The protagonist witnesses firsthand, and becomes personally entangled in, the Qing court’s dual crimes of selling out the country to foreign powers and ruthlessly suppressing its own people. In incidents such as the church-affair cases, where ordinary people were made scapegoats, and the recovery of Xinjiang followed by the cession of Taiwan, his sense of grievance builds relentlessly. This becomes the fundamental driving force behind his eventual decision: “Why shouldn’t I take his place?”
