Weighing Every Word to Win Hearts

Economic prodigy Ai Heng unexpectedly realizes that the “leverage principle” embodied in his family’s traditional steelyard aligns remarkably well with the subtle insights of behavioral economics. He understands that people’s sense of the “utility” of good and evil is ever-shifting: prospect theory is needed to calculate gains and losses, while the anchoring effect can balance the weights of morality. To counter rigid “moral judgment,” he establishes the “Social Trade-Off Governance Center,” bringing game theory and social choice theory to bear on the realities of everyday life. With the ancient steelyard as their witness, Ai Heng joins forces with the forthright craftsman Lu Shi and his clever junior schoolmate Lin Miaoyan. Amid the daily concerns of food and household necessities, they bring society’s moral compass back into balance and put the Social Good and Evil Measurement Convention into practice. With the rational brilliance of economics and the ancient wisdom of the steelyard, they weigh and reshape society into a fairer, more humane order.