The "water" was proper tea.
And high-quality tea at that.
But if anyone had said that out loud, it would have invited all sorts of speculation and doubt from netizens. The show's entertainment value would have plummeted. Worse, it could have made him collateral damage, an innocent bystander caught in Silas Norwood's orbit. The online masses would have fabricated a prominent background for him out of thin air and painted him as someone who threw his weight around.
He wasn't the only one who understood this; everyone present did.
Amid a round of banter, the topic of the drinks was tacitly dropped. The host had the tea set cleared away and moved on to the next segment:
"The production team has bought three free-range chickens from the villagers. Each team will draw lots to kill a chicken, build a stove, and stew a soup. Whether or not you get to enjoy a big pot of delicious chicken and mushroom stew is all up to you."
