As Fangzheng spoke, he began pouring some soy sauce and vinegar into his bowl.
"Master, you mentioned so many sauces and condiments, but why do we only have soy sauce and vinegar? Also, there's no meat in these dumplings, right? It just has cabbage leaves in it…" Squirrel asked, rather displeased.
Fangzheng answered in all seriousness, "That's because we are monks. Most of the condiments are part of the Five Pungent Spices, things that are extremely stimulating. We can't eat those, so we can only make do with what we have. As for the filling, are you saying you'd like some meat then? Are you out of your mind?"
When the disciples thought about it, that did seem to be the case. The villagers knew that it was food for monks, so they didn't give them any meat-filled dumplings. With this in mind, all of them put on miserable expressions. Being a monk sure was tough!
Fangzheng coughed dryly. "You can choose not to eat if you find it so miserable."
