Hawks from the Land of Light are calling me a dove and an undercover agent in the chat group.

Parents are the people who have the greatest influence on their children in the world. For most people, the greatest hardship they encounter in their lives, from birth to death, is never something like a job, illness, romantic setbacks, or breaking up with friends.

Rather, it's purely about one's family of origin.

Most people's most unforgettable and painful suffering in their lives is caused by their family of origin—that is, their parents.

Parents don't need any qualifications to be parents, nor do they need to ask if the child wants to be their child before forcibly bringing them into the world, and then they turn around and say how hard they worked to give birth to them.

Conversely, they feel at ease that their children have owed them something since birth, so they can always make all sorts of demands on their children as if it were perfectly justified.

If a child fails to do something, then guilt-based education should be initiated, making the child feel that they have let their parents down, that they are guilty, or even deserve to die, and that they should live according to their parents' demands, even if it means suppressing their own personality and nature.

This situation is quite common.

Parents who use guilt-based parenting to manipulate their children are not necessarily unloving; on the contrary, a large portion of them love their children even more than they do themselves.

However, this love is conditional love, which is also accompanied by a very selfish desire for control.

Parents will feel uneasy if their children cannot satisfy their desire for control. In order to regain their control and dominance over their children, they will resort to even more terrible torment and torture.

And what's most terrifying is that, throughout all the torment and suffering, the parents' love for their child remains unwavering.

That love wasn't even self-deception, it wasn't fake, it was genuine love.

Even if they would go to any lengths to control their children, if their own child were held at gunpoint, they would immediately shield them from the bullets, sacrificing their own lives to save their child.

This is why children living in such an environment are more likely to become distorted and find it difficult to grow into healthy and well-rounded individuals.

If parents' torment and torment of their children stems solely from a desire for control, then the children will eventually realize this, rebel, strive for their own future, escape their family of origin, and begin to live their own lives.

However, when parents try to control their children out of genuine love, even if the children become aware of themselves, they will only become more numb and confused, unable to find any way out.

Because he didn't know what to do.

If he rebels, his parents love him, and he will feel that he is being unfilial and shouldn't have rebelled.

If he tries to escape, he will be unable to sever his feelings for his parents and will be unable to stop paying attention to them. This will give his parents too many opportunities to trick him into going back, which will lead to a new round of control and torment.

Faced with this situation, very few people dare to rebel against their parents and succeed in doing so. Most are forced to wallow in it and spend their lives in misery.

And it is obvious that Higashi Naoki is one of those people.

Yashiro Takeshi simply couldn't imagine what kind of inner turmoil and numbness Higashi Naoki would experience when he grew up if Mrs. Higashi's parenting style remained unchanged.

"—What makes you say that? How am I biased towards his brother? Besides, his brother is so outstanding, it's only right that I give his brother more things. If Naoki were just as outstanding, wouldn't he have all those things too?"

Mrs. Higashi had no idea what Yato was thinking. She was just anxious and eager to refute Yato's argument, wanting to prove that her parenting was correct: "Naoki's brother has always been so good to him. How could he possibly want to hate and distance himself from his brother as you say?"

"Right, Naoki, say it! Tell me quickly! Say you like your brother! Say you really like your brother! Let this clueless outsider teacher see that our family is really great, there's absolutely no problem!"

Mrs. Dong turned her head and urged Dong Zhishu anxiously, thinking it was something that could be done very easily.

However, under her watchful gaze and urging, Higashi Naoki opened his mouth several times, wanting to say something but holding back, as if he really wanted to say those words according to his mother's request.

but……

"I...can't do it."

A whisper as faint as a mosquito's buzz. Naoki, unable to look at his arguing teacher and mother, hung his head, muttering, "I really can't do it..."

"How could this be..." Mrs. Dong's vision went black, and she almost fell over.

The second son's reaction has proven everything.

The traditional brotherly love and respect between brothers was nonexistent in the current employer's household. The second son harbored resentment towards his mother, feeling that she favored the eldest son, and he disliked his own brother.

All of this was just as Ya no Takeshi had said.

"How could this be? Say something, Naoki! How could I possibly be showing favoritism?"

"Isn't it because you can't reach your goals? All the benefits you've missed out on are because you're not good enough. I've always treated you brothers equally. You don't understand your mother's good intentions at all. You've disappointed your mother too much, Naoki!"

After everything went black, Mrs. Dong subconsciously tried to justify herself, subconsciously manipulating her second son.

Takeshi Yato couldn't bear to listen to a single word of these words. He interrupted them directly, forcing Mrs. Higashi, who was trying to manipulate Naoki Higashi, to look at him: "Now you should understand, Mrs. Higashi!"

"Treat everyone equally? Don't you find that ridiculous? In your eyes, it's because Naoki isn't as outstanding as his older brother that you don't treat him as well as you would your eldest son. But have you ever thought about it? Everyone is different."

Even if you are an elite in the eyes of the world, have a medical license, and run a well-paying clinic, if someone were to ask you to become the best doctor in the world, would you honestly say that you could do it?

"If I were to make you the number one doctor on Earth right now, and I wouldn't allow you to eat if you couldn't, and then I pointed to the world's number one doctor and said that they could do it, so why couldn't you? Do you think it's right for me to do that?"

"..." Mrs. Dong's sullen voice was deafening.

Doesn't she know that people are different? No, she actually does know, she definitely does.

How could anyone not know such a simple, objective fact?

Seeing Mrs. Dong's changing expression, Yato sighed deeply: "You understand, don't you?"

"So you mean I have to accept Naoki's mediocrity?" Mrs. Dong gritted her teeth. "His father, his brother, and I could all do it!"

"Naoki is Naoki, and you are you."

Yagami said firmly, "Everyone has different talents, and everyone has to make peace with themselves eventually. Why can't we make that day come sooner? Besides, isn't the so-called 'accepting mediocrity' just defining a person's value by their talent?"

"Otherwise what?" Mrs. Dong was still nitpicking. "If he can't even get a perfect score now, how will he become a doctor like his father, how will he continue the Dong family's reputation, how will he be praised by others..."

"But Mrs. Dong, people are not born and grow up to perpetuate their parents' reputations or to hear others' praise."

Yagami countered, "Did you ask Naoki's opinion? Does he want to become a doctor like his father, or does he have a career he wants?"

Compared to when he was persuading Kuze's mother and Kirara's mother, Yato Takeshi's tone was now very calm.

Mrs. Dong is different after all. Although her actions were very inappropriate and had already caused a bad impact, at least subjectively she never thought of harming her own child.

Although he could not compare to the great and competent mothers like Ishida's mother and Nishimiya's mother, Yato Takeshi had long since put his words into practice and would not force Mrs. Higashi to compare herself to those more outstanding mothers.

He himself opposed this kind of behavior.

"—"

Mrs. Dong was stunned once again.

Does Naoki actually want to be a doctor?

When this was mentioned, Mrs. Dong lowered her eyelids and unconsciously thought of a recent event, murmuring, "Runye, Runye, he said he didn't want to study medicine in college..."

Dong Runye, that was the name of her eldest son.

She had never considered whether her children would follow in their footsteps before; all her actions were aimed at raising her two sons to become excellent doctors like their father.

Until recently, her eldest son, who is now in high school, started to rebel against her. He started going out with friends in groups, got a girlfriend, went out to work, and said that he doesn't really want to study medicine when he goes to college.

All of this felt incredibly unfamiliar to her.

In the past, Runye would rarely argue with her and would generally follow her instructions.

However, when faced with Runya, who was now in high school and capable of working part-time, all her threats became ineffective, unlike when they were children, when they could force Runya to comply.

She couldn't understand why, so this year her demands on Naoki became increasingly higher, stricter, and more numerous.

The eldest son has already started to slip away, deviating from the best path and becoming unstable, so only the second son remains. The second son's future must be guaranteed, so she must hold on to him even tighter.

That's always been her thought.

But... if what this teacher, Takeshi Ya, said is true, then all of this has been wishful thinking on her part, and she has been harming her two sons all along?

"I want to be a doctor! I want to take over my parents' clinic!"

Just as Mrs. Dong lowered her eyes, her second son suddenly rang out with a spirited voice, which startled her and made her look up.

Naoki Higashi's face turned completely red, and he seemed to care about nothing else, shouting loudly, "I, I've always wanted to! Defeat Junya, take over Mom's clinic, and make people say that Dad is lucky to have a son like Junya, not that he's lucky to have a son like me!"

"I want to! I want to be able to do it too! I want to be able to do everything that Run can do, and everything that Run can't do! Mom, I want you to favor me, I want you to be biased towards me, I want to eat pancakes, Mom!!!"

Suddenly, tears streamed down my face.

Just as Higashi Naoki was putting all his effort into it, fearing that his mother would be persuaded by the teacher to think that he didn't want to be a doctor and therefore wanted to give up on him, he hurriedly shouted out all his true feelings.

What he saw was not the kind of expression he had hoped for—his mother valuing him more, as she valued him as she valued Runya—but rather, his mother's tears flowed uncontrollably, like a burst dam.

Naoki Higashi's heart skipped a beat; he felt like he was going to die: "Mom?"

Fortunately, just before he was about to give up hope, Mrs. Dong finally stopped hesitating and rushed over to hug him tightly, almost making him breathless: "Mom?"

"I'm sorry, Naoki, I'm sorry... Mom never found out, I'm sorry..." Mrs. Dong just kept crying and apologizing.

She finally discovered it.

If it weren't for Takeshi Yagami pointing it out, the second son wouldn't have said those things—no, if Takeshi Yagami weren't standing here right now, even if the second son had an emotional outburst one day and revealed his true feelings, she would only tighten her control over him even more.

She would only think that her second son was inexplicably rebellious, lacked remorseful education, and didn't understand the excellence and hardship of his mother and brother. How dare he think such things, and even think that the clinic he touched must be inherited by his eldest son. She had to scold him until he cried.

That's the only thing she would think and do.

But now she has finally discovered it.

Naoki said he wanted to be a doctor, but Naoki himself didn't realize that he didn't actually want to be a doctor. He had just been suppressed and repressed for too long.

He felt that he couldn't get the recognition and approval of his mother, brother, and many other people. He thought that he could get recognition if he went to study medicine and took over the clinic. He was so self-conscious that he dared not think about anything else and only dared to get a little recognition by hiding in his parents' reputation.

His inferiority complex had penetrated to an unimaginable degree, and his hostility towards his brother had clearly reached a terrifying level.

Naoki didn't think about anything, didn't dare to want anything, he just wanted a little recognition, a little approval, a little confidence that was so faint it couldn't be fainter!

Mrs. Dong is a person with an enormous desire to control her children, and people like her are the ones who look down on their own children the most.

No matter what ideas or thoughts the child may have, in her eyes, none of them can compare to the future she has planned for the child. Even if the child has any complaints or disagreements, it is just because the child is young and doesn't understand her good intentions as a mother.

However, people like her, who despise their own children the most, are also extremely, if not the most, concerned about the opinions and views of outsiders, and are also the kind of people who love their children the most.

Yago, as an authority figure, an outsider, a teacher, stands here, appears here, opposes her, and tells her again and again that she is wrong.

Then her second son's own behavior proved this point—although if it weren't for Takeshi Ya's presence, and it was just her second son acting this way, she would only think that her second son was engaging in a guilty-style, self-destructive form of emotional manipulation.

But now, the two are combined, plus the recent fact that her eldest son has slipped out of her control.

The three facts and the three pieces of evidence are now all interconnected.

With a sudden thud, it cracked open Mrs. Dong's head, causing her, who was usually so stubborn and inflexible that she couldn't possibly be persuaded to face the truth and make changes with just one correction, to burst into tears.

Sometimes, even if Yashiro arrived a second earlier or a second later, or even if the second son said a single word less, Mrs. Dong wouldn't suddenly realize or understand.

But fate is so coincidental.

Now Mrs. Dong finally understood. She finally realized that she had found and glimpsed all the things that Mr. Yashiro Takeshi had said in her second son.

Although her realization may be temporary, and she may be unable to resist resorting to guilt-based education and controlling her second son again, if she continues to do so, Yashiro Takeshi will certainly come again.