That evening, determined not to ruin the meal, Shen Huaiyu simply made dough drop soup. He took several tomatoes from the woven bamboo vegetable basket, had one of the male guests feel around in the chicken coop outside for a few fresh eggs, prepared scallions, cilantro, and other seasonings, kneaded flour into dough bits, peeled and stir-fried the tomatoes in the pot, then added water, whisked in the eggs, and dropped in the dough bits.
Watching Shen Huaiyu's cooking process, Cheng Lang shook his head, unable to bear the sight. He ran next door to ask some local villagers for Rice Blossom Fish Sauce. When he came back carrying the fragrant, spicy fish sauce, he saw that all the guests had already sat down at the stone table outside the courtyard and started eating.
Setting the fish sauce on the table, Cheng Lang teased with a smile, "If you regret it, you can say so now."
One of the female guests swallowed a mouthful of dough drop soup with some difficulty and said with a smile, "It's fine. We're dieting anyway!"
Shen Huaiyu rubbed his hands nervously. "It's not as bad as you think... right?"
Shen Huaiyu looked pleadingly at the other guests. Receiving his signal, they hesitated for a moment before nodding in agreement. "Yeah! It's actually not that bad!"
"At least it tastes much better than what we make ourselves."
"It's just dough drop soup! This is what it tastes like! There's not much you can do with it."
Still, despite what they said, the guests very consciously reached their chopsticks into the porcelain bowl of fish sauce.
Seeing this, Cheng Lang suggested with a grin, "Tomorrow morning, you can boil some eggs to eat with the fish sauce."
Meng Tianye could not stand the look on Cheng