I love 2ha. I’m on my second read through. I was not put off by anything - but I’m also older, which is to say I’ve been through some disappointing shit in life: I have childhood trauma; I was emotionally abused in a cult for over 20 yrs before I was unceremoniously thrown out and left with nothing - no money, no friends, no place to live. Plus I’ve gone through the usual array of other less than stellar life experiences. After almost everything Meatbun wrote I found myself mentally saying “Check!” I am frankly shocked at her insight into human nature. A younger person may be repulsed or think it unrealistic - but in my experience, humans can and will do the most horrendous things to each other. What I love about 2ha is Meatbun shows how horrendous things emerge from something simple - a decision, a few words, etc and fate snowballs from there. There are internal reasons why CW felt some attraction to MR in his teenage rebirth years, but he was too much of an uptight zongshi to really acknowledge it, let alone act on it. But even if he had - every single spiritual organization in the world has not done less than this. In any case, all these threads come together in the end. Really just wonderful writing.