Chapter 540: Chapter 539: Public Opinion and Social Spirit Both Need Attention

If before the children were merely onlookers in other discussions, things changed drastically when it came to matters affecting them personally. For this reason, after this post was published, nearly all the Cursed Children joined the debate.

Of course, all the children believed the young man should be taken away from the village. However, the problem lay in how to deal with the village itself.

Some of the more radical Cursed Children thought the customs of such a village were too barbaric and needed rectification.

Others, who were more moderate, believed it was the villagers’ own business and, since the villagers themselves saw nothing wrong, as outsiders, they should not interfere.

But the problem was… when it was connected to their own situations, it was not that simple.

The children knew that Fang Zheng could time travel to other worlds, but what should they do if he traveled to a world like Pitch Black?

This was where opinions diverged.

And so it was with the arguing sisters; the elder sister was of the moderate view, advocating that other people’s matters should be left to themselves, and if agreements on values could not be reached, it was better not to deal with that world.

The younger sister was part of the radical group, believing that differing values indicated that the other party was malevolent and should be reformed! Just like the adults in Pitch Black World, they must be taught a lesson!

The peacemaker was neutral, her viewpoint quite straightforward… whatever Brother Fang Zheng said, they would do.

“Is that so?”

Upon hearing their account, Fang Zheng frowned. Then, he logged into the forum with his wristband, and sure enough, upon entering the discussion section, he saw a long list of discussions on the topic. The thread started by the “Originstator” had already surpassed hundreds of pages. Although the forum itself was rather primitive and had no signs of “Hot” or “Premium,” the sheer number of replies revealed how high the Cursed Children’s participation in the topic was.

No, according to Nymph, virtually all the Cursed Children in Heavenly Dao Palace were equipped with wristbands, so naturally, the number of posts was astronomical…

Fang Zheng casually opened a few of the most replied threads and found that the Cursed Children indeed had different views on the issue. Although they were all children and had not resorted to crude insults like “stupid poster” or “get lost” on the forum, the intensity of their debate was beyond Fang Zheng’s expectation. It was certain that gathering these children for a debate would turn the Heavenly Dao Palace upside down.

“Brother Zheng, what do you think?”

At that moment, the younger sister had already bounced over to Fang Zheng, her big eyes sparkling as she looked at him. Fang Zheng remained silent for a moment before patting her little head.

“None of you are wrong, but I’ve also just learned about this… Hmm, let me think it over carefully and then I’ll give you an answer, all right?”

“Okay, okay.”

The younger sister didn’t seem to mind that Fang Zheng hadn’t answered her question immediately; instead, she happily nodded and then raised her wristband towards Fang Zheng.

“So, Brother Zheng, wanna add a friend?”

“…………”

There’s even this kind of feature?

After adding those three girls as friends on his device, Fang Zheng left the park and with a serious expression, returned to his residence. He immediately summoned Black Katie, Nymph, Tilia, Fumie Busei, Senju Natsuyo, Aohara Enju, Tina, and Iona to the study.

“What’s wrong, Elder Brother?”

Seeing Fang Zheng’s stern expression, Tilia was evidently surprised.

“Weren’t you supposed to head to Kitanatei for a hot spring break today?”

“The hot spring can wait, but now, we have a problem to address.”

As he spoke, Fang Zheng opened the forum and cast the projection.

“You all know about this, right?”

“Ah… that…”

Having glanced at the forum projected by Fang Zheng, Tilia nodded as if in sudden realization.

“Yes, but it’s just a bunch of kids messing around, isn’t it? What’s the problem?”

Hearing this, Black Katie and Nymph also nodded, evidently believing that it was merely the Cursed Children flooding a popular topic in the forum, scarcely worth special attention. But Tina looked at Fang Zheng uneasily–after all, by all accounts, she was the instigator.

“Um… Brother Zheng, did I cause you trouble?”

“No, there is none of that… Tina, how did you come up with telling that story?”

“Because…”

Facing Fang Zheng’s question, Tina, feeling somewhat embarrassed, lowered her head with a slight blush on her face.

“Because… I think that story is very romantic…”

…Very romantic?

Upon hearing this answer, everyone except Tina widened their eyes and stared at her, even Fang Zheng gave her a few odd looks–this girl’s definition of romance is way too different from normal people! Two people in love eating each other is romantic? Can I ask which part of this do you find romantic, Tina?

Forget it, better not ask, otherwise, who knows what kind of psychologically disturbing things might be asked.

“…Alright then, I want to ask you, what would you do if you encountered such a situation?”

“Whatever Master says to do, I will do.”

Nymph was the first to declare her stance, and Black Katie and Tilia nodded as well, while Iona showed no signs of objection… Seeing their reactions, Fang Zheng patted his forehead, he had forgotten that these few were Soulstones, definitely prioritizing his decisions above all, and discussing this matter with them was probably foolish of him.

“So, Natsuyo, what do you think?”

“Hmm… whatever Brother Fang Zheng wants me to do, I will do…”

“………”

I’m not Tohsaka Toki, why is everything being shoved onto me?

“Nobiru? Midori? What are your opinions?”

“If it were up to me, I would definitely go up and sort them out, then let that miss and little brother leave together. I wouldn’t let them become some sort of human canned food!”

Sure enough, Nobiru gave a response that Fang Zheng anticipated, while Midori hesitated quite a bit before finally speaking softly.

“That… If the miss doesn’t want to, I’m willing to help them leave the village.”

“So you mean if she is willing, you would just watch her be eaten?”

Upon hearing this, Nobiru also jumped up.

“Midori, that’s not right, the village’s practices are clearly wrong, we should let them know that!”

Hearing Nobiru’s retort, Midori weakly responded.

“But, but they think this makes them happy, right? If that’s the case, it might not be right to just meddle in other people’s lives… If the people there also don’t like it, then we could help…”

“That’s why I said, their ideas are completely twisted, they have problems! But they don’t even realize it themselves. If we don’t wake them up, won’t they spend their entire lives like that? But that’s just not right!”

“But…”

As expected.

Watching the two argue, Fang Zheng silently nodded in the depths of his heart. This was why he valued this debate so highly. As Tilia said, if it were just a simple children’s argument, it would be over after some time. However, the issue here was not merely about a ghost story; rather, it involved the Heavenly Dao Palace’s core development strategy for the future!

That is, when the Heavenly Dao Palace enters another world, what attitude should they adopt toward the civilization of that world?

If the differences are minor, it’s one thing, but what if it’s a world where both common sense and morals are vastly different from those of the Heavenly Dao Palace? Would they intervene and make changes? Or would they act as if they saw nothing? Or perhaps just watch as tourists?

Fang Zheng had not considered this issue before, as at that time it was only him in the Heavenly Dao Palace, and he made decisions that others executed without complaints. But now, as the number of residents in the Heavenly Dao Palace increased, it meant that Fang Zheng must establish a basic goal and a core strategy.

Although superficially, the Cursed Children were only arguing about how to handle a minor ghost story, if this issue wasn’t resolved promptly, then later in other worlds, these children might likely face conflicts and even contradictions due to differing views on that world.

If they wait until then to address this issue, it would be too late!

Indeed, both public opinion guidance and social ethos need attention!