#but he never expected them to be this upfront or outright inhumane about it

[everysongineverykey]

we got a crowley version of the aziraphale church feelings realization scene. i think we deserve an aziraphale version of the scene where crowley (as aziraphale) sees how horribly the other angels treat aziraphale and gets a cold, cold look on his face. i think some angel, or even god, should scoff at crowley for trying to do something good, like get the second coming out of harm's way, or give aziraphale a lift, or let someone he doesn't trust borrow his car, or get them some hellfire, or something, and go "it's almost funny how aziraphale thought you could come back. as if you could fit in up here. as if anyone would forgive you." and aziraphale should get the iciest, bleakest look on his face as he realizes there was never any chance of heaven taking either of them as they are.

[hamliet]

am i the only one who finds pei ming scummy in heavens officials blessing?

No lol, the point is that he's a womanizer who doesn't think through the consequences of his actions and routinely patronizes women without considering them as full human beings.

But in true MXTX fashion, he's not inhuman, and he's not a monster who forces himself like say Jin Guangshan. He's just a buffoon who sleeps around and doesn't think that maybe, just maybe, his sexual liberation is actually hurting people even if he's upfront about his intentions and does provide for the women physically. You can't control what they feel, their past circumstances, their desires.

It's why it's great Yushi Huang trounces him in pretty much every way, and doesn't even gloat about it--if she gloated about it, he could hate her, but she doesn't, so he's just left to contemplate how scummy he has acted.

I honestly think the subtext is pretty strong that Pei Ming ends up with a crush on Yushi Huang, a crush he isn't quite able to bring himself to act on because she's too good for him and he knows it; after all, Xuan Ji basically tells us outright in Book One:

“I curse you, you better never fall in love with anyone. Otherwise, if such a day comes, I curse you to be like me, forevermore and for all eternity, to be endlessly scorched by love! Let the fire sear through your entire body and very being!”

“General Pei would like me to pass on a message—’That is impossible.’”

Xuan Ji screeched, “I curse you—!!!”

Listen, almost anything that is stated to be impossible or to be definitely a fact in Book One is later proven to be possible/not the case. Like, Feng Xin is repeatedly noted to not understand women, later he is revealed to have a son, Bai Wuxiang is said to be "already ... extinguished. We won’t mention him again, and even if he still exists in this world, he wouldn’t be the one in the spotlight now," when um, Jun Wu would like a word. Pei Ming having an unrequited crush on Yushi Huang fits thematically because no one has an accurate perception of themselves or of their role in the world at the beginning (Hua Cheng thinks he's a cursed child but hates it, etc.); hence the story undoes all of these perceptions.

If Pei Ming declares that it’s “impossible" for him to fall in love with someone he can't actually be with because he cannot get over himself, destined to pine, well then... that sets the expectation in the story that this is definitely not impossible and is even probable. So I do think this is the a fairly textually supported view and a fitting conclusion to his arc. Of course, since TGCF is fairly optimistic, Pei Ming isn't cursed to be pining forever, but he would have to take massive steps to get over himself, and he takes baby steps by the end. It's a good place to end his arc insofar as the story's themes are concerned: hope he can move forward, still work to be done.