After she became a queen, Tấm lived in a luxurious palace with her beloved king while her jealous stepmother and half-sister stayed in their old house. On her father's remembrance day, Tấm had to come home to do her filial duty. Her cunning stepmother asked Tấm to climb an areca tree to gather betel nuts and offer them to her father's altar, mentioning that Cám couldn't be as good at climbing as Tấm, so she had to do it. Tấm obeyed her immediately, but when she climbed the tree, the wicked stepmother chopped it with an ax. With the excuse of killing the ants to stop them from reaching Tấm and biting her, she kept doing so until the areca tree was completely cut down although Tấm frighteningly asked her to stop. As a result, Tấm fell off into the nearby lake and drowned.
Making sure that Tấm was dead, her stepmother hurriedly took off her clothes and gave them to her actual daughter, saying that it was Cám's chance to marry the king. Eager to be the queen, Cám put on Tấm's royal clothes and entered the palace to take her half-sister's place. The cunning stepmother lied to the king that Tam had unfortunately fallen into a lake and drowned, so now she brought Cám with the desire to replace her half-sister and take care of him on behalf of her lamentable half-sister. Receiving such shocking news, the king could feel nothing except sorrow, but he did not know what to do. Unable to make a justifiable decision, the king could only accept their desire and let Cám become his next wife.
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*artwork's copyright belongs to Lê Trọng Hoàng (Hoàng Hoàng)
