Ye Cang extended his hand and gently wiped the purple incense burner, breaking the silence, "The five flavors of sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, and salty are not the common five condiments, but symbolize the meaning of five items."
It seemed that he had anticipated Zhang Xiaoman's confusion and proactively offered an explanation, "Take 'salty,' the leader of the five flavors, as an example. It doesn't represent ordinary salt but Iron Powder."
"Oh? Iron Powder?"
"Correct. 'Salty' consists of the character 'xu' with an additional mouth component, originally signifying a crowd's unified shout to boost morale. Some also believe that the mouth symbolizes the human head, so in ancient times, it was actually associated with leading military campaigns."
It was the first time Zhang Xiaoman had heard such an explanation, and his interest was immediately piqued.
