There is that moment when Su Beimo is beating up Ling Nanqing’s stepfather where Su Beimo’s mother tells him to stop with the violence and instead go check on the injured Ling Nanqing instead. This, as well as later on when Su Beimo decides to leave Ling Nanqing’s stepfather in the hands of the law instead of confront him himself, really drives in the focus on self healing instead of revenge. Su Beimo’s mother also tells him not to make the mistake that Ling Nanqing’s father made, losing himself to hatred and making things worse for himself and the person he wanted to protect.

One of the big societal issues she touches on, besides homosexuality, is how people treat victims of s*xual assault. The MC was never r*ped, but rumors circulated that he had been as a child. Despite him being only ten, people around him called him dirty, blamed him, treated him badly, despite being a victim. He never got any real warmth or support after being attacked, and despite getting away before anything happened, everyone refused to believe him. This is something that really happens in real life, especially in conservative cultures like in China, and the author really highlights how horrific and damaging it is to treat someone like that who did nothing wrong.

there’s a couple of chapters where the MC was abused by his step father. It was so so so heartbreaking, I was teary eyed reading all those. Very heart breaking and also kinda triggering for someone who dealt with abuse in their life, it made me remember bad memories because the scenes in the novel are kinda vivid