114. Marry with frog

Cao Tran, a rich man lived in Le dynasty, worshiped dragon god. He used to organize ceremonies in a temple next to shore on July 15th on lunar calendar. One time, he and his wife brought Sinh Tran, their son, to the temple. After the ceremony finished, they stayed at the temple and slept that helped them could meet god in their dream. That night, Cao Tran met a majestic man with a red face and long beard who was wearing royal clothes making of silk with a golden belt. The man stood front of Cao Tran and said loudly:
“I am dragon king, the dominator of this area. I felt satisfied with your loyalty. I have a daughter and want your son to be my son-in-law. If you agree with this weeding, bring presents to this temple tomorrow and don’t need to bring the bride to your home, I will bring her to your home”.
Cao Tran woke up. The strange espousal made him had both scared and happy feeling. He told his wife and son about the dream. His wife, on other side, didn’t believed the dream. She said:
“Oh! You know dreams are vague. How can daughter of god marry with our son?”
Though his wife didn’t have same point with him, Cao Tran trusted that his dream was true. Therefore, he came back home requested servants to slaughter pigs, cooked meal, bought nice clothes, jewelries and others as if he was preparing for a wedding. When the good time came, he and others brought offerings to the temple made a ceremony the came back home.
When they had just arrived to home for short time, they heard music of flute, gong front of their gate. They went out to look. A crowd was carrying a beautiful palanquin but all of them were not humans but frogs. Went out from the palanquin was a beautiful girl who walked inside their home without shyness. She stood on her knees as she met Mr and Mrs Tran.
“I am Bach Nga Long. I followed my father’s words coming and marrying with Sinh Tran. Father and mother please sit on chair for me to celebrate”.
After she kowtowed Mr and Mrs Tran, she approached others and gave them polite greetings. Mr and Mrs Tran realized their daughter-in-law was a good girl, polite and beautiful. They called their son coming, asked him to made a ceremony with his bride before let them go to their bedroom. While Sinh Tran and Bach Nga Long were in bedroom, others invited frogs to stay and enjoy meal. Though they were frogs, they participated in the party and acted like human. Later, while most of them left, some stayed there were maids of dragon king’s daughter.
Sinh Tran and his wife had a private house after they married. The new couple lived in harmony but Sinh Tran felt unpleasant with his wife’s maids. They were frogs and whenever guests came to their home, they jumped around, serving tea for guests that made geuests and including Sinh Tran felt uncomfortable. Therefore, he wanted to expel them as fast as he could but he had not done that due to his wife.
One day, Sinh Tran went to market and brought some snakes. He brought the snakes to home and put them under bed in private. When maids saw the snakes, they were frightened, screamed, and jumped disorderly. Bach Nga Long went red at her face, she turned to Sinh Tran and said:
“Why you do that with them? If you don’t want them to stay here, you should tell me, I will ask them to go. You, don’t need to do that”.
It seemed all his uncomfortable things came at the same time he turned to his wife and scolded her. They had an argument and none could get again his or her calm. At last, Sinh Tran shouted to his wife.
“If you want to go, I will never stop you”.
Immediately, Bach Nga Long request maids to take their luggage and left at nightfall. Mr and Mrs Tran asked their son as they didn’t see their daughter-in-law.
“I can not live with a crowd of frogs anymore”.
Mr and Mrs Tran scold their son as they had heard. They feared that dragon god would be angry so they prepare offerings and forced their son to go the temple with them.
But, when them couldn’t arrived to the temple because they prevented by water which had engulfed over the temple and also entire shore. Three were frightened they knew that they could not have chance to relieve god dragon at that time so all of them made their way toward home.
When his daughter went back, dragon king felt very angry and planned to raised water up to kill them. At the same time, Tran family went to the temple he didn’t want to meet them. Therefore, he raised water up and covered the temple. Besides, he ordered servants went to their home and fired. The blue flame caught on their house and burned all though others tried their best to extinguish. When Mr, Mrs Tran and Sinh Tran went to home, all their assets had disappeared. They believed that was dragon god’s revenge so they could not do anything. They borrowed others a little money, built a hut and sold tea.
A full moon night, Sinh Tran brought fishing-rod to shore and fished. When he caught a frog, he threw it into water at one because the frog made him remind to things he didn’t want to remember. The second time, he got a frog again and as the previous time he threw it into water. But the third time, he didn’t threw it. He put it in his pocket and brought to home. He hung the pocket near his bed, lay on bed and planned to sleep but the frog croaked that made him can not sleep. Angry, he caught the frog and beat it but it croaked more loudly as he beat it. Later, the frog escaped from his hand and jumped. He chased after it and grabbed. The frog had dodged his hands three times till the fourth time he caught it. Suddenly, the frog transformed into Bach Nga Long. Sinh Tran took off his hands in surprise. Later, he hugged his wife closely.
“Making all you in difficult case is my failt”, she said. Then she gave them some god bars what were used to buy house, field and some other things. They got again wealth. Bach Nga Long came back and continued living with Sinh Tran.
The end.🎭🎭🎭
"Translator: Hung Nguyen"
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