*(Before we begin, let's chat for a couple of words. This section was added after the update, so it won't cost anything:*
After writing for several years, I've discovered a pattern—the more morally upright a protagonist is, the more likely they are to spark controversy, or even contempt.
The pressure of society is too great. In the real world, everyone is already bound by all sorts of rules and restrictions, so in novels, people want to be more uninhibited and vent some of their negative emotions. I can understand all that.
I just want to say that, in truth, everyone is the greatest beneficiary of morality.
What truly restrains those in power? The laws and rules of society?
Do you think the people who make the rules are bound by them?
What truly restrains them is precisely morality—and morality alone.
Without that restraint, the strong could bully the weak without any shackles at all!
Doctors treating illnesses, restaurants running businesses, merchants starting companies... The law can only maintain the bare minimum.
Above that baseline, we rely on professional ethics and on people acting according to their consciences... In truth, we're already protected by morality in every aspect of our lives.
Yet as morality's greatest beneficiaries, some people insist on looking down on those with a strong moral sense, then smugly congratulating themselves on being "clear-headed."
When I wrote Li Fei going to save the people of Cuiqing City who were about to be slaughtered, quite a few people jumped out and said that the protagonist should consider the bigger picture, that he was short-sighted, that he was too much of a bleeding heart.
*Actually, at the time I wanted to ask: Why do you always read from such a lofty vantage point? Have you never considered that, in reality, you're