Someone else is also early to breakfast. Alexius piles some whatevers on his plate after making sure they won't bite back, and wanders over to the Mandarin side of the cafeteria on the grounds that maybe it won't contain people pointing at him and gagging. 

There's a mostly-empty table. "Hello," he says in decent but flatly-accented, almost computerized Mandarin, "do you mind if I sit here?"

Is he an ally? He must be an ally or he wouldn't be sitting at Shanghai table.

The Scholomance so far has involved far too many people Lan Wangji didn't know already. He thinks they should be introduced one at a time and then he should have six months to get used to them, like with babies. They also shouldn't be permitted to talk for the first eighteen months, like babies.

Lan Wangji is fond of babies.

"No."

Oh hey, someone who isn't rightfully furious with him! Best table. Alexius takes a seat and digs in. 

Eventually: "Your sword is quite beautiful, did you make it yourself?" 

Lan Wangji is rightfully furious with him. Specifically, Lan Wangji is furious that he dares to speak to him. 

"It's a family heirloom."

Alexius is bad at reading faces. "Still something to be proud of, then." He lets out a long, wistful sigh. "...you have a strong support network, it seems." He's heard Shanghai has issues but also that they seem good at handling those issues together, which is more than he can say for the Jax bunch. Well, unless you count banding together to browbeat one of their freshmen. 

"My xiongzhang is dutiful and gracious."

"It is good to see an enclave that sticks together. May I ask a hypothetical question?" 

Is there any way he can get out of this. Probably not without Lan Xichen being disappointed in him.

"Yes."

"Suppose one of your freshmen students made a mistake that harmed the whole enclave. They had a useful affinity and were planning to make, say, a set of artifacts for the enclave members that would help them in classes. But the artifacts turned out not to work the way everyone thought, even though they'd been tested outside the Scholomance, even though the freshman had been using them himself for years, and in fact one of the artifacts went bad really quickly. What do you do?" 

Hypothetical questions: bad. Hypothetical questions about social: even worse. He isn't putting any effort into this so he doesn't even get any mana.

"Ask my xiongzhang."

Alexius, of course, interprets this as an answer to his question rather than an imperative. "...what would they do?" 

"He would talk to them to make sure they didn't make the mistake again."

Full sentence to a stranger! Now he gets mana. This is a much worse way of getting mana than wall sits.

Alexius would be pleased to know he is helping other students build mana! Sort of. But instead he is pleased that someone gets it. "He wouldn't, say, punch the freshman and spend several minutes yelling at him? Or threaten to kick him from the enclave?" 

"It is difficult to imagine my xiongzhang doing those things."

Two sentences. The seniors had better appreciate this.

"Your xiongzhang sounds like a good leader." 

"Yes."

"He ought to go around to the other enclaves and give lessons in not-being-awful. Help your freshmen when they arrive, do not beat up underclassmen to show how tough you are, try to keep people alive at least until graduation, Positive Sum Trades Are Everywhere." 

"That sounds bad for Shanghai."

"Teaching other enclaves to not be awful is bad for Shanghai?" He was mostly not serious but he wasn't expecting a serious refutation. 

"If other people are incompetent the mals will eat them instead."

"Then there are fewer people at graduation, making it more likely that mals target any particular group. I will grant that being near incompetent people at graduation might be better, but why should they die off before then?" 

"The mals will be less hungry."

"See, I hear that a lot, but what actually happens if you feed a bunch of animals is that they have babies which then grow up and become hungry animals themselves a year or so later. Why would mals be different? They breed." 

"Mn."

"I just don't get it. I have read about population growth and statistics - thank you, eidetic memory potion - and the way people in the Scholomance act like other people dying somehow improves their odds doesn't make sense to me. Sure, in a graduation horde of a bajillion mals, you don't want to be in the slow half of the class, but in the four years before that, there is safety in numbers. Sure, some mals will eat somebody and then spend the next year happily digesting, but there are just as many that breed or split or bud or upgrade and are hungry again days or weeks later. Predator populations grow when they hunt successfully!" He runs his fingers through his short hair in a frustrated gesture. 

"And this idea drives everything we do, including the nastiness with nobody wanting to lend a hand to the mundanes who get pulled in, or the freshmen who make mistakes." 

"Mn."

"Outside, if your neighbor has an insect infestation, you don't shrug and call it their problem, because insects breed. If wild hogs are rooting through nearby farms, you coordinate to thin their numbers before your own farm gets hit. If a maleficer goes after -" your little sister, "- someone near you, you don't just hang back and thank the stars it's them instead of you, because you know perfectly well that you are next on the menu! You band together and stop them before they gain momentum.

"But not in the Scholomance. No, here if someone's little sister dies, it's rejoice and be glad, maybe that one mal will leave us alone for a month. Sure it'll be bigger and meaner and hungry again next year, but that is not our problem, right? Bah."  

"Xiongzhang says they're at an equilibrium. Only something that permanently disrupts the equilibrium will have an effect."

Two sentences at once. After breakfast he's going to have completed his entire social for the day.

"Well sure, but the equilibrium includes the number of kids that die as an input. Mals get mana almost entirely from eating wizards, right? Cut their food supply in half and their population should drop, too. That is disrupting the equilibrium." 

"Mn."

Does that mean "go on"? It must, right? "Everyone seems to think it has to be zero sum, so they act like that inside the school. And people keep thinking like that when they leave, and they teach their kids to think like that because they think it will help them survive. And all those kids come to the Scholomance and act the same way, so that the ones who try to cooperate die, and instead of all cooperating to actually improve the total survival rates we are competing to not be the fastest to die! 

"And if a person isn't absolutely perfect, if they make one misstep or screw up one time, that is blood in the water, it is showing weakness, and their allies rush to be the first to abandon them and the loudest to condemn them." He isn't bitter, no sirree.

He'd suggest that this person should talk to Lan Xichen, but presumably he is or he wouldn't be here, and also he doesn't want to encourage him.

"Yes."

He's listening! And agreeing! Sort of! ...Alexius should probably actually eat, though. Have at thee, vaguely licorice-flavored porridge.

"Thank you for listening. I feel much better after having a chance to talk about these things." 

He finishes his substantial breakfast and offers a polite farewell, then sets off to the library, much encouraged. 

He hates the Scholomance so much.