Chapter 2771 - 2833: Complaints Sparked by a Private Message

This wasn’t an isolated case. Li Yifei’s private messages number in the thousands every day, and recently they’ve even gone over ten thousand. There’s no way he can read every single one, and he doesn’t have that kind of time.

But this particular message still left him both laughing and crying, then just speechless. A woman sent him a private message, hoping he could pay more attention to certain feminist information. She sent several in a row, and Li Yifei read them all carefully and replied: "I personally respect women a lot, because whether it’s my mom, my wife, or my daughter, they’re all women. As a son, a husband, and a father, of course I hope they enjoy the same rights as men. And of course, in our home their status is higher than mine. The overall quality of our citizens is improving, so I believe women’s rights and the respect they receive are both increasing day by day!"

The other party quickly replied: "Thank you for your reply, Mr. Veteran. I sincerely invite you to join our organization. There are many men who have joined, and everyone is working together for women’s rights, hoping that one day women can live normally in society, live like human beings, without having to endure all kinds of contempt, all kinds of difficulties. Once again, thank you, Mr. Veteran."

"Hold on a second. How is it that women are suddenly facing all kinds of difficulties in social life? Why can’t they live normally in society? Am I that ignorant? Why is it that the women I encounter, the vast majority of them live normal lives, and no one is deliberately making things hard for them?" When Li Yifei saw her answer, he was full of confusion.

She replied quickly: "Mr. Veteran, you’re a sensible person, and you’re a man. You should know how superior men are in this society, how they take advantage in every matter. The vast majority of men also discriminate against women. In their eyes, women are playthings, objects. Many women comrades are being persecuted by them in all kinds of ways. That’s why we have to fight, persevere without giving up, to struggle for the rights of the broad masses of women comrades, so that women can obtain the rights they deserve as soon as possible."

Li Yifei rubbed his brow, feeling this person was already completely deranged, or just brain-damaged. What kind of crap was she even talking about? He forced himself to be patient and replied: "I admit, there are still a lot of extreme phenomena in this society. Some women suffer domestic violence within marriage, bear more family work, and in some employment issues there really is gender bias. But I think society as a whole is still pretty good, and it’s moving in a better direction. On this, I think you shouldn’t objectify women; neither men nor women should do that. But also don’t overly treat yourselves as a persecuted group. In all these years, from countryside to city, what I’ve seen is women’s status constantly rising. In some places, getting married even costs one or two million. Isn’t that a kind of "increase" in status too?"

"That’s not an increase, Veteran, that’s an insult. Those ugly men are using money to buy wives. They’re insulting women!"

"Come on... high bride prices, a wedding apartment, a car, even a job—aren’t all these things requested by women? How did it become men insulting women? Honestly, I don’t really get what you’re saying. What rights exactly do you want to fight for? Are you saying women shouldn’t ask for these things? Or men shouldn’t give them? If it’s either of those, then your position has some problems, doesn’t it." Liu Yifei replied, baffled.

"Haha, of course not. All that is what men ought to give. They’re such f**king losers, such trash, and they still want to get married? Of course they have to pay more. We women give birth to children, it’s so hard, our figures are ruined, we’re left with a body full of illnesses. After giving birth and all the way until raising them, it’s us women paying everything. They just contribute one bit of sp-erm and then wash their hands of it. Shouldn’t they pay some extra money?"

By now Li Yifei was sure this one was a nutcase. Her words didn’t connect from one sentence to the next, her logic was upside down, and even she probably couldn’t figure out what she was actually trying to do, just running around online shouting "for women’s rights"? Isn’t that a joke. Compared to the twisted incidents stirred up before, the voyeurism scandal, at least that was a focused discussion. But when it came to rights between men and women, it had simply turned into one big mess of porridge.

So Li Yifei simply stopped replying to her. Curious, he clicked into this woman’s Twitter page, skimmed a few posts, and was dumbfounded. Whenever it was news involving men–women rights, this woman’s language... it was basically like she wished she could kill all the men in the world, so that women could finally stand up completely and be in charge...

Li Yifei really couldn’t agree with this kind of rhetoric. He took screenshots, thought it over for quite a while, then matched them with the content of her private messages and posted them on Twitter, writing: "As a man, I have always respected women. Same as with the voyeurism incident before. Because I have a mom, a wife, a daughter— I hope they won’t run into trouble outside just because of their gender. In Huaxia, we’ve only been open for a few decades, but we’ve already walked the path the West took one or two hundred years to walk, and our economy has even become the world’s third-largest economic entity. As a major power, maybe because development has been too fast, people’s level of thinking hasn’t completely caught up. But I still believe some things are moving in a positive direction. On some issues, regardless of gender, we shouldn’t be overly pessimistic, or overly extreme. Today I received such a private message. I could have just ignored it. But I checked and found that because of the voyeurism incident, many female fans have been sending me private messages. I originally thought it was nothing, but when I read them today, I saw that a lot of their comments are honestly jaw-dropping. I don’t know what these people do in real life, what kind of oppression they’ve suffered that makes them hate men to the bone."

"Isn’t gender equality and respect for women supposed to be something men and women work on together? Flip it around... if you’re strong enough yourself, even if others don’t want to respect you, they still have to. And this isn’t just about women— in this society, isn’t it the same for men? If you’re incompetent, useless all day long, who’s going to respect you? If you’re capable, even if you don’t say anything, others will look at you differently. So yes, rights are fought for, but you have to have strength, and you also have to fulfill obligations, right? Today I talked with these two female friends, and I still want to say this: maybe our ultimate goal is the same, but I really don’t agree with what you’re doing or saying. Just taking bride price as an example— put aside wealthy families, let’s just talk about ordinary families. In my hometown, Mile City, high-rise housing prices on the edge of town are around five thousand per square meter, and in the city center maybe six to eight thousand. If it’s a wedding apartment, seventy or eighty square meters, or around a hundred square meters— let’s calculate based on a hundred. That’s at least two bedrooms, often three, enough for kids to live in. Taking six thousand per square meter, a place like that is six hundred thousand. That’s cash. If it’s a mortgage? Maybe after twenty years, the total is eight hundred thousand. Of course, I haven’t calculated it in detail. And then what? Do you not spend money on renovation? With today’s prices, a basic renovation including appliances and furniture, ten thousand probably gets you almost nothing. So you need fifteen to twenty thousand at least, and that’s if you handle all the renovation yourself, investing a few months of labor. Then what? Do you not need a car for marriage? According to local custom, sometimes the car is provided by the bride’s family, sometimes the groom’s family has to buy it. That’s the basic material for getting married. The vast majority will also demand a bride price— as little as fifty to seventy thousand, as much as several hundred thousand. Let’s pick a middle value, say a hundred thousand. Of course, I don’t know this part very well, I can only speak from what I’ve seen. Now let’s add it all up; the total already exceeds a million, doesn’t it? Oh, and say they don’t take out a mortgage but pay the apartment in full. Then a million is just about enough. In other words, in a third- or fourth-tier city like Mile City, or even smaller, the cost of getting married is at least a million.

"Now let’s calculate this: if this million is paid by the groom’s parents, and suppose they’re ordinary workers, their combined monthly salary nowadays might be eight or nine thousand. That might even be an overestimate, because based on Mile City’s wage levels, unless you have a very good job, you won’t reach that figure. All right, I’ll round up a bit and say ten thousand Huaxia currency. Spend four thousand per month— uh, that figure might not be enough, because with social obligations, eating, drinking, it may already fall short. So let’s say they save six thousand a month. How many months to reach one million? I don’t even want to keep calculating. Of course, maybe many of the fans reading this on Twitter will say that when they got married, they didn’t ask for so many things. The house, the car, all of that was earned by the couple themselves, they didn’t ask the other side’s parents for bride price, they started from scratch. Honestly, if that’s true, I give you a thumbs-up, because that’s called standing on your own feet. You truly relied on your own effort to live a good life. I bless you to grow old together."

"I’m not saying women are bad if they ask for bride price, house, car, because that’s the rule of society, and it’s also what people call male responsibility. One side is ’marrying out,’ the other side is ’taking a wife,’ and Huaxia has had this custom since ancient times. This is also a man’s obligation and responsibility— the obligation to let his woman live a relatively stable life, the obligation to show her he has the ability to take good care of her. So isn’t this perfectly normal? But this is a matter of mutual respect. If you gain something, you should pay a corresponding price. I’ve always felt that you must first respect others before you can obtain their respect. I admit I’m somewhat pissed off. People who only want rights but refuse to take on obligations and responsibilities— no matter if they’re male or female— are people you should keep your distance from. Men like this are just as detestable. Do you think you’re the sun up in the sky and everyone should revolve around you? Sure, you can demand respect, you can order people around. But what about your obligations? What about the things you’re supposed to do? If you haven’t done them, then forgive me, I cannot respect such a person, because I don’t have the obligation to respect that kind of person either."

"After saying all this, I still hope everyone will respect women, because our mothers, wives, daughters are all women, and many of our relatives and friends are women too. Our country is getting better, society is getting better, people’s morals are improving. For some things, there’s no need to shout them all day long. When moral standards reach a certain level, those things will come naturally. I also hope my fans, regardless of gender, will first fulfill their own obligations and responsibilities, then go enjoy the things they obtain, because only then will it be deserved and feel right in your heart!"