他们遇事后退不言，但到朝廷上，看到对自己有利的事，唯恐说晚了。君主如果说了对他没有利的话，眼睛往下看，好像被噎得很厉害一样，并说∶“只有这个我没有学。”事情即使很紧急，他却会远远地走开。 

真相往往埋藏在层层谎言之下。

小说是揭示更深层次真相的谎言。

The nightmare thought is that frightening people is the best way to get work out of them, and that somehow the crueler the environment, the more people will rise to the challenge. You want to think, who would you like as your ideal dad? And your ideal dad is somebody who is tough but gentle. And it's a very hard line to make. We need fathers, as it were, the exemplary father figures in society, avoiding the two extremes, which is the authoritarian disciplinarian on the one hand, and on the other, the lax, no-rules option.

顺应常道是凡人，逆反常道可成仙，关键在于颠倒常规的思维方式。