As Merotse walked into his tent King Bacham threw the paper at him.
“Look at this! What a good thing you did! What in the name of hell have you done?”
Merotse picked up the papers and realised that what he had been worried about had been revealed by the letter, reading:
“A black crow passed itself off as a cuckoo which was good at singing. A maid has replaced the beautiful Queen. Being famous King Bacham, can you bear such a cheat? Can you put up with such a shame?”
Merotse’s heart was sinking fast and his face became clouded.
“Who sent this letter?” he asked. Right then he wished that he could swallow the person who wrote the letter then chew him up.
“It came with this arrow.” A livery passed the arrow with the red copper tail to Merotse.
This was Zhaotoin’s arrow. Merotse thought of the owner of the arrow and burned with anger,
“My King, I didn’t expect that the people of the State of Ling dared to deceive us. I will go back right now to wipe them out to a man and seize the real Cholmo back for you,” Merotse swore. What he really thought was to dismember Zhaotoin into tiny little pieces. That should be the ignominious fate of the interfering informer.
“You are the only one who has actually seen Cholmo; we have never seen her! Did you deliberately cheat me together with them?” King Bacham began to suspect Merotse.
“My King, Cholmo will become your wife. How could I dare to see her clearly and fully? Besides this, in my eyes, all the ladies on earth have no exact difference. They only vary in their fineries and decorations. If the maid was dressed in the Queen’s clothes how could I recognize her?” Merotse explained this in haste. King Bacham then stopped blaming him for this deceit.
“Ok. Then take 100,000 of our crack troops with you and bring Cholmo back to me. We will wait here for your return.”
Darong Zhaotoin was so happy to see the troops from Hor swarming back in because he got another chance to retaliate at Gesar.
Instead of fighting with the Sate of Ling, Tsinpa Merotse just wanted to persuade Cholmo to go with him lest there be further trouble. Therefore, Merotse sneaked into the State of Ling and directly went to besiege Darze city where Cholmo lived.
When she got up in the morning, Cholmo opened the window and took a deep breath. She was suddenly completely stunned by the scene before her. Hor troops were all around the city and the place was throbbing with enemy soldiers and their weapons. Cholmo was so frightened that she thought she hadn’t woken up. Just then, Tsinpa Merotse came forward and spoke aloud to her:
“Youthful and graceful Queen Cholmo, please listen to my words. Since the war between the State of Hor and the State of Ling began, how many good men have shed their blood and how many mothers have lost their beloved sons. What was the cause? You are responsible for all these unnecessary deaths. King Bacham had set his heart on having Queen Cholmo as his wife. You knew that your maid Lachoinchi took your place and we cannot put up with such shame! If you are wise and accept my advice, please come with me immediately.”
Cholmo knew Merotse was right. However, she couldn’t go with him to Hor. She preferred death to coupling with the ruthless King Bacham, so she answered:
“I, Sengcham Cholmo, am the Queen of the State of Ling, consorting with the Lion King Gesar like the moon accompanying the sun. In order to rescue the people of this region, the two of us came to this world from Heaven. I don’t have the greatest reputation nor could I make Darze more beautiful, but I’ll never leave here and go to live in Yarze City in the State of Hor.”
Tsinpa Merotse held his temper and continued to try to persuade her patiently:
“Queen Cholmo, I don’t want to fight. I have talked so much with my King for peace. However, my King has sworn not to give up until he gets you. Until now our two states have been fighting for three years with piles of dead bodies and their blood flowing like a river. How can you stand by and let it happen?”
Cholmo was at quite a loss what to say or do. Since the State of Hor withdrew its troops, the State of Ling had dismissed its forces. It was hard to believe that the Hor troops came back in such a short time and it was too late to recall her soldiers. She prayed in her heart: “My King, Gesar, have you left here forever? Have you forgotten the State of Ling? Since you left for the north to vanquish the demons, I have been waiting for you for three years. Then the Hor invaded us and I tried everything I could to prolong leaving for another three years. That is altogether six years. Why haven’t you come back before now?”
“Merotse, why are you still wasting your words with her? Hurry up, take her away.” King Bacham appeared suddenly because he didn’t trust Merotse completely. He also selected 100,000 soldiers to come after the advance troop.
“My King, we shouldn’t be so impatient. Please take a rest in your tent. I will talk with Cholmo. If she sticks to her own opinion, we will resort to force then”.
King Bacham thought Merotse was right. Although he didn’t want to, he went back to his tent. When he had just sat down on his tiger fur cushion, a sharp arrow ripped into his tent and landed on the pillar above his seat.
“Get Merotse in here right now!” King Bacham shouted.
As Tsinpa Merotse came into the tent, he saw the arrow on the pillar,
“My King, this is the divine arrow of Gesar. We’d better leave the State of Ling as soon as possible, otherwise we will get into trouble when Gesar comes back,” he suggested.
“Then, what about Cholmo?!” King Bacham asked.
“She needs more time to make a decision,” Merotse answered.
“Still more time? She has already thought it over for three years! That’s not enough? She has put it off to wait for Gesar on purpose. Now, the divine arrow is here and Gesar must be around. This is not a place where we can stay too long. We must seize Cholmo tomorrow and withdraw our troops to the State of Hor.” King Bacham didn’t seem quite so arrogant after he saw the divine arrow. It had taken his courage away.
“My King, if I were you, I would give up Cholmo. Gesar is somewhere around. How could or would he let us take his beloved Queen in front of him! If you stay here to get Cholmo, it will cause more fighting,” Merotse advised.