An Alternate Ending for Chí Phèo: What If Vũ Đại Village Had Thơmore?

“Chí Phèo” is Nam Cao’s 1941 short story about a village labourer turned drunken thug by the people who exploited him, and his famous cry, “Who will let me be decent?” (“Ai cho tao lương thiện?”), is one every Vietnamese student knows by heart. Here is the version we like to imagine instead.

Chí Phèo puts the bottle down

That morning, Chí Phèo shuffled towards Bá Kiến’s house. He was carrying a chipped bottle, planning to smash it, slash his own face and make a scene for money, as he always did. “Who will let me be decent?” was already rising in his throat.

But wait. Wiping the sweat from his brow, Chí stopped. Slashing your face hurts, begging for money is beneath you, and drinking all day ruins your looks. He caught his reflection in the duckweed pond and felt a sudden pang. “No. I’ve got to give this life a makeover. I can’t let the village bigwigs walk all over me forever!”

He tossed the bottle of rice wine into a banana thicket and pulled a treasure from the pocket of his threadbare shirt: a bottle of Thơmore men’s perfume. Spritz, spritz.

A warm, masculine trail of wood and amber rose up and chased away the sour reek of liquor and the gloom of the riverbank. Chí smoothed back his hair, lifted his chin and strode out to the village hall.

From village outcast to top stockist

All of Vũ Đại village froze. Nobody recognised the old hooligan. The dignified, polished scent coming off him shattered every prejudice. Instead of hurling abuse at the sky, Chí took out a loan and set up a livestream stall selling perfume. Thị Nở, walking past, found the scent so irresistible that she abandoned her famous pot of spring-onion congee and begged for a slot as his first-tier distributor.

Business took off like a kite in a fair wind, and Chí opened the biggest showroom in the district. One day old Bá Kiến hobbled in on his walking stick. Seeing how sharp Chí now looked, he fanned out a thick wad of notes, ready to buy a few bottles so he could pass himself off as a decent man, and perhaps sweeten up his wives at home.

Chí calmly brewed a pot of tea, pushed the money back across the table, gave himself one more spritz and smiled with half his mouth: “Sorry, sir. Our perfume is the scent of an honourable man, and we only sell to decent people. You certainly have plenty of money, but sadly, we don’t share the same IDEOLOGY!” Bá Kiến slunk home seething, powerless against a man who now held the purse strings.

Why did we give Chí Phèo a different ending?

Of course, this is just a parallel universe we dreamed up to soften the haunting ending Nam Cao gave us. The tragedy of the real Chí Phèo is that he longed to be a decent man, but society pushed him to the edge, stripping away his face and his humanity until he drowned in helpless drunkenness.

At Thơmore, we believe the longing to be good, and the dignity to live decently, keeps burning in every one of us, wherever we happen to start from.

A scent does more than show off your personality or cover up the dust and toil of the day. It is armour for your self-respect, and the clearest possible statement: “I am in charge of my own life, and I have the right to live with pride.” There is no need to shout at anyone for permission to be decent. The modern man can build his own integrity, independence and standing with his own two hands.

From that satirical but hopeful angle, Thơmore is proud to present our masculine scent, Chí Phèo: warm and grounded, made to wake up your confidence and help you write the next chapter of your own success story, unafraid of anyone’s prejudice.

Read more: What Does Thơmore’s Chí Phèo Smell Like? Cold Outside, Warm Inside