I'm not going to say this shows that love doesn't exist in Dixing, we find out later about Chu Shuzhi and his brother and they truly cared for each other. But Shen Wei gets a lot of hostility just for visibly caring about someone.

My read is that love exists in Dixing (the thief kids seem to love each other, for instance, and one of them tells the regent only to kill two of them and leave the last one alone), but it's complicated by the privation and the distrust. And there's a sense that you should be more cautious about it and also not barge into places declaring how much you care for someone.

Thinking about it with SW, some of it may have just been the bargoers trying to find any weakness to throw at him. He did just barge into a space where people go to unwind, flout its rules, demand that it cater to him, and ask about the other guy who was stealing masks and breaking rules. It's an intrusion on a space where people really aren't expecting an intrusion, and while it doesn't justify their response, I think I can understand how he got such a negative reaction from them.

But it is also telling that is what they go with.

And thank you for reccing the fic! It made me smile, and YES, woobie with narrowly-averted villainy. <3