If we look at the actual voting option, it can be construed as 'step toward adding CRX in the family', but it's actual direct effect is 'Does Ling Qi want to help her right now when it will likely be at the cost of Meizhen, Zhengui and the rest of her family?'
I think 'step one of adding CRX to the family' might be important... but it's actually the very first 'family time' we have had with Meizhen since we got to the inner sect, and it's also one of the very, very rare time where Zhengui is relevant as an actual person in the thread. For someone who thinks both Zhengui and Meizhen are being sidelined out of the Family, this can also be taken as the third step to said sidelining.
My argument is the actual event in question, Zhengui's awakening, should by default belong to him as the object of emphasis, and diversion from that should only be under the strongest of motivations. Cai Renxiang's situation does not, now, meet that standard for me. Before you go off about my opinion of her, that actually tells you jack squat about it, except that I don't think getting closer to her overrides the issues with Zhengui right this moment. And his situation's pretty well just as "exceedingly rare" as her's is; he is just waking up after an exhaustion and trauma induced sleep that followed immediately seeing the person he loves most in the world almost die, having forcibly broken through to heroically and triumphantly defend the village in part to make her proud, and then failed (again!) to protect her.
They're both in vulnerable states, and I have no interest in denying that about Cai Renxiang. My position remains that we have an existing obligation to Zhengui that we would be neglecting with the effort to rope Cai Renxiang into the mess. My justification is in no way flimsy, you simply don't recognize me looking past two feet in front of us. This was a gap of perspective that could have been approached with questions rather than accusations.
Well, I do get that position ... if one dislikes CRX . But in any scenario when one doesn't, it does not compute in a cost-benefit analysis point of view. Let me elaborate.
(but first, a disclaimer: This whole post will assume that reading of the options is actually correct. I do not believe it is the most likely option, necessarily, but I do believe there is a >10% chance that it is the correct reading as I am unable to completely disprove or dismiss it. As such, I will address the "it will cost Zhengui" argument as if it has 100% possibility of being true in the interest of intellectual honesty, so that even in the unlikely scenario it ends up being true, my reasons for voting will remain valid)
Let's start by sheer cost-benefit. So let us assume CRX = Zhengui in value, and that rather than seeing it materialistically by desired support rank ups, that CRX's well being = Zhengui's well being.
(💚 = abstraction for generally being there, helping , loving, generally caring, etc. I am using it as an abstraction to quantify what it is assumed we are giving Zhengui and/or CRX, friendship and support, in a way that is math comprehensible)
If so, CRX is literally on fire, with no support network and no one else able to help. Zhengui was wounded, but that was something purely physical and healable. Zhengui also seems to have no psychological problems and a strong support network. Evidently, then, if we assume we have 1 💚 to give, it will do more good going towards CRX because we keep showering Zhengui with 💚 . Seriously, we spent AP precisely so that our family will get a stable supply of 💚s and Zhengui is included. Zhengui, incidentally, also has a playmate. So even with the wounds, CRX needs the 💚 more cuz she has no way of getting one while Zhengui gets a lot anyway.
But wait, there is more. Zhengui will definitely be getting something, after all , heck, he will be getting most of it, we will be visiting him and the whole event will be about him. Viewing it as who will get 1 💚 is disingenuous. Assuming that this is a zero-sum game (which hahaha love is not, but as mentioned above I am taking the most disadvantageous position possible to prove that even then I wouldn't change my vote) then there are 5 💚 to split between CRX and Zhengui. Scenario "don't call CRX" will result in 0 for CRX and 5 for Zhengui. Scenario "call CRX" will result, more likely, in 2 for her and 3 for Zhengui. But since I am on a roll discarding the most advantageous for me position for the most disadvantageous, let's instead say it will result in 4 for her and 1 for Zhengui. As the game is now diceless except for exploration rolls, it literally cannot go below that because we'll still care about Zhengui. So its the more fair split if we place both in equal value even under the worst case scenario.
Meizhen would be a bit more tricky to address... if she wasn't close friends with CRX. I am finding myself very doubtful she will get less 💚 either way, although the alternative may indeed result in us getting more out of her in a way impossible with CRX around. Still, we allready put out her most destroying fires, and we aren't outright neglecting her, so...
Some may call my mathematicking about love cold, and call such stuff unquantifiable. I agree, but my maths stem from my desire to help CRX. They are there to oppose the maths that say we shouldn't. And it is maths that say we shouldn't, because the argument is given there in a clear gain- loss equation, even if it is one less clearly mathematic. So I am mathing it away to dispel the fiction that this is a full-on "Zhengui or CRX" dilemma