The Story of Tum Teav
Tum meets his fate
Yeay Phann saw the whole thing. She was totally blinded by the situation. Her mind was full of anger and hatred. She went to Oar Choun and asked him to take Tum away and kill him. Oar Choun ordered his servants to tie Tum with a hard rope so that Tum experienced maximum pain. Teav begged the servants not to use rope, but to use a piece of cloth instead if they had to tie him. They refused to listen to her and dragged Tum out of sight to a place nearby the village of Po Cheung Khal where they killed him. Before he died, Tum prayed and begged for forgiveness of his sins
from Lord Buddha and that he could enter heaven after death. Pich was very scared. He ran from the wedding place to the port and took a boat back to the palace.
Teav and Noh commit suicide
Meanwhile, the news that Tum had been killed reached Teav in a middle of the night. Noh overheard people talked about it. She sneaked out of the house with Noh early in the morning. She found Tum’s body, cried intensively. Her mind was full of sorrow that her husband was dead. Her life no longer had a meaning, so she took a knife from Noh, prayed for a grace of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and killed herself. Noh saw Teav, a dearest person in her life, killed herself in front of her. She was blinded with sadness so she also took her own life.
The children who played around the cattle and herd, and whom Teav asked before she killed herself, went to Oar Choun’s house to sing a song asking people who Meun Ngourn was marrying to because Teav already committed suicide. People first did not believe the children who brought the news. They began looking for Teav and Noh who were nowhere to be seen. Yeay Phann blamed her servants as being careless for allowing Teav and Noh to sneak out. She scolded them. The servants had enough of her and fought back telling Yeay Phann that Teav and Noh were grown up and that it was not their faults not to keep them in one place. They continued on to say Yeay Phann was a sole person responsible for everything because she knew quite well that Teav was already married to Tum and yet still forced her to marry Ngourn for wealth and fame. They told her that she got what she had asked for.
King’s letter is uncovered
Later at Oar Choun’s house, news that Teav and Noh were all dead was confirmed. Yeay Phann, for the first time, realized that she had made a big mistake. She cried and cried, but it was too late. Oar Choun, his wife and son Meun Ngourn went out and found the bodies of Tum, Teav and Noh. They attempted to bury them in order to conceal their action. They dragged Tum’s body and removed his clothes. The letter from the King was uncovered. They were terrified when they read the letter. They knew their fate had arrived. The news about the King’s letter spread very quickly through the area. All people were scared and ran away from the region. For one thing, they were afraid of Oar Choun who poured his madness at them. Furthermore, they knew that the King will come and punish them.