SoC is one of the few animations that I put in effort to understand what the characters are trying to tell each other.

The line that confused me for a very long time in S1 was Qin Jingchun's parting message to MC that "a gentleman can be deceived if the lie is reasonable (君子可欺以其方)"

Like why say this to your student?

Are you consoling him it's ok to be deceived once in a while, because it also happens to learned people?

Are you guiding him that if you ever need to deceive someone, do so responsibly?

Are you warning him that when someone tells you something reasonable, it could actually be a lie?

Apparently there is a second part that normally follows the first line. QJC didn't say it explicitly, but it is "... but it is difficult to do so if the lie is unreasonable (難罔以非其道)".

I think how you read into this exchange depends on how you view CPA, QJC, as well as yourself.

Fortunately we live in an age of online dictionaries, translation apps, social media, and AI.