You are learning drinks and toasting: you will read the scene it happens in, learn 10 words and phrases, take apart the pattern behind them (drinks vocabulary + toasting rituals), hear them in a conversation, rehearse them, and finish by saying one thing out loud to be graded.
Chinese restaurant drinking culture: from the opening tea to the baijiu toasts to the beer rounds to the closing soup. Each has its own moment, its own phrase, its own ritual.
Halfway through the meal, the host produces a small bottle from a bag: Moutai (茅台), China's most prestigious baijiu, 53% alcohol, the official drink of Chinese state banquets since 1949. The stranger recognizes the red label.
The host fills everyone's glass. The stranger looks at his. Moutai smells floral and powerful simultaneously. He has been warned: one glass of Moutai and the rest of the evening changes register.
「我不胜酒力，以茶代酒，可以吗？」 The host laughs warmly. 「当然！感情到了，喝什么都一样！」 It's the feeling that matters, not the drink.
The stranger lifts his tea cup. The host lifts his Moutai. 「为我们的友谊干杯！」
Everyone drinks. His tea is ordinary. The moment is not.