Fangwu came in to call Alice to dinner. At the table, she met Lord Ascot and a few people she didn't know, already seated. Alice sat across form Fangwu. Where was Lingling? Alice looked around the table for her when she appeared in the doorway. Alice smiled to her. Lingling looked slightly panicky but managed a forced smile.
"Sorry I'm late," she said and took the empty seat next to Alice. Fangwu and Lord Ascot were chattering away about their trade business again. They brought up the subject of importing keys and locks and suddenly, Alice remembered the key that she found on her bed where Lingling had been sitting. Alice took it out of her pocket and shoved it into Lingling's hand under the table. Lingling looked at what had been thrust into palm and saw the key. Alice felt her tense. She shot a glance up at Alice.
"May we be excused for a moment?" Lingling interrupted the grand conversation that Alice was listening intently to. Without waiting for a reply, Lingling dragged her out of the room and into the garden. They stood behind a shrub.
"Where did you get this?" Lingling asked cautiously, as if not wanting to reveal something by accident. She was clutching the key in her hand. Trust that once lived in her tone was now gone.
"It fell out of your pocket when you left my room," Alice replied swiftly. Lingling couldn't find anything else to say. Alice was telling the truth. "It's the key to Underland, isn't it? It's a land of talking animals and flying cats. It's the key to a land of secrets that no one could possibly share with anybody. Please tell me you understand me? If you don't, I'm sorry. I'm just a mad lunatic girl who can't make sense of anything and-"
"Yes," Lingling cut her off. "It's where I've been rushing off to every now and then. Just before, I wasn't in the kitchen with the maids. I was trying to get there. But when I got to the door I realised I lost the key. That's why I was late to dinner."
The silence was disturbing and awkward, until Alice couldn't stand it anymore and broke it. "Can we go there?" she whispered. They looked each other in the eye. Lingling sighed. She slipped the key into her pocket and grabbed Alice's wrist. She pulled her across the garden and to a fish pond. Alice stared at the pond blankly. Why were they at a fish pond?
Lingling felt the rocks at the side of the pond with her hands, stopping at loose-looking one. She twisted the stone and the side of the pond opened up with a hole. Surprisingly, no water came spilling out.
She dropped to her knees and began crawling in. Alice followed, although not quite sure where they were going.
The tunnel became smaller and more cramped. It wasn't until Alice let out a squeak when a tree root got in her hair that Lingling twisted another stone and revealed some pishsalver that was sitting on and uncovered stone ledge.
Both girls took a sip each and shrunk down to ten inches. They ditched their clothes and ripped bits and pieces off their gigantic dresses to cover themselves up. Lingling fished the key out of her giant dress and pointed to a key hole at their current eye level. Together, the girls hoisted the slightly-large key into the slightly-large keyhole. They turned the key and the door opened with a CRREEAAK.