What did soy sauce mean in novels?

Soy sauce usually referred to the seasoning added to dishes during the cooking process. It was mainly used to increase the texture and cover up certain flavors rather than being the main ingredient. In novels, soy sauce was often used as a metaphor to express the secondary or ordinary nature of something or plot. For example, a certain character in a novel often used soy sauce to describe his mediocrity or incompetence, or to describe the boredom or dullness of a certain scene. Soy sauce can also be a symbol of humor or ridicule, often used in humorous and satirical parts of novels.