Luo Zhong I would totally believe knows those. Bao Qingling is more uncertain for me. Everything about her screams a high level of autism to me, and there's plenty of things autistic people just don't get about social situations. Social Rules are very rarely actually explained in a classroom, they're context standards you pick up and infer throughout your childhood by interacting with people and being social. Bao Qingling has never had that. She's been 'troubled' and 'problematic' since she was a child, and plenty of 'everyone knows this' things will have passed her by without anyone realizing. Because again, everyone knows them. On top of that, Qingling actively puts effort into distancing herself from politics and social situations, she actively disincentivizes that knowledge because she wants nothing to do with it.
Luo Zhong is a bit of an ass, but nothing we've seen from him indicates actual malice and ill intent. He makes wrong assumptions and makes mistakes because of those assumptions, like a lot of people do.
If anything, highly formalized setting would make it lot easier for someone with autism to adapt, because there would be clear rules to adapt to.
Assuming she has autism, i'm not sure, she seems more like someone with anxiety issues and fear of crowds (though it is somewhat pointless to try to diagnose her, we do not have enough context).
And i am willing to accept her internal monologue claiming she does have a decent handle on social sphere, she merely does not like it due to her issues with crowds.
Yes, there might be no malice in Luo Zhong, as such, in the same way that a man harassing women at a bar might not really have any malice or ill intent.
I don't think that's an excuse for harrassment.
Not sure why people keep bringing this up, if people have tried to argue that Luo Zhong is malicious, then i have missed it, and if i have given the impression i think so then i apologise for me poor communications.
I guess Luo Zhong has gotten permission from his father, who would have contacted Bao Qinglings father, who then would have responded that they should consult Bao Qingling, who then gave the hardest and clearest rejection known to man or spirit.
But Luo Zhong, being a teenager from a priviledged background with lot of ambition, thought he could convince her, and stuff snowballed from there.
Like i said, there is no actual malice needed, just ambition, and being convined that they are obviously right, and if they just keep explaining it, others will eventually fall in line.
Luo Zhong is almost certainly a talented cultivator (or he would not be in the inner sect), but seems to me as kinda mediocre at politics and social situations that do not fit his pre existing framework, and more impressed by himself than he should be (not uncommon in children of priviledge).
And that would be fine, problem is that the way this manifests is him harassing someone at parties to marry him and not taking a no as an answer, and that is not fine.
edit-
I continue to miss the joke.
