The Truth Has Four Corners

Are there any more questions? says Doctor Zhu Min.

I have a question, says Professor Mee-mann Chang. The truth has four corners.

Yes? says Doctor Zhu Min.

We have heard one side of the story, says Professor Mee-mann Chang. It seems far-fetched.

The other doctors and professors look relieved. They would not have wished to say this. But Professor Mee-mann Chang is a woman.

I should like to ask the Entelognathus, continues Professor Mee-mann Chang. But of course that is impossible.

Lavender smirks, but she is so tiny, no one can see.

And so, says Professor Mee-mann Chang. I should like to address my question to the young man in the doorway, wearing orange shorts, and looking bored, like a poet.

Go ahead, says Doctor Zhu Min. But I should warn you. He IS a poet.

All the better, says Professor Mee-mann Chang. My question is this. Young man, do you believe it?

What? says Arthur. He has not been listening. He is thinking of ways to escape.

That Lavender can tell the future, says Professor Mee-mann Chang. It seems to me crucial.

The other doctors and professors start muttering. This was not what they had expected. But yes, in fact it does seem crucial, in a tangential way.

Yes, says Arthur. She fell off Gaius's knee on the plane and she said that she knew it would happen.

After the event? says Professor Mee-mann Chang.

How else does anyone know anything, except after the event? says Arthur. Until then, you can only expect it.

The doctors and professors are all thinking the same thing.

It feels like morning tea time. They adjourn for a break.

........

It is morning tea time too at the Kuanti Formation.

Gaius, Margaret and Rosamunda are munching on walnuts and boiled quail eggs, drinking cool jasmine tea.

What do you think of the Kuanti Formation? says Sikong Shu. Is it up to your expectations?

Wonderful says Gaius. I gather it is part of the Yangtze Platform and these are the lower redbeds. I should dearly like to have a bit of a scrape. What do you think?

Go ahead, says Sikong Shu. I won't interfere. You have recently risen in my estimation, and for that I am grateful.

I have? says Gaius. That is good news. What have I done?

You wear Crocs, made in China, says Sikong Shu.

Margaret hates them, says Gaius. But I find them comfortable and strong.

Does she? says Sikong Shu. Well the less said about that the better. It's what you think that counts.

I wish I'd brought mine, says Rosamunda.

Sikong Shu smiles.

Next stop Beijing.