The Bitter Tea of General Yen Page #5

Come here, Mah-Li.

I'm going to spare your life.

Are you off your nut?

Get up.

Thank her. I'm going to

place you in her hands.

She agrees to answer

for your future loyalty.

But you know and I know,

the moment my back is turned,

you're going to throw

a knife into it.

Miss Davis, I swear

I'll never betray your trust.

I swear by my father's head

and by the bones of my ancestors.

And by the holy book

in the mission school.

I believe you, Mah-Li.

What are you up to now?

I am going to convert a missionary.

Here's your slipper, Mah-Li.

You're so kind.

Now, I want you to promise

not to see Captain Li again

as long as we remain here.

Anything you say, Miss Davis.

Will you take me

to the temple today?

What, again?

I want to have prayer

of forgiveness read.

See? I've written it

while waiting for you.

I'm so proud of you, Mah-Li.

I knew you were a good girl.

Certainly I'll take you

to the temple. Come on.

Here.

I couldn't sleep.

I had to get up.

We gotta get this

money train out of here.

I got a hunch, and I always

follow my hunches.

Between war and women, the

general's got me about nuts.

Come on, open up there.

Hello, Mr. Jones.

I want you to take train away from here.

Bayside Station. Money no safe here.

Money no safe here, now.

Yes, sir.

Hide train, other place.

Chop-chop.

Tonight?

What's that?

No train due here now.

I say, ever since this American girl

came here, you've been off your nut.

You wouldn't get rid of Mah-Li when I

told you to. Well, now try and find her.

Here, take a look at this

if you want to see something.

There it is, the whole works.

Position of the money car, right

down to what you had for breakfast.

Where did you get this?

Where do I get everything

else around this dump?

I paid a lot of money for it.

You wanted to see me, general?

Yes. Come in, please.

Must've been important to

have me dragged down like this.

I'll say it's important.

Where's Mah-Li?

Isn't she in her room?

No, she isn't in her room

and she isn't anywhere else.

What?

You'll never see her again

around this ranch. Thanks

to you, she skipped out.

I don't believe it.

You'll believe it

when we all pay

for it with our necks.

Did you ever see

this before, Miss Davis?

Why, yes. That looks like the

prayer Mah-Li had read at the temple.

Prayer? Prayer, my eye.

That thing read in the temple?

Why, there's enough dynamite in that to

blow Yen's province into the Yellow Sea.

There you are.

Tie that.

I told you, you were crazy to listen

to these screwy missionaries.

That will be enough.

Everything is going to be all right.

All right? Do you realise

that your money's all gone?

Money that I ground out of this

province by the sweat of my brow?

Now, the general and I and Captain Li

were the only ones with that information.

Now, how did Mah-Li get it?

I'm to blame, general.

That paper must've been in the shoe

that I carried from Captain Li to Mah-Li.

Oh, perfect.

There you are.

How long do you suppose your

troops will remain loyal now?

With all that dough, Feng will buy

them out right under your very nose.

You can say goodbye to

this little empire of yours

in about two days' time.

That will be all, Miss Davis.

You will remain in your room

until you hear from me.

That's a pretty fancy price to

pay for what you're counting on.

Oh, calm yourself.

Conquest of a province

or the conquest of a woman.

What's the difference?

Oh, yeah?

There's one thing

we should be grateful for.

What's that?

We finally got

some skin off your nose.

Oh...

Come in.

Well, Miss Davis.

You certainly gummed up

the prettiest setup I ever saw.

I had visions of making General

Yen the biggest thing in China.

But you sure queered that beautifully.

I hate your insides,

Miss Davis.

But you're an American. We

got to stick together now.

Where's the general?

The general's all washed up.

His army's deserting him

as if he had the leprosy.

Darned if I'm not even

out of cigars too.

Yes, sir. He could've been

the biggest thing in China.

One thing you've got to say for him.

He sure can take it on the chin.

Darned if I don't believe he isn't

glad this thing happened to him.

Oh, come on, now.

Don't you get to worrying.

I'll get you out

of this somehow.

I've been in tougher spots

than this before now.

You go on,

get your things together.

Wait here till I come back for you.

Here, here, what's this?

You tell the general she's

busy now and can't see him.

Here, wait a minute. You don't have

to see him. Here, wait a minute.

Now, I'm warning you.

Your sportsmanship

is magnificent.

Won't you sit down. Please.

You're just in time to help me

select my portrait.

Did you ever see a book like this?

It's a painter's catalogue.

The idea is to select the features

that most resembles one.

For example, ear number three...

and nose number six...

and the chin number 27

equal General Yen.

How do you like this nose?

Do you think it

resembles mine?

Perhaps you wonder why

I don't sit for the picture myself.

You see, a Chinese

is never painted...

until he has joined his ancestors.

May I offer you

some champagne?

May I?

In the days of our greatest

civilisation, we drank to excess.

In fact, one of my ancestors,

a very famous poet,

was drowned in an attempt to

catch the moon in the Yellow River.

Oh.

This portrait is of his wife, who was

made very unhappy by his death.

She left a very famous

collection of swords.

I have them in my bedroom.

May I show them to you?

Oh, please.

Why do you torture me?

I am afraid you misunderstood

my purpose in sending for you.

I'm not altogether a fool.

You didn't think I meant

the conventional thing, did you?

Didn't you?

Do you think General Yen could accept

anything that the heart did not freely give?

Oh, no.

That opportunity has been open

to me ever since you came here.

It was your life you put up

as a forfeit for Mah-Li's loyalty.

My life?

Yes.

What else did

you think it meant?

Oh, I see.

You are afraid of death

as you are afraid of life.

You want me to send you back

to your Dr. Strike?

He speaks the same

meaningless words as you do.

He has everything you want.

You would like to be able

to boast to him

that the great General Yen,

whom everybody feared,

was destroyed because

he was fool enough to hope.

Well, why don't you go?

Go on to him.

You've taught me a terrible lesson.

Yes.

But to be able to do good works,

one has to have wisdom.

You depended too much

on your beauty.

And also on the fact

that you are so young.

Young and pale as a lotus blossom

which blooms at night.

Oh, torture.

Real torture is to be despised

by someone you love.

Bargain or no bargain.

Province or no province.

Do you know what

I expected to do tonight?

I was coming to your room

to kill you.

And then follow you

to some celestial garden,

where there is no General Yen

or no Megan Davis, just you and I.

I... I had to come back.

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