One afternoon, he came bounding in, grinning from ear to ear. "Da! Da! I've got news for you!" he yelled. He waved what looked like an invitation card in my face and said excitedly, "Guess what? We have received an invitation to tea tomorrow afternoon .from Lady Arabella. I told you, she's not such a bad sort after all!"
I looked at the white and gold card. Tea at her mistress' house by the river at 4.00 p.m. Somehow I was not impressed; in fact I felt a little uneasy. Why would a high and mighty lady like her invite two poor cats to tea?
"I'm not going, Ning," I said. "I don't like her nor do I trust her."
"Don't be silly, Da. Anyway, if you change your mind, let me know."
I didn't change my mind and Ning went off on his own that afternoon. I asked him to be careful but he was too excited to listen. I decided to take a short nap meanwhile because he would be back soon with lots of stories to tell me.
I was rather surprised when I saw Ning running back to the temple less than an hour later. He was panting and huffing like he had run a marathon and his body was full of scratches and bite marks.
"What on earth happened to you?" I asked, baffled.
Ning sat down and it was a while before he could speak.
"Well, I went to Arabella's house for tea this afternoon. It was a lovely mansion by a river and there were beautiful flowers and trees surrounding it. Her mistress had set up a small table by the river and it was laden with cakes and presents. Arabella came to meet me and to my surprise apologised for the way she behaved that morning at the temple. I was even more surprised when she said you and I were her only guests. Well I made up some excuse why you couldn't come; she looked quite disappointed I must say.
Anyway we sat down to eat and she poured me a cup of jasmine tea.
"This is a special brew brought all the way back from China by my mistress," she said. "It's simply heavenly. You must try it." She handed the cup to me and urged me to drink it.
I lifted the cup to my lips and to my shock, saw your friend, Lao Tze's face in the tea! He was making signs to me not to drink it. I thought I was having some kind of hallucination but his image was there as clear as crystal.
As I was hesitating, Arabella's mistress called to her and she left me for a minute. Then I heard Lao Tze's voice saying, "Don't drink it. Throw it away!" Somehow I felt compelled to do as told and I poured the contents of the cup into the river.
When Arabella came back, it looked like I had drunk the tea. She asked me whether I liked it. I said something like it was very good. Then to my shock, she started laughing - the same cackling laugh as The Black Rose!"
Here Ning paused. I was listening spellbound.
"The Black Rose! Then what happened?" I cried.
"She continued laughing and then said, "You fool! Do you know who I am? I am The Black Rose's cousin! You and your friend killed her the other night and I have come to take revenge! What you have drunk is a lethal poison that will tear your body apart and you will explode into smithereens in exactly three minutes! Ha, Ha, Ha! Goodbye, my darling. Your friend is much smarter than you - for this time - but I will also get him when I'm ready!"
When I heard all that, I leapt off my chair and started running. She lunged at me screaming, "I want the pleasure of seeing you disintegrating before my eyes ... I won't let you go!" We had a brief struggle and I managed to overpower her and push her into the river. The current was quite strong and she shrieked for help as she was carried away. Her mistress, hearing her screams, came running but I didn't wait to see what happened. I ran all the way back to the temple .... I guess I should have listened to you, Da, you're always so sensible."
"Not to worry, Ning. Thank goodness you're safe and sound, "
"Yes, if it hadn't been for Lao Tze, I would be dead by now."
As I settled down to sleep that night, I thanked Lao Tze for saving us again. Somehow I got the feeling that this would not be the last we had seen of Lady Arabella II ...
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| A lethal cup of tea for Ning |
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