Pan Ping'an made trips back to Fire Knife Village every month. In addition to transporting sauce ingredients to the Provincial City, he also reported to Hua Xiaomai about the month's business proceedings. Thus, the matter of who would stay behind to look after the Sauce Garden was not urgent; it could wait until his return to be discussed thoroughly. After Wan Meixian and others had left, the most pressing task was to manage the preparations for the scholar's banquet meticulously.
