It would be absurd to assume that the flow of time could be so easily changed, yet the days leading up to the tea party seemed to fly away faster than anyone anticipated. The venue was set, and so was the time. There was only one, missing component in the tea party.
While Lex could theoretically have the party without addressing that final component, it might lead to the Innkeepers reputation falling. At a time when he was doing his best to raise the Innkeepers reputation as high as possible, such a thing could not be afforded at all.
Yet, solving the problem seemed outside the limits of what he could do.
The issue at hand was a simple one. Although Lex did not know the habits of Dao Lords, for mortals and immortals, at least, the concept of a tea party without tea or food sounded absurd. The issue, then, was that he did not know what he could feed Dao Lords that would satisfy them!
