Tokyo Soft Rice King

Anri Hitomi frowned and replied subconsciously.

"If I can do that..."

Then Astrid cut him off.

"Why not? Our Anri family is not short of money. You can definitely buy him out."

"..."

Buy a wise ruler?

It’s not that Anri Hitomi hasn’t thought about this kind of thing. Rather, she also knows that Hei Yuming is only interested in money.

So maybe bribing him with money is the right answer.

But...is it really like that?

Isn’t it said that love cannot be bought with money?

Perhaps seeing the confusion in her daughter's heart, Asato asked with a meaningful smile.

"Hehe, Tong, what do you think money is used for?"

"trade."

"That's right. The value of money is primarily reflected in its function as a medium of exchange and a measure of value. Therefore, money can be used to measure most things in this world...including people, of course."

Amrita pushed the brewed tea in front of Amrita Hitomi. Influenced by her husband, she was brewing green tea instead of matcha.

"Of course, we live in a society ruled by law now. When I say buying people, I don't mean buying slaves or anything like that. I mean..."

"Winning people's hearts is what you are best at."

Anri Hitomi gave the answer first, which was also the reason why she came to ask her mother for advice.

"Yes, from this perspective, money can still be used to buy people, and it's much more clever than relying on contracts to force someone to obey you."

“Is that how you deal with other directors?”

"Haha, you could say that, but people bought with money are unreliable. Without leverage, they'll easily betray... So, the key lies in 'timing of entry.'"

"You've already taught me this: you have to seize the opponent's weak point."

"That's right. Only by giving someone 'life-saving money' when they're in trouble can you make them owe you a favor. When the favors accumulate to the point where they can no longer be repaid, they will obey you without hesitation."

If Hei Yuming heard this, he would definitely call him an expert and say that his idea was exactly the same as his.

"Of course, the only problem here is that you, Tong, don't have any 'start-up capital' right now, and you probably don't want to use the money I gave you, the money from the Anri family, to buy the person you want."

"..."

Asato Hitomi nodded silently. This was also the main reason why she never used money to pay Hei Yuming.

She has no property of her own.

"Actually, there is some money. You can have it."

"Can I have... Lucky Money?"

"New Year's money isn't enough. The money I'm talking about is to help you build your own family after you get married. In other words, this is your 'dowry'."

"...But this is still family money."

"I know you, Tong, have always been dissatisfied with being born into the Anri family, but the Anri family doesn't just restrict your freedom; it will also bring you corresponding wealth."

"..."

"I can give you this money in advance. You can use it to buy anything or anyone you want. I won't ask any questions."

"Hey?"

Anri Hitomi was a little stunned. Did her mother mean to give the dowry to her in advance?

Amrita nodded, put away her smile, and spoke with a serious and earnest look.

"However, if you spend all the money beforehand, or lose it all, or get scammed out of it, it's your own fault, and your family won't give you a single extra yen. If you're okay with that, I can give you the money now."

This is the serious mother in my impression.

She means it.

It's like saying, I'm giving you this money, and you can forget about asking the family for money anymore.

Anri Hitomi didn't care. She didn't want to rely on the Anri family.

But she is very hesitant now, because she doesn't know if she can buy the person she wants with money.

"Money can buy favors, but it can't buy love..."

"Haha, Tong, I'm glad you still have that innocent side."

It sounded a bit like a mockery as Amritsu continued to preach.

"But, Tong, I must tell you that the pure feelings you want are not 'feelings that have existed from the beginning', and they cannot appear out of thin air."

Many people misunderstand that pure feelings are feelings that appear naturally without interference.

But feelings cannot arise naturally without doing anything.

"No one would develop pure feelings for another person out of nowhere, unless these two people are originally family, or have known each other in a previous life, hehe..."

The second half of the sentence was a joke, while the first half was what she wanted to say to her daughter. It was also the truth she realized after personal experience.

"Only after becoming family can pure feelings gradually develop, and you can consider each other wholeheartedly... and anyone who is not family is an 'outsider'."

Be it friends or lovers, none of them can compare to a wife.

Because only the wife belongs to the family.

So if you want to get pure love from the other person, you must first become their family.

Then the only way to become a family member from an outsider is to get married.

In other words, only his wife can get his true heart and make him her own.

This is what the mother wants to teach her daughter.

Chapter 212 I Want You to Owe Me a Lifetime

"Anyone who isn't family is an outsider...Isn't that just based on your experience?"

Anri Hitomi understood what her mother meant, because her mother initially married her father for a political marriage and later fell in love with her father.

It can be said that it is love after marriage.

Perhaps it was during this process that my mother developed pure feelings for my father.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that all family members will get along well with each other, otherwise there wouldn’t be so many bad families.

Just like Anri Hitomi herself and her mother were too embarrassed to admit their mistake before, so the relationship between the two had always been below freezing point, and it has only eased now.

However, it is true that pure feelings are more likely to develop between family members, because that is how Asato treats her younger sister Akira, so she also accepts this statement.

But she just couldn't understand. Is it true that apart from family, there is really no pure love?

Because what she values ​​most now are friends, and she believes that friends are important people who can accompany her throughout her life, so she naturally hopes to have pure feelings with her friends.

But she also understood that although she had a good relationship with the three people in the Arts and Literature Club, she had not yet treated them as her own children.

She used to think that as they spent more time together, their friendship would gradually deepen, but now she has to question this.

Amrita also noticed her daughter's confusion and continued to explain to her.

"Of course, what I said is not absolute. Although it is true for me, there are exceptions."

Anri Hitomi was a little surprised to hear that her mother didn't say anything final.

In the past, she would just accept her own logic.

It turns out that my mother has become much more tactful.

Faced with such a mother, Anri Hitomi can also ask her for advice more humbly.

"Could you please elaborate on the exception?"

"Of course. For example, for men who have served in the military, the bond between them and their comrades, with whom they can trust their lives, is purer. The absolute trust they place in each other even surpasses that of family members. But not everyone has the special status of a comrade, right?"

"I see... This is indeed an 'exceptional' situation."

"So what I'm saying is just a general situation. In reality, for a person, depending on their 'identity' and 'environment', their mental judgment of the importance of different people will also become different."

“Identity and environment…”

Anli Tong was thoughtful. In the past, these two words only made her think of "restrictions", but when her mother said that she would give her the dowry prepared for her in advance, she realized that the surname Anli actually brought her a lot of things.

As a result, I just didn't want to accept help from my family, just like a rebellious child.

However, what I eat, wear, and drive now are actually all from home. The convenience my home provides me is far more than I imagined.

"That's right, because humans are creatures that 'compare' with each other and extract emotions from it. The pure emotion you desire largely comes from this. Sometimes it can manifest as jealousy, pride, or even hatred, but the fact that it becomes distorted proves that the source of this emotion is pure love."

At this moment, Anri Hitomi remembered the smug expression that Murasakimiya Shion showed at the window in the morning. Just as her mother said, that was an expression that came out of a sense of superiority after comparing in her mind... That's why it made people even more angry because they realized that they were being surpassed by her.

"So you first need to analyze your own identity and the environment you're in, and then decide who is important to you. In simple terms, you need to create a mental ranking."

"Ranking table?"

"Yes, it refers to the order of importance. Of course, I'm not trying to create a dilemma, nor am I asking you silly moral questions like 'If two people fall into the river at the same time, who should you save first?' I'm simply speaking from the heart. In terms of importance, you can always rank them one, two, and three."

Amrita's teaching of her daughter had failed. Imposing adult principles on children is the worst way of teaching, so being hated by her eldest daughter was a result of her own actions.

But today, Amrita is completely different from the past. She will set an example for her children and explain the principles she has learned to them.

"For example, before I got married, the most important people to me were the Anri family, that is, my parents and your grandparents. After I got married, my family became the most important part of my life, so the most important people to me are my husband and children..."

"But for you, mother, the most important person is father."

"That's right now. Then it's you, Tong, and Xiaojing. The three of you are the top three in my heart. Then there's... myself."

"It's actually me?"

Anri Hitomi showed a somewhat surprised expression, because according to what her mother had said before, she thought that her grandparents would be mentioned next, but it turned out to be herself.

And this is the essence of Amritsu's lecture this time.

"Yes, that's me. In fact, most people put themselves first. Everyone thinks about themselves first in any situation. Tong, you can think about whether this is the case for you."

"..."

An Litong reflected on what her mother said, and at this moment she suddenly realized that the source of all her emotions was indeed "herself".

"This is exactly why you, Tong, think of the other person as your own property, because to you, the most important thing is always yourself."

"I see……"

An Litong began to understand.

Although I think in my heart that I am thinking about my friends, but if I trace it back to the root, the real reason for thinking about my friends is actually because I want friends.

Then the same thing happened to Hei Yuming.

Why does he like money so much? Ultimately, it's because he wants to live a relaxed and happy life. Ultimately, it's all for himself.

This is also the reason why most people can get along happily with Kuroba Akira, because he is not fake, selfish but real.

On the other hand, I am the hypocrite... I say that I value friends the most, but in the end, I only want friends for myself.

"Then the key lies in whether there is someone higher in the ranking list than you, and the pure love you want is most likely among them."

"You mean... love?"

"Generally speaking, this kind of feeling is more likely to develop after you have found someone you like, because love is the most compelling emotion. Many people consider their partner more important than themselves after falling in love. The same is true for marriage. I am the best example of this."

So there are people who rank higher than Amritsu, namely her husband and children, but she does not put her parents before herself, which shows that Amritsu's relationship with her parents is not particularly good.

Perhaps, my mother had some resentment in her heart when the Anri family chose to let her accept the arranged marriage.

"But like I just said, love isn't the only thing that can fulfill this condition... but that depends on what you think, Tong."

"It's about whether I can spontaneously consider the other person more important than myself."

Amrita couldn't help but reveal a happy expression and looked very satisfied.

Tong is a smart kid who understands things quickly.

"That's right. If you, Tong, can't put the other person before yourself, then the pure love you want will be like a mirage, something that is out of reach."