Okay so it's been a hot minute since I read Investiture Of The Gods and I never finished it because I just found it to be too much and I am currently in immense amounts of pain and most befevered from a raging ear infection so I may just be getting this entirely wrong but I have theory:
King Zhou knew Daji was a fox spirit.
(TW: mentions of death, torture and sex)
Now I know King Zhou is the stupidest man to ever stain the earth and the half a braincell he did have was long since rotted by his circle of yes-men and his unchecked porn addiction but... c'mon man. Nobody, not even Mister Wine Lake over here, is that air-headed enough to miss it. Everyone else knew that something real sinister was going on with Daji, even if they didn't know the specifics, and I refuse to believe King Zhou didn't even notice.
And I think he realised it early on, too. Shortly after Daji arrived at the palace, King Zhou receives a visit from a Daoist immortal who tells him straight up that there's an evil spirit that has taken up residence in the palace. He gives King Zhou a sword to mount on his wall which will cause the demonic entity to wither away and die within a few days. Lo and behold, Daji suddenly collapses and becomes bedridden with a *mysterious illness* from which she is sure to die. She tells King Zhou that the only thing that will save her is if he gets rid of that sword, and he immediately does it, and she immediately recovers. And like. It is SO OBVIOUS. If one of King Zhou's poorly exercised neurons were ever to fire it would be now. I think he would HAVE to put two and two together, and realise that his new favourite concubine is actually a malevolent spirit.
And then he does NOTHING. He looks the other way, and proceeds to continue looking the other way as everyone dies, as his queen dies by his hand, as his own children are forced to flee, as the former prime minister, his mentor once upon a time, kills himself in the throne room. He remains willfully ignorant through all the torture devices, all the disgustingly lavish luxuries, all the uproar and uprising. Because he is so attracted to Daji, so lustful for her that he decides it doesn't matter. As long as he can still spend every night loving her beautiful body, he doesn't care. He'll punish anyone who makes her cry or speaks out against her even if he knows deep down that what they say is true because, well, sex.
I think this would make him so much more interesting as a villain as well— he's already deplorable in the book when he doesn't appear to know that Daji is a fox spirit, but how much worse would he be if he knew and did all those same things anyway, simply for some good sex after the daily bloodbaths?
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