam was walking through the alley to go to the street to pick up the auto-rickshaw. She didn’t want to talk much because she was afraid of missing the bus, so she crossed her arms and kept walking:

– Well, if anything happens, I’ll come home from work in the afternoon and then stop by your house and talk to you later. Now I have to go quickly, lest I get scolded for being so late!

Mrs. Mau walked quickly, then hurriedly said:

– This story is related to your family’s pig!

Hearing about the pig, Mrs. Tam thought that this neighbor was probably troubled by the sewage draining into the spinach field, so she raised her voice:

– Don’t worry about anything, I’m about to sell that pig. These past few days, the merchants have been offering me a lot of money but I still haven’t accepted it. I’m sure someone will come to weigh me in a few days…

Mrs. Mau reached out her sleeve to wipe the betel juice dripping from both sides of her mouth and said:

– You misunderstood my meaning! I want to tell you something else…

Mrs. Tam was surprised and asked again:

– What is the other story?

Mrs. Mau looked serious:

– There were many nights when I couldn’t sleep, so I went to the kitchen to do some chores. I saw that it was already late but there was still the sound of Hieu and the pig playing next to the pig pen in her house. It was so quiet at night that I heard it clearly, and it was just strange why she didn’t make him go to bed early. That happened several nights in a row, so I paid attention to hear what Hieu was saying to the pig. Who knew it was all squealing sounds like a newborn baby, and the same laughter that belonged to a child, not a pig. of Hieu’s son. I knew that her family only had Hieu, not a newborn baby, so I asked her…

Mrs. Tam interrupted Mrs. Mau’s story, looking angry:

– You’re old and you’re still talking nonsense! Every night, Hieu goes to bed with me. When he has to urinate, he has to wake me up to light the lamp and take him to the back of the kitchen. There’s no way he comes down to play with the pigs every night!

Ms. Mau explained:

– I told you, at first I thought it was Hieu’s child, but after listening carefully I realized it was the laughter of a newborn. His laughter rang out loudly in the empty night, so how could I mistake it for Hieu’s laughter!

Mrs. Tam looked annoyed:

– But what do you mean by this story? Even though I was a midwife, I never did anything wrong. I even brought Hieu home to raise, don’t you see that?

Mrs. Mau objected:

– Everyone in the neighborhood knows your heart, but the story of your pig playing with children in the wee hours of the morning is a true story. I’ll tell you whatever I hear, without any meaning. These days, someone wants to buy that pig. I think you should sell it immediately, don’t be so sure!

Mrs. Tam thought that Mrs. Mau wanted her to sell the pig so she wouldn’t smell the smell of feces every time the wind blew in the afternoon or on hot days that made the smell of feces strong – because the back of her house’s kitchen was also the side. behind the kitchen of Mrs. Mau’s house! But thinking back, Mrs. Tam suddenly felt confused, because a few weeks ago, in addition to the bags of “placentas” of women giving birth that she brought home, there was also a fully formed premature fetus that she mistakenly took home. feed the pigs !

Ms. Tam recalls that that day, a strange woman with white skin, showing that she was not from the commune, was taken by cart to the house to give birth with symptoms of impending birth. When looking at the pregnant woman’s belly, Mrs. Tam immediately knew that this was a premature birth, and there was no sign that the fetus was alive! Even though the amniotic sac had been injected and the amniotic sac had broken, the pregnant woman still could not push the baby out of the womb. The pregnant woman was sweating profusely, her lips were chapped and dry, her health was gradually depleted due to fear and her efforts to follow Mrs. Tam’s methods of pushing to give birth. Seeing the risk that could lead to the death of both mother and child, Ms. Tam and the nurse at the birthing house considered calling an autorickshaw to take this woman to the district birthing room, because there was a doctor there to do the job. An operation saved the pregnant woman’s life, but thinking about the long distance, and that this woman would certainly die on the way, Mrs. Tam took a risk and told the nurse:

– Give her a strong injection, so I can try to get the fetus out…

Having said that, Mrs. Tam pushed the pregnant woman’s legs further apart, took off her rubber gloves, then thrust her hand deep into the vagina. She passed her hand around the neck of the uterus, touched the fetus’s head and saw that it was still lying on its back. not turned face down before leaving the mother’s womb like normal births. But just to be sure, she put her bare hand close to the child’s nose to check again to see if he was still breathing, but everyone was motionless. She boldly dug five fingers under the child’s chin and forcefully pulled him out. Getting the head out of the womb’s neck was not difficult, but when it came to its shoulders, she had to choose a sideways position to pull its whole body out. Even though it was a baby born a few months premature and had died not long before, when she pulled it out and cut the umbilical cord, Mrs. Tam saw that it was a beautiful baby girl, but the strange thing was that the baby’s head was red. There are one or two fatal wounds!

Even though the baby was dead, and while the nurse was taking care of the mother, Mrs. Tam still took the fetus to bathe, to reduce the foul smell of blood and pus, as well as to prevent the mother from wanting to see his face before burying it. While bathing the child, Mrs. Tam noticed that in addition to the bruises on the neck caused by her holding on to pull the child out, the child’s head also had several deep indented wounds as if someone had used a foreign object to push hard on the child’s head. lost a chunk of hair!

When the mother woke up, she thanked her and the nurse for their rescue, and did not show any regret or desire to see her dead child! Mrs. Tam asked about the wound on the baby’s head. The woman named Phuong at first denied it, but then confessed that not long ago she had gone to a midwife’s house to have an abortion, because of the ultrasound results. The city said it was a girl. The abortion was unsuccessful, because the fetus was already large, and the garden midwife was unable to hook the head of the fetus to pull it out. Seeing a lot of blood, fearing a hemorrhage, Phuong was taken to a private nurse’s house for treatment, and on the way back to Saigon, there were signs that the fetus wanted to be expelled, so she asked an acquaintance to take her to a maternity home. nearest !

That afternoon, Mrs. Tam threw the placenta into the pig pen as usual, and did not know that inside was the premature fetus of a woman named Phuong. Because the nurse wrapped the package and gave it to Mrs. Phuong and told her to take it home to bury it, but then she ran away, for fear of getting into trouble! The next day when she went to work, the nurse told her about the incident of taking the wrong condom, because the placenta was still there, as for the baby’s condom, Mrs. Tam took it back to feed the pigs! After hearing that, she was startled and regretted because that afternoon, when she got home from work, she went to the market to buy some more food, so when she got home it was already dusk, so she immediately threw the bundle into the pig pen without opening it, or standing there. Watch the pigs eat like always. Now that fetus is in the belly of her disabled pig, even if she wants to take it out, she can’t get it out, and even if she wants to bury it, she can’t.

While her mind was confused when recalling the incident, Ms. Tam did not know how to answer Ms. Mau. She had to lower her voice, but still said firmly:

– Well, that’s what you said… But let me go down to the pig pen tonight to see if it’s true what you said…

Mrs. Mau shook her head and looked angry:

-I told you that if you don’t thank me then that’s fine, you’re still pretending to believe with disbelief! If I lie, I’ll be crushed by a 12-wheeled truck and I’ll be crushed like Chinese sauce…

After saying that, Mrs. Mau turned around and that’s when the auto-rickshaw arrived. Mrs. Tam climbed into the car looking like a lost soul. Her heart was confused because she didn’t know how to deal with the story Mrs. Mau had just told. For many years as a midwife, she never touched the bodies of unlucky fetuses who were not allowed to cry at birth. Many mothers callously left their children’s bodies behind, forcing them to put them in a box and bury them properly in the garden at the end of the child’s home. The reason Mrs. Tam came up with the idea of ​​feeding pigs to each other was because she saw the dogs around her house often rummaging through the trash, pulling out stinky bags of placenta to eat, and each of them was different from each other, fat and healthy. with other dogs kept at home. To avoid dogs digging through trash cans to find food, Mrs. Tam thought that the day someone gave birth, she would bring the placenta home to feed the pigs, which would save money and no longer have to worry about cleaning out the trash every time. being dug up by dogs. The type of placenta that Mrs. Tam brought home is the “baby placenta”, while the “baby placenta” of healthy people giving birth for the first time is usually reserved for acquaintances in the area, ordered and advised in advance – because These people believe that eating “placenta” can cure many diseases.

It was after midnight, and when she saw that Hieu was fast asleep, Mrs. Tam lifted the mosquito net and gingerly walked out to open the back door. To get to the pig pen behind the kitchen, she had to cross a yard. Although not very large, tonight she felt it was so far away. The moon was not very bright and was covered by a few dark clouds, making the surrounding landscape pitch black. When she gingerly walked a few steps into the yard, she heard the sound of a dog howling in the distance. The dog’s sound lasted for a long time and then whined again in the quiet night. It sounded so scary like the sound of a sorrowful soul, then again. Just like a child being strangled and unable to cry out. Every time people in the countryside hear that aimless barking sound, they whisper to each other that it is a “ghost barking dog”, and children who have trouble sleeping are often scared by their parents with that barking sound at night. bully. Although Mrs. Tam did not believe in those stories, at this moment she still felt scared and wanted to hesitate and step back into the house. But at that moment, the bushes around her house suddenly rustled as if someone had wriggled through the leaves to reach the pig pen at the end of the kitchen.

Mrs. Tam stood still and watched. She suddenly felt a chill when she heard the disabled pig in the barn squeal, then cheered happily just like when she brought home its favorite dish! The noises under the pig pen became more and more frequent, as if someone was playing with pigs. Between the pigs’ sniffling sounds, Mrs. Tam also heard the children’s laughter, as if someone was tickling the child’s armpit.

So what neighbor Mrs. Mau told Mrs. Tam is all true, and there is nothing added or fabricated! Mrs. Tam was scared to death, her heart was in turmoil, because she didn’t know what to do to stop the ghostly phenomenon happening in the kitchen with this pig pen! She knew that the child was spiritually dead, he wanted to live but his mother forced him to die, he wanted a peaceful and beautiful grave but she threw his angelic body to feed the pigs. Not knowing what else to do, she clasped her trembling hands and prayed:

– The child died unjustly! You don’t want that! I wanted to save you so much, but they killed you. Well, tomorrow morning, I’ll go to the temple and pray for the requiem so that my child can pass away, so that he can be reincarnated soon…