the narratively cool thing about this to me is like. have you ever listened to your best friend rant about some asshole who ruined their day? have you ever validated their feelings and ended up also thinking that the asshole in question sucked, despite not seeing the situation firsthand and not knowing the asshole personally? perhaps your best friend ranted about someone so much that you became familar with, idk, The Asshole Karen From Work entirely through their lens? if you, then, actually met The Asshole Karen in real life, would your friend's stories influence the way you treat her? for something so trivial, could there be consequences?
so there's actually something poetic in how wei wuxian, the main victim of the "unfounded rumors kill people" book, ends up causing someone's death by constantly shit-talking him in front of the guy who kills people for him. perhaps no less poetic than the "wwx's subconscious anger bleeding through" theory