we all rag on su she for having the weakest motivation out of the modao cast, but in reality (novel?) su she has the Most relatable and understandable pov of all: seeing slights that don't exist, born and bolstered by one's own insecurities

i doubt lwj was saintly kind to him and he just misread--probably lwj stared at him a couple of times, reprimanded him for a rule or two, and then just. completely forgot he existed, like humans tend to do with people they aren't close to

but su she could never forget lwj's existence bc lwj was always heralded as this godly being and for all his own mediocre attempts he could never and would never be seen in a similar light
so, to validate the green goblin of envy inside him, he made up a narrative

"he's looking down on me. he doesn't deserve what he has. there's no way he can be as good as people say when i'm just as good and i get nothing"and bc they never really talked there was nothing to challenge that view
i've done that. billions and billions of times

and it's just one more proof to mdzs's overarching point that Perspective Is Key, that each person's experience of another person varies so wildly so long as there's space to draw ur own conclusions

basically it’s just that one social psychology principle in novel form—when it comes to how one perceives something versus the facts of that something, what’s Seen and Felt matters more in the long run bc in your mind that is equally as real, for better or for worse