The story continues.
In the last entry, I stopped at the part where the rabbit finished the race before the tortoise. After much practice, the tortoise finally leveled up his skills and he became a turtle. The turtle and rabbit were never foes to begin with. They were good friends. Hence, when he wanted to stop giving lesson to a much much slower competitor, an ant, he decided to recommend his good friend, the rabbit to him. After all, 肥水不流外人田right? The rabbit had his first lesson with the ant. He was very happy because he found teaching the ant how to run, a breeze. The rabbit did not like teaching another ant because the mother ant was very demanding. The turtle instead took up the challenge to teach the more demanding ant. They were very happy with each other's students. The turtle found more meaning in teaching the hardworking ant and the rabbit enjoyed teaching the lazy one.
The problem came when the rabbit forgot to go to the lazy ant's house on the second lesson. After half an hour and several missed calls, the mother ant called the turtle and complained. The turtle was super pissed. Nope, he was not angry because the rabbit had not turned up. He was annoyed because the mother ant as usually took his kindness for granted. The mother ant complained as if the turtle was an agent handling lessons and earning a commission in between. The turtle was angry because the mother ant had failed to see that the turtle had recommended her a new tutor out of good will. The turtle could have not given a damn about her son and just leave her to hunt for a new tutor. The turtle could have ignored her grumbles about how tedious it was to get a new tutor. The turtle could have not help the mother ant at all. But the mother ant just failed to appreciate these. Hence, the turtle was angry.
Nevertheless, the turtle called rabbit and received missed calls too. The mother ant called shortly again to check on the status. The turtle was taken for granted again. The mother ant complained and complained, using words like 'insincere', 'late', 'never call'. To which, the turtle could only tell her, "YOU WAIT LAH!" At that point of time, the turtle was thinking why couldn't she give the rabbit the benefit of doubt. Couldn't she just make do with "something could have happened to the rabbit" and stop bothering the turtle?
Knowing that he was in deep shit when the smart rabbit saw the missed calls, he called the turtle for help immediately. The turtle readily agreed to help the rabbit. In other circumstances when some others called for help, the turtle would consider because the turtle would not help any Tom, Dick or Harry. And the turtle hated to lie. Anyway, the turtle and the rabbit collaborated.
The turtle called the mother ant to tell her that the rabbit had been admitted to the hospital because of food poisoning. To make it more convincing, the turtle told her that he would not be able to turn up the next day but he could try to do a make-up on the following day. To his great disappointment, the mother ant declined a lesson on the suggested day. The reason was her son wanted to go out to play on that day! The turtle's heart sank. She had not changed. The turtle could had felt so much better if she had said that her son needed to go for "CCA" or something more important than PLAY! The turtle had once again convinced himself that letting go of this lesson with the lazy ant was a good choice which he would never regret.
Just to make it logical, the conversation between the rabbit and the turtle was mentioned to be over SMSes. The little drama had saved the rabbit's carrot(rice) bowl.
Although the turtle knew that lying was wrong, he felt that lying to certain people (especially to those irksome ones) could be justified. A lie to save the rabbit in distress could also be valid. However, the turtle knew very well that 说了第一个慌，就要说更多的慌来圆第一个慌。Hence, the moral of this story to everyone is that "occasionally lie tio ho hor".
