Chinese official arrested after poisonous cat stew plot On the day of his death, Mr Long had gone with Mr Huang and a third man, Huang Wen, to visit a new plot of forest that was for sale. Afterwards, the three men ate together at their local restaurant: Bajia Hotpot. They ordered a pork rib and cat meat stew and, while it was being prepared, Mr Huang slipped away "to make a telephone call," according to Huang Wen. The police believe it was at this point that Mr Huang slipped into the restaurant's kitchen and added Gelsemium Elegans, a highly poisonous flowering plant that grows in the area, to the bubbling pot. Gelsemium Elegans is notorious in the south of China as a means of committing suicide. On Tuesday the restaurant declined to comment on how Mr Huang had managed to poison the stew, or why he would poison a meal he went on to eat. "I only tasted a little and thought it was not right, not like the one we had eaten the previous time," said Huang Wen. I have often eaten cat hotpot but this time it tasted bitter. According to the Southern Metropolis Daily, Huang Wen even joked at the time that the stew must have been poisoned. Mr Huang, however, insisted that the bitterness was a sign that the stew was a "good tonic." Mr Long eagerly devoured the larger part of the stew, one of his favourite dishes, but all three men fell ill shortly after the meal and were taken to hospital. Mr Long died 20 minutes after being admitted. The local police announced Mr Huang's arrest on Monday. Huang, who was helping Long take a lease on a forest, had himself used funds provided by Long. This led to an economic dispute and gave Huang the idea to kill Long with poison," said a statement.