The Usefulness Of Keeping Certain Things

In the tea room, Professor Mee-Man Chang presides over the tea pot.

Any snacks? asks Doctor Minchin Chow.

No, says Professor Mee-Man Chang. No one has been shopping.

That's because we don't have our bikes, says Professor Lanpo Jia. We rented them to Arthur and his minder. Are you sure? Nothing at all in the cupboard?

I'll take one more look, says Professor Mee-Man Chang.

She reaches in to the tea room cupboard and draws out a dusty red and gold box.

Moon cakes! says Doctor Minchin Chow. My favourite!

Must have been overlooked, says Professor Mee-Man Chang. It can happen.

The doctors and professors look thoughtful.  Oh yes, it can happen all right.

Professor Mee-Man Chang opens the box of moon cakes. Each moon cake is individually wrapped.
She looks about for a knife.

Gaius enters the tea room, with Arthur.

Ah Gaius! says Doctor Minchin Chow. You are just in time for tea and moon cakes. And Arthur! Is my bike still in one piece?

So this is Arthur, says Professor Mee-Man Chang. I should like to talk to you, Arthur.

And I want to talk to you, says Gaius. All of you. Something has come up. I'm afraid I must go home at once.

Silence in the tea room.

This is fortunate news. This will save a great deal of paperwork. This will solve some developing problems.

This is terrible news, says Professor Mee-Man Chang. We will miss you. However, if needs must. And of course you have already benefited greatly from your visit.

So have you, says Gaius. In fact, you have come out the better. I am thinking of the recipe for glue.

Another silence in the tea room.

What did you want to talk to Arthur about, Mee-Man? says Margaret. (She and the professor are friends).

Oh yes, Arthur, says Professor Mee-Man Chang. I hear you live a charmed life.

I do, says Arthur. There are cakes on the table.

Don't be shallow, says Professor Mee-Man Chang.

But that's the secret, says Arthur. That and the interference of others.

So you rely on others, says Professor Mee-Man Chang. It is not what I imagined.

No it's not what you imagined, says Arthur.

Professor Mee-Man Chang gives up. What a surly young man.

Her attention returns to the moon cakes.

Anyone have a knife?

No, but deep down in his pocket, under the dirty bandages, Arthur still has the cake server.