"You think that following the rules about maleficing will make things better than breaking the rules about maleficing?"

"....Probably? I - I don't know who made the rules or if they're - right about how things work - but I think...maybe it doesn't actually matter? If they are? Because - if I break the rules then you'll kill me, right? And then I - won't be able to try to make anything better, ever again?" 

His head hurts. Probably something else also hurts but he can't tell where or what it is. 

"Someday we'll graduate. And then you'll be facing graduation yourself, and you might die if you don't malefice, and then, following the rules wouldn't be the best way to stay alive, would it?"

That is way too many 'mights' and futures and hypotheticals! Masozi's entire mind is tightly bound to what's true right now and he has no idea how to assess what might or might not be the best way to accomplish a hypothetical goal that he might or might not have in the hypothetical future!!! 

He stares blankly at Annaka.

"Why do you think there are rules against maleficing?"

"....Because if people do it then it - makes them crazy and makes them think that other people dying isn't bad?"

"I think hypotheticals are hard for him because they don't have defined truth value," he says to Annaka.

That makes sense but makes the question 'is the kid going to start again as soon as it looks good for his life expectancy' harder to answer!! She deviates from the sheet, though, due to the fact all of those questions will clearly just make him choke up.  "Can you think of a situation where a person would malefice, and they wouldn't be doing anything wrong?" 

"It is more convenient if he gets overwhelming guilt about concept of lying like I do, but we are not in most convenient world in many ways."

"I mostly just look for 'he does not think maleficing achieve all his goals if no one knows of it!'" she hisses at him in very mediocre Mandarin. 

PANICPANICPANICPANIC - 

Masozi tries very hard to focus on the actual question he was asked. 

".....Are - I can't - I - are you going to kill me if I have the wrong thoughts...?"

"We aren't going to kill you for wrong thoughts," he says. "We're just concerned that you might malefice in future even if you don't mean to now."

"I'm not going to do it by accident!" 

"If you did not kill anyone, and do not mean to, I will not kill you; being a future danger is not the right case for a trial like this. But if you think maleficing is a good idea as long as you are not caught, and you think everyone is wrong that it is so bad, and you think that your life is so important, then you are a future danger, and then New York cannot agree that Shanghai did an acceptable thing here. And Shanghai is a great enclave, and we do not command them, and they can decide to proceed however they like, but they are a great enclave because of their wisdom."

Shanghai is a bunch of IDIOTS led by STALIN but she is not a complete idiot herself and she is aware that she has to let them make it their idea, if anything they hear here in fact inspires them to drop Masozi.

Lan Xichen sees what she's doing and appreciates it greatly, he definitely thought Meng Yao was going to have to be blunt about the political considerations here.

Masozi stares confusedly at her for a long moment. 

".....Being caught wouldn't be the worst bad thing about maleficing?" he forces out. "I - if it's really true - I don't know if it is - but if it...gives you brain damage so you....start thinking it's okay for people to die....then–"

(Everything hurts so much and his thoughts are so tightly bound -)

"...It's not okay for people to die! It's never been okay! And it - the world doesn't - it happens anyway so we, we have to -" 

This is probably the "wrong" "thing" to say, and Masozi is vaguely and distantly aware of that, but not in any way that would affect the thoughts he can have right now, let alone the words he's allowed to say.

"Do you think it's worth it to save more people's lives?"

Thank you, Lan Xichen!

Everything hurts. 

"....I don't know. I don't - understand - how any of the - the rules - the world - what - how–" 

PANICPANICPANIC–

Focus. 

He's very far away and answering a question that's made of just words and math, for distant people in a distant place...

"....I think it could - be worth it? Sometimes? For someone who understood - all of the things. That mattered. All the rules that - would matter to other people...."

"...I don't. Understand the things. So I - shouldn't. Try to do plans like that." 

"Are you willing to trust other people who know the rules better?"

".....I don't understand." 

--crap. Hypotheticals. 

He tries to think of the least hypothetical way to say this and lands on: "I understand rules better than you, I say 'don't pull malia,' and you listen to me?"

Masozi's actual thoughts, right now, are that he isn't sure whether he trusts Lan Xichen to be right about how the world works.

...But maybe that's not the key decision criterion, here? Because, obviously, Lan Xichen is the more powerful of them. He's - maybe? confusingly? - someone who can decide whether Masozi lives or dies. And that's a strategic consideration, just as real as any physical facts about the world... 

"Yes."